I take offence - or why are so many for sales listed at CONUS only

[slimshaneee]

I totally agree with you powernoodle. Like I said, I don't take offense easily. This just irks me, but after reading all of this thread I can empathize and understand the sellers viewpoint a lot more. I'm sorry. I just hate missing out on great knives, you know?

I understand how it irks you and am glad you can understand the sellers side a little better.
I normally always list usa only, but many times if someone asks really nicely and has money ready to send, I think twice and ship outside the usa. Also if the buyer has lots of positive feedback it helps.
It doesn't hurt too bad to ask anyways.

 

[SharpByCoop]

For items that appear to have good marketability, staying in the US is more convenient for all reasons posted in the previous 39 threads.

I always include USPS shipping in the US, so the pricing remains fairly consistent.

(USPS does NOT charge substantially (if at all) more for Alaska and Hawaii: CONUS only = Unnecessary.)

If the market needs more exposure, I simply add a fee onto my FREE USA shipping for international sales, and the time involved.

That said, I JUST completed a sale of a knife to a good member in the Ukraine. He paid $25 more for the effort. 2+ weeks in transit and he just got the knife. Fingers crossed the whole time.

In the event of a dissatisfaction or return, it quadruples the complexity.

Coop

 

[Andy the Aussie]

This may be a stupid and/or naive question.... Is this a porfit motivated issue or availability? I assume most if not all knife makers have dealers in "foreign countries" so getting knives shouldn't really be an issue.
Is this particular issue about better deals, availability, what is it?
Just asking in the interest of understanding the whole story.

.... nope not even close. At the present there are no Busse (not that they have any) or ESEE "official dealers' here in Australia and these are the brands I most often seem to purchase. Even on blades that ARE available here I can save between 50 and 100% buying and shipping here from the US as opposed to buying locally. If the difference was 20-30% I would not bother with the hassle but the $$s are too far up there.

 

[Andy the Aussie]

I've heard of an interesting problem that can generate.

Say you bid on a knife, US to Canada sale. You pay with PayPal. You ask the seller to ship to your US friend. You complain to PayPal the knife never arrived in Canada. Huh? Yes, PayPal wants proof of delivery to your address on file with them. The seller is stuck with taking legal action against your US co-conspirator for whom he does have proof of delivery.

......for just this reason I have the two proxy addresses I use in the US (along with my street and PO Box here in Aus) registered as delivery addresses in my Paypal account. That way when confirmation of payment comes through to the seller they get that as the address to which I am asking them to ship the blade.

Andy

 

[metlman1]

Part of the problem is banking laws. I can buy something in EU with a credit card, but cannot dispute the charge (and win) on European transactions through my USA bank. If a European buys something on a credit card from a USA seller, they CAN dispute the charge (and win). We get the bad deal in the USA.
Also many countries have wildly differing laws about what a "dangerous weapon" is. For example: a double guard sheath knife may be illegal in some countries (the UK and Australia), while fully permissible in other countries. A friend of mine shipped a collectible bb-gun to Canada, and it was held up in Customs for a month, before being returned to the him with a big return postage bill. He was lucky for the return, but it cost him almost $50 in return postage!

 

[justsomedude]

I am usually trying to sell items quickly and easily to make room in my collection. I will ship overseas to somebody who is very interested in making the transaction happen, this means not only paying for shipping and insurance, and taking all responsibility for lost or stolen items, but also overnight delivery/air mail of a cashiers check as Paypal claims are too easy to lose as a buyer.
I write "CONUS only" in all my sell and trade posts because it is so much easier and I figure somebody willing to meet all of my stipulations for international transactions will want the knife badly enough to contact me despite the "CONUS only". Perhaps I will start including my criteria for international sales in my threads rather than be exclusionary.
My advice is don't let a "CONUS only" stamp discourage you, people are reasonable and many if not most will at least be willing to negotiate.

 

[roughneckrob]

I've never had a problem with getting anything shipped from the States and I order a lot of gear and knives. I was under the impression that Canada post and USPS had some sort of agreement in place? I could be wrong. That being said, most people here who state CONUS only are just fine with shipping to Canada. All you have to do is PM them and it may cost an extra five bucks but they will ship to you.

 

[u812]

I don't understand CONUS,AK and HI are USA.It is not that much more to ship there and no extra hassle.Same with Puerto Rico.
I do not mind shipping outside the US,but to be honest I am leery of shipping to Canada.The only trouble I have ever had was Canada customs seizing some knives I tried to shipped a few years ago.The buyer tried to get them with no luck,It would cost to much for him to have them shipped back to me so he took the hit.

 

[lava_lamp]

I don't understand CONUS,AK and HI are USA.It is not that much more to ship there and no extra hassle.Same with Puerto Rico.
I do not mind shipping outside the US,but to be honest I am leery of shipping to Canada.The only trouble I have ever had was Canada customs seizing some knives I tried to shipped a few years ago.The buyer tried to get them with no luck,It would cost to much for him to have them shipped back to me so he took the hit.

I put CONUS 'cause people wanted me to send to the Virgin Islands, Guam, etc. AK and HI are no problem when using Priority Mail. If you ship first class, be ready for complaints.

 

[canuckchuck]

This may be a stupid and/or naive question.... Is this a porfit motivated issue or availability? I assume most if not all knife makers have dealers in "foreign countries" so getting knives shouldn't really be an issue.
Is this particular issue about better deals, availability, what is it?
Just asking in the interest of understanding the whole story.

Usually for me it is discontinued items and some times bigger price differences and also ZT/Kershaw blemishes wich as far as i know are no avalable in Canada

 

[RNST]

I've been around here a while... mostly lurker.. gone for a bit then back again.

When I frequently checked the for sale section, years ago I don't remember so many posts with CONUS only in them. Now it seems the norm.

I'm in Canada. Is it just me or does it really chaff anyone else's ass that so many great knives at decent prices are listed as CONUS only? Like they won't even entertain the thought of selling outside the states? I don't understand it. Postage to here isn't that much more! Big deal you have to list 'cutlery' on some customs form. What is the problem? I'll pay the difference!

I'm seriously offended, and i'm not one to get all frothed up easily either.

If someone could explain it to me, i'd love it.

Thoughts, comments?

I sell and buy/trade quite a bit North America wide. Typically, I am buying or selling customs and tend to not go the regular Canada Post or USPS route but via FedEx etc.

One thing I find funny is some people have turned me down when I wanted something shipped to Canada from the USA. Next thing I know when I am selling something these same people are like "hey will you now ship to me? NAH, too bad you jerked me around I say". You can always choose who to sell to and vice verse.

 

[jujigatame]

I only ever had one item I sold online not make it to recipient. It was something small and I charged $10. The buyer tried on his end to find out what happened with the PO but nothing came of it. I apologized and refunded his money. It was just a single lost package going within the USA but I felt like crap that it never got there. It bothered me a lot that something went wrong regardless of the cost or importance of the item.

Now how would I feel if I shipped a knife worth several hundred dollars to another country and something happened to it that was a worst case scenario where there was no recourse to get the knife or the money back? I'd feel horrible. Buyers saying they take all responsibility past a certain point is nice but that doesn't do anything for my regret. I couldn't sit here and keep their money while they have no knife and say "Well, that's the chance I took." I'd rather not take the chance of it happening because a single instance of a lost or stolen knife that couldn't be replaced or refunded would be one too many.

Put another way - it's not you, it's me.

As for taking offense to the practice, only you can decide what you want to feel. I have a similar problem at times in that some folks only take payment for online sales via Paypal, which I do not use nor do I wish to. There were some cases when I could not buy items I really would have liked to own because of this. It's not anybody's fault, just the way circumstances work out, but in the modern world of click-and-buy-it-now there is a tendency sometimes to feel hard done by if you can't get what you want via the means most convenient to you at all times. Ultimately I think one comes to realize that while we want a lot of things we see here very few of them are things we truly need. Remembering that perspective every so often tends to lessen the angst of the one that got away.

 

[Gene Martin]

Sally and I ship all over the world. Yes, there is a certain risk, but that is the same with any shipping destination. I've had more packages come up missing between Oregon and Arkansas than all other places combined. It was always on the Arkansas end.

Customs declarations can be done online. My last one was last week. It can be a pain using the shipping assistant program, but beats the line at the PO.

The bottom line is comfort zone. It's funny that I can insure a package for $350 or whatever to China, but only $40 to Japan. I had a $600 package to Japan come up missing, but it never left the Medford, OR processing center. At least in the mail.

I have one pending now that the jury is still out on how it's going to go. If it goes south, I'll post the info.

We all do what we feel necessary to protect our interests. It's not about profit, it's about loss, and we all hate to take one. And for whatever reason, Canada is sometimes a real pain to ship to. But not enough to let it ruin my day. Denmark, on the other hand...

Gene

 

[Guyon]

I take offense when international residents contact me behind the scenes and want me to (a) ship at the cheapest rate possible with no tracking, and (b) declare the item a gift or falsify contents/value for customs, and (c) pay via PayPal, which has a slightly higher cut for international sales and which will side with a buyer in a heartbeat if you can't get a signature delivery option on a transaction over $250. So I've just stopped offering international sales on knives.

 

[Guyon]

I've heard of an interesting problem that can generate.

Say you bid on a knife, US to Canada sale. You pay with PayPal. You ask the seller to ship to your US friend. You complain to PayPal the knife never arrived in Canada. Huh? Yes, PayPal wants proof of delivery to your address on file with them. The seller is stuck with taking legal action against your US co-conspirator for whom he does have proof of delivery.

......for just this reason I have the two proxy addresses I use in the US (along with my street and PO Box here in Aus) registered as delivery addresses in my Paypal account. That way when confirmation of payment comes through to the seller they get that as the address to which I am asking them to ship the blade.

Andy

When PayPal is involved, I will not ship unless the buyer is Verified and the address listed is the address to which I am shipping.
Unless I know the person, I just issue a prompt refund and ask that buyers get their PayPal accounts/addresses squared away. With PayPal's bias toward buyers, it's just not worth the risk.
Sellers should read the PayPal stipulations on "Seller Protection" and take them to heart.

 

[Bigfattyt]

I have only done one deal with Canada. It did not go well.

After an I'll take it, the buyer then told me I had to lie on the customs form about the value. He paid instantly. And was very pleasant to deal with. When I was uncomfortable with the with understating the value by 70% on a customs form.

That was a deal killer for him. Because of the additional import duties.

The buyer was a peach to deal with (and I don't mean that sarcastically), He wanted me to keep some of the money from pay pal just for the trouble. I returned all the money, and sold the knife a bit later, for less money.

I should not have to put a disclaimer that I am not willing to break the law in my post (because misstating the value on a customs form is just that).

I am still willing to sell to some places. But I still have worries.


I have done one other international deal. With Australia. Went just fine.

I would sell to him again.

 

[Galeocerdoshark]

I appreciate all the people on eBay -and the 2 guys over here at bf- that I have done business with already and who did not mind shipping abroad. It's great to see people willing to support another knife enthousiasts hobby, regardless of boundaries. Thanks to them, I've been able to discover the diversity in this hobby and the kindness of a lot of the people in it. If it wasn't for those people willing to ship abroad, this hobby would not have developed for me since I'm not willing to pay the tripple amount of money for a knife over here than that it costs -shipping included- when I buy it in the USA. If it wasn't for them, I would not have acquired the amount of knives I do have at the moment and I wouldn't have been able to see, feel and experience the diversity this hobby offers. Thanks again to those people :thumbup:.

 

[338375]

I haven't sold much in awhile, but I always list CONUS only. I have made a few exceptions though.

One was to a member in New Zealand, who had other deals here that went smoothly, and I weighed the fact that he is a really good guy, and spent a lot of time in the same S/F I use to spend all my time in.

The other was a member from Russia. The particular person had been trying to find a particular custom knife, like I had for sale, for quite some time. After lengthy communication with him, and researching what was required, I decided to do it.
I was sweating bullets the entire time, waiting for it to arrive, but it all ended well, and he was extremely grateful.

The latest sale was to a member in the Marine Corp, and was stationed in Iraq. I had never sent to an F.O.B before, but after having him explain how things worked, I decided to do it. Besides, there was no way I was going to tell someone that is serving our Country, that I wasn't willing to sell to him. I figured even if something happened, and the knife didn't make it, I would refund his money. Everything went flawlessly, and after it arrived, he sent me an e-mail and told me he was so happy when it arrived, and that most people wouldn't understand how something so simple, can really bring joy into someones life, that is stationed overeas and spends their time in a war zone...

When I was driving long haul, I went into Canada quite often. It always puzzled me that when I would take a load into Canada, it was a royal pain in the butt. Having to go through customs to get the appropriate paperwork, sometimes sitting in the truck detention yard for hours, and even having to pull the truck over to the inspection station, so they could open up the trailer and look inside. Fortunately that never happened to me, but I saw it happen to others quite a few times...

When I would reload in Canada and head back to the states, I would pull up to the window, hand them my paperwork so they could look at it and stamp it, then roll on through. There is no reason trading between the two countries needs to be as difficult as it is.

For most of us here, selling and trading knives is just a hobby. If you send something, and there is good potential that it will get hung up in customs, and you sit and wait, hoping it will go through and be delivered, it's just not worth the headache, because it takes the fun out of it.
I know that's not the fault of the citizens of Canada, and not really fair that they are excluded from transactions, but from the sellers standpoint, it is just not worth it...

 

[Keith Willis]

I always list CONUS,however,it never occored to me I was leaving out Ak.,and HI.
I will try and remember to include that from now on.I'm sure I would ship to Canada
but the buyer and I would have a good understanding,before it was shipped.

God bless,Keith

 

[Los Angeles]

I've lost two knives to canada customs, and a third collectible kershaw was opened up and used hard before finally making it to the recipient, who then returned it to me.

I swore to myself: NEVER AGAIN.

But then I ended up drawing a canadian friend this year for a Secret Santa exchange. I did everything I was supposed to do. USPS express international, tracking and all that.

It took 3 1/2 weeks to arrive, well after Christmas.

So now I'm solid. NEVER AGAIN.

All that said, I've had no problems shipping to Austrailia, so that country is on my "OK" list.