What is it with bolo knives and ....FRANCE???

Esav Benyamin said:
The Mora is a gateway drug to a full-blown obsession with the other Scandinavian lines. :)
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to all such drugs foriegn and domestic. In the late 1930s I found them to hold an edge much better than the U.S. hunter bowies available for about .50, the Mora cost even less (that was a lot of money for a kid).
 
Dagon said:
As a European, I am sometimes frustrated when sellers don't want to ship outside the USA. Luckily I am typically able to find plenty of sellers who did. In a few rare cases I emailed the seller if he could make an exception, and in 2/3 of the cases they did. I never quite understood why some sellers wouldn't ship abroad, since I am paying the extra postage and I take the customs risk.
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I am one of those sellers who get similar emails all the time. Here are some reasons why I might decline:


  • Overseas buyers want me to give them a set shipping price up front, but that really needs to be determined after the auction end, when I can get an exact quote from USPS or UPS (happens very frequently).
  • They want me to under-declare the value of the item to save them customs fees (happens frequently).
  • They are asking me to ship something to them that is illegal either in their country or within the jurisdiction in which they live (rare, but has happened).

On the other side of the equation, eBay and PayPal can cause additional problems for sellers (and buyers). For example, my understanding is that US sellers are not protected against unwarranted or much delayed charge-backs, if the international sale is to a buyer other than one in the UK or Canada. The proliferation of fake credit card numbers and scams makes sales to residents in other countries risky to the seller. There are many eBayers who refuse to do any international business for this reason, or you may see certain countries "black listed" due to recurring problems.

From eBay:

"A chargeback, also known as a reversal, occurs when a buyer asks a credit card company to reverse a transaction that has already cleared. A buyer may file a chargeback with his/her card issuer based on credit card association regulations and timeframes. Although a chargeback may appear similar to a PayPal claim, it’s actually a process that is granted to a cardholder by their credit card company and initiated outside of PayPal. In a dispute over a chargeback, the decision is ultimately made by the credit card company and PayPal can’t control the outcome."
 
Except when there's export prohibitions, I offer international shipping on all my eBay auctions (at the buyers risk). I get a lot of non-US buyers, and they are often willing to pay more than I think the items' worth. When I sold my pilot survival knife, I was shocked (and very happy) at what Italians and Englishman were bidding. I did some research, and found out that one of the Italian bidders was a knife dealer, who buys a lot of knives from American sellers (often paying a pretty penny by my estimates) and turns them around in Europe for twice what he pays:eek: I'm yet to have a problem with a foreign buyer (or an American one) for that matter.
 
i'm french.
and as a french, i'm a deconcerted by some replies ... the kind of "cheese eaters, monkeys ..." what else could i say than some people are narrow minded or stupid ...
i'm also one of them whom bought knifes from us via ebay or forums. the main reasons are simply that some knifes can hardly be found in france and when they are, they are often twice the us price.
you should be proud that foreigners like some of your products because of their qualities ... without taking about politic, the same can't be said about everything else from us
 
Halbie, thanks for clarifying.

Many of the knives that I bought on the net cost less than 50% compared to European shops (even online shops). I have sympathy for the local brick and mortar shops, but in the end it's my hobby budget that I want to optimise.
 
I've shipped to Europe many times, with tracking numbers and insurance. Its NO DIFFERENT than shipping to anywhere else on the globe.
 
pascal.abi said:
i'm french.
and as a french, i'm a deconcerted by some replies ... the kind of "cheese eaters, monkeys ..." what else could i say than some people are narrow minded or stupid ...
i'm also one of them whom bought knifes from us via ebay or forums. the main reasons are simply that some knifes can hardly be found in france and when they are, they are often twice the us price.
you should be proud that foreigners like some of your products because of their qualities ... without taking about politic, the same can't be said about everything else from us
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Bonjour,
Many of us are disconcerted also.
Please note that Esav rebuked that poster.
Regards
 
Somewhere on eBay there's a "Block bids from users registered in countries to which i don't ship" option. I think it's in user preferences in my eBay(?)

Clearly state "I don't ship out of the U.S. requests to do so will be ignored" In the auction. If you still get questions about international shipping after that just delete them.
 
i'm angrier than i thought ...
so, about reading ...
how many of you would be able to understand something on a french knife forum ? and how many could answer something using our french monkeys langage ? ...
when you'll stop to look after your own belly, perhaps will you discover that there is also life outside your states ...
i'm sorry for my replies, i know most of you are nice and happy to share the same passion with every people from everywhere ...
 
pascal.abi said:
i'm french.
and as a french, i'm a deconcerted by some replies ... the kind of "cheese eaters, monkeys ..." what else could i say than some people are narrow minded or stupid ...
i'm also one of them whom bought knifes from us via ebay or forums. the main reasons are simply that some knifes can hardly be found in france and when they are, they are often twice the us price.
you should be proud that foreigners like some of your products because of their qualities ... without taking about politic, the same can't be said about everything else from us
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It wasn't an appropriate remark, but you shouldn't get too wound up about it, either. I was educated in the UK and can vividly remember the "bad blood" between the Brits and French students. As an American, I was often held in disdain by both. Sometimes, this kind of joking is in poor taste and in the wrong spirit. But, after getting to know them better, we were all able to trade national insults in good humor.

It's too bad our politicians aren't as good as our knives, though. What a wonderful roster of intellectuals we've put in the White House, eh? LOL
 
pascal.abi said:
i'm angrier than i thought ...
so, about reading ...
how many of you would be able to understand something on a french knife forum ? and how many could answer something using our french monkeys langage ? ...
when you'll stop to look after your own belly, perhaps will you discover that there is also life outside your states ...
i'm sorry for my replies, i know most of you are nice and happy to share the same passion with every people from everywhere ...
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Ne perds pas ton temps à argumenter avec eux. Peu importe le pays, un habitant borné restera un habitant borné. Les pires d'entre eux ne doivent même pas être capable de situer la France sur une carte du monde.
 
pascal.abi said:
i'm french.
and as a french, i'm a deconcerted by some replies ... the kind of "cheese eaters, monkeys ..." what else could i say than some people are narrow minded or stupid ...
i'm also one of them whom bought knifes from us via ebay or forums. the main reasons are simply that some knifes can hardly be found in france and when they are, they are often twice the us price.
you should be proud that foreigners like some of your products because of their qualities ... without taking about politic, the same can't be said about everything else from us
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Sorry bout that, such people exist everywhere, even in Paris. In the late 1960s my father and I drove all over western Europe and only in France was the U.S. flag decal scraped off and the car scared all over. Yes I know, today that could happen in any city in the U.S.
 
Halbie said:
  • Overseas buyers want me to give them a set shipping price up front, but that really needs to be determined after the auction end, when I can get an exact quote from USPS or UPS (happens very frequently).
  • They want me to under-declare the value of the item to save them customs fees (happens frequently).
  • They are asking me to ship something to them that is illegal either in their country or within the jurisdiction in which they live (rare, but has happened).
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How hard would it be to put a disclaimer in your auctions, something like:

" It is the buyer's responsability to make sure that the item is legal where he lives. The seller is not responsible for the confiscation of the item by the customs"

and

"All custom forms will be filled with the real informations about content and value"

Or are you just too lazy to fill a custom form? :p
 
> But, after getting to know them better, we were all able to trade national insults in good humor.

Absolutely, and those damn frogs know far too many Belgian jokes ! ;)
And even Hollywood makes fun of us in the wonderful gangster movie "In Bruges" ! :D

But seriously, the original remark didn't seem tongue-in-cheek (perhaps I am wrong, humor travels badly over the net)

cheers,

Dagon

ps to end with a good quote from "In Bruges": when the gangster boss needs a new gun, the dealer shows him a table full of Uzis etc, and he sighs: "I need a normal gun for a normal man."
 
pascal.abi said:
i'm french.
and as a french, i'm a deconcerted by some replies ... the kind of "cheese eaters, monkeys ..." what else could i say than some people are narrow minded or stupid ...
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Its a quote from top gear. I was out of order and didn't mean anything by it.

I'm a fellow European if that makes any diffirence to you
 
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cybrok said:
Ne perds pas ton temps à argumenter avec eux. Peu importe le pays, un habitant borné restera un habitant borné. Les pires d'entre eux ne doivent même pas être capable de situer la France sur une carte du monde.
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I can find France on a map! :)
 
cybrok said:
How hard would it be to put a disclaimer in your auctions, something like:

" It is the buyer's responsability to make sure that the item is legal where he lives. The seller is not responsible for the confiscation of the item by the customs"

and

"All custom forms will be filled with the real informations about content and value"

Or are you just too lazy to fill a custom form? :p
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I do put such disclaimers in my ads. But, disclaimers in eBay ads do not constitute a legal contract.

If the item is confiscated, I may be waiting for months for its return - assuming they do return it! This is not certain. Customs can keep items forever.

I just refuse to undervalue items for shipping/customs purposes. This is a crime in the U.S.

The customs forms (here) are easy to fill out. But, international shipping can be a real chore, when international buyers want me to jump through hoops for them, or when I get chargebacks and then have to deal with their credit card companies rather than eBay/PayPal.
 
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