I live in Canada and have bought a number of things on eBay and also this list. Shipping is always a bit of an issue from the USA. It is much easier here to deal with Canada Post/USPS than is to deal with the likes of FedEx or perhaps worse still UPS. UPS, for example, has high brokerage fees for individual consumers, as do all the courier companies. It's generally easier for people inside the USA just to use UPS, as USPS doesn't pick up. Also, there are customs forms to complete for export. These are simple, but I notice people would prefer not to have to deal with these.
Actually, it is often much easier for us in Canada to buy from Europe or the UK. We can more easily arrange shipping through the Postal Service of whichever country and avoid using couriers. The postal services from Europe tend to be quite efficient. And interestingly, for new products by Shimano or even Schmidt, it's often cheaper for us to buy from Europe. More choice too. Shipping is often cheaper and the European suppliers are well prepared for export. However, the advances in randonneur or country-bike equipment seems to be made mostly in the US. Places like Compass Cycles, Rivendell, Velo Orange etc., seem to be fairly unique in this day and age, so for us non-CONUS folks, it would be nice to have economical and straight-forward shipping options. But, at the end of the day, it really is more hassle to ship/receive outside of CONUS than within and so I think in these cases is there is no prejudice against people from outside the USA. In the case of the sale that you lost - the potential buyer was probably concerned about having to arrange customs clearance/pay duties and tax on the items. I used to work in the freight industry and can tell you that brokerage charges in the US can be very high (even if the item is duty free). For the most part, it's probably not worth the hassle except on low value items that would not require customs clearance (like $20 items). On Sunday, November 4, 2012 2:16:54 PM UTC-7, Jay in Tel Aviv wrote: > > I have been fairly active on this list since I got my Sam last summer. > I have participated in discussions, bought and sold a few things > (including my Sam, thanks Forrest) and generally tried to be helpful > when I have something to add. I find the people here generally quite > knowledgable and friendly. It is a good groupvand I'm happy to be part > of it. > > Once in a while, though, I have experienced something which to be > seems very strange and a bit insulting. A few times people have > refused to complete a transaction with me when they find out I live > overseas. Shipping costs have not been the issue, it seems more loke a > lack of willingness to trust a random foriegner on the internet. > > I just lost a sale on another group in circumstances like those. The > buyer got the answeres he was looking for to his questions and then > balked when he saw thay my email wasn't from the US. > > I feel like I'm missing something here. > > Jay > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/aQ0hdeH1aawJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
