[WWI] Rant (was RE: A few items for sale in the US)

[Collins, Graham]

This is one of those topics to which I find many different sides and
when you get right down to the nitty gritty they are all right.

I buy and sell stuff all around the world on eBay, I use pay pal, I
reuse and recycle packing material, and I try and let the buyer pick the
method they want the item sent by with the understanding that it will
then be at their risk. I have my preferred method of mailing items but
others feel they can save a few dollars buy taking a cheaper way. That
is their choice and I have to respect it.

If someone on (for example) eBay lists their item and indicates USA only
and I would really like to bid on the item I ask if they are willing to
mail to Canada and respect their choice if they say no. I also indicate
my choice in how I would like the item mailed but don't complain if they
want or insist on a slightly costlier level of mail service.

Ask nicely and they might agree. More often than not I find sellers are
willing and I am also prepared to accept their terms as to how the item
will be mailed.

I find there is virtually no difference in my effort required to mail a
parcel to the town down the road or across the world to Hong Kong and I
live in and use a postal office in a small rural Canadian town.

The comment about getting reamed on postage for something mailed from
Canada I find a bit amusing.  I find I can mail an item to the US or
overseas quite often for less than what I can send the same package 100
miles within Canada. Different rates/fees/taxes and service levels are
the culprit. Our cost for postal services in Canada is much higher than
in the US.  The current rate to mail a letter is 51 cents and quickly
jumps to near a dollar for a letter not much larger.

Frankly, I am finding some items less expensive to buy abroad and more
often than not I order from Europe (UK mostly) and Japan. Items from the
US seem to take much longer than those from else where. I have waited 3
to 4 weeks for items mailed from Indiana where similar sized items have
arrived from the UK or Japan within 1 week at little or difference in
final cost and sometimes a wee bit cheaper. 

The "Global Village"; who would have thought 30 or 40 years ago that we
would be buying and selling items such as this from places on the other
side of the world and at the click of button.

Or that we could be entertained by the pleasant and cordial banter on
the WWI mailing list.

Cheers, Graham in Embrun near Ottawa Canada.


-----Original Message-----
From: wwi-bounces at wwi-models.org [mailto:wwi-bounces at wwi-models.org] On
Behalf Of wed317
Sent: June 29, 2006 05:58
To: 'World War I Modeling Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [WWI] Rant (was RE: A few items for sale in the US)


"Yay  gotta love sellers who don't have that dreaded "will sell to US
only"
I await the day I have something that one of them desperately want, but
I
can say .. sorry, I don't sell to those who only sell in USA."

Bob,
    I live in a small town whose post office gets very little call to
ship
packages internationally, and getting RELIABLE shipping information out
of
them is a bureaucratic mess at times.  I am sure the same applies with
other
USPS customers.  Some packages can be insured, some cannot, depends on
the
shipping method used by USPS. I do not want to tell one of my customers
that
he can have a package insured, only to find out he can't.  I have had
such
difficulty in dealing with some foreign buyers, wanting to know if they
can
have it this way, or that way, or this and that way, that the cost in
fuel
running back and forth to the post office exceeds the price of the kit.
I
have thought that the next items I sell on ebay will be "US only" just
to
avoid all of the hassles of dealing with this difficulty.  It has
nothing to
do with some self-centered, nationalistic attitude.  (and before ya'll
say,
"use the USPS website", not all USPS locations offer all the services
listed
on the website.)
   As a matter of fact, the last few times I have bought something from
Canada, I have been reamed so badly for postage that I have sworn off
from
buying anything from Canada again.  It would have been cheaper to buy
from
Europe or Asia than next door.

Warren