Buying in the States was Re: HP analyzer probes

From: Joe R. <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
Date: Wed Jun 30 06:14:55 2004

At 08:21 AM 6/30/04 +0200, you wrote:
>Philip Pemberton wrote:
>
>>There doesn't seem to be anything even remotely close to this on Ebay at the
>>moment, well, at least there's nothing that's available to the UK. Plenty of
>>probe kits available USA-only though...
>>
>>
>I find it amazing that in the land of rampant capitalism they are unable
>to see the advantages of selling internationally.
>Yesterday I decided to see about buying a new laptop. Having chosen the
>model I searched on Froogle and found
>well over 100 hits. I contacted the 5 cheapest to ask if they would
>ship internationally - four replied NO. The one
>positive response was also the cheapest so they get the order!
>
>The eBay "will ship to <insert your country of choice> only" is
>something I do not understand. Why reduce your potential
>market?

  I've wondered the same thing. I sell on E-bay and I send about half the
stuff that I sell over seas. The one problem that I've had is that many
over seas buyers never pay. Perhaps they bid then find out the high
shipping costs and costs of making payments via Western Union or whoever
and then just back out without saying anything. I'm been waiting 6 weeks
for payment on some DEC parts right now. As far as the shippers go, I've
found many of them to be incredibly lazy and greedy! A lot of them want
$35 or sometimes even $50 handling charge for the smallest item. My opinion
is that packing and handling is part of the cost of doing business unless
it's something extra ordinary.



An international buyer knows they will have to pay for shipping
>and that might put them off but why shut them out
>completely? The extra hassle of an international shipment cannot be
>that great, at least it isn't in my experience here in Europe.
>
>So this leads me to propose that we set up staging addresses in the
>States (and any other country for that matter). For
>a small fee participants would agree to receive and transship packages
>for other members on the opposite side of the world.

   I've already been doing that for a number of people. But I don't want to
make a regular business of it. It doesn't cost much as far as money is
concerned but it is time consuming and if I did a lot of it then space
would become a problem. (Space is already a problem :-(

    Joe


>I would be happy to offer my services in that regard.
>
> -- HansP
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Received on Wed Jun 30 2004 - 06:14:55 BST