I have several times sold items to foreign countries. Not too long ago I sold a few items to a small corner of Europe based on my ad on this list. My sales through ebay have gone to a variety of countries. In general, when I see that the buyer is actually a ham, I tend to agree to do it, even if I think it is a pain. Just the other day I sold an Icom to a fellow in Mexico using ebay. (Gotta raise some cash, given the appearance of new products from Elecraft.) In the case of the Mexican deal, my listing had excluded Mexico as an acceptable buyer location, but what do I do when he bids anyway and offers the best price, and is a fellow ham?
It really isn't difficult to ship to other countries, and if I insist on a shipping method that includes good insurance and tracking all the way, I don't worry too much about it. (Maybe I have just been lucky so far, and an insurance nightmare will come one day.) But as a grumpy old man with significant experience shipping to foreign buyers, I feel qualified to explain why it is such a pain to ship to foreign buyers. It has little to do with difficulty, and perhaps not with risk, but it does have a lot to do with time spent unproductively, with resulting loss of self-respect: 1. People tend to think of a task being associated with a certain time required to do it. "The IRS estimates that it takes 7 minutes to fill out this form". The discussion here has shown a similar mindset. I am sure this is appropriate if you are, say, a shipper in a shipping department, but it is a very misleading way of thinking when you are just a ham who will ship something occasionally. Unless you ship a number of items one after another, most of the time spent will not be for the actual shipping but for the mind adjustment and physical movements required to start doing a new type of task. Anyone working in an office knows that productivity will be awful unless your group together your phone calls to make, and group together the letters to write, etc. The ability to switch context just gets worse as we grow older. Radio buyers won't appreciate it if you tell them that you will ship their package at the end of the month together with all your other packages for the month. It does help if each package is shipped using exactly the same routine, using the same service, to the same country. Many buyers in other countries use the post office for everything. They miss out on the better service often available here from other companies, but they also have an advantage in that every shipment seems about the same, like you learn only once to ride a bicycle. Having to sometimes use the post office and sometimes another service to give the buyer the best rate is a source of great irritation. Add in the fact that the rules and procedures and forms are different depending on destination country, and each shipment devastates the day as much as a visit to the dentist. Unless you are a full-time shipper, your mind never learns any of it to the point that you can do it without really thinking hard about missing something. 2. With a foreign buyer, the number of emails exchanged before and after the sale tends to be 3 times the number with domestic buyers. First there is looking at different services to find one that is the best price including good insurance and estimated delivery time. (During this process, going back and forth, web site login expires, and you have to re-enter everything about the destination including the buyer's blood type. ) Then there is discussion about the adequacy of packing, and what to write on the outside of the package to avoid damage from rough handling or inspectors' knives. The customs forms tend to differ depending on the exact service chosen, even with the same shipping company. Then there is discussion about what the tracking number might be. Unless you prepared for the shipping day like a student cramming for a final, you sure didn't remember to ask the clerk. (This applies mostly to postal service, as the private services tend to help by telling you these things. This, and the terribly slow lines in the post office are reasons why some would never consider the post office unless it happens to save the foreign buyer a lot of money.) Then there are usually followup emails after completed delivery. Overall I think I spend at least half a day of my time on a completed transaction with a foreign buyer. What is the value of my time? There is some satisfaction from being helpful to a foreign ham, but it really isn't worth it unless the foreign buyer is willing to bid substantially more than domestic buyers. Fortunately this is often the case. However, one won't generally get the benefit of that higher price if one sets a friendly, fixed price. Next time I advertise something on this list, I may not set a fixed price but announce an auction (off list, maybe on ebay). 73, Erik K7TV ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
