Well, it was inevitable I suppose. eBay.co.uk are going to start putting sellers on the 'new' Global Shipping Programme for international shipping soon. So international sales will be coming to a complete end in the near future
Am I missing something. As it seems to me that this could actually be quite a good system. The only potential problem I can see is that the seller may have to accurately measure and weigh the item as if it was packaged when they list it.
Lots and lots of problems. It will cost buyers around 30% extra on postage compared to what they would have paid by just going direct through the seller. The third party shipping company will open and repack a lot of the stuff (at least this has been the case with the US version through the same company) to make it lighter to save them shipping costs. There are already a couple of interesting threads on the subject on the eBay UK discussion forums:
Have a look at the extra costs for shipping on items listed on eBay.com with Sellers on their version of the GPS.
You can tell there are problems even before it starts as Sellers are being automatically opted in rather than allowing them to choose for themselves. You have to opt out and a lot of sellers may only spot this once they see their sales dropping.
Thanks for posting that. Very interesting. I'll have a closer look at the details. I'll probably opt out for the moment as the system seems not quite streamlined enough yet. Pus anything that adds costs to my buyers puts me off too. I've always sold overseas and not had that many issues and I can continue to do so without being in the GSP.