I’ve just sold something, despite listing for UK only, to someone in Germany, not sure how. I vaguely recall that selling to Germany is risky – can anyone tell me what the risk is?

Two world wars and god knows how many world cups? Have you lost your mind?

Check out the terms of the Global Shipping Programme

I just sold something to a guy in Japan under the Global Shipping Programme. Bit of a faff as you have to (or I wanted to) package it a bit more securely, but beyond that I don’t think it makes much difference. Sent a few things around the world with the GSP and it’s always worked out ok.

GSP would probably be fine but as I listed for UK only I don’t seem to have that option…

Just make sure that you’ve charged enough postage and take out enough insurance to cover you for loss in transit. I post several items to Germany each year without any problem using Royal Mail.

What’s the dispatch adresss on the PayPal invoice? My eBay sale lists the Japanese address, but the Paypal one has the GSL address and reference.

If it’s small. Its no massive hassle to post to Germany, but as above, postage can be expensive.

I sold some Chris King hubs to a guy in Germany and that was via the global shipping program. It was all ok but the seller did expect them to arrive faster than they did.

I’ve sold a few odds & ends overseas and apart from paypal charging extra for the currency conversion it’s all worked out OK.

I’d suggest you look at who bears costs if theres a return for any reason.

I’ve just sold something, despite listing for UK only, to someone in Germany

Is it large or valuable?

If yes, cancel it, IMO.

If no, take a small hit on the postage cost.

Did you set the post option to say ‘uk only’ or was that left at ‘worldwide’ and with a bit of text saying ‘I only post to uk’ in the auction description?

I’ve used the GSP in the past. It seems to work fine as a seller, all you have to do is get the thing to the distribution centre. Several items got frozen by customs so buyer never received them (bizarrely) but there’s no comeback to you in that event, ebay deal with it.

I used to ship a few things to a guy in Ukraine – after initially being wary, standard parcel abroad worked fine. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was.

Haven;’t done for a while, have shipped a good few things – incl. massive old school tape recorder – using GSP and it’s been absolutely fine.

Used GSP loads lately all fine. Last buyer from Germany needed my account details as he couldn’t use PayPal. Forks then sold to Spanish guy instead. Most of my recent eBay seems to have gone overseas.

I sold a food mixer bowl (fairly niche one) to a guy in Germany. I just added some on for the extra shipping cost sent it tracked – all was fine.