Bidding on an auction in the UK

Correct. You are bidding on the larger amount listed on top, not the approximate U.S. dollar equivalent in parenthesis. Good luck!

Thanks, Chatter!

I buy a good deal from the UK and while postage may be high it's still less than from the US for me.

One thing I do know is that the Royal Mail is the quickest, bar none!

GG

Hi, I've only just joined Auction Sniper this morning and must say, I'm well impressed having won with my first 'Snipe'.

I am very pleased to read your comments regarding Royal Mail being Quick! We Brits moan like mad about the slack setup they run over here (at least they seem to be getting something right).

My problem is, I have recently bought (what I thought) were 2 similar items from the USA, but the postage costs I am being charged by the most recent seller is $11 more than the other.

Both items should realisticly weigh the same but the seller is adamant in charging me $25 postage.

I personally feel as though I am being 'ripped off' do you think it would be worth me risking my first piece of 'negative feedback' and refusing to pay?

Any advice would be most welcome.

Cheers

Chad

Well, no , I would pay and next time ask before you bid. One thing, it might depend where in the US it is being shipped from. This is a big country and even shipping from one side of our country to the other varies greatly.

rsmiller40

And,by the way..WELCOME!

rsmiller40

You're so nice.

AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

You've made me go all bashful now.

Thanks for the advice, I'll go along with that.

Cheers

Also, some sellers charge a 'handling' fee which translates to everything from legitimate shipping materials and time/effort/transportation it takes to send you your item...all the way to sellers just thinking they deserve a few bucks padding their pocket.

As was already advised, try to remember to ask before bidding if it is not stated on their auction page.

And...welcome!

WarriorNun

"If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning"

I got seriously caught out that way early on and as a result will no longer deal with "commercial" type dealers in the USA. Emails asking for explanations were ignored completely - never again!!! Private individuals are a pleasure to deal with though.

It's traditional to complain about your own postal service, everybody does, but I know from experience that Royal Mail and Australia Post would take a lot of beating. US post can be quite slow if you're dealing with someone near the far coast, and as for Canada - it's quicker to go there yourself.

GG

That's great, thank you all for your advice it shall all be taken onboard.

Well, I decided to snipe another auction for a similar item, too. This one was also from the UK on the US board in British currency. It ended today and my snipe was outbid. The seller sent me a link to another auction of theirs for another one of the same item (second chance) and I did a buy it now. This second chance auction was on the eBay UK board. When I went to pay using paypal I kept getting messages saying I couldn't pay because I wasn't the winner. I got the winners notifications from eBay and the auction ended with my buy it now. Fortunately this person's description says they will accept paypal or COD from the US, so I could go the COD route if nescessary. I waited and tried paypal again later thinking maybe there was a slow connection but it didn't help.
The other auction will only take paypal from the US and I'm thinking twice about putting in a snipe because I don't want to bid on something if I won't be able to pay. Any ideas as to what may have gone wrong?

Why not just submit the money to them via Paypal as a payment for "goods" with no reference to the auction?
I often do that when I can't be bothered to go and get the auction number.

GG

Thanks!!! I've only used Paypal a few times and didn't know you could do this. How do you do it? Is there a link from the auction somewhere that I'm not seeing?

No worries. On the "Send Money" page there's a drop-down box named "Type:". Click it and select "Goods (other)" and you're away!

GG

I've just got to say that the "Welcome" picture was beautiful, Rick!

SS

Thanks SS,

IF YOU ARE BUYING IN ANOTHER CURRENCY,
I found this handy dandy calculator that will help you determine how much you want to bid.

http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html

It is really easy to use! For example, if you see a widget that you really want in the UK, and are willing to pay US$75 for it, all you have to do is select "Brisith Pounds" in the into dropdown menu, enter 75 in the amount box, and click on calculate. It came to 44.86 today, so you bid 45.36 to avoid the even amount curse

Most of what I buy off eBay comes from Japan. Typically, postage is fair, and sellers only ask around $5 to ship things out to me via airmail, but EMS is about $12. Sure it takes less time, but I hate shipping costs as it is, so I usually choose the cheapest fair... The currency converter I use is www.xe.com and I have found it very useful. Also, I have never had any problems with international trade, so you should feel at ease when buying something outside of your country. Take care!

*~samuraiblossom~*

OK, since someone resurrected this thread, here's an update. I figured out how to paypal him the money and sent it less than 24 hours after the auction closed. You won't see it if you do a search of the auctions I bid on, because it was one where the bidders' identities were hidden. (Apparently there's been a lot of spam sent to the people who are bidding on the autographed Harry Potter widgets.) About a week later, I saw he was re-auctioning the same autographed cast picture. I e-mailed him and he said he'd overlooked my payment and relisted it. He pulled the auction, sent it to me, and I left positive feedback. Today I got an e-mail from someone telling me she bought four autographs from him and they were all forgeries. I sure hope she's wrong.
But you're right--sending payment wasn't that bad, and it got here really fast. For now I'm going to stop bidding on autographed widgets.