EBay sale to US - payment?

[Tim O]

I’ve got some expensive (£600) bicycle parts on eBay. Ticked the ‘Global Shipping Programme’ option. Had an offer from someone in California.

I understand if I accept, I send the item to a central UK hub and eBay arrange shipping to US, sort shipping costs, duties, tax etc.

My question: do I need a PayPal account? I’m setup so eBay pay directly into my bank account so I closed my PayPal account sometime ago. Anyone got any experience? Thanks.

[steveo3002]

if you sign in and click help , you can get a live agent to give you the real answer....if its automated robot chat keep typing live agent and one will appear lol

[Tim O]

Thanks. I did as you suggested and after a brief conversation with a bot I was given the option of asking an eBay help desk operator to call me back, and to my astonishment, they did, not 30 seconds from placing the request.

So, answer is, no PayPal account required. Payment is paid by buyer in their local currency from their linked account, money received by eBay who then pay me, less their fees, direct to my linked account. Not sure how painful their exchange rate might be. I’ll ponder a bit longer.

[Fore Left]

I'm pretty sure the buyer bears the exchange rate risk and you get what you were asking for the items.

[steveo3002]

yeah i think say if your asking price is £100 , the buyer bears the exchange and pays you £100 less selling fee

[anonymoususer]

Tim O said:

Thanks. I did as you suggested and after a brief conversation with a bot I was given the option of asking an eBay help desk operator to call me back, and to my astonishment, they did, not 30 seconds from placing the request.

So, answer is, no PayPal account required. Payment is paid by buyer in their local currency from their linked account, money received by eBay who then pay me, less their fees, direct to my linked account. Not sure how painful their exchange rate might be. I’ll ponder a bit longer.

This is correct
I would add the following the seller is obliged to send the item tracked to E bays Global Shipping place (GSP) Once received at the GSP it is the forwarded and all the relevant customs stuff is done by the GSP.
You should receive notifications that it has
1. Been received by the GSP
2. Sent on its way by the GSP (you may at some point be given an International tracking reference)
3. Delivered to end buyer

Ant query from the buyer after its left the GSP you are best advised to get them to contact e bay. You could give them the international tracking reference if you wish.

BUT
It's not for me to tell you what to do but from personal experience I have had mixed results from Global Shipping Sales the last one went fine though the buyer sent a quite rude message about the tracking reference he had been given not showing up. The item was delivered to the USA in an amazing 6 day ish timescale. Buyer left me very nice feedback and apologised for earlier rudeness. The item was a mini PC that sold for £80 (plus whatever ebays Global Shipping cost was to the buyer) it stood me at around £25
Prior to that I sold various routers and didnt have an issue except for one that got caught up in Israeli customs - Nothing I could do or was expected to do

One big problem was something I sold via Global Shipping Buyer claimed there was a fault It had sold for around £150 (plus whatever buyer paid in GSP fees). Buyer was basically being a T*sser over it as the item ( a record) was fine when wwe had played it. I ended up having to give a partial refund of 25% I think it was
The issue is that if I hadnt come to an arrangement I was obliged to not only refund the item but also to pay for and arrange return shipping on the item. At the time it was costly.
That then made me realise that it was risky selling high value items via Global shipping as the in the event of a complaint the return carriage costs were a big factor
I still use GSP on some items but only on ones that have little value attached to them