Would you sell to someone overseas?

big dave said:
This might come as a shock, but there has been a scam or two, or a million, from overseas buyers ... and yes, just as many from the U.S. Getting your money is hard enough if there's a problem when you're in the same country. Dealing overseas? Pretty much forget it.
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The biggest PIA I ever dealt with was an American. Because of him I almost decided not to sell to the USA any more. But then I realised there might be a few nice people overseas as well.

Cheers,

Michiel Fokkema
 
BSchall said:
I have sold items on Ebay and have shipped to Thailand, Hong Kong, Tiawan, Japan, Italy, and Norway. All items were paid thru Paypal from bidders with decent Ebay feedbacks. Never had a problem. I even bought a Rollei 35S from an individual in Singapore. You might haold your breath and hope everything will turn out. Luckily, for me, it has.
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Hey,
A lot of the Rollei 35's we're actually made in singapore:)

Cheers,

Michiel Fokkema
 
big dave said:
I posted a Contax G2 kit in the classifieds. I know about the scams that happen from posting on the Internet, but someone responded wondering if I would ship overseas (Hong Kong). The e-mail was generated from the ad on this site, and seems like it could be legitimate.

I know the rules and common sense would say to not sell overseas. Have you or would you sell and ship to someone overseas?

How would you handle the transaction .... is paypay secure enough?

What is the preferred method of shipping, so it's secure?

I don't want to lose a sale, but don't want to lose my camera, either.

Thanks.
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I'm not worried about "losing" a sale. If that was the case, I'd probably sell on *bay and set tight restrictions. When I was selling here, I limited my sales to North America and to overseas members who had exceeded a certain post count. The idea behind the post count was that active and participating members were more likely to be reliable and "known," and that the time investment in the forum and the sense of community resulting from that investment applied certain pressures that would help ensure a smooth transaction (that works both ways, of course).


.

,
 
I have bought and sold internationally, never a problem for me. I think the advice offered in the previous posts are all pretty good explanations of how to proceed.
 
Thanks for all the feedback. At least I created a lively discussion.

No, this person isn't a forum member (he actually just joined after messaging me about the camera, and just before I happened to ask if he was a forum member). If it was somone active on the board, I wouldn't worry as much about it, but it is a little out of the blue. He does seems legit, because at least he knows his cameras.

I didn't mean any disrespect with the "common sense" comment, because there are good and bad people in everywhere. Transactions are always risky, moreso when it's with somone outside of your home country. I think many scammers prey on people outside their own country because it's more difficult to resolve.

Though more secure than most methods, I know there can be problems with paypal ... my girlfriend's dad had to fight for months to get $2000 back he paid for a laptop which never arrived. I generally trust my gut on these things, as does probably everyone else.
 
I sold about 6 cameras last summer, three went overseas, one to China. The one to China, money recieved via PayPal, no problem. Weeks went by and I got a note from the buyer, "Where's my camera? It hasn't arrived!"

Then it dawned on me I had no means of checking it's delivery. Buyers could demand a refund and I'd have no way to challenge their integrity outside of gut-feeling. Choosing not to believe them for no reason and RE: "Tough luck!" is just not me.

It all worked out. LOTS more time went by, I finally emailed him to see what had happened and got an RE: "Oh yeah, it came. Forgot to write you. Sorry."

Bottom line - getting the money is part of it - keeping the money is another part, too.

Cheers
 
big dave said:
I posted a Contax G2 kit in the classifieds. I know about the scams that happen from posting on the Internet, but someone responded wondering if I would ship overseas (Hong Kong). The e-mail was generated from the ad on this site, and seems like it could be legitimate.

I know the rules and common sense would say to not sell overseas. Have you or would you sell and ship to someone overseas?

How would you handle the transaction .... is paypay secure enough?

What is the preferred method of shipping, so it's secure?

I don't want to lose a sale, but don't want to lose my camera, either.

Thanks.
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You know that there are more reports of fraud toward U.S. sellers then any other country, right?

Anyway, when my folks back home ship me stuff it goes USPS global priority. If it comes from my mom in LA it only takes 2-3 days. From my dad in Novelty (near Cleveland...sorta closer to Salon, I think) it takes 4-5 days. I'm in Taipei so shipping times should be equal for H.K.
 
CVBLZ4 said:
I sold about 6 cameras last summer, three went overseas, one to China. The one to China, money recieved via PayPal, no problem. Weeks went by and I got a note from the buyer, "Where's my camera? It hasn't arrived!"

Then it dawned on me I had no means of checking it's delivery. Buyers could demand a refund and I'd have no way to challenge their integrity outside of gut-feeling. Choosing not to believe them for no reason and RE: "Tough luck!" is just not me.

It all worked out. LOTS more time went by, I finally emailed him to see what had happened and got an RE: "Oh yeah, it came. Forgot to write you. Sorry."

Bottom line - getting the money is part of it - keeping the money is another part, too.

Cheers
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There is sometimes a Romanization issue with addresses. I've been living in Taipei for 8+ years and have been recieving my mail to the same address (my wife's office) for that entire time.

Occasionally a package will be delayed because the romanized address can't be matched to the Taiwanese address...i.e. is it Min-Chuan or Min-Quan? Chung-Siao or Zhong-Xiao? The longest a package has been delayed is 1 month. Overall, this is very rare, though.
 
I think buying would be more of a problem than selling. At least at the selling end you don't have to ship until the cold cash is in your pocket.

PIAs as someone from 'the Netherlands' stated are all over. If you disclose everything, screw them, if they don't like the filer size or a scratch on the the case then just say 'll take it back and then I'll send you the cash.' AND the PIA pays the shipping. Caveat Whatever! The spell checker fail me.
 
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Hi,

Could you tell me th epseudo he used because I also received a strange mail from someone living in Hong Kong and who wanted to buy my G2. The problem is not to send the camera to HK because I live here but it is just hat the email souned dodgy...

Cheers
Max

big dave said:
Thanks for all the feedback. At least I created a lively discussion.

No, this person isn't a forum member (he actually just joined after messaging me about the camera, and just before I happened to ask if he was a forum member). If it was somone active on the board, I wouldn't worry as much about it, but it is a little out of the blue. He does seems legit, because at least he knows his cameras.

I didn't mean any disrespect with the "common sense" comment, because there are good and bad people in everywhere. Transactions are always risky, moreso when it's with somone outside of your home country. I think many scammers prey on people outside their own country because it's more difficult to resolve.

Though more secure than most methods, I know there can be problems with paypal ... my girlfriend's dad had to fight for months to get $2000 back he paid for a laptop which never arrived. I generally trust my gut on these things, as does probably everyone else.
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Most of my RF gear has been bought here via the RFF classifieds, you just have to do some due diligence, and for anything over $50 ship insured via USPS, either Global Priority or EMS (I would do EMS only for big ticket items). I wouldn't bother with UPS/DHL etc., they are great for shipping in the US, but my experiences with them have been uniformly painful. Taht said, the RFF classifieds are a godsend for poor third-world guys like me. :)
 
BrianPhotog said:
The longest a package has been delayed is 1 month. Overall, this is very rare, though.
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I hope I didn't imply some slam toward China's postal or anyone between here and there; not my intention. Similar chain of events could happen anywhere and will. My point was that tracking of overseas items from the US is almost nil, and one must assume these dealings will be done on the honor system... with stangers. It would be the same if he had sent me a camera here from China. Overseas is overseas, no matter which side of the water you're on, ay?

Oh, I have no doubt that the package I was talking about arrived safe and sound in a normal amount of time, or maybe a few days longer. The guy just complained quickly and then didn't bother to inform me when all was well. "Oh yeah, sorry." :rolleyes: I know now that he had no intention of ripping me off. But several weeks went by after his initial "Where's my camera..." email, so I began to wonder, "Hmmm. What's up here?"
 
I live in sunny HK - so I have no choice but often have to ship overseas if I want to sell my gear. Depending on the value of the item - say over US$100 - I would prefer to ship by EMS / receive payment via Paypal and everything is usually hunky dory as I can track the package and insure it.

If it is a regular RFF forum member who has posted - I have no problem with direct banking either.... hello haagen_dazs!
 
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