Your money is not wanted here

[vintagegames]

Note: I feel this to be a collectors' topic, but at the same time I am aware that a rants thread might be the better location. I leave it up to the moderators to move this.

I saw the following auction quite late before its end. All three Sierra/Disney games in what appeared to be pristine condition! Boy, was I happy; and, luckily, the price was still only at $50.

Reading on, my mood sank quickly when I got to the shipping terms: "USA ONLY. I'm sorry if you in another country, but I don't know rules and such for customs, exports, etc... DO NOT EMAIL AND ASK FOR AN EXCEPTION!" I guess the seller couldn't be more clear on this. In the past, almost every person excluding international shipping agreed to ship to me after all, after asking them nicely and explaining my knowledge of the usps shipping rates. Here, I obviously didn't try.

As you can see, the auction ended with those $50. Sad. For both me and the seller. The lucky winner is - to my big surprise - from the Czech Republic. Go figure.

I actually have never done this, but in this case I just couldn't help myself and and let the seller know that I would have paid more and that actually no specific knowledge of foreign rules is needed (after all, the buyer is responsible for the customs formalities). I wonder if I get a reply ...

There have been very few occasions where I had to sit and watch an auction go by without being allowed to bid. This is always sad for a collector; I guess most of you can sympathize and have also experienced this in the past. I wouldn't exactly title this posting 'seller stupidity', but it sometimes feels like it. Why does anybody sell on eBay? In order not to get money for the item?

So I felt like sharing this bit of frustration, and maybe I will get some stories from the other members.

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 232169611&

[Tseki]

Damn I know how you feel now. That winning bidder is my "friend".

[scott3107]

Hmm yes Petr is from CZ. I wonder what the seller thinks about that??

I know how the OP feels. Mystery House & Cranston Manor appeared on ebay.com a few months back and only shipped to the USA. I even asked nicely if he would send them to Australia and got a flat out no.

I was disappointed when I missed those games

[rien]

This lot came up on my ebay searches in the first hour it was online.

Knowing:

1. it was US only (due to shipping) and I was unable to bid; and
2. my mate has a US connection that he frequently won these kind of auctions with;

I sent Petr the link.

I'm assuming he negotiated with the seller and had it shipped to his US address.

If I had a US connection trust me I would have bought them in the first hour. I actually sat on it for days trying to work out who I knew in the US to no avail.

[scott3107]

I almost signed up for one of these sites that gives you a US address, and then onforwards mail to you when I saw Mystery House and Cranston Manor.

It would be kind of handy, but it ends up pretty expensive.

[Spike]

[vintagegames]

[Spike]

[mcdonis]

[jonebone]

I know it's an old subject, but I'm a US seller who doesn't ship outside the country either. Got almost 1,900 feedback on ebay as well.

Just boils down to taking more time as you have to fill out customs forms by hand. Since you have to pay for postage, you have to wait in the line at the PO, and my 15 second in-and-out dropoff can be a 15-30 minute wait depending on the line.

Also, the point about fraud is valid. I get DC #s on all packages in the US for free, and those can help me win a "Not received" paypal claim. Oversees, I have no proof unless I go with a $25-$40 shipping charge (International Priority), and many people do not want to pay that.

It's one thing to sell internationally on collecting forums, quite another to a random guy off eBay.