EBay question - is it worth selling to the USA?

[tectonicplates]

I'm just a small-time private seller, selling a few unwanted items here and there. I usually sell to the UK and EU countries, but most of my buyers are in the UK.

There's a couple of things that aren't selling, but I've googled and they seem to be popular in the USA (second hand clothing from a niche brand).

Is it worth opening up a couple of my items to Anerican buyers? I'm just a bit concerned because I've read stories about people not realising they'd have to pay a customs charge, and the postage would cost a lot so I could get marked down for postage charges.

Bump.

I'm unsure about the USA but we recently sold an item of clothing to China and it all went well.
Are you worried about customs & paperwork or not being paid or something else?

All my listings are Buy It Now so I always get paid.

I'm worried that the buyer might claim they didn't know they had to pay a customs charge, and then an argument could happen, or they might refuse to collect their parcel. It seems to be fairly arbitrary as to why some people end up having to pay customs charges and some don't.

Also, I'd have to charge about £10-12 postage so someone mark me down for it being expensive.

Hello @tectonicplates
So I'm a regular eBay seller and sometimes send abroad.
With eBay they automatically enrol you into the international postage scheme so it should be set up unless you have somehow turned it off or something. This is how it works...
I am selling... A t-shirt for £5 + £3 postage and packaging fees
Claire in America wants to buy it. On her screen in America it will show t-shirt £5 and postage £15 (for example)
She will then pay that total via eBay. eBay will send you the £8 that you asked for but keep the left over money. Then when the translation is complete you will see an address that is in the uk. Ie:
Claire banes
Ref# blahblahblah
Fradly pk
Dove CL
Postcode

You then ship your parcel to this Uk address and it's ebays international shipping depo and they will forward the parcel onto the seller using the long reference number.

This means that you as a seller don't need to worry about prices or customs or anything and Claire as a buyer is sure she's deffo gonna get her parcel safetly.

I hope this makes sense. I've tried to explain it as simply as I can. Just go to your settings and make sure your international option is turned on. It's no extra cost or hassle to you then it would be to post to the uk. :)

Hope this helps!!

as a pp said, eBays Global Shipping Programme will take care of non domestic postage, so you just send to a UK address and eBay do the rest. Be aware though, if the buyer wants to return it, or claim it is not as described (real risk with 2nd hand clothing sizes I would have thought) you will have to pay the return costs. eBay cover this for domestic sales but not overseas even through the GSP. I got stung having to pay £30 to get a coat sent back from the US. It's one of the more expensive shipping places because of the extra customs charge.

In short, I will now only ship lightweight items overseas, whatever the country.

You can easily opt out of the GSP in settings, but if you do it yourself I'd put in the description that buyers must be aware of additional postage and customs charges before purchase. Put the onus on them.

Touch wood, I've never received a complaint about worn clothing as I always go out of my way to give the most detailed measurements, as everyone should.

I think I must have the GSP thing switched off, as every time I've sold to EU countries it just goes straight to the buyer's address.

I haven't sold in a long while, but I did a few overseas sales. It was never worth it. I had Americans not understanding that pounds are different to dollars ( they didn't know there was any other currencies ) and accused me of over charging. The next person wanted the item in two days after I had posted it ! Then another saying it didn't arrived and another saying that it wasn't what they expected and wanted to return it ( of course at my costs 🙄) even though the listing was as comprehensive as could be.

Also ,I think , it depends on how much the item is. For fairly low price ,I don't see how it is worth for them to pay the shipping. But contradictory, I have happily bought from USA , for fairly low prices ( stuff the kids were interested in, but we couldn't get over here )