Are these queries dodgy?

[ragged]

I've been flogging 6 snowsuits and 2 sleepsacs on Ebay.

I've had successive queries about postage to send them to Eastern Europe.

How much to the Czech Republic? How much to Slovakia (same auction as Czech R query)? How much to the Ukraine?

I smell a rat... I always reply using the Ebay message board so that the reply appears on the webpage, anyway -- and now I think it has the bonus of being safer. Do you think that if I replied to the email message in my inbox I'd get redirected to somewhere dodgy? I'm not even testing it, but I wonder if anyone has heard of such a scam.

I've not heard of scam but I always use the messages service rather than email as it is safer. Good children's clothes do get a bit of interest from eastern Europe in my experience of selling. I can't be bothered with working out postage to various different countries and got sick of the questions so I block all non-uk bidders. I still get questions asking if I will post abroad though, if I have time I reply no sorry, sometimes I just ignore. If you are interested in sending abroad check out their feedback and see if they have bought plenty successfully from uk before.

Sounds normal - lots of my items end up going abroad. I can only assume there are no computer parts available in rural Ireland and Spain and little baby stuff in Poland/Eastern Europe.

No problems so far (touch wood!)

I have sold a number of things to Eastern Europe and Russia. You probably don't realise just how much competition and choice there is in the UK , compared to other countries. Even France is rubbish for inexpensive clothes and choice, according to a UK friend of mine living there.

You can find information on posting prices through the Royal Mail's page here. Feel free to add a little extra for packaging/hassle, whatever you do for UK transactions.

If your'e using the RM's online printed postage, you can print out a customs form and fill it in with the details of the transaction. Your buyer should expect to pay the customs fees, so don't lie on the form.

You can do proof of postage for international parcels just as for UK parcels, so the buyer is not put off by the high cost of tracked post, but you are still protected.

Hope this helps!

Ta, it just seems odd -- bang bang bang in a row on low value items (I don't expect to net more than a quid on each) .... I have been perfectly polite in replies, but will remain vigilant.

I was also suspicious, but had no reason to be. I sent quite a few baby clothes to Eastern Europe.

Last month i had a bit of a blitz on selling some of my DC's old clothes and probably about half of the items went to Eastern Europe. Don't be put off by queries for posting there as from my experience they also seem to be willing to pay much more than the average UK buyer. I've sold items of toddler clothing for £8 or £9 to them!

It's no hassle either to post there. Just check out the RM website when you work out the UK postal price, it just takes a couple of seconds more. This website is also handy as it shows the postal costs all on one page www.seajays.org.uk/postage/ which makes it even quicker. TBH it hadn't occured to me that it could be a scam, maybe that's naivity but i've had no problems and received lots of positive feedback. HTH