International bidder wants item to be sent to UK mailing address

[Llanarth]

Hi, I have a quick question. I have an ebay auction ending tomorrow for a small piece of Victorian jewellry. I expect it will sell for approx. £150.

I stated no international bidders on the auction as I planned to send it special delivery 9 am, just for my piece of mind that it's got there.

But I've had just received a message saying:

"Hi there. I have a mailing address in London but I live in Australia. Can I please be allowed to bid on this item. My bid sometimes gets blocked. Can you please check and let me know. I do not like to bid until the item is nearing completion if possible so please let me know. Thanks,
Bee PS. Why won't you send this to Australia??? It is antique jewellery .

I haven't actually blocked international bidders from the auction so there is nothing currently stopping her bidding (but I can change that!). I just don't want the faff of sending internationally - something small like this could easily go missing, necessitating claims and stress and refunds and the like.

What would be the problem with me sending it to her London mailing address - obviously this would not be her confirmed paypal address but what are the implications of this? If it went missing, I would claim from Royal Mail anyway, right? What protection does using PayPal offer me, the seller? Or should I just tell her to forget it (and block international) - the auction has >50 watchers so I'm fairly confident it will sell.

Many thanks in advance!

There's a little voice at the back of my head which tells me that this is a scam.

I would not deal with anything outside ebay's guidelines.

I'd just block if you ar confident it will sell. You don't need the hastle.

Hassle

it could be genuine. if the buyer adds the uk address to their paypal and then selects that address at checkout then you could send it

As long as you send special delivery to the address given by paypal you will be covered.

thanks everyone for speedy responses, knew I could rely on you! I think I will block international bidders and explain to her. She prob is genuine but it's not worth the risk if something goes missing....