Item sold for £155 - overseas bidder zero feed back joined ebay 2 days ago - Risky ?

[Lappy214]

Was very excited that a large playset toy with all sorts of extras added over the years, had sold for £155. Have seen some sell for about this over the years and some for less, figured it was the Christmas effect

Now very worried as I see that it has been bought and paid for by a ebayer in Mexico who only joined e-bay 2 days ago and has zero feedback.

I'm supposed to be sending it via the global shipping system but am worried that the whole transaction could go tits up if buyer decides item not as described or finds some spurious fault with it, e-bay/paypal might find in buyer's favour and I'd lose a fairly valuable/saleable item and some much needed Christmas funds. I don't know if I am responsible if it simply doesn't turn up to his address in Mexico for some reason and I'm wondering how ebay have worked out his shipping charges when they don't know the weight or dimensions of the parcel. He's paid £27.93 to them which doesn't seem a lot for a 5-10kg parcel of 0.6m x 0.5m x 0.2m to go all the way to Mexico.

What can I do to protect myself (should have prevented bidders with less than 10 feedback bidding I suppose) I have previously sent a large playset to Spain using the Global shipping system and another toy somewhere else, but both of those buyers had plenty of (good) feedback.

My instinct says to cancel his bid and offer to the next highest bidder who is UK based but I'll then surely get negative feedback from the Mexican.

yes, that's pretty much it in a nutshell I'm afraid.

There is always the risk with overseas buyers, esp ones with no feedback.
It's your choice.

IF the buyer does leave negative feedback, then you can put an explanation below it.

If you have a reasonably high feedback count then I wouldn't worry too much about it. People seem to worry about losing the "golden" 100%, but in reality, it doesn't make much difference to buyers unless your percentage rate / negative rate stinks IMO, it's more of an ego trip!

I wouldn't be certain you will get negative from the seller. Send a polite email, explaining that you don't ship outside the EU, but somehow eBay bypassed this.

If you don't want to sell to particular buyers in future, then set your settings up accordingly to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.

Well everyone has to start somewhere. Maybe it's something they really want for Christmas, that costs a hell of a lot more in their country?

If they've paid, and all transactions are being done via the site, then I don't see what the problem is.

I would leave you negative feedback if you cancelled my bid when it was your fault for not blocking buyers from outside the EU I'm afraid.

Although check with ebay itself before sending, because if that is the correct shipping then you're going to have to send it by donkey or lose a heck of a lot of money on postage I reckon.

I sent a child's coat to the States last year and it was more than that!

I wouldn't be too worried, because you will only be sending it to eBay. Maybe contact them and check that the responsibility is with them once it reaches their UK hub!

I would double check about this on the Ebay UK discussion boards (far better advice than MNers can give).
I would almost certainly send it to the Mexican.

Am pretty sure that trying to cancel etc. would be far more trouble than you described.
You're only responsible for delivery to the UK address so what they paid or not received in Mexico is not your problem.
You need to opt out of the GSP if you don't trust Ebay to get it right. Google instructions how.

If they decide it's not as described, you still need to pay the return postage from Mexico..... Not just from the UK shipping centre.

How are you shipping it? that it too little for airmail signed for.

I'm sure you can block overseas bidders. Make sure you do that before you list anything else!

I got caught out with global shipping programme earlier this year. Option is checked by default on listings unless you actively opt out.

I listed a baby bath - it was bought by someone in bloody France! I spent a couple of hours wrapping it up in about a mile of bubble wrap. It arrived in France in pieces. eBay told me not to refund buyer as I was covered for accidental damage. Then they ignored me for weeks. I chased them up and they then said it was all my fault and I was liable. Refunded buyer straight away but she had been waiting for resolution for ages. eBay then refused to speak to me about it.

Hard lesson learnt - have ensured since then that nothing can be bought by overseas bidders in any circumstances

32nd it's not postage you need to worry about. As long as you can prove it reached the global shopping centre in the UK, you're covered in that respect.

It's the buyer filing a not as described case you need to worry about. Then you are responsible for return international shipping which can be VERY expensive.