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Here's the story of how I lost $100.00 on a $27.00 teapot I sold on Ebay and what I learned from it.

The question of risk involved in selling items on Ebay to buyers outside the country is a tough one for US sellers. Sometimes, even if a buyer is not attempting to defraud a seller, the seller can still lose money.

Last year, I sold a Waechtersbach teapot to a buyer in the United Kingdom. She paid me via Paypal. Then she sent me a message via Ebay two weeks later stating she did not receive the teapot. I asked her to please hold on a few more days because sometimes international mail can be slow. I sent it via the US Mail without tracking, because the item cost was only $27.00. Global Express (which does provide tracking and instant insurance up to $100), would have cost far more than the purchase price of the item. And I do not blame buyers for being unhappy with an extemely high shipping rate.

She finally filed an "item not received" claim through Paypal. Since I had no tracking number, the claim went through. The customer received a full refund for the item AND the shipping. I lost the money I paid for the teapot, the final winning bid of $27.00 and the shipping costs from the USA to England.

But wait, there's more...

My postal delivery person rang my doorbell one afternoon shortly after the refund was awarded to the buyer. She was holding a beaten up box with a Waechtersbach teapot in it with a bill to me for a "storage fee" from the postal service in the United Kingdom. The bill was for approximately $24.00 USD. The package was considered abandoned, as the buyer never picked it up from her local post office. So the postal service in England sent it back to me with a bill for storage and its return to the sender. I had also lost listing and final value fees. All of this brought my losses to approx. $100 USD when the whole ordeal was over.

It was a discouraging and edcuational experience about how things can go wrong. Today, I still ship items I sell on Ebay internationally without tracking so the shipping costs stay low enough to attract buyers. There are many honest and competent buyers out there, and I choose to keep them as my customers. If I have an item that is very large or very expensive, I may choose to offer it to US buyers only or to charge a Global Express shipping rate. As long as it makes sense.

I have learned that most of the time things go right. Sometimes they go wrong. It's a risk and a cost I take into consideration as I do business on Ebay.

I always purchase delivery confirmation for items I ship in the US. I almost always require insurance on items $50.00 and over. I highly recommend this to all sellers doing business within the US. The costs are reasonable, and a seller is covered if an item is lost or if a buyer attempts to file a false claim that the item was not received.

Unfortunately, when shipping outside the US, we must continue to manage our sales potential vs. our risks.

Happy Selling,

Alloy Antiques