Before it used to be sellers beware (of non paying bidders), now apparently Paypal has made it so that it is BUYER BEWARE.  What does that mean? That means the buyer is taking advantage of the seller!  Who would have thunk?!  If you already know exactly what I mean and am looking for a solution, please skip down to below.

If you're reading this guide, them I'm sure you're a seller who has found out Paypal's wonderful policy on international shipping, in which you've probably had your money taken out of your account fully knowing that your buyer is sitting thousands of miles away with your item in his hand and his-now-your-money, too.

Well what do you do now?  I'm sure you'll think the logical step is to not accept Paypal on any international orders.   Just accept money orders or cash.  This can be very timely at best, NO!  Their are much WORSE reasons.  You must know that cash is just a silly choice.  Believe me, if you accept cash, it will not only make your customers unhappy when it doesn't arrive, but it will make you more so and probably leave you with more negatives in the long run.  Ok, so why not money orders?  Same result, but different reason.  Apparently with today's technology, it is easy to create a fraudulent money order, so when you get to the bank and try to cash it  --AFTER you've already mailed out mr. international's item -- you find out that it is a fake.  Maybe you're thinking, nobody really does that or it wouldn't happen to you, but being a seller who deals with many international customers and having known many people who do the same, please take my word on it.  It's worse than having a check bounce or equal.

Ok so, no money orders, no cash, and you still want to use paypal?  I have three suggestive solutions:  1)  Charge your customer accordingly for USPS Global Express, which i believe starts around $25 and will provide a valid tracking number, which not all post office apparently carry (please see next paragraph for info about this).  2)  Try sending it USPS registered mail, which is sent under lock and key specificially for valuables.  You can request an electronic receipt that proves they received it, but not sure if its constitutes as a tracking number.  Good if you know your customer.  3)  Unfortunately, do not sell internationally and/or take your changes with lost cash and fake money orders.

And if you're thinking you're next step is to see what Paypal suggests, don't bother.  Not only have I read through their policies, I've also contacted them myself to inquire just exactly what they recommend exactly with such an unrealistic policy.  What did they say?  Basically to not sell to international customers (that I didn't feel comfortable with knowing them might try to be unfaithful).  Great policy!  Let's create a policy that is virtually unrealistically impossible to perform so that any seller can get screwed.  Please excuse my venting.  So I wrote them a 2nd time, in which they told me to use USPS Global Express (as I mentioned above).  So that same day I went to the Post Office to inquire.  What do you know, they don't offer tracking numbers on that since they hand off the mail to another agency after it leaves the US.  So after going back and forther with paypal emails and notifiying them that their policy can't be executed, you know what they finally told me?! THAT SELLER PROTECTION ONLY APPLIES IN THREE COUNTRIES: THE US, CANADA, AND THE UK.  So even if you spent the $25 to get the tracking number to something you mailed to France, and your French customer files a claim -- that tracking number means SQUAT!

Lastly, if you are a seller that has been a victim from a bad buyers, please be sure to LEAVE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK(unfornately as of May 2008, sellers can no longer leave any negative feedback for sellers) for that buyer to let other fellow sellers know about that customer (in case we want to block him or whatever.  It is our duty to leave honest feedback even if it causes the bad buyer to leave a negative for you.  Leaving a negative will in turn stop sellers from selling to those customers and hopefully rid ebay of people like them!

I hope this guide has been helpful to you sellers that have had the same problems I have had!  I know the fix is not an easy one.  I've seen sellers charge just a flat amount of $10 if the customer is international just to cover a so-called-insurance for themselves!