Wanted help - selling overseas

[capacitorless]

Hey, all! I'm trying to figure out the logistics towards getting someone in Portugal a small number of VCA chips. I'm pretty much brand new to shipping across the pond, but I'm a quick learner.

I'm very much not into doing Ebay for logistics reasons. Reverb and taking payment directly via PayPal are what I'm considering. I do not want to cover the fees involved (just want my 30 bones per chip, glad to spend my own time packing & taking to USPS).

Any suggestions? I still haven't decoded the various PayPal fees. I originally intended to ship only within the US, to make any fees easy (as well as not having to fill out customs or worry about tracking issues), but I would like to accommodate the buyer who's a new GDIY member, if at all practical. I've spent hours going through all of this, as a rank newbie to international selling.

I'm trusting, but I don't want to screw myself either.

(putting this in the Black Market, but if I should ask somewhere else like the Brewery, glad to move it)

 

[scott2000]

Priority or above is the only way to get it insured afaik. I think flat rate is like $40us....Pretty painless process, though quite a process, they can help you with at the counter. I actually tried doing the forms ahead of time as per the advice on the USPS site but guess I got it wrong. Lady at the counter said she doesn't recommend doing it alone.
There are a couple of threads somewhere about intl shipping woes.... Prices are silly but whatever....

 

[capacitorless]

Thanks, man! I'm not sure it is worth it to go this route for $90 worth of used parts I'm also looking at Reverb, which has become a significantly better way to go vs Ebay. Roughly 10% vs 20% overall fees, much quicker payout, can use funds for paying for shipping and so forth. I only have one payout experience on Reverb, however it was very positive.

 

[ruffrecords]

I have been sending my bare PCBs all over the world for about 10 years. I am sending from the UK so I can only speak from that perspective but the principles should be similar. I use Jiffy bags to send them in because they are cheap, standard sized and well padded. They can be expensive so I ended up buying a box of 200 which lasts me a few years!! A use a size which in the UK conforms to the Royal Mail Large Letter standard size. I expect the USPS has similar standard package sizes. Most orders are less than £30 so I do not buy insured postage because Royal Mail includes up to £30 compensation in its International Standard rates. In 10 years I have only had two packages go missing. Rather than work out a cost per country I have standardized shipping/packing rates to £2 for UK, £4 for Europe and £6 for the rest of the world. This makes it much simpler for me and my customers and just about covers the actual costs. Insured shipping is a lot more expensive so I only tend to use this for more valuable shipments.

I am surprised the USPS online sytem is not recommended. The Royal Mail online system is great. You fill in customer details and the customs form and it prints both for you. Royal Mail even offers free pick up of your parcels from your home.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Whoops]

I'm from Portugal,
if someone from Portugal or inside the EU buys parts from you they will have to pay Custom Fees (VAT+fees). Those will be in Portugal 23% VAT calculated on the declared price of the items plus the price of shipping, to that values some custom fees will be added.

So for example if the items are $90 and the shipping is $40, the total value will be $130.
23% of that is $29,9, plus some $15 of custom fees or custom clearance tax it will be $44,9 just to clear the package from Customs.

$90 + $40 + $44,9
it adds a lot and becomes expensive quite fast

I am surprised the USPS online sytem is not recommended. The Royal Mail online system is great. You fill in customer details and the customs form and it prints both for you. Royal Mail even offers free pick up of your parcels from your home.

I'm also quite surprised the USPS online system is not recommended, and like in the UK here in Portugal it's really easy to do the forms online and print it. It works very well.
Actually it's the opposite here it is not recommended to do it over the counter, the services themselves recommend you to do it online and if you do it at the counter you have to pay an extra fee, so everyone does it online and takes it ready to the local post office.

 

[scott2000]

I'm also quite surprised the USPS online system is not recommended

Maybe I misunderstood the clerk but, seeing as how it may have been a while ago, perhaps the changes noted here

https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2020/pb22541/html/updt_008.htm
may have been what she was reffering to. Pretty sure I filled everything out correctly so maybe it was just the wrong format or something..idk..
Still pretty sure that you can't get insurance or tracking outside of Priority mail or higher but haven't looked in a bit...
It would be nice to know exactly how things work and exactly what things will cost.
Always feels like ordering the $9.99 special from Pizza Hut and you're paying over $25 by the time it's over..
Priority flat rate takes that feeling and some other headaches out of the equation for sure. But it costs.

 

[capacitorless]

I appreciate all of the advice. I didn't hear back from the buyer, so I'm not going through with this particular sale. Very useful information however. Thanks very much, folks!