Most of your reasons for it being a hassle can be avoided by simply stating conditions prior to the sale. It isnt a valid reason to refuse these buyers simply saying its just a "hassle", no to me... I have never once had a hassle and ive done over 400 imports of various items, mostly from ebay. Now sure, you don't have to sell to everyone, no one can force you to do that. But at the same time, the reasons given are pretty much laziness about stipulating conditions than actually filling in custom forms or dealing with an issue when something occasionally goes wrong. That and a degree of prejudice.
Demand insured shipping used in the sales condition and most of your so called hassle would be out of the way. It would be the buyer and the freight company's problem then. If people dont accept those conditions, you have all the right in the world to not sell to them, and i would be on your side then. Its that simple.
Ive shipped stuff abroad myself, never once had an issue. And the extra few moments at the post office to fill in the extra information isnt really a hassle to me, it takes like 5 minutes.
Also, there is no extra significant cost for you to ship abroad. the buyer pays all the extra shipping, the insurance and if you get buyers asking you to falsify customs forms just say you wont do it and that problem is out of the world too. Ive asked for things marked as gift now and then, but i always respect if a person is unwilling to do so. I also understand that insured shipping is often costly, and i also understand the risks if i go for uninsured.
Some of you have given some depth to your reasons to deny international buyers, but i was hoping for more rational reasons than "hassle". So keep it coming!
Btw, im not trying to be offensive, so please dont take my talk of laziness as personal attacks. im lazy sometimes too!
When you flat out state what methods you ship by, what you are willing to do and what you wont do, more often then not this was simply ignored by international bidders in my case anyway. I always have a shipping and payment policy listed on my auctions and sales threads. Sadly people want what they want, and they don't care about what they consider to be small details or if they are going to be wasting your time when they decide they don't agree with your payment and shipping policies after the fact. When people flat out ignore your policies, refuse to purchase anything but slow uninsurable shipping, don't pay, force me to open a non-paying bidder claim, relist items, etc, then yeah, its a f*cking hassle and waste of my time.
Who the f*ck are you to accuse people of being lazy, prejudice, or to judge how valuable their time and energy is to them? Have you ever lived in the USA? Have you ever filled out a USPS customs form multiple times. Have you had to spend hundreds of hours at a USPS office? Do you sell more then 1-5 items a month, every month? Do you deal with more then 4-5 customers a month, including all correspondence back and forth related to said sales? Until you do all the above, you don't have room to say shit.
You're coming off like the dickhead living on the other side of the world with no idea how it is on the other side, all naive assumptions and bullshit about other people and their situations, thinking its all cut and dry. Not one f*cking clue how things even work on their side of the world. You don't even know the first thing about them or what they have had to deal with prior, let alone knowing how each of their lives are as is as a individual, but there you sit, all judgmental because you cant get the things you want.
My local USPS stays busy, with long lines most of the day. I don't care to finally get to the clerk, then hold up this line while I deal with a international package when I can pre-pay for everything shipping wise at home and drop them off at the package area and avoid the lines and clerks. And yeah, I don't like filling out customs forms. IT IS A WASTE OF MY TIME when I can sell the exact same item to someone locally for the same amount, and not have to fill out said form or deal with the bullshit at the post office. For me time is money. All my reasons I have listed are legitimate. Hassles being everything I just spoke of, waste my time and damage my handling of over all sales.
No one wants to ship to you anymore, tough shit then. People don't ship internationally anymore, like me, then I'm sure they have their reasons. Its not your place, business, or right even, to question as to why. You seem less concerned anyway with knowing why, and more interested in trying to debate it and inform everyone why in your opinion they are wrong, and no one here cares for that. And if you think its just people in the USA who wont ship internationally, then go hop on over to Yahoo Japan Auctions and see how many people will sell to you without you using a proxy service, or sign up on LDDB, and contact sellers in the UK and elsewhere, and tell them you are located in the USA or elsewhere, and see how many will be willing to sell to you. Odds are you wont find many unless they are a normal shop with some kind of employees working for them, because no matter where in the world, no individual seller wants to deal with any level of bullshit when it can easily be avoided. Just stick to the sellers who are still willing to deal with the bullshit and thank your lucky f*cking stars there are still some willing to do so.
