Question for UK members

Superduper

Moderator
Staff member
Are you effectively locked out of the USA market on eBay? I've had a customer contact me wanting me to ship an item to UK. But no matter what I did, UK is not an eligible shipping destination. It appears UK regulations has essentially implemented a defacto trade protectionist policy by installing insurmountable hurdles that no average seller can meet.
 

beansmaynard

Member (SA)
That's strange, if anything I'm seeing more listings from the US show up and on Vinted, we're allowed to sell to the USA and vice versa.

What trade regulations are you talking about? I'm sure the 2 countries have an agreement in place, we even negotiated a clause so you don't have to send us your terrible chlorinated chicken :-P
 

Reli

Boomus Fidelis
Which shipping methods are allowed in your account settings? Do you participate in Ebay's International Shipping (EIS)?
 

Superduper

Moderator
Staff member
I absolutely participate in the EIS which I guess is their previous Global Shipping Program. The issue is with eBay. The only location excluded that I'm aware of is UK. Actually when you create a new listing, you will see the following somewhere on the listing form:

ITEM DISCLOSURES

Provide more details about your item’s safety and quality standards if you ship to buyers in the EU/UK.

USA sellers, If you search eBay, you'll find that they have posted some information requirements. One problematic one is that they require a local EU contact or point of responsibility if the manufacturer is not in the UK. Well, that's an insurmuontable hurdle. If you "think" that your listing is available in UK, just go to your listing, view shipping details, and then expand the listing of "ship to" countries. You'll see a giant list. If UK is an available destination, it will show there.
eBay EU General Product Safety Regulation

From what I gather, if you want eBay to ship the product, then they have these additional requirements, which is basically impossible to conform to, I've spent hours and doing tons of researching before throwing my hands up. You can manually ship to UK by not participating in the EIS program. But that puts you on the hook for the shipping costs, compliance, and potential seizure of the goods if the country determines it doesn't meet their product safety requirements. Or if the buyer decides to balk at the import fees (tariffs, customs duty, VAT, other import fees, etc), they might refuse shipment. if the total shipping approaches or exceeds the cost of the item, congratulations, you'll lose the total cost of everything since eBay will automatically refund the buyer while your item takes a circuitous 6 months trip around the world, and maybe eventually end up back to you. No thanks. If eBay deems UK regulations too onerous and risky, and they don't want to be on the hook for it, neither will I. Unlike in the past, I will only ship international if eBay takes the risk for the international leg of the process.

Which shipping methods are allowed in your account settings? Do you participate in Ebay's International Shipping (EIS)?
 

Superduper

Moderator
Staff member
Perhaps. I don’t know. I already tried general categories. Even tried luggage/luggage-accessories with a very general title of “custom listing for xxxx” and an almost barebones description but it still won’t show up as available to uk. Ah well, I can’t seem to make it work so I gave up. Funny thing is that my stuff sells to international clients all the time including France. It’s just UK is excluded. But when I look at my listing shipping destination settings, UK is explicitly toggled to as allowed.