Cheap international shipping exploit

Monstermug

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Shipping from uk to usa seems to have trippled in price in a few years. I seem to sense some hesitation with sellers who rather ship things domestically, although im not sure why when the buyer agrees to pay for it.

Personally ive had better experiences with US sellers than European or even UK sellers and have no problem shipping to the US. Ive bought a couple of cabs from the states with zero problems too let alone small tiny pcbs.

Anyway, ebay global shipping seems very cheap. You post to ebay and then ebay does the international stuff. Therefore a cheap way to ship a box is to list an item on ebay making sure nobody will click buy it now. Like old broken pcb with a picture of just a corner of it, for example, for say 10 bucks. The buyer buys it and pays for shipping then paypals the rest what it cost to the seller. In a week it arrives and is fully trackable. Have tried this a few times with sucess. The two who did it for me can vouch for it if they so wish. Plus for 10 bucks theres no customs charge. The item you list should ideally reflect what you are actually posting though.

Difference is like 90 dollers for a 2kg box as apposed to say 20 dollers via global shipping. Plus you are effectively still posting it domestically.

Discuss.....
 
ebay global shipping! lol what a joke, it's basically the same thing PirateShip is doing (along with many other shipping companies)...

This is an example of rates for a 4lb package (box size 18" x 14" x 3.5") being sent from Detroit, MI out to Australia - international shipping of course:


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^ ...as you can see, the Pirate Ship Simple Export Rate is insanely cheap and affordable, bam!
 
^ ...as you can see, the Pirate Ship Simple Export Rate is insanely cheap and affordable, bam!
I don't have a pirateship account, but looking up shipping quotes on their website Simple Export Rate (SER) isn't shown as an option for me. Noticed the support page shows you need to activate SER, is there any extra fees/requirements to use it?
 
I don't have a pirateship account, but looking up shipping quotes on their website Simple Export Rate (SER) isn't shown as an option for me. Noticed the support page shows you need to activate SER, is there any extra fees/requirements to use it?

Same here. Just shipped to CA (maybe that doesn't count?) and didn't get that SER option.

there's a lot of qualifications (max length, size, weight, value - note: NOT LOCATION), that your package has to meet for the SER:

1687804178560.png

 
there's a lot of qualifications (max length, size, weight, value - note: NOT LOCATION), that your package has to meet for the SER:

View attachment 672277

I used the exact same shipping information from your post above but the option didn't show, I wanted to see if I'd get the same rates. 🤷‍♂️
 
eBay global shipping program is different from pirateship option. And eBay has been doing the global shipping program for longer than pirateship has even been in business. My company has been using it for many years. The seller doesn't even see a shipping cost. It is only shown to the buyer. I assume it is based on the dims and weight you put in to the item specifics.

It is great as a seller. We don't have to deal with figuring out international costs, paperwork for customs or anything like that. Just ship it to the eBay facility and they take care of the rest. The orders are processed the same as any domestic eBay order we get. They just ship to the eBay facility instead of some random address. I have shipped thousands of packages this way and honestly never had a single problem.

Since the seller can't even see the shipping cost it might be difficult to exploit for cheap shipping regularly. I would assume you could put it in at 1lb and 1x1x1 dim and have it shipped very cheap, but if you did it often eBay would likely catch on and put a stop to it. But what he say he did is very plausible. If you aren't fudging the numbers I am sure it can save you some good money. Also, like he says, no worries about customs and stuff.
 
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