Welcome to this edition of Adam Ginsberg's "Insiders" Newsletter. Each issue is designed to provide you with insights, tips, secrets and overall strategies on how you can build your online auctions business. I'm sure you love this issue! This week will help you determine if you want to incorporate International Selling on eBay.

International Selling on eBay

eBay is a global marketplace. With 167+ million eBay members in more than 150 countries – you can dramatically increase your sales results by selling internationally. Consider this basic point: even if an international bidder doesn’t end up winning the auction – the more bidders you have, the higher the final selling price of your item.

Some items such as those that are large, heavy and difficult to ship such as cars don’t lend themselves to international listings. With that said, there are many things to consider when selling internationally. These include:

• What will the extra shipping expenses be?
• How you’ll communicate with buyers?
• Once the sale is made, how you’ll get paid?
• Now that the item is shipped, how you’ll deal with shipping, customs and duties issues

In this newsletter we’ll address these questions. Once you’ve reviewed all the internationally selling considerations you can make the determination if it’s best to list your item for sale on eBay sites throughout the world.

Language Barriers – Communicating in an International Marketplace

One of the first considerations when selling internationally is communicating with your potential buyer. Their English might be hard to understand, and your ability to speak Spanish, Italian or Dutch – just to name a few possibilities – might be nonexistent in a transaction already made more complex by customs, tariffs, and other restrictions.

The result? More misunderstandings and, possibly negative feedback for you.

Tip: When you’re communicating with a buyer whose native language isn’t English, try not to use slang or abbreviations. Avoid words the reader can’t look up in a dictionary.

If you’ve received an email in a language you don’t understand, visit AltaVista’s free translator, Babel Fish, at http://www.babelfish.altavista.com. You can copy and paste in the text of the email and get a rough translation. The translator is far from perfect, but Babel Fish should give you a gist of what your buyer wants to tell you. Similarly, if you want to communicate in the buyer’s language, you can type your message in English into the “Translate a block of text” text box, and then have Babel Fish translate it into the language you want. Currently Babel Fish can translate between English and the following languages: Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Accepting Payment From International Buyers

As you prepare to sell internationally, consider how you’ll get paid once the sale has been made. You’ll need to include these payment options in your initial listing.

• In regards to currency conversion, you can let the buyer worry about it. In the “Shipping, payment details, and return policy” section of your auction page, spell out that you accept payment only in your local currency. Buyers will have to pay any conversion fee – as long as you disclose this in advance.

Tip: If you’re going to sell Internationally, you want to avoid accepting a personal check as it can take several weeks if not longer for the check to clear.

• Accept PayPal. This is the best way to accept international payments. With over 100 million PayPal members worldwide, PayPal is considered the easiest, simplest and safest way to pay on eBay. Buyers can pay using euros, yen, British pounds, or Canadian, Australian, or U.S. dollars. You receive the payment in the currency of your choice. Better yet, there’s no currency charge for currency exchange when you withdraw your funds to your local bank.

Tip: Be aware that PayPal Seller’s Protection Policies don’t cover most international sales.

International Shipping

Worldwide shipping is about more than just calculating rates. You need to know what you can’t ship out of your country an dhow to fill out a customs declaration, how to get your item to its destination in a reasonable amout of time, and how to prove you’ve shipped.

While there are items that are prohibited from selling on eBay, be aware that some items are illegal to send to other countries. For example, you can’t send beef jerky to the U.K. or a baby walker to Canada.

After you’ve made an international sale, you have to fill out a customs form before you can ship the item, listing the package’s contents and declaring the value of those contents. You can get customs forms online at http://www.usps.com. If you use UPS, you need to include three copies of your invoice and the shipper’s shipping document with your customs form.

When your package gets to its destination country, customs officers will review the form, check your package’s contents, and – with luck – send the package on its way. Sometimes, however, the Customs Office will hold on to the package for a while. If a customs duty is due, the buyer may have to make a trip to the customs office to pay the duty and pick up the package.

Note: some international buyers will ask you to declare that the item is a “gift not for resale” or include a “$20 value”. They’ll do this so that they can save on customs duties. This is a bad idea. Not only is lying on a customs form against the law, you can’t claim insurance on the full amount if the package is lost or damaged. To avoid being put in a sticky situation by an insistent buyer, state clearly in your terms of sale that international buyers are responsible for all taxes and duties associated with the purchase. Then fill out the customs form to reflect the actual price of the item. Don’t include shipping and handling in the price you specify; that buyer shouldn’t have to pay tax on those.

Is it safe to sell outside the U.S.? Of course. Is it worth the extra work? That depends on the product you’re selling. As you make your decision, keep in mind that 50% of eBay’s community is located outside the U.S.

Until the next issue...

Knowing No Boundaries

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