If you wanted to go to another eBay site (notice the dot de or dot fr instead of dot com) and you don't have to (just stay on dot com and click the Worldwide option in the Location choices on the left of the screen (after you search for something but then it will stay). Then you know they have agreed to ship worldwide as if they hadn't they wouldn't come up in a search.
Going to other sites shows you other stuff but it is not always shipped to the US or elsewhere except their own country or region.
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But I don't know how I would bid on it....
When an auction is in a certain currency (whether it is US dollars (USD) or Euros (EUR) or Great Britain Pounds (GBP) or whatever, then you bid in that currency and pay in that currency.
You pay PayPal your own currency (USD for you) and they, for a fee of 2.5% of the total amount, exchange it into whatever currency you need to pay in, This is automatically done by PayPal (or your credit card at a higher rate usually) if you decide to call over to who knows where and talk to them and buy their stuff over the phone. Or the Post Office (charges even more for a money order), or a bank.
If the seller's largest market is in the US (or they decide they want to try to sell there) then and only then would they decide to list on dot com in USD and sell in USD and let the buyers (you) pay in their own currency (USD).
It's like they are giving you a 2.5% discount. They have to deal with the exchange into their own currency when they transfer their money from their USD account in PayPal to their own bank, not you.
But, if they have a large enough market in Europe (they think) then they list on a site there in Euros and get paid in Euros and take that to their bank.
People who really want to sell to the English speaking world will have all or part of their listing in English.
I just found it fun to go searching and hunting and learn a few words here and there in a foreign language and see what kind of stuff is out there. Not everybody knows English and I don't know too much of other languages but the universal language is money.
I see something I like, I use a translator online to figure out if it is what I think it is for sure, then I bid, I win (hopefully), and I pay.
Through all of that I don't really have to do any figuring at all. PayPal does it all for me. I get an invoice saying I owe this much and when I pay it it tells me what I am paying, at that exact time, in my own currency.
Just imagine that each state in the US had their own currency. So if you wanted to buy an item from California, for example, you would have to pay in California golden Pesos. They won't take Idahoan potato dollites or Nova Scotian Fishes or anything else. Same thing. Why should you limit you purchases to your own state when there are good things to buy from somewhere else?
For shipping from elsewhere in the world, shipping is mostly arranged in three tiers. Local, between close countries and international or further away. You would be the further away one, if they have that. Wherever your eBay says 'Seller Ships Worldwide' then they would have something similar on their eBay.
eBay is arranged to be similar enough (but just a little different) all around the world. They've spent a lot of money making it look good and be easy to use.
But, even if you decide to stay home you can improve your searching and finding of stuff to bid on. Use different words or combinations of words. If you had something to list and sell what would you call it and why? Try that.
A lot of times foreign stuff is right there, but because each eBay uses slightly different category names worldwide (they should be all the same I think) you won't find stuff in your regular category or by your regular words. That's all.
Posted 12/09/2011 07:42 am
