Foreign Bidders

[oneshot onekill]

OK... Nothing against the guys from countries other than the U.S. here on NMB, because I've had nothing but great experiences... but what goes with Ebay! I've listed the same WWII sword twice now and I'm running into a recurring problem. These guys from other countries are winning auctions in which I had plainly stated: "No Foreign Bidders"! The first guy was from Taiwan and his ebay name is "tanto-katana2008" (just so you'll all know to block him). He won the auction and then stopped emailing or responding to my emails... Never paid! The second winner just won it last night so I'll at least give him a chance to email me and pay for it before I get too upset. He's from Belgium. I did have one bidder from France at least ask if it was OK to bid.

There's no way of knowing where a bidder is from until the end of the auction when a "ship-to" address gets emailed to you. What do you do? I guess I'm just venting here but it's pretty frustrating. Anybody else had this problem? Is there a "fix"... besides not using ebay? Thanks in advance!

 

John

[ottou812]

You can select what regions you will ship to and it will prevent bidders from outside your selected region from bidding. You must select something other than "Will ship worldwide".

[Stephen]

and i ship overseas for sellers who do not want to. you did right with the tantoguy

[Pete Klein]

Be aware that Ebay does not 'Block' bidders unless you have a specific bidder you have registered. You can choose where to ship to or not but that does not block people from bidding. It only marks the page and prevents them from getting shipping quotes. About the only thing you can do is cancel the sale and move down to the next bidder. If there is a problem with the sale fee then contact Ebay resolutions and explain the issue. If you have specifically stated you do not sell etc. then there should not be an issue. Sometimes it's just a lack of language knowledge on the part of the buyer but sometimes it's somebody just trying to force your hand and being a jerk. Just part of the price of selling unfortunately.

[Grey Doffin]

Hi John,

Why would you want to prevent 95% of the people on earth from bidding on your sales? I sell on ebay and better than half my buyers live outside the US, and they are no more likely than US buyers to cause trouble. Shipping is always priority mail so the post office gives me the boxes. I spend an extra minute or 3 filling out a customs form and paypal nicks me an extra 1% for their fee; otherwise there's no difference from selling to the US only.

That said, if you want to sell something I'd like to buy be sure to limit your sale to US only; I don't want competition from other bidders. (Does ebay let you limit bidders to West 4th St. in Duluth, MN only?)

Grey

[oneshot onekill]

Well Happy Days! The guy from Belgium just paid me! His sword is shipping tomorrow! But to answer your question Grey... I'm just not comfortable with the Customs paperwork and the laws regarding what you can and can't ship to foreign countries. I end up having to do the research after the sale which postpones shipping. Besides, tanto-katana2008 put a bad taste in my mouth about it. Anyway, all is well! Thanks for the input guys!

[Pete Klein]

I can understand where shipping swords to foreign countries can be a bit harrowing. If confiscated or even impounded you're in a real pickle. As for other items I can say most of my sales (few that they are) go to collector's outside of the USA and I have to agree with Grey -- it's always a pleasure and it's also a lot of fun having the chance to communicate with people from all over the world. It's sort of funny -- I can remember as a child watching my parents make a 'trunk call' from Chicago to New York which took about half an hour just to arrange the connection. Today this post will go all over the world when I press 'enter'. Pretty profound actually.

 

OK -- OK -- I'm old enough to get away with the above so all of you whipper-snappers settle down or I'll drag (bad pun) out old Sr. Mary Bernard to warn you! LOL!!!

[Weidas]

Hello everyone, i'm from "the other side" - Buyer from small country in Europe

 

i never sold on e-bay and i don't know what measures Seller can take in order to ban bidder he does not like or what information about bidder is available to him. But i'm sure about few things:

- you can find jerks everywhere - within or outside US, of course, if you limit your sales area, you limit quantity of jerks:), but.. as it was written before, you limit number of your potential buyers as well.

- i constantly logged in e-bay and i noted that items, sold only within US, gets lower prices than relatively the same items, sold worldwide.

- regarding customs.. well, i guess its worth spending some time to get used to customs regulations and i see no way how the seller can be responsible if the items gets confiscated in the buyers country if shipping method was agreed in advance and, especially if seller states in description that he is no way responsible for any procedures in Buyers country - customs, license and etc.

 

all types of business have kind of risk level, so you just to have to understand it if you are running it:)

[IanB]

Gentlemen, Please allow me to make a plea on behalf of we poor creatures in the UK. Since that *** on-line auction house decreed that all buyers in the UK were crazed knife or sword wielding psychopaths, we are banned from bidding on any items with sharp edges. If I try and place a bid on anything other than tableware, the bid is refused and up pops a message to remind me that I'm a potential criminal. This is triggered not by the item description, which appears to be used as the basis of searches, but on the categories selected by the seller. If someone lists a tsuba in the 'Japan, sword' category, we are not allowed to bid (presumably on the basis that we would throw them at people because we didn't have anything sharp to cut them with). Quite a few dealers have now realised this and are categorising their swords and fittings as 'Japan, other' or something similar. On these items we can bid without any problem. I quite accept that some will not want to sell abroad, that is your prerogative, but if you do want a larger market for your items, please do not use any category such as 'sword, knife, katana, 'etc. We can then take part like everyone else.

Ian Bottomley

[Klop]

Ian,

 

That's good info. I did know about the new rules in the UK (and I thought Monty Python was absurd...) but not about the bidding-filter on Ebay.

 

I'll keep that in mind when I sell something on ebay next time. As I live in the Netherlands shipping to the UK shouldn't be a problem because it's all EU, no customs check on content?

 

To all; Shipping swords and the like to the Netherlands is not a problem, adults are free to import them, collect them etc, only not carry them openly in public space (" Well officer, I just thought I'd take my naginata for a stroll in the park today, is that so strange?")

Firearms is another story but that's not for this forum.

 

Items from outside the EU are subject to import taxes, and then antiques >100 years have a special cheap rate of 6% instead of the normal 19,5% on consumption articles. That's something for the shipping label.

 

But please don't punish all serious and innocent buyers from abroad because some people sabotage auctions. Let potential buyers contact you and check out their feedback, that's one of the good things about ebay.

 

Greetings,

Eric.

[IanB]

Eric, There is absolutely no legal restriction on importing antique swords, knives or anything else. It is true that HM Revenue and Customs will ensure to their satisfaction that the object is antique, but that is not at all a problem these days now they have become familiar with the law. No, my objection is that the famous (or should it be infamous) on-line auction has decided unilaterally to prohibit we collectors in the UK as to what we can and cannot buy through their auctions.

Ian

[David Flynn]

In Australia, one of our states, Victoria has enacted a similar law to the English. I was wondering if one of our Southern Brothers(Victorians) have any problem importing Nihonto? I know they are not prohibited by Australian Customs, so who checks the imports?

[ironron]

I allways click on on the bid, usualy they are given a code if it is a private auction. that opens up the list of bidders, ...then you can click on each bidder & see where they are from.

 

Hope this helps.

[Thekirsh]

David,

I,m in Victoria and have had lots of swords from overseas( mainly the USA )

I have never had a problem, apart from GST

My understanding is that as a registered collector or member of certain knife clubs, I am entitled to own and import swords.

The only restriction one needs to look out for is bring in a moroha zukuri etc as double edge weapons( daggers) are banned out right.

 

Simon

[Bazza]

David,

I,m in Victoria and have had lots of swords from overseas( mainly the USA )

I have never had a problem, apart from GST

My understanding is that as a registered collector or member of certain knife clubs, I am entitled to own and import swords.

The only restriction one needs to look out for is bring in a moroha zukuri etc as double edge weapons( daggers) are banned out right.

 

Simon

As a Victorian (Australia) I would be very keen to know if this "double-edged dagger" prohibition fantasy of Governments exists elsewhere in the notionally "free" world. Let's face it, for what the criminally-minded in the world today do on our streets, a double-edged tanto is, in reality, little more dangerous than a similarly proportioned kitchen knife or even a screwdriver - I believe Russia once had a blunt screwdriver-pointed bayonet to better punch through winter clothing!! I think here in Australia this "double-edged dagger" matter would be a very good thesis subject, because I have a niggling feeling it originates in an attempt to curb the stiletto-carrying tendencies of certain ethnic groups migrating to Australia at some point in time.

 

Regards,

BaZZa.

[David Flynn]

At the Sydney shinsa last march, we had the pleasure of Bob Benson and his collection of Tanto. However, Bob stated on the customs entry doc. "Daggers" and was told they would be confiscated. Adrian Schlemmer, sprang to the fore and Battled with customs for some hours. Finally, he persuaded them(customs) that the afore mentioned daggers, were in fact antique Tanto and so classed as Nihonto etc. Apparently, it was borderline for a while, whether they would allow them in. Finally common sense prevailed.

[Nautilus]

More anecdotal mumblings here on eBay.

 

I recently came across a nice gendaito which needed to be added to my small assembly of Sato Yukihira blades. The sale address was in Japan and my home address is in Japan. All well and good. The seller even stated in the auction that - due to eBay regulations - he could not ship to the UK/Eire.

 

However, because I opened my eBay account years ago on eBay.co.uk (there being no real eBay.co.jp even now) it still brought up the block.

 

On contacting eBay, the customer service rep agreed that A: I was not likely to be a hommicidal chav; B: legally able to carry/post this item anyway, as it was an antique and therefore covered by the specific defence given to antiques in the recent weapon ban; and C: living in Japan which should have dropped the eBay bar.

 

Yet, she also stated that this was an automatic ban and 'surely it was better to risk upsetting a small minority of patrons to protect people from harm'.....

 

I could do more damage with a hover mower, a carving knife or a bucket of fish - all of which I can legally buy.

 

Thankfully, the seller was aware of this whole narf-up and made arrangements for me - though adding that he had fallen foul of this before, and almost been banned by eBay for simply listing blades.

[ironron]

I allso complained to ebay about this, as i get blocked from bidding on any type of blade.

Stupid regulations made on the hoof to please the minority. :x

[Jean]

e-bay - world war II - I am also blocked by their policy, though being In France with no restriction -

[ironron]

HI, Jean. i didnt think it affected anybody outside the uk".

Looks as though we are heading for a blanket ban, I wonder if affects diplomates.traveling from different countries.?

[pcfarrar]

HI, Jean. i didnt think it affected anybody outside the uk".

 

It doesn't really effect the UK that much as all the smart sellers are listing swords outside of the sword categories so people in the UK can bid.

[ironron]

HI, Jean. i didnt think it affected anybody outside the uk".

 

It doesn't really effect the UK that much as all the smart sellers are listing swords outside of the sword categories so people in the UK can bid.

 

 

You still have to get it through customs though, Or am i missing something

[ironron]

Has anybody got a link to to any uk sellers on ebay , auction only.

[yaklord]

I sell on eBay and I sell to everywhere. If you are in the UK or your eBay account is blocking you, simply contact the seller and ask to buy via Paypal only. eBay technically says this is not allowed but eBay owns Paypal so they still get paid either way and do not really check or care. Of course you should really check the seller`s feedback before you try this, but you more likely have already if you are going to buy an expensive sword. Also, you still get the protection that Paypal gives you.

 

I have also had many Aussie customers and there has never been any problem with customs. I have never shipped a double edged blade to Aus. though so maybe that is why.

 

For France, it is very important that a very well written and clear invoice be included with the sword. This seems to be true with most of Europe. The invoice needs to clearly state the age of the sword to prove its age. This is mostly for custom taxes. In many European countries, such as Germany, the import tax is greatly reduced if the item is an antique. I`ve been told it drops from 16% to 6% in Germany!

[pcfarrar]

You still have to get it through customs though, Or am i missing something

 

Getting swords through UK customs is still pretty easy. The ban only effects repro and fake trash.

[Nautilus]

I sell on eBay and I sell to everywhere!

 

And know your stuff.

 

Hello Glenn. Thanks again for your assistance on the Sato blade. Mito-san has already sent me a mail describing the blade as a lovely little example of the middle 20th century - though refuses to mail me more photos.

 

I suppose eBay has to change somewhere down the line, if enough polite but firm chaps remind them of the actual terms of the (UK in this case) law - as all they are doing is encouraging both buyers and sellers to operate outside of the safety and security of the marketplace.

 

Back to Victorian values eh?

 

Darren.

[Brian]

I suppose eBay has to change somewhere down the line, if enough polite but firm chaps remind them of the actual terms of the (UK in this case) law - as all they are doing is encouraging both buyers and sellers to operate outside of the safety and security of the marketplace.

No they don't..and won't. They will get worse and worse, and likely extend the ban.

They don't care, it is a fraction of 1% of their revenue, and less than a lawsuit would cost them. Don't for a second think they care in the slightest. eBay and Paypal gave away millions of $'s when they stopped any and all firearms related items and spares. Doesn't worry them.

 

Brian

[drbvac]

I have bought several swords from Japan and was looking at a little Kanefusa tanto last week. When I contacted the seller, he said he didnt know if he could ship to Canada and I said I checked with Canadian customs and there was no restrictions on swords of any kind. Good thing I was outbid by 10 bucks I guess because he wrote me today to say

 

Thanks to contact us.

Products shipment yesterday was denied by the airlines based in Canada.

Unfortunately, in Canada not to send a sword.

Please bid on items other than swords.

 

So it is as much a problem with EMS and Air carriers as with customs - I guess I will have to buy nihonto at Walmart.

[yaklord]

Products shipment yesterday was denied by the airlines based in Canada.

 

I have recently heard of some issue with the airline that is used by Japan Post for EMS shipments to Canada. I think it is either ANA or JAL. From what I remember reading, the problem was because there was no direct flight to Canada from Japan. The issue was purely with the airline and not with Canadian laws.

[David Flynn]

I was told there was not more EMS of swords from Japan. Whilst in Japan in Nov. I purchased a sword. I recieved it in Dec. Via EMS