Why wont americans on ebay post items outside the US? -

i live in england and i recently went on ebay.com (the american site) as i was looking for items that were well sought after. to my surprise, not many sellers were willing to ship their items outside the US. why is that? i mean i m the one responsible for paying the postage cost, and it s also a plus for the seller as it means an increase in bids. any theories would be much appreciated, thank you!

It s not just the expense, as you are already aware. It s the hassle - forms to fill out for customs clearance, what happens if buyer doesn t pay the duty, postal and shipping regulations for an endless list of items, and more. Most individuals have no experience with international shipping, customs, etc, and the regulations are daunting for the inexperienced, time-consuming for everyone else.

because you have to physically go to the post office in person, stand in line, fill out customs paperwork, etc - Saturday is the only day of the week that most people can get to the post office and not everyone is home every Saturday to do that, so it might take 2-3 weeks to actually get it shipped - major pain in the @ss in generalcome 2011, post offices may be closed in the US due to the postal service losing billions, so it will be even harder to ship pkg overseas

1. Shipping to the UK is expensive.2. Shipping to the UK is slow.3. Ensuring that all of the seller protection rules have been followed is tedious.4. Too many out-of-country buyers have filed claims that either they never got the item or their credit card was stolen with the result being they got the item for free.