Buying From Ebay Germany From In The Uk

[domnortheast]

Hello, not sure if this is an appropriate area to ask about this so I apologise in advance if not.

 

I am in the UK and am considering buying some FPs from Germany's ebay. I've not bought internationally using ebay in other countries before so have no prior experience to go on and was wondering whether there are any others out there with more experience than I in this who might have thoughts to offer.

 

In particular I can see many of the sellers require payment by transfer. Having checked international transfers with my bank I can see the process appears pretty straightforward although there is a charge for the service which needs to be figured into the final cost of the item.

 

 

[The Blue Knight]

You wont have any additional charges the price quoted on amazon + shipping is the final price.

 

I'd recommend getting tracked shipping as last time I tried the item never turned up. I got my money back about a month latter however it was still a hassle and if it's any less then fiver or a tenner you are saving I'd either go with amazon UK or a UK seller to avoid any problems.

[Cob]

Hello, not sure if this is an appropriate area to ask about this so I apologise in advance if not.

 

I am in the UK and am considering buying some FPs from Germany's ebay. I've not bought internationally using ebay in other countries before so have no prior experience to go on and was wondering whether there are any others out there with more experience than I in this who might have thoughts to offer.

 

In particular I can see many of the sellers require payment by transfer. Having checked international transfers with my bank I can see the process appears pretty straightforward although there is a charge for the service which needs to be figured into the final cost of the item.

 

 

 

Coincidence! I have won a pen and am in the throes of dealing with this.

 

Previously I bought a pen from France, went to my bank and the pirates wanted £25 to make the transfer (about €60) Outrageous when we all know it's a few key strokes for some clerk.

 

I used Western Union that time which if memory serves, cost me about £8

 

Today I am going to try the service offered by Tesco for my latest German purchase. What a pain it all is.

 

When I lived in France, near Switzerland, I had a friend who had a Swiss bank account. She could go into Geneva, and at any ATM make a transfer at very little cost.

 

Why can't we have that facility here?

 

Cob

 

[dneal]

You don't have to use eBay with the ".de" extension. I find the German sellers on the U.S. ".com" extension just as easily (I'm American, but currently live in Germany).

 

Also, bank transfer is not unusual for Germans. Utility bills, speeding tickets, and even online purchases are commonly done through bank transfer. Charges are very modest, but they're not "international" transfers either... Credit cards and cheques are the anomaly for them, although PayPal is widely accepted online.

Edited January 18, 2015 by dneal

[domnortheast]

 

Coincidence! I have won a pen and am in the throes of dealing with this.

 

Previously I bought a pen from France, went to my bank and the pirates wanted £25 to make the transfer (about €60) Outrageous when we all know it's a few key strokes for some clerk.

 

I used Western Union that time which if memory serves, cost me about £8

 

Today I am going to try the service offered by Tesco for my latest German purchase. What a pain it all is.

 

When I lived in France, near Switzerland, I had a friend who had a Swiss bank account. She could go into Geneva, and at any ATM make a transfer at very little cost.

 

Why can't we have that facility here?

 

Cob

 

 

Ah, a coincidence indeed Cob. I had been wondering whether to get in touch with a German friend of mine and get the pens sent to them so they could forward them here. Yes, the banks are scamming it - £15 for SEPA transfer, £25! for a standard international transfer. Swines!

 

Be interested to hear how smoothly your German purchase goes and what the overall overhead was on the original purchase price.

Edited January 18, 2015 by domnortheast

[domnortheast]

You don't have to use eBay with the ".de" extension. I find the German sellers on the U.S. ".com" extension just as easily (I'm American, but currently live in Germany).

 

Also, bank transfer is not unusual for Germans. Utility bills, speeding tickets, and even online purchases are commonly done through bank transfer. Charges are very modest, but they're not "international" transfers either... Credit cards and cheques are the anomaly for them, although PayPal is widely accepted online.

Hi dneal,

 

Yes there are plenty of German sellers searchable via UK ebay but there appear to be much better prices buying direct from ebay.de (although how much better once transfer and shipping costs are factored in remains to be seen). As you say, looking at the sellers, bank transfer seems by far the most common method of payment (at least on the items i have been looking at).

[da vinci]

Personally, no matter how much positive due diligence has been done, I wouldnt want to pay for an ebay item other than through paypal backed by a credit card for the additional protections you get. Maybe I am just over cautious...

[fabri00]

Hello, not sure if this is an appropriate area to ask about this so I apologise in advance if not.

 

I am in the UK and am considering buying some FPs from Germany's ebay. I've not bought internationally using ebay in other countries before so have no prior experience to go on and was wondering whether there are any others out there with more experience than I in this who might have thoughts to offer.

 

In particular I can see many of the sellers require payment by transfer. Having checked international transfers with my bank I can see the process appears pretty straightforward although there is a charge for the service which needs to be figured into the final cost of the item.

 

 

Use Paypal.

Paypal was created for this purpose: to make easier and cheaper the transfer of small amount of money worldwide, for not professional purchases.

In the past years I have bought pens on ebay from really allmost all over the world, and all the sellers had Paypal in the payment options.

[dneal]

This made me curious, and I just spent a few minutes browsing ebay.de looking for sellers that didn't accept PayPal. I haven't found any so far.

[domnortheast]

This made me curious, and I just spent a few minutes browsing ebay.de looking for sellers that didn't accept PayPal. I haven't found any so far.

 

Hi dneal

Items like this:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Pelikan-Set-400er-Schildpatt-Braun-Fuller-14K-Feder-Bleistift-/191483912536?pt=B%C3%BCro_Papier_Schreiben&hash=item2c9554a158

[dneal]

Thanks.

[Cob]

 

Ah, a coincidence indeed Cob. I had been wondering whether to get in touch with a German friend of mine and get the pens sent to them so they could forward them here. Yes, the banks are scamming it - £15 for SEPA transfer, £25! for a standard international transfer. Swines!

 

Be interested to hear how smoothly your German purchase goes and what the overall overhead was on the original purchase price.

Well Tesco's no good unless you want to ask the seller to go somewhere to pick up his money, so it will be WU tomorrow,

 

They are pretty good and the money will be in the seller's bank by the end of the day.

 

Why we are still in the dark ages with all this I simply cannot understand.

 

Cob

[domnortheast]

Use Paypal.

Paypal was created for this purpose: to make easier and cheaper the transfer of small amount of money worldwide, for not professional purchases.

In the past years I have bought pens on ebay from really allmost all over the world, and all the sellers had Paypal in the payment options.

 

Hi fabri00

This is certainly true for sellers who have PayPal as an option. As far as the sellers in Germany I've been looking at, and following on from dneal's comments it seems that many prefer direct bank transfers, probably to avoid the PayPal charges.

[peterg]

My understanding is that it is an E-bay requirement that all sellers accept PayPal, which is an E-bay company. I had this problem with a Belgian seller who eventually accepted PayPal. If you don't use PayPal you don't get E-bays buyers cover.

 

You can always phone E-bay and ask.

 

Or get your friend to pay and have it sent to you. If he does that he will need to set you up as a delivery address first.

Edited January 18, 2015 by peterg

[Beechwood]

In my experience that cost of bank transfer is a major problem restricting the value of the deal to Paypal only.

 

The sellers in Germany are, in my experience, excellent and I have bought 20+ pens, only had a problem on when severe defects in the pen were not disclosed, as compared to 1 in 4 from UK or US sellers.

Edited January 18, 2015 by Beechwood

[Chrissy]

Hello, not sure if this is an appropriate area to ask about this so I apologise in advance if not.

 

I am in the UK and am considering buying some FPs from Germany's ebay. I've not bought internationally using ebay in other countries before so have no prior experience to go on and was wondering whether there are any others out there with more experience than I in this who might have thoughts to offer.

 

In particular I can see many of the sellers require payment by transfer. Having checked international transfers with my bank I can see the process appears pretty straightforward although there is a charge for the service which needs to be figured into the final cost of the item.

 

 

German ebay and German Amazon are two entirely different things. Never buy anything from ebay unless you can pay for it by PayPal or you are completely on your own with no protection. If you don't receive it, you have lost your money with no redress. If you receive a broken item, you have lost your money. Please don't do it.

 

Paying by banK transfer for anything that is outside the UK will cost you something in the region of £20 or £25 in bank fees. I would never, ever, do it. Whatever it is that you want, another one will come along that you can pay for by PayPal.

 

You can buy from German ebayers via ebay.com or ebay.co.uk. They have to offer you an online payment method, either PayPal or direct credit card. These are the sellers you should look at.

Edited January 18, 2015 by Chrissy

[domnortheast]

German ebay and German Amazon are two entirely different things. Never buy anything from ebay unless you can pay for it by PayPal or you are completely on your own with no ebay protection.

 

Paying by banK transfer for anything that is outside the UK will cost you something in the region of £20 or £25 in bank fees. I would never, ever, do it.

 

Hi Chrissy

Yes...er wasn't intending to buy anything from German Amazon...just trying to figure ebay.de.

 

I think, after several hours of intensive 'research' (i.e. staring at the screen with a continuous supply of coffee to hand), comparing prices and sellers between ebay uk & ebay de, trying to locate those sellers with good prices on ebay de on the uk site I am realising that many of those that seem to have good prices for what I am after are not advertising internationally or even within the EU but only within Germany and it is these that are specifying bank transfers as the preferred payment method.

 

Hi Beechwood

I was rather hoping that would be my experience also. Even factoring in bank charges the prices still seem to be better. I am specifically looking at nice condition fully functioning 1940s -1950s Pelikans -100 /n, 400 /n /nn.

 

Within a fairly broad range prices from sellers internationally in GBP seem to be upwards of £100 whereas I am seeing a lot of these pens located in Germany going for well under 100 GBP. I guess because they are in the country of origin then supply is much greater. With the GBP good and strong against the euro at present it would be nice to be able to take advantage of some of the prices.

Edited January 18, 2015 by domnortheast

[amk]

I've noticed some sellers within Europe prefer cheque or bank transfer within their own country but will take Paypal from foreign purchasers.

 

However, annoyingly, a very high percentage of German sellers don't ship internationally (or, possibly, ebay.de is set to a default domestic-only, I've asked a couple of sellers who both agreed to ship to the UK should I win the item).

[AnnieB123]

Personally, no matter how much positive due diligence has been done, I wouldnt want to pay for an ebay item other than through paypal backed by a credit card for the additional protections you get. Maybe I am just over cautious...

 

I agree. I've used ebay from all over the globe. Paypal ensures it goes smoothly (and you get your money back if you don't receive your goods or they're not as described). With paypal you can also use your credit card or a linked debit card without the vendor ever seeing your info.

[Cob]

I've noticed some sellers within Europe prefer cheque or bank transfer within their own country but will take Paypal from foreign purchasers.

 

However, annoyingly, a very high percentage of German sellers don't ship internationally (or, possibly, ebay.de is set to a default domestic-only, I've asked a couple of sellers who both agreed to ship to the UK should I win the item).

Me too.

 

As for payment, a friend directed me to Western Union on line and I am home and hosed! And the transaction cost me only a fiver.

 

Cob

Edited January 18, 2015 by Cob