No, it’s not pipes, but another fragile musical instrument. A trombone actually. I have just listed this item on Ebay and in only 2 days of a 7 day auction have had 3 bids, meeting my minimum, and have about 20 watchers. I anticipate a lot of bidding on this true vintage collectible.
I have just received requests for shipping charge estimates from Japan and Germany,( I’m in the U.S.) Previously I have limited my auctions to the U.S. because it seemed like a risk and a hassle to send a fragile, oversize, valuable musical insrtument ,(like our pipes), overseas when I didn’t have to due to plenty of interest domestically.
Any thoughts? Should I bother to allow overseas bidders? Is it a risk and hassle as I imagine?
Thanks for your comments, Dave.
Its kinda up to you. But I ebay all the time and only have problems when I ship overseas. Mostly because you cannot track it, unless you use UPS which is very expensive overseas.. Cheers
Buyer pays shipping and customs duties, so what’s the difference to you where it goes? More bidders means higher bids. I’d figure out shipping and plug it into the USPS.COM web site and tell them the figures. It might not make sense for them to bid but why not let the buyer decide.
Both are good points. I’m thinking that the strength of a foreign currency against the dollar might be the added incentive for the bidder, ofsetting the increased shipping charges.
I would only ship it to foreign countries if it was trackable. All carriers track air shipments. USPS surface is not trackable. You should insure it for the full amount.
I’ve had most of my problems with international shipping, but it’s always been a matter of the tracking not working (going both ways across the pond) and never been a case of something going missing alltogether. Be sure you let the buyer know ahead of time that the international shipping (even air-mail which may take only a few days to get to the country) can take a long time due to customs and that they may need to be patient.
Best,
Dionys
Hi,
some experience from the other side of the pond: I bought a few (UP) items via ebay U. S. and never had any trouble. This is not very representative, though, but I asked quite a few other people who also did so and they never had any problems as well or heard about any. I think I can say that shipping overseas (to Europe) is just as safe as shipping within the U. S. (though the chances for a parcel might be somewhat higher in a plane-crash over land 
I know for sure that DHL and FedEx offer trackings (find out about other companies yourself).
I have no experience with ivory. Does someone have that by chance? (I mean shipping from U. S. to Europe)
To avoid the customns-robbery I tended to not insure items (cause these buggers take the value of items from the insured amount) - no problems.
Best,
Hans