Classic & Vintage - Not shipping to Italy?

I have noticed a lot of Ebay sellers that will not ship to Italy. Anyone care to share the reasons or any horror stories?

Apparently the Italian post is good at losing stuff to such a high degree that many won't risk it.

Made the mistake of going into a Post office to get postcard stamps in Rome. 30 minutes, three lines, and incorrect change later, we were on our way.

Don't know about Italy, but I shipped a pair of shoes to Spain a while back (some might recall my thread about it). The buyer wanted the cheapest shipping available, which I complied with; unfortunately that didn't include tracking. Buyer says the package never arrived. I suppose that's believable, but it's also conceivable that I was played. Paypal of course sided with the buyer. So wherever you ship, I'd insist on using tracking. I'm not a big seller, but when I do list something now I just say no international shipping.

They have a very large rate of "loss". It's best to insist on the customer using Prioity mail with tracking if sending to Italy. Or you have a good chance of getting a Paypal chargeback with no recourse. I've been sending rare records all over the world for thirty years, and Italy was never a big problem up until about 3-4 years ago. But it is a real problem, not just an ebay induced bandwagon to jump on.

They have a very large rate of "loss". It's best to insist on the customer using Prioity mail with tracking if sending to Italy. Or you have a good chance of getting a Paypal chargeback with no recourse. I've been sending rare records all over the world for thirty years, and Italy was never a big problem up until about 3-4 years ago. But it is a real problem, not just an ebay induced bandwagon to jump on.


Thanks for the info. I have been selling on Ebay for a while now but someone in Italy is bidding on a set of pedals I have, But I always ship USPS. As long as I dont ship in a small flat rate I should be fine I hope.

Made the mistake of going into a Post office to get postcard stamps in Rome. 30 minutes, three lines, and incorrect change later, we were on our way.


I had a similar experience in Milano. Italian Post is a joke. I even went so far as to make the mistake of asking about shipping a case of Vino home. Answer: carry it in your luggage

Thanks for the info. I have been selling on Ebay for a while now but someone in Italy is bidding on a set of pedals I have, But I always ship USPS. As long as I dont ship in a small flat rate I should be fine I hope.

Wrong, has to go priority mail to get tracking. If you just send it first class mail, no tracking = can get scammed.

I usually just tell potential international bidders what priority mail will cost them. Only once did the person then bid.

I guess if you sell enough internationally on ebay, you can go ahead and "self insure", figuring 5% to 10% of the time, you will be SOL.

Go to the ebay forums and search for shipping to Italy. You will find countless postings on problems with shipments to Italy. The choice is yours.

I have noticed a lot of Ebay sellers that will not ship to Italy. Anyone care to share the reasons or any horror stories?

My cousin was married to a guy who
worked in the Italian postal system.

I spent about a year in Naples back
in '69-'70. "High rate of loss" if you
have not deduced already, is a
euphemism for a lot of guys who
work in the postal system steal stuff.

Every Italian I ever met loved bikes.

I believe you get where this is going.:D

Mmm. interesting , I don't remember shipping to Italy but I think I'll put this country on my list of destinations I don't ship to . I guess the fact that I mostly sell Campy stuff at relatively high prices keeps Italians away since they are likely to find cheaper parts in their country.

Sorry I should have specified USPS priority. I use the ebay shipping calculator plus I have a higher handling fee on international shipments. I wish I could just sell inside the US but people ride bikes everywhere.

Wrong, has to go priority mail to get tracking. If you just send it first class mail, no tracking = can get scammed.

I usually just tell potential international bidders what priority mail will cost them. Only once did the person then bid.

I guess if you sell enough internationally on ebay, you can go ahead and "self insure", figuring 5% to 10% of the time, you will be SOL.

Go to the ebay forums and search for shipping to Italy. You will find countless postings on problems with shipments to Italy. The choice is yours.

I've never shipped to Italy (not out of caution, just that no-one from Italy has ever won one of my auctions) but I always use priority mail to send overseas. The Japanese and Australians who buy my stuff don't seem to have a problem with it.

I use registered mail for any international shipment, no exceptions. About $11 extra. If the buyer doesn't pay, no skin off of me, I'd just tell ebay the buyer never paid. But they have all paid to date.

Mmm. interesting , I don't remember shipping to Italy but I think I'll put this country on my list of destinations I don't ship to . I guess the fact that I mostly sell Campy stuff at relatively high prices keeps Italians away since they are likely to find cheaper parts in their country.

You sell Campy stuff at relatively high prices !? Hey ..I'm your man. And I don't live anywhere near Italy :)

I ship things regularly to Italy and have never seen anything ever go lost. HOWEVER!!!! I ship almost exclusively to destinations in Northern Italy. This makes a huge difference. Anything South of Bologna and you risk losses. Another thing is that Italy has begun applying a zero tolerance rule for evasion of taxes and duties. If you write "gift" on the package, you can almost be assured that the customs officials will hold up your package and collect duty and VAT from the buyer, whereas if you complete the customs documents electronically on the USPS website and represent the contents properly and indicate realistic prices, the packages will generally sail through customs and often the receipient will be spared the customs and VAT. By completing the custom documents online, the info is sent ahead of time to Italy and the package can then be speeded through the whole import process. I have gotten into the habit of indicating the description in Italian as well as the harmonized duty code to further help

I used to do a lot of eBay, but not lately. I can say that after shipping 30 items to Italy, and only one arriving, I removed Italy from the list of places I shipped. I stopped selling on eBay in Feb. 08. I was shipping small items, mostly fishing tackle. Out of 30, two got returned as 'refused', one was delivered properly after 28 days via Express Mail, and the rest dissappeared forever. My policy was no guarantee on foreign shipping, once I had it postmarked, it was on the customer, when eBay stopped allowing that policy, no more overseas shipping. I was not going to be responsible for something I can't control. I had one guy complain and complain after only a week, he had instisted on the cheapest rate, spoke and typed very little English, and the item was sent slow boat as he insisted on to save what turned out to be $.40 or so. I offered to ship faster with tracking but he insisted on the slowest shipping. In hind sight, I think he just wanted to be sure there was no tracking. Back then the only way to track a foreign item was through Global Express Mail, and at that it wasn't a guarantee.

USPS Priority tracking is a joke. The best, most secure way in my opinion, is signature required, fully insured shipping with FedEx.

USPS Priority tracking is a joke. The best, most secure way in my opinion, is signature required, fully insured shipping with FedEx.

That is only reasonable if you have a FedEx account with a very good discount, economy shipping is cheap domestically, not too bad to Canada, once you get outside of those two countries it's typically Air only and gets real expensive, real fast.

USPS Priority tracking is a joke. The best, most secure way in my opinion, is signature required, fully insured shipping with FedEx.

Registered mail, which also requires a signature, tends to be less expensive than FedEx.

That said, as a seller, you can require FedEx, USPS, DHL or whoever you want. If it is clearly stated in the auction, the buyer can suck it.

And as a buyer of auctions that tend to mostly be in Italy and France, I ALWAYS insist on paying for registered mail. With dozens, maybe over a 100 packages sent registered mail, I have NEVER lost a package. I have lost 2 of 6 packages sent regular mail.