eBay Question
 

I have a bike on auction right now on eBay and I have stipulated in the description that I will ship only to continental US. I have been getting a lot of interest in the bike and I received a question from a person in Japan asking me to allow him to bid. He indicated he would immediately pay with PayPal at the end of the auction. He is a somewhat active eBayer since August 2006 with very good feedback (99.3%, 2 negatives in last 12 months) on 181 transactions, but his feedback detail is private and can't be seen. What are the risks selling to foreign countries, and how complicated would that make the packing and shipping? How expensive would the shipping and packing be? I have no experience with this. I didn't want to do foreign countries, but if it will increase the price, I think I might consider it. Another question, if I allowed him to bid, do I need to announce in my description that foreigners are welcome because, if he wins, could someone protest on the grounds I said continental US only. Maybe I just need to keep it simple and stick with my original plan. Thanks for your help and comments!

Shipping a bike to another country is big bucks, but some Japanese bike freaks seem to have bottomless pockets. You should be able to get an estimate at the various shipping company sites using their shipping cost calculators. Make sure you overestimate a little bit on size & weight.

As for the Ebay rules, you might want to post the question on the Ebay Community forums since those guys deal with this all day long.

If there are already bids on your auction then you might not be able to change it for international bidding. If that is the case then you may want to pull the auction and relist it, edited of course for international bids.

A local bike shop (LBS) should be able to package the bike for shipment for a fee. If you go that route be sure to include that cost in any shipping pricing you figure.

do it and let him know. He went as far as to e-mail, let him have a go at it. When I have really wanted stuff from the UK I say "whatever the shipping costs". They let me in.

Shipping overseas will cost bucks but if the guy is willing then go for it. It might be a good idea to get the estimated shipping cost and then bounce it off this guy to see if he's ok with it. Just be crystal clear with the person that he pays full shipping. Also make him aware of the time to receive the shipment. If it goes by boat it will take weeks to get there. Also customs could hold it up. Get a tracking number.

With regards to opening the auction up I would not worry about it. The only issue you could have is some person from Nigeria or some other foreign country mess with your auction. I've had this happen on a few occasions especially when selling electronics. Nigeria for some reason is the home of many eBay scammers.