If you do bid on things listed on co.uk or .com and check with a seller to make sure they will post to your country- make sure they lift the bidding restriction.

Tonight I missed out on a really nice figure , Friday I emailed the seller and got the all clear, in fact they were super nice + even quoted me the shipping price there and then.

I waited the last few days out, and tonight bid on the item with 2 minutes to go- got the message :

"This seller has set buyer requirements for this item and only sells to buyers who meet those requirements.

You are unable to bid on or buy this item because:

The seller doesn't ship to the location where your primary shipping address is located."

So apparently even if the seller agrees to ship - they may still have to tick/untick a box to allow you to bid (maybe even add you to the bidder list I don't know) just make sure it doesn't happen to you as it seems from the thread on RS that its a reasonably new problem.

http://threads.rebelscum.com/showflat.php?Cat=5&Number=4415727&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=93&fpart=1#4415727

Thats going to hurt alot of sellers with that set up. I was buying some good items from overseas and just bid on an item in Japan today. I didn't get that message yet. I wonder if its just certain areas that are doing that. And I wonder if thats going to affect sales on forums also, because 90% of those buying are from Europe.

It happened to me a few weeks ago EXACTLY as Joe described.

I contacted the seller on beforehand whether I was allowed to bid on his UK only auction. That was OK for him, and he also send me some detalied pics of the item on my request. The last minute however I could not bid and got the same error message. What a disappointment!!

Luckily there were no other bidders this time (or there were but they got the same problem ). The seller relisted the item (a MIB INT-4 BTW) a week later, and after I explained him he lifted the 'UK only restriction' which is the default setting apparently. This time there were more bidders. I won the auction, it just cost me a few bugs more compared to the week before.

So the way I'm reading this is if the seller has only in their area that they ship to, you ask if they ship to your area and they agree, then they need to change the setting to begin with when they list. Theres a whole world of collectors out there. I was wondering if it had something to do with these restrictions going on over here, the reason why I asked about selling and buying on forums. But that doesn't seem to be the case. It sounds like sellers forgetting to change their settings after agreeing to sell to someone out of their shipping area. I know I've seen several auctions up that had shipping to UK and Europe only I would love to have bid on but passed because of it.

This isn't a new problem. I have had this issue occur to me several times in the last year. I'm sure it happened to me a few times back in 2009. You need to doublecheck that it's working even after the seller it's ok to bid on the item. It has happened to me on a few occasions that even after the seller says he fixed it that it's still not possible to bid on the item. So don't wait until the last minute to try and snipe the item just to discover that's not possible to bid on the item.

Yes, it's definitely happened to me before, most recently 3 months ago or so. Luckily this time there were no bids & the seller relisted, & made it available to me. Most sellers are not even aware that buyer bid restrictions are in place. The buy in this case had answered my questions during the auction, & had even gone out of his way to give me a shipping quote.
I guess, if you're in doubt, bid early while it's still low, & then you know later you'll be ok for a snipe. Don't rely on asking the seller, or you may just end up with no item & an oops afterwards!

Joe... I can totally understand your frustrastion... I have lost a few LJ items over the year because of this. Top of the bunch has to be a MINT & SEALED Made in LJ Maceo baggie that went for a stupid price of only £15!

The only advice I would give is:

If it that important to you do a "test the water" bid as early as you can.

It doesn't have to be you maximum bid ... just enough to beat the current bid.

If there's an issue with your bid due to shipping restrictions at least you have plenty of time to contact the seller or get your amazing buddie across the seas to bid on your behalf.

I agree,

I use to bid on ebay.UK and many times there's restriction to foreign bidders. I always try to make the seller confortable enought checking my feedbacks to open his auctions to us but sometimes it doesn't work. I partially understand their will to not send their stuff overseas with all the payment and shipping problems.

My 2 cents.

Panastur.

Damn I´m pissed. Seller told me to change the settings, but forgot to do it....and I missed a nice PBP TIE-Pilot for 2,98 GBP.

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260705137995&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

It’s a common problem and has happened to me on numerous occasions

The problem is even if the seller agrees you can bid the way eBay settings work its highly likely your blocked and lets be fair many sellers does don’t have the technically savvies or time needed to be able to go back to fiddle with the settings to ensure you can I’ve done It once or twice and it can be a real pain in the ass.

I think the best way to tackle this is as a community helping each other out.

If anyone USA / European guys can’t bid on an eBay UK item them I will be happy to help out I have don’t this on a number of occasions to help guys on the forum and it worked smoothly. I also charge the exact postage cost to send from me to them and leave it in the buyers’ hands as to what level of postage to take.

It’s worth noting that if you opt for cheap bog standard postage then you absorb the risk associated with that not the guy helping you out. It’s the same when a USA guy helps me out by bidding for an item on ebay.com if I tell them to send it to me via standard shipping and declare it low value to avoid customs then it’s me not the guy helping me out who is taking that risk - Just points to consider.

Note people i have helped out always selected the cheapest method and all the items arrived safe and sound its just to highlight that if you makes this call then you accept the small risk it carries if its an expsensive item i.e 150$+ then its worth paying the little extra to know your covered imo - for items less than 100$ i would always go for the cheapest shipping.

I do find many sellers on ebay.com wont ship internationally and the same is for other eBay’s lets be fair though eBay/pp buyer protection is heavily weighted against the seller these days so I do understand why they won’t. If you have a low value MOC say 25gbp who is gonna want to pay 15gbp - 18gbp shipping because the seller needs to ensure they have the minimum tracking details in the event of a claim.

Even the sellers who list 2 types of postage i.e. basic international economy no tracking, and international with tracking and insurance leave themselves wide open to scammers. They think that as they have given the choice to the buyer the risk lays with them but with current PayPal buyer protection policy this isn’t the case as all the buyer needs to do is select the cheapest shipping as they are fully protected anyway! Known scammers now target listings on ebay where sellers sell items with postage options that dont included tracking!

On eBay tracking and insurance is for the SELLLERS Protection not the buyers!!!!

I definitely think that us working together and looking out for each regarding international bidding is the best way to ensure you dont miss much needed items

I agree with you Jay. I'm in for any international guys who want anything from here. I usually check the sellers listings and see if they have anything I'm interested in to save on the shipping. If I find anything, I just charge the shipping to send it on, not to have it shipped to me.