eBay attracts millions of visitors a day. Many of these eBay browsers are located outside of the United States. While many eBay sellers are leery to sell to international buyers, there are methods for eBay sellers to protect themselves.
For starters we need to understand why overseas buyers would visit the USA site for eBay. After all, there are now many international eBay sites that cater towards these overseas buyers.
The reason that you will see many overseas buyers visiting the USA eBay site is because they are often interested in American produced products.
American products have a great reputation for high quality around the world. There is also more trust in the brands being genuine when they are sold in the United States, as compared to in other countries.
For these reasons you will see many overseas buyers purchasing collectibles, electronics, and brand name clothing on eBay.
But the issue is how to protect yourself from fraudulent international buyers.
In the course of running my online business,
www.closeoutexplosion.com I deal with many overseas buyers. One of the first steps I recommend is speaking to them.
While speaking to someone does not guarantee anything, it can help you develop a gut feeling of the type of buyer you are dealing with. If you suspect something from the initial conversation you might want to consider not dealing with him.
If you do decide to sell to him you need to decide on how to accept payment.
Here is what I would not do:
Don’t accept credit card or Pay Pal payments from international buyers. Your protection and recourse are very limited, and sometimes not even existent.
Accepting checks can also be tricky. I have heard of instances where it took a bank up to two weeks to tell their customer that a check was not good. Often the checks are not real, and the receiving bank only discovers it after it conducts a full investigation. By that time you might have sent out the check assuming it was good.
International money orders can pose a similar problem. If you are going to accept an international money order make sure it is issued by American Express or a governmental agency.
The best form or payment is a wire transfer. Once the funds clear into your account they cannot be revoked. Always set up a separate account to accept wire transfers to. You don’t want to give your account information to someone who will use it to fabricate checks.
Once the funds clear move them to another account, this way your funds are protected from fraud.
The international market represents a lucrative customer base. Approach it correctly and your eBay business can gain immensely from it.
Donny Lowy runs
http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business.
