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That echoes my position exactly! I can't tell you
how many overseas buyers have insisted that I both insure the package for
full value and declare it at no more than $20.00 value on the Customs
form. I have to tell them that they can't have it both
ways.
I fully understand a customer who's paying $50.00 or more wanting
the added protection of insurance, but how the heck does he think that insurance
is going to do him any good if the package is valued at 20 bucks? Any
insurance claim he makes, in that case, will be honoured at a maximum
of $20.00 no matter how much insurance was taken out against the
package.
I feel sorry for those Canadian and European residents whose governments
hold these exorbitant import fees over their heads - but it's not my doing and,
if someone from one of those countries wants to order something from the US, he
should be prepared to pay whatever fees his gov't levies on it - or
take his chances and have the thing shipped the cheapest way possible, without
insurance, with no value declared, and hope for the best.
I only balk when it comes to rolled poster packages. I just
won't send them overseas without insurance anymore because, without the extra
protection of an Express Mail box, they ain't gonna make it there in one piece -
in the flimsy commercial mailing tubes that I have access to via retail shops
here (they may not be thin as "toilet paper rolls", like the ones Sue has
reported, but they're far from heavy duty).
I don't do the kind of business, or have the kind of up-front budget,
that would allow me to buy better mailing tubes in bulk - not to mention I don't
have anyplace to store them. I'm not a dealer and I work out of a
small apartment, shipping maybe a half dozen rolled posters a year, tops, and
I'm relegated to using the same kind of mailing supplies any home seller on eBay
has access to in his local neighbourhood. The only kind of supplies I buy
in bulk are the mylar sleeves and backing boards I use for my flat posters
(they're not available retail, for one thing, only cost about 50 cents
a pair in lots of 50 and are small enough to store easily in my
closet).
There's nothing worse than getting all excited about some wonderful item
you've found on eBay only to have it arrive in shreds, or beaten to a
pulp, because some idiot didn't know, or care, the first thing about
packaging. At the same time, different sellers have different means and
access to different resources, and I don't think it's the buyer's prerogative to
dictate the seller's packaging practices (but, if a buyer feels
compelled to get involved in the item's packaging, then he should do
so before he places a bid on the item - as someone else said
here in an earlier message - since, after an item is sold, all the
seller's "terms" have been implicitly agreed to and are, actually, no
longer negotiable). As they say, caveat
emptor.
J T
Merrill
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Title: Message
