Thanks Heiko, your information is much appreciated. And yes, the postage fees are high compared to what we pay here to ship to Europe.
Cheers Shaun Canning PhD Student Department of Archaeology School of European and Historical Studies La Trobe University, Bundoora, Vic, 3086. Phone: 0414-967644 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: Heiko Hamann [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, 2 September 2002 7:15 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: E-Bay Question Hi Shaun, on 02 Sep 02 you wrote in pentax.list: >It is just an observation I made, and I do not wish to pick on our >German colleagues, however, it has me intrigued. Perhaps one of kind >German friends has the answer? Shipping with the "Deutsche Post" might be expensive, but it is possible. And as far as the buyer pays the shipping, I wouldn't have a problem selling overseas... The actual price list says: "Postpaket international" (up to 4KG): Zone 1 (EU, Poland, Switzerland, Slovakia, Czech R.): 15,50 Euro Zone 2 (rest of Europa) 25,00 Euro Zone 3 (North America, Northern Africa, Near East): 28,00 Euro Zone 4 (rest of the world): 34,50 Euro As far as I understand it, the insurance of the standard post parcel ("Postpaket") is insufficient. So you should add "Luftpost Service" (i.e. air mail), as this service includes an insurance up to 500,00 Euro. Unfortunately it costs 19,00 Euro extra. There might be a cheaper way, as the price list mentions a service "Wert international". This should be an insurance for a standard international parcel up to 500,00 Euro and costs 5,00 Euro extra. Each further 100,- Euro insurance costs 1,00 Euro. So the cheapest way to ship something to Australia (insured up to 500,00 Euro) costs 34,50+5,00= 39,50 Euro. Faster should be air mail: 34,50+19,00= 53,50 Euro. Besides shipping and insurance the money transfer might be difficult. As credit cards are not as common as in America (and Australia?), Paypal won't work for the most Germans. If you send a cheque, the banks will take high fees from the seller (afair 10,00 Euro and more). The most accepted method would be a money transfer to the account of the seller. This should be easy and quite cheap in the EU but I don't know how the situation is in the rest of the world. All in all it is quite expensive and uncomfortable. Banking and logistics still haven't caught up with e-commerce. If you have any further questions or a specific problem regarding a German-overseas transaction, feel free to contact me. Regards, Heiko (Germany)
