B5 books get'em while they're hot...

[Ghost2020]

A new baby equals lack of time...so they have to find new homes. Won't you help adopt a B5 book? ; )

Ship by media mail.
Paypal or money order accepted, ***only lower 48 United States.
***All from non-smoking home, near mint condition***
Private Message me if interested.


Armageddon 2089 (d20) Core book: $12.00 (bottom right corner of cover is
dented)



Babylon 5 d20 Earth Alliance Fact Book: $17.00

Babylon 5 d20 Minbari Federation Fact Book: $17.00

Babylon 5 d20 Coming of Shadows season 2 guide: $12.00

Babylon 5 d20 The Fiery Trial mini-campaign: $10.00

 

[Barbara]

Good prices. Now if only Ghost 2020's Id said which country he was in.

 

[Ghost2020]

I'm in the u.s.
So I guess that makes sense that I'd only ship in the u.s., but imagine the wanke one would have to be to live in say...Canada, and only ship to the u.s..
Ok, that'd be kinda funny!

 

[Neo]

I'm in the u.s.
So I guess that makes sense that I'd only ship in the u.s., but imagine the wanke one would have to be to live in say...Canada, and only ship to the u.s..
Ok, that'd be kinda funny!

Ive always been kinda curious about this.. as it is something I have seen time and time again, even companies all too frequently have this policy too.

Why the limitation on where you mail things too? At the end of the day the buyer is paying whatever postage or shipping costs would be involved so why the restriction? you still have to go to the same place and do the same thing whether you mail something incountry or out? Or does the U.S have some postal restrictions or additional bureacracy im not aware of?

Im not interested in any of the books mostly as I have them all already :lol: (otherwise i'd probably have been interested)..

But it has always struck me as an odd thing whenever I see an american individual or store note they will only mail to the same country only. I mean surely so long as you get paid up front and the buyer is paying any postage/shipping where too should be irrelevant? The only real difference is licking a few more stamps and putting a bit stronger wrapping around the parcel.

 

[Mouth of Sauron]

The only real difference is licking a few more stamps and putting a bit stronger wrapping around the parcel.

And apparently filling out a US customs form. Although I have no idea how much of a pain it is to fill out, if it's anything like some of the other government forms . . . . :?

In any case I know of one US store that lists too much postal fraud as the reason they won't ship to several eastern european countries, other than that they will ship anywhere once they have verified the customer is using a legitimate credit card.

 

[mthomason]

But it has always struck me as an odd thing whenever I see an american individual or store note they will only mail to the same country only. I mean surely so long as you get paid up front and the buyer is paying any postage/shipping where too should be irrelevant? The only real difference is licking a few more stamps and putting a bit stronger wrapping around the parcel.

I can't speak for the US, but I can speak from a UK perspective of mailing internationally.

For stores theres the problem of VAT calculations, and whether or not you're supposed to add it to the destintation country, which can then screw up your own VAT return (if you have any). Luckily, if you're dealing mostly in books, they're not VAT-able anyway, so maybe you can get away with either not charging on that particular order or not having to do a VAT return in the first place.

As an individual on ebay, I hesitate to send anything more than a single book internationally. First off you get complaints because it takes 8 weeks to get there by surface mail, or you get complaints because you charged the earth for air mail postage. Or you realise you undercharged when the post office tell you how much getting an international recorded delivery is and you end up paying the extra yourself. Or any one of a number of added hassles you can just do without

The problem of how long the item may take to get there also applies to stores. Sometimes you can hit problems with credit card companies where 8 weeks is seen as an intolerable delivery time and you end up with the customer doing a chargeback on their payment.

Finally the chance of a fradulent credit card being used rises if you go outside of your own country, and rises again if you go outside of the US and Europe (nothing personal, just a statistical fact), and some credit card processing insurance just won't cover those international payments. When you can't be certain that the money that the computer says you just got paid isn't going to disappear a couple of weeks later when the real card owner finds out and does a chargeback, then do you really want to make that sale?

And then who wants to buy from you when they have to pay by international money order (expensive to get) instead of credit card because you refuse to risk it, and you charge every tax you can think of "just in case", you've added an extra $10 for a signature on delivery, and an extra $10 in case that country turns out to be in a weird delivery band, plus you're waiting two weeks before you post it just to be 100% sure that payment clears, *and* on top of that their own customs authority might end up charging them import duty once it arrives.

All in all, sometimes it just isn't worth the hassle, to buyer or seller

 

[mthomason]

And apparently filling out a US customs form. Although I have no idea how much of a pain it is to fill out, if it's anything like some of the other government forms . . . . :?

Looking at a package I received from the US last week (Scenery discs for MS Flight Simulator), they're no different to the European ones. Weight, Value, signature, whether it's a gift/commercial sample/whatever.

And the postman refused to let me have it until I paid him the import duty

 

[Ghost2020]

I've shipped overseas a few times, to the UK and Europe. It wasn't too bad, but it was extra hassle.
If I ship in the states, I can guesstimate the weight for media mail shipping (a slower, but cheaper book rate) and charge appropriately.

Now, for overseas, I have no idea how much that costs and there's extra steps to get that figureed in, I'd just as soon avoid it.

 

[Neo]

All in all, sometimes it just isn't worth the hassle, to buyer or seller

Speaking from my own experiences (mostly Ebay related as buyer and seller) I've never had any problems posting internationally. With Ebay for example it is fairly easy to package and weigh what you are selling and then (for us in the UK) get the exact postage cost and estimated delivery time for it via Royal Mails postage calculator facility on thier website. UPS has a similar faiclity for americans sending things internationally too.. these things make life a lot easier and list the various postal insurance options and inclusive costs.

You also generally do not send anything until payment clears be it via cheque, money order, credit card or paypal.

Also giving people the choice of of postal insurance or not on shipping costs is always an option so long as they are aware that without the insurance should the package not arrive or arrive damaged then there no means of them recieving compensation from the postal company. Either way once posted any liability is on the postal service not the sender..so insurance on a parcel is always recommended.

I can safely say ive never had any real difficulties buying or selling abroad so long as you take the effort to inform the relevant individual what the exact costs and options are beforehand...and that just takes a few minutes preparation before posting about an item for sale.

I will say one thing though our postage/shipping costs aborad are outrageously high compared to what they are aborad sending to us... so I could kind of understand why someone would be reluctant to buy from the UK say but sending to us.

Quite a bit of postage cost can generally avoided by shipping larger parcels as numerous smaller ones however. For example I once sold a lot of some 60 RPG books of 2nd edition AD&D via Ebay.. the P&P to the US was almost as much as the price of the items...but broken down into three smaller parcels P&P was reduced to about a 10th of that cost.

All in all it has never really been a huge hassle to send things either national or international from my own experiences, which is what made me wonder if perhaps there was some additional bureacracy for our american neighbours as to why so many will not ship outside of the US as like I say I've seen that restriction mentioned many times in the past.

 

[mthomason]

You also generally do not send anything until payment clears be it via cheque, money order, credit card or paypal.

Be aware that if Paypal receive a chargeback via a credit card company, which can happen a month or two after you withdrew the money into your bank account, they'll just deduct it from your balance (which can put it into the negative). Paypal can and will add an admin fee to this (sometimes more than the original amount!). Then the dispute proceedings begin, and you *might* get the money back if you can prove the goods were indeed sent, and you may even have to prove they were received. All it takes is a phone call from the purchaser to their card company

Just seeing the money in your bank account isn't a guarantee any more

I will say one thing though our postage/shipping costs aborad are outrageously high compared to what they are aborad sending to us... so I could kind of understand why someone would be reluctant to buy from the UK say but sending to us.

Agreed. I've had people send me packages via USPS with trackable delivery for less than it costs me to send a package back without tracking. Heck, it gets passed onto ParcelForce for the UK delivery, and costs less than ParcelForce charge for a package within the UK :shock:

Add to this the planned postage changes by Royal Mail later this year (I assume it's still happening because I haven't heard that it isn't), where the size of the package will be taken into account. No more sending huge boxes of lightweight plastic sprues by weight only Anything larger than a letter will be charged more...

Quite a bit of postage cost can generally avoided by shipping larger parcels as numerous smaller ones however. For example I once sold a lot of some 60 RPG books of 2nd edition AD&D via Ebay.. the P&P to the US was almost as much as the price of the items...but broken down into three smaller parcels P&P was reduced to about a 10th of that cost.

I can believe that, i've had to do similar things before when the package I was sending went into a band that cost more than double the price just for a little extra weight.
BTW, reminds me of a little tip for those sending within the UK - check out Special Delivery for packages just under the 2kg mark, it's a better service than 1st class recorded and costs a little less too

All in all it has never really been a huge hassle to send things either national or international from my own experiences, which is what made me wonder if perhaps there was some additional bureacracy for our american neighbours as to why so many will not ship outside of the US as like I say I've seen that restriction mentioned many times in the past.

For individuals, I think it's an experience thing. Once you've been burned you tend to overprotect yourself from that point onwards. For businesses, it can be more of a paperwork hassle with taxes - suddenly your nice clean tax calculations become complicated because this or that package went outside of the country and doesn't get taxed even though the items within are taxable. If your system isn't set up to handle international orders, it can get messy.

 

[Ghost2020]

Jeez....talk about hi-jacking a thread. :shock:
Back to topic....
Ok...anyone in the U.S. want to buy some B5 books? :lol: