Hello everyone I'm in some need of advice. I have an item on E-bay that has been bid up to a very high price with a week to go. Many of those interested are from abroad (S. Korea, Japan, England, and Canada).

Here are my concerns and questions:

1. My product is a very heavy 15" Driver and crossover that I plan to bolt to a 3/4" sheet of wood and then put into a very heavy duty new box, most likely double boxed. To anyone who has shipped something similar, could you please give me some specifics of how you packed yours? I have never had a claim yet on some heavy nice items, but this one really scares me.

2. What carrier seems to be the best for shipping safest, not cheapest.

3. Regarding insurance value and the dreaded (hopefully not) possible claim, does anyone have any recomendations on certifing a value on an item?

4. I have stated in my auction that I can not accept Pay Pal credit card payments from non US bidders. I hate to do this but I got scared reading the post from Wiggy and Styler. Is there a safe way to send large amounts of money electronicly other than PayPal credit? (safe to me that is). I am a very honest seller and try to describe my items accurately, but those threads have me concerned.

5. Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all in advance

Hello

5. Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all in advance

Number one Dont worry about it. . .

Even PayPal. . . The bad things are very rare and can happen regardless where you ship.

I have shipped many items overseas and other than time I have had no trouble. Pack your item just as you would be shipping it anywhere. I assume you pack very well anyway. . . Go ahead and use PayPal, its quick, and its easy. Ship by USPS and ship by their lowest air method otherwise it goes by boat and takes months. Some buyers know and understand this. Good communications are the key wether shipping here or there.

Dont be afraid of it just do it. . .

Shipping to Canada I would pick USPS, but anywhere else I use Fed Ex International Economy instead, custom-forms already filled out, delivery to the door, less hassel in custom + your buyer can track the package.
But be sure insure for the right value and not sending as a gift.. :no:
As for payment, they can send payment with Western Union if you don't trust Pay Pal.
Confirmed address is a must when dealing with oversea buyers.
For higher sales I prefer Western Union or a Cashiers check that can be drawn from a bank in US.
Stay away from Postal Money orders in Korea...


Good Luck :thmbsp:

Screwing it to plywood is a great idea. I have done that before. But if the speaker is very heavy, you might not want the plywood going all the way to the edge of the box. Here's how I did it once.
Get a box that is two inches bigger than the sheet of plywood. Line the box sides with two inch styrofoam. Use a table saw to cut grooves an inch deep in the styrofoam an inch from the bottom, to fit the plywood. Lay a sheet of styrofoam on top of the woofer magnet and trace around with a marker. Cut a hole in the styrofoam where you marked. Assemble, putting one more sheet of styrofoam on bottom and top.
This is how it should look. This will alllow a heavy fifteen inch woofer to survive a drop off of a tall conveyor belt.

Thank you all for the great advice.

I know I'm probably over worried, but this pending sale is way out of my leag. Sometimes you pay a price in stress level for a super score. :sigh: Thanks for the info on Fed Ex International Economy and on not accepting Korean postal money orders. I presume because of counterfit.

Also great pic and description on your speaker box Don. Thats what I was hoping for. I'll take your advice.

How should a money order be drawn internationally? Are there US banks that can issue them? Sorry for my ignorance, I have tried to study up, but I need to learn more.

Regarding value on the item incase of any problems. How would you prove to FedEx or other shippers what the value was if there was a problem? Does anyone know of a appraisal service or anything like that that I could get in advance. Please understand that this driver is probably going to sell for more than $3000! :yikes: (Please understand I'm not trying to brag, this caught me by suprise and is the bigest break I've ever had). It sure makes me nervous though.

Thanks again for all the adivice, and please keep it comming.

WoW, congratulations !
After the auction is over, print the auction nr with buyers info.
Save that if for some reason the package disappear or get damaged.
That's your proof.
International Cashiers check you can deposit at the bank or if the buyer send payment with Western Union from his country, a small fee for the buyer but safe for you.
Postal Money orders from some countrys even if the amount is in US $ can be a problem when you try to cash it, when the bank has a collection fee' for retrieve the payment.
Rather use Western Union instead.

www.bidpay.com

if the item is expensive, i would have a notarized description of item. thats usually pretty easy, perhaps someone where you work is a notary. all hospitals and banks do notary. also can have the piece looked at and get a statement from a shop and have that notarized and send a copy with the item. take pics of the packing as you do it. this is very helpful in a claim because the bozos that review claims know nothing of audio and what its worth.

the faster the sipping, usually the better the care. gets loaded quickly and not stred and moved a bunch. would use any service but go air. on the other hand, if the person pays with certified us funds check (citibank and others are multinational) that might be best for payment. if you get a check then there is no recourse for the buyer, which after my experience is a good thing. if they use bidpay or paypal they do have some recourse. i wish the postal service sold online money orders!

try DHL, they have smaller vehicles and less stops. slightly more expensive than UPS and FEDEX. us mail air parcel post is actually pretty good and fast 7-10 days to europe or asia.

overpack. overpack. overpack.

good luck.

tyler

Great info guys.

Styler, great idea about a notary verifying the current condion. I don't want to go through an experience where the buyer lies and trys to blackmail me. Going to a stereo shop is also a good idea. I will definetly take pics before and during packing.
Amen on the Overpacking!

Vintage TX, thank you. I have never had this kind of luck before. Makes me nervous. Thanks for the payment info. One question regarding Western Union? If the buyer uses a credit card to purchase the driver and then (worst case scenareo) trys to scam me by calling his credit card etc. , Does Western Union come back to me for their cash? Or am I safe? I reallly don't think this would happen, the gentlemen I've talked to via both e-mail and on the phone seem like honest people, but you never know who might accually win the auction.

I wish I had known about private (prospective bidders have to be on you list after contacting you) auctions before I had listed. I did stipulate no excesive neg or 0 bidders would be allowed to bid if they did not contact me first. Its amazing how such good fortune can really rack your nerves. :)

Thanks again guys and I know I'm probably overworrying, just want to try to do the right things and minimize the risk of scams, and fraud.

Ha! You sound like where I was this summer when I put my 15" Tannoy Dual Concentric Gold up for auction this summer - only my second auction, and I have these folks from Italy, England, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan emailing me about bidding on it. Even had a pair of Canadians sniping at each other through emails to me - never did quite understand it all, but it sounded like one had ripped off some gear from the other...

WRT international payments, I simply told everyone that I would not ship until all payments had cleared - there is good advice that others have provided here that I wish I'd known about. Funny (lucky?) thing is, a guy in western NY state came in at the end and won it, so I didn't have to worry about international shipping or payments.

WRT packaging, I was going to go along the lines that Don C suggested, but then had a kinda crazy idea as I was starting to package it...I bolted the speaker face down to a round piece of 3/4" plywood, and then, for the backside, I got the idea to use one of those 5 gallon plastic buckets you can buy at home depot to protect the backside. First, I took 4 individual pieces of 1/4" plywood and taped them with ductape over the backside holes in the speaker frame - at this point the cone should be protected from pretty much anything short of a forklift fork. I then took heavy bubble wrap and wound it around the magnet and backside of the frame until I had created a solid cylinder of bubble wrap extending about a foot beyond the end of the magnet assembly, taking it out to - you guessed it - the same diameter of the plastic bucket. I slid that over the backside of the speaker and bubble wrap, and then secured the bucket to the plywood covering the front of the speaker. At this point I had a pretty impervious package, but then I double boxed that, filling the voids between the bucket and the box, and the inner and outer boxes, with cut styrofoam (BTW, a jigsaw is great for cutting thick styrofoam blocks and panels into the exact shape you want). The resulting package was one that I felt completely comfortable with sending through UPS - not just that it would be impact resistant, but also that it would be fairly water resistant. Heck, between the styrofoam and bubble wrap, it'd probably even float!

Oh, and congrats on what sounds like a big sale for you!

PBG, sounds like you know what I'm going through. Interesting idea on the packing. I'll have to look into that. Regrarding WRT, I Tried to Google both WRT, WRT packing, and WRT international payments; I got many PDF files filled with Financial jargon, but no real info on what it is. Could you please let me know more? I will most assurandly state that payment must clear.

Thanks for the congrats and please keep up any comments and advice.

Tell us about this speaker, I'm curious.

Hello Don, The speaker is a Tannoy 15" Monitor black Dual Concentric Driver with original crossover. It was Tannoy's first in the Dual Concentric line. Aparently it is very hard to find and there are some people who have been looking for a second speaker for quite a long time. The sad thing is, I really feel for some of these good folks. I've talked to some of them on the phone, and they are very emotional in their pleas to end the auction early. I tell them all the same thing, "I don't thinks it would be fair to the others". It is getting very tempting though. I'm really not a pure capatalist at heart. :worried: This auction really caught me by suprise.

There is some good info on the web.

Congrats on the sale! Sorry that I missed your reply and question...

Anyways, 'WRT' is internetese for 'With Respect To' - sorry for the confusion, I should be more careful with my use of internet jargonese! :worried:

Cheers,

PBG

PBG, sounds like you know what I'm going through. Interesting idea on the packing. I'll have to look into that. Regrarding WRT, I Tried to Google both WRT, WRT packing, and WRT international payments; I got many PDF files filled with Financial jargon, but no real info on what it is. Could you please let me know more? I will most assurandly state that payment must clear.

Thanks for the congrats and please keep up any comments and advice.