I can only speak from my own personal experience but as a long time Ebay seller I will comment. As bigtim said there is alot of fraud from people who know that the US laws can't touch them if they are in a foreign country. Secondly I think that sometimes communication is hard if the buyer speaks a different language. My one and only neutral feedback on Ebay happened several years ago. I was selling motorcycle parts and stated clearly in my ad that shipping outside the US would likely be very expensive due to the weight of the item. I had a potential bidder from France ask me for a shipping estimate which I gave him. He ended up being the winning bidder and wanted the cheapest possible shipping method which at the time was US Postal Service surface mail with an estimate of 4-6 WEEKS for delivery. That's what he chose. Well after about a week he started complaining that he hadn't recieved the item... When he finally did recieve it he left me neutral feedback saying I was slow to ship and that the shipping price was too high. Now keep in mind I gave him the shipping price BEFORE he bid and the shipping method was HIS choice. His response to Ebay was that he dosn't speak English & he missunderstood... Of course Ebay feedback can not be changed once it's been posted & he never even bothered to apologise. Ever since that incident I will not sell to French buyers. Sorry if that offends anyone but it's just not worth the hassle. Call me predudice, accuse me of singling out the French because of one jerk.. I really don't care. it's MY stuff & MY rules. Brits, Aussies, New Zealanders & Japanese are the biggest buyers of the vintage Triumph motorcycle parts I used to sell and I have never had a bit of trouble with any of them. All I ask of any potential buyers on my auctions is that if they are an overseas buyer they contact me PRIOR to bidding. I can then kind of feel them out, make them aware of the high cost of shipping, etc.
