Advice on overseas ebay purchases?

[Heavymetalbandmama]

Does anyone have any advice or positive or negative experiences to share? Thanks!

[bort]

Two thoughts:
-- It depends on the seller
-- For me, it will REALLY need to be worth it

[sousaphone68]

I have bought 5 horns from eBay a sousaphone from the US, a helicon from Poland, a rotary Eb from Moscow and two Bbbs from Germany.
Of these 5 only the sousaphone and the helicon were trouble free and their description matched their condition.
It would have to be a very special instrument for me to consider buying from international sellers again.

My main lesson would be only buy if they can reply to an email without using google translate

[Donn]

Two thoughts:
-- It depends on the seller
-- For me, it will REALLY need to be worth it

That's right, though the same could be applied to any online/mail-order transaction. I've bought some stuff from overseas.

A helicon from someone in Germany who is quite experienced at this business, sent via Deutsche Post and DHL if I remember right, surprisingly not super robust packaging, but all OK and at modest shipping cost and no trouble at all.

Another from Germany from a Tubenet member who engaged the services of a professional, air freight on a pallet, pretty expensive and I had to deal with with the shipping company and customs, but the helicon had a pretty safe trip.

Would you be spending more than you can afford to lose? That makes a difference.

[TheGoyWonder]

Count on it coming with the bell smashed, and you have to negotiate for some money back. Unless the tuba was expensive, (and it shouldn't be, that's the whole point of going this route) you'll need an insulting percentage refunded.

One positive experience where the seller was a major retailer and the instrument had a serious case. It was pretty quick too, as it should be by plane. If the shipping costs less than 100 euro, something's fishy.

A lot of the tubas are from sellers with unbelievably low feedback scores like 96%
A lot of them will try to get you to make the transaction outside ebay (habits of corruption?)
It is good to live in a first world , free market society that "gets" ebay.

[PMeuph]

Be prepared for excessive shipping costs if they come from another country...

I sold a euphonium recently, If I had shipped it via Canada post (As their is a counter in the building I work in, It would have cost $300) Instead, I drove across the boarder and shipped it from the USA (A 40 mile drive from my house) and paid just over 10% of the Canada post price.

If anything is held up and inspected at a boarder, the Custom Agents might not repack it as well as it was originally, and that may lead to more damage.

That said, you may get a great price if the exchange rate is in your favour.

[Greg Lecewicz]

Be prepared for excessive shipping costs if they come from another country...

I sold a euphonium recently, If I had shipped it via Canada post (As their is a counter in the building I work in, It would have cost $300) Instead, I drove across the boarder and shipped it from the USA (A 40 mile drive from my house) and paid just over 10% of the Canada post price.

If anything is held up and inspected at a boarder, the Custom Agents might not repack it as well as it was originally, and that may lead to more damage.

That said, you may get a great price if the exchange rate is in your favour.

If I were you I'd remove this post cause somebody might misconstrue your actions a smuggling. No kidding.

[PMeuph]

Be prepared for excessive shipping costs if they come from another country...

I sold a euphonium recently, If I had shipped it via Canada post (As their is a counter in the building I work in, It would have cost $300) Instead, I drove across the boarder and shipped it from the USA (A 40 mile drive from my house) and paid just over 10% of the Canada post price.

If anything is held up and inspected at a boarder, the Custom Agents might not repack it as well as it was originally, and that may lead to more damage.

That said, you may get a great price if the exchange rate is in your favour.

If I were you I'd remove this post cause somebody might misconstrue your actions a smuggling. No kidding.

I declared it at the border, had all the necessary paperwork and was let through by the customs agent. A euphonium in a box is a pretty hard thing to hide, when you drive compact car.

Many sellers and buyers in Canada do the same thing (90% of the Canadian population lives within a one 90 minute drive to border, anyways)

[Heavymetalbandmama]

So, I wanted to follow up with my original post. We've been searching for a tuba for DS for some months and found something on ebay in Poland. Both DS's instructors felt this was a good instrument a a good price. Despite my worries about the overseas transaction, I am pleased as punch to say everything went as flawless as possible and DS is now the proud owner of a beautiful authentic Miraphone 186. It took a few weeks, but the seller packed everything incredibly well including a double padded box, bubble wrap, foam wrap, peanuts and plastic wrap around the outside of the box. DS's teachers love the instrument.

I'd like to recommend this ebay seller to other TubeNet folks, but I don't see any area for feedback on the board. Can someone let me know if there's a spot to recommend or provide feedback to other board members on ebay or TubeNet sales? Thanks again!