European Sales on eBay Post Brexit.

[gertjan]

As a collector from the Netherlands I can say that if I want to buy the cheaper items on ebay, I'll never use a seller who uses ebay's Global Shipping Programme. The charge for this (which is invisible to the seller) is a minimum of 10 pounds. So that doesn't make any sense if you talk about £1 items.

If the item is more expensive, yes, since Brexit we have to pay tax. Oh men! First item I was taxed, was a 54 pound programme. Tax: £26.00!

ebay makes it even more expensive if you pay these items through the Global Shipping Programme. I just bought an item for about £100 and thank god, the seller was so good to send it to me - signed for with a value of £20.00, which is still free of tax - when I offered him to do a direct payment to his paypaladress, "friends and family".

I think the charges of ebay (GSP) where about £40 for this item!

Conclusion (for me): Yes, there are sometimes extra import-charges. It would help a great deal if sellers don't use ebay's GSP and declare a low value (£20.00) at Royal Mail.
But I do understand that sellers not always want to do this...

[garyspain]

amazorblade wrote:

garyspain wrote: It can be really annoying here as the fee to collect the VAT is often far more than the VAT itself. As of yet I haven't seen a problem with items coming from the UK to the Republic of Ireland but it has been an issue for years for me buying in the United States. There is also the option to put used magazines or used programmes on the customs form and say no declared value or a small value. After all the value of these items is subjective. I have seen this comment made by a number of buyers recently on a number of forums. I do not think we should be encouraging sellers to falsify the customs documents, and thereby leaving themselves open to a penalty, by declaring a value on the export/import form that is not a true value.

I think value is subjective. Some items I have purchased are unlikely to ever sell for that price again. Others may sell for considerably more.

I paid £50 privately for an item and days later it was listed at a 99p start on ebay. I won it as the only bidder and gave it to another Limerick collector. "used magazines" or "used programmes" is not falsifying a customs form.