Shipping to Spain

[Jak]

I have an auction up and this guy from Spain really wants it. He has asked me twice if he can bid and says he will pay for insurance, Airmail, etc. He also has very good feedback. What are your experiences shipping to Spain or anywhere else? Any tips on how to do this?

[nitewolf9]

USPS priority mail international is probably your best bet. Honestly shipping international is not that big of a deal. The people at the post office will help you out. I have used them for shipping bigger packages than magic cards over seas and I've been pretty impressed with the reliability of the delivery dates they give.

[freakish777]

USPS priority mail international is probably your best bet. Honestly shipping international is not that big of a deal.

Just make sure you get a tracking number (Priority mail does), I once shipped Italian Mana Drains to some douche bag in Italy using standard Air Mail. He then claimed he didn't receive and filed a PayPal dispute which he of course won since I didn't spend the extra for priority.

[goobafish]

I have heard that the following countries have terrible track records for lost mail:

Italy
Spain
Brazil

People have had numerous problems with the above countries. It is common that sellers will not ship to Italy or Spain.

[luka66_6]

I buy cards at ebay and cardshark and I have no problems getting them in Slovenia. That is a small county in Europe. I have been getting cards from Usa for cca 2 years now and i am not talking few mails i guess there are over 100 by now. Do not really know. I Never had a single problem with lost mail or something like that and I have never payed for insurance. Mosty because I was not able since there is no insurance for my country. Only ¨problem¨ i have is delivery time. It is common for me to wait for cards more than 20 days. :)

[willo]

I recently sold a Foil Japanese Cryptic Command on Ebay. I stated that any international bidders please email first for shipping quotes. When the auciton ended a person from spain was the high bidder. He paid immediatly and added 50 cents to the auction total. I emailed him back and told him I would rather him pay for registered air mail which is around $11 dollars. He said OK. I decided to try just shipping the item first class non-registered, so I did not charge him extra.

The item arrived promptly with no problems, to my surprise.

Registered air mail only guarentees up to $55 in Spain. But if they pay for it, it is a good option.

[Nightmare]

Shipping to Europe in general is fine, with the sole exception of Italy. Go to your post office, and just ask the people at the desk what they think about the Italian Postal Service. They're guaranteed to go off about them. Italy sucks for mail, and I refuse to send there, unless the buyer pays outrageous fees. Even then, I make no guarantees about the package actually making it there.

[TeenieBopper]

Fuck the Italian Postal Service.

[Lego]

Just make sure you get a tracking number (Priority mail does), I once shipped Italian Mana Drains to some douche bag in Italy using standard Air Mail. He then claimed he didn't receive and filed a PayPal dispute which he of course won since I didn't spend the extra for priority.

I know it sucks to have lost the Mana Drains, and you want to get mad at someone, but just as an FYI: the kid most likely wasn't lying. The Italian postal service is atrocious.

[Pavlicic]

Hello! Long time reader here, but this is my first post.

I am Spanish and I have an eBay account with 100% possitive feedback from 100+ different sellers (almost all from the USA).

I buy in eBay MTG and WH40K and I NEVER have paid any kind of insurance or priority mail, just the most budget airmail (and I have bought expensive cards like duals and tarmogoyfs, some letters have $100 in cards inside).

I have NEVER lost any package or letter and I feel ill each time I see a seller with the No Spain clause because there is no real problem with shipping here :(

Just my two eurocents ;)

[freakish777]

I know it sucks to have lost the Mana Drains, and you want to get mad at someone, but just as an FYI: the kid most likely wasn't lying. The Italian postal service is atrocious.

Nah, he was a douche bag for a different reason, I had something like "all international buyers please contact me before bidding to discuss shipping" because I only charge $1 shipping to the US (up to 4 cards) and $2 to Canada. If I have to ship overseas, I need to make an extra trip to the post office, buy a bubble-wrap envelope, and pay the $5~$8 air mail. So when he won (without contacting me beforehand) I sent a total request with $10 for shipping and stated "delivery isn't guarenteed and is by USPS Air Mail" (I think they've since changed the names and prices of their services). Anyways, he pays, and when he opens the Dispute on PayPal, he says something like "I pay extra money for register shipping, is not right." Basically that's what pissed me off, was his lack of communication beforehand, and what seemed to be lying in the Dispute thread (either that or his grasp of the English language is so bad that, well, that he shouldn't be buying things from people in the US). Suffice it to say, if he was knowingly lying about having been under the impression that he "paid extra for registered shipping" then I don't see it as a stretch for him to lie about having not received the cards.


On topic, if whoever you're dealing with is communicative beforehand, you're probably in the clear if other people are giving you the thumbs up on Spain.

[Lego]

Story about the Italian jerk

Fair enough, he was probably a jerk then. I'm just saying that you can pretty much blame anything on the Italian postal service. If you send cards to Germany, and they don't get there, it's probably the Italian postal service's fault. They're that terrible.

[DeathwingZERO]

To be fair Freakish, you could have just canceled his winning bid. You have the right to do so since the buyer obviously didn't read your rules, which are completely legit by both Paypal and Ebay standards.

I have heard a number of people complain about Italy and Spain. I never had any problems, though I always used some kind of delivery confirmation, and told the buyers that they were buying at their own risk if they didn't cough up for additional insurance or anything. To this day the only thing I ever lost overseas was something to the Netherlands, of all places.

I would say if he wants it bad enough, tell him whatever price it's going to cost you to deliver under the best stuff short of say, teleporting. If he REALLY wants it, he'll pay.


Fair enough, he was probably a jerk then. I'm just saying that you can pretty much blame anything on the Italian postal service. If you send cards to Germany, and they don't get there, it's probably the Italian postal service's fault. They're that terrible.

Guess where that's going? XD

[wolfstorm]

Hey guy's sorry about necroing this but does anyone know what its like shipping cards to Chile?.. Any absurd customs that I need to be worried about, or if I do USPS priority should I be fine?