I knew there was a reason I don’t like selling things to people outside the US over eBay. A couple of years ago I sold some White Wolf books to a guy in Australia. The books sold for $25 and when he asked for a shipping quote, I told him that I could airmail them to him for some $50, or I could send them “surface” (that means boat, people) for $25. Needless to say, he didn’t want to pay twice the price of the books just to get them and he was a bit miffed that he had to pay double. Either way, he won the auction and paid and I mailed him the books.

Did I mention that surface mail to Australia is calculated in months rather than days or weeks? So yeah, he didn’t want insurance either. Eventually, he doesn’t get the books and keeps emailing me asking me where the books are, insisting that he get his money back or at the very least, half. I’m like, “no way, you wanted it by boat with no insurance, you took the risk.” He finally stopped pestering me 6 months after the original transaction. I think I received negative feedback for that auction. It wasn’t even my fault.

So this past December, I put my MP3 player on auction and a guy from Canada starts bidding (even though every auction since the Australian one I have explicitly stated I do not ship outside the US). He finally asked me if would sell it to him and I begrudgingly agreed. I mailed it to him surface on Dec 12 and he’s not received it yet. So yeah, now I’m getting an email every few days asking where his package is. I don’t know because I gave it to the post office and haven’t touched it since. Its not like its still in my car. I gave him the tracking info, its out of my hands!

Colin James Hay – Looking For Jack – Going Somewhere