US only sales WHY???

I've been liquidating a lot of gear here on Audiogon over the past several months. And, based on my previous experience with sending gear back and forth from Canada, I explicitly say, "USA Sales Only!" It was simply too much of a headache on many levels. For whatever reason, whether I was shipper or receiver, both UPS and FedEX were constantly slamming me with outrageous fees that I could never shake.

Nevertheless, I still get a lot of inquiries from Canada, and an appreciable amount from Europe and Asia. Call me foolish, but I'll settle for a far lower sale price before I send anything out of this country. As they say, been there, done that, don't want to do it again, forget it.

All that being said, I'm going to have to figure out some strategy in the not too distant furture, as I'm about to begin selling some new gear, and I'll be looking to sell internationally.

When I've dealt with Canada sales transactions which I have several times I always end up receiving a bill for additional fees from the carrier. I hate that.

Largeyo, from the majority of posts in this thread I think you get the point now.

Personally, I have absolutely no problem dealing with any such transaction - as long as you pay US$ cash and pick it up in person (or similarly accept cash and I can drive there to pick up in person). International or U.S.domestic, it's the same. Yup, that really limits things but it suits me just fine - I'm not in the business, I'm (obviously) not buying nor selling lots of stuff. I used to deal with shipping and was mostly lucky with that. Then I did a couple of transactions where I drove (to other states, no less), met a couple of really exceptional folks in the course of completing the deal, and decided that works best for most of what I'm interested in. I still might do other stuff online (retail, etc.) but the advantages to not dealing with shipping (much less customs, tax guys, etc.) makes non-domestic deals a no-brainer no-go for me.

Largeyo, I completely agree. I am a longstanding (American) Audiogon member living abroad. I have bought several items on Audiogon from dealers who were willing to send internationally (thanks JD and Mehran, among others!). In no case have I heard back that there was a problem or otherwise experienced a problem. In a recent case, I had to pay consumption tax (equivalent to sales tax or VAT) to the Customs office, but that was fine. I was buying something I wanted, and had it been for sale locally, I would have had to pay the tax anyway so no real problem. If my willingness to do the deal at price X depended on whether or not the seller was willing to lie about value, I would wait until it was cheaper. I think potential buyers who ask sellers to lie about value do tend make life difficult for the rest of us.

There are many times I have wanted to buy things which are said to be "US-only" but frankly, trying to change the minds of dogmatic sellers is really not pleasant.

In the end, reality aside, it is what makes you uncomfortable which determines your limits. While US fraud is just as rife as international fraud, and is not really any easier for US sellers to combat (or gain relief from), the fact that the potential for fraud is in the same country rather than a different country seems to make it 'less likely' or safer. Hogwash. I would almost argue the opposite. International transactions are more likely to be done through money order, wire transfer, or bank draft, making buyer fraud less of a risk for the seller - transferring the risk to the buyer rather than the seller.

You also forget that we USA audiophiles really don't need to reach a larger market. Honestly, with 300 million people in the USA, why do I need the hassle of customs and all that paperwork to expand that base? If I lived in Europe, then I would sell to all Western European countries in order to have a market the size of the USA.

Bottom line....don't NEED to sell to Europe, therefore don't WANT to sell to Europe.