Regarding people selling equipment to U.S.A. only

Sold a Transport last year to a Gon'er in Holland. Shipping was easy, just took the unit to a Mail for U location, had the unit double boxed and filled out a customs form with the regular shipping papers. Shipping was expensive ($100.00 on a $1,000.00 sale) and it may be that sellers here assume that buyers would not be willing to spend an additional 10-15% for shipping. Just a thought.

For me, shipping is not an issue, except for the increased risk of equipment handling damage. But when selling/describing used equipment and negotiating back and forth, the langauage barriers you sometimes encounter can make things hard enough that it takes some of the fun out of the hobby.

I purchased a couple of amps from a gent in Toronto Canada. I mailed out a postal money order priority mail which took 8 days to reach him. I live in Buffalo NY and can drive to Toronto in less than a hour and a half. The Amps shipped out the same day he recieved the money and it took 5 days for the amps to reach me. That was enough for me. USA only.

For me, it isn't that I've had any terrible experiences, there's just a higher level of uncertainty, particularly around customs and duty issues, because there seems to be absolutely no consistency to how the regulations are enforced.

I've bought and sold several things between the U.S. and Canada, which you would think would be as straightforward as a 'foreign' transaction could be.

On the first, I was charged a 10% duty on used speakers coming into the U.S. On the second, the speakers came from Canada with no notice of any duty owed and then got a bill for 5% duty three months later. The third, a CD player, arrived from Canada with no duty ever charged. The fourth deal was killed when Canadian customs told their citizen, my buyer, that he would have to pay 15% on American gear being brought into Canada.

The shipping went fine in all three cases, except for a three week delay on the second set of speakers because the seller forgot to include a form and it had to catch up with the speakers sitting in a customs warehouse in Toronto.

None of that has scared me off. If the deal looks good I'll take the risk again, but it is a little scarier than going down to Fry Electronics and loading up the hand truck.

The least expensive method to ship small items overseas I have found is with Express Mail. However,a postal clerk told me to forget about being able to track the package or verify delivery after it departs the USA. So, if the package did not arrive to the buyer...you can imagine the problems with insurance,etc...