EBay went through a similar problem where people would list an item very cheap and then charge a fortune for shipping. Now eBay shows you the price and the shipping charges from the search result list and even lets you sort by “lowest price + shipping”. This makes the experience of using eBay infinitely better!
People just get around that by creating a multi-option listing and having one of the options be some cheap throwaway item like a dust cover or USB cable. That cheap price shows up in the sort and throws the whole thing off.
And then eBay implemented the Global Shipping Program and so now a $5 game has $15 shipping from Buffalo to Toronto because it needs a pitstop through Kentucky and needs to be rummaged and possibly damaged by a Pitney Bowes employee first!
Isn't it up to the seller to choose the GSP or some other means? You can always contact the seller and negotiate to use a more direct shipping route instead.
> But for whatever reason, a lot of US sellers have an aversion to int’l shipping.
For good reason. You could point to domestic USPS tracking information as proof of delivery (which occasionally worked in your favor) during PayPal disputes.
For international shipments, the tracking is lost as soon as the item crosses the border. Whether the item was delivered or not cannot be contested by the seller, who then has to pay out on 100% of claims brought against them.
> the tracking is lost as soon as the item crosses the border
That's variable and (often) not the case for shipments to Canada. USPS International First Class would yield a tracking number that has delivery confirmation to the destination.
> Electronic USPS Delivery Confirmation International service — abbreviated E-USPS DELCON INTL — is a tracking service available at no charge for First-Class Package International Service items to select destination countries (see 252.22)
I still have this problem on reverb.com which makes me not use it. Something being $15 cheaper and $75 shipping isn't helpful and wastes my time, so I stop using the site.
