Sending parts out from France, the trouble is the huge cost of tracked post age. The cheapest tracked postage is the less than 1 kg category, which costs 21 euros to the US, 24 euros to Japan. Untracked postage less than 1 kg costs between 3 euros and 12 euros to thes e same destinations, depending on weight.
So on a lot of items sold for 15/30 USD, tracked postage would be more expe nsive than the item itself, it would become unviable to sell these small it ems that come in so useful to collectors...
I have found over several years that the bicycle community are an amazingly honest bunch, I have never yet had someone claim a parcel didn't arrive in thousands (I recently thought someone in Thailand had finally pulled the t rick on me, but I eventually found the parcel had fallen behind my packing bench and was never sent out......).
This is really quite amazing, as eBay has certainly set up the system in a way that encourages fraud from the buyer. Amazing really when you think it 's the sellers pay all the fees to eBay. Maybe one day someone clever will set up an auction site for just bike parts with no fees, just revenues from publicity, I'm sure it would work.
So thanks for your honesty all of you, and I'll carry on sending out untrac ked while the luck lasts.
Alexander March
Bordeaux
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