Managing An E-bay Store From Thailand.

[bolognamare]

Do you know how much does it cost to send 500 grams / 1 kilogram / 2 kilograms of stuff to another country (mainly to Europe and Americas) by regular post?

Foreigners are admitted to send little boxes (as gifts) to other countries without problems?

I'm thinking to manage my E-bay store from Thailand.

Every suggestion is welcome!

Edited June 23, 2006 by bolognamare

[naturalpoints]

Do you know how much does it cost to send 500 grams / 1 kilogram / 2 kilograms of stuff to another country (mainly to Europe and Americas) by regular post?

Foreigners are admitted to send little boxes (as gifts) to other countries without problems?

I'm thinking to manage my E-bay store from Thailand.

Every suggestion is welcome!

Not worth it mate...............I've been down the road. It won't work. The cost are very high.

You can find postal cost by searching 'ems thailand' in google search and also 'Thailand post'. Costs are listed there.

Good luck

[Tony Montana]

I disagree with previous post,Ems is expensive but can use regular air mail.

If you look at sellers from Thailand on Ebay you will see there are lots of Ebayers making good money selling from Thailand (some are making a fortune!)

Its like everything in life you have to work at it & get that product what sells.

[ChiangMaiThai]

How can anyone say it is not worth it? It obviously depends on what you are selling. If its worth 200 baht, no it won't work. If its worth 10 times that, sure it will work.

[bolognamare]

How can anyone say it is not worth it? It obviously depends on what you are selling. If its worth 200 baht, no it won't work. If its worth 10 times that, sure it will work.

Yes it will work! the clean income is 30-40%

Is there a serious guy who lives in Thailand interested to try a selling experiment?

Less than 10$ involved.

The item that i want to sell exists only in Thailand (and surroundings).

Post me by PM for details with few lines about you and your background.

[Phil Conners]

Had a quick look at Ebay for items sold out of Thailand and it seems the majority is knockoff clothes - Armani and Dior t-shirts, football shirts. I though that was illegal, stopped by Ebay, causing your Paypal account to be shut down etc etc ... otoh, there seems to be plenty of activity in this market.

Nobody cares?

[Heng]

From Thailand, loose gems are easily the biggest seller in dollar terms on eBay. Last I browsed, there were half a dozen titanium power sellers, some locals, some foreigners, just from Thailand selling gems. (the titanium ranking means $100,000 a month minimum in sales). Yeah, of course it's not all profit, but for those familiar with the margins involved in gems, it's not a bad income for a hobby.

[The Skipper]

Shipping costs, lost/stolen mail, long delivery times, possible customs fees.

And who wants to send money to some ebay dealer in Thailand anyway?

Not easy but some do OK.

[jimbob]

It can be done but is hard work. You need to sell $10+ items to make it worth while unless you want to be sending out hundreds of low priced goods each week. You should always cover your bases with postage costs and try pricing your goods like a shop would ie. 14.95, 19.95. For some reason people prefer to bid on items like that instead of items that end in .99p or start at 1p with a high postage cost.

Also be honest about where you are sending it from and how long it might take to get there.

You need to either find a very cheap product with a high price or get yourself into a niche market. I sold bug zappers for a while and would make a few hundred baht on each but I just couldn't be arsed in the end as it was too much work and my proper job was taking a lot of my time up.

Edited June 24, 2006 by jimbob

[bolognamare]

Yes, it's a niche market, range price from 9.99 euro to infinite (depending from the customer needings).

I was thinking to natural products that can be reached in Los only.

Ebay is not only a selling instrument, it is a big shop window that can be reached from a lot of people everywhere.

Today i have sold in Japan a dvd box (dvd is my field actually and i have an ebay-store as a power seller). Mainly i sell stuff in my living country (it's my second income).

I'm attracted from food e-commerce for final customers ("from thailand to your home").

Do you think can work?

Edited June 26, 2006 by bolognamare

[connor]

Hi

I am experienced in selling from thailand on ebay & be very careful. Postal costs are ok if you send by International Reg post. Takes about 5 to 7 days but very reliable however not insured!

A lot of sellers on ebay put in there details shipment take up to 14 days from cleared funds.

Main problem u will incounter will not be with ebay so much but paypal. Because u will be signing in from Thailand they will get the IP & suspend u as Thailand is not on there favoured countries lists. You can accept but can only withdraw to a US bank account, do not sign into Paypal from Thailand, call them & they will confirm this fact. Ebay will also suspend saying your account has been hijacked however will reinstate following live help comms. They will ask many security questions so make sure all your details etc are on paper. They may want to call u as well so insure u have a contact number at all times when signing in.

Be very careful as paypal had 13k of my money for 180 days just because they suspected i was a fraudster signing in from Thailand. They do have a facility called auto sweep which clears funds daily to your account, they do not advertise this but it exists simply call them.

Get your ebay & paypal set up at home first, do not list to much in the first three months. Dont list copy stuff, make sure u never change to many details at once, Once you start siging in from Thailand only use one IP address at all times & never sign into paypal from there.

I would also watch out from what country you are selling from as i hear ebay/paypal now submit details to certain bodies once your sales increase. Some sellers assume as you sell outside the UK that the VAT etc is not due, not true its the revenue from sales/income etc that make the Vat etc due. Get an offshore account but make sure Paypal reconise the offshore country u use.

Hope that makes some sence lol.

[ChiangMaiThai]

Had a quick look at Ebay for items sold out of Thailand and it seems the majority is knockoff clothes - Armani and Dior t-shirts, football shirts. I though that was illegal, stopped by Ebay, causing your Paypal account to be shut down etc etc ... otoh, there seems to be plenty of activity in this market.

Nobody cares?

Ebay doesn't care. They are more than happy to collect millions upon millions of dollars in fees from those selling illegal products. All they care about is where they stand legally. As long as the rights owner is not contacting them, they will allow the listing to remain. Eventually most of those people will have their accounts suspended. But they may make a few hundred thousand baht before they are noticed/reported.

You can operate with ebay and paypal from thailand as long as you use the right proxy servers. Use the wrong one and your account is instantly suspended til you can confirm all your info. Always withdrawl from paypal daily. They don't hesitate to take care of your money for you if they suspect anything.

[solo siam]

Is this getting banned from paypal if logging in from thailand a new thing? Because I (the wife) ran an ebay store for some 6 months with 300+ transactions all done from Thailand on paypal.

If so, what happens if someone is on holiday here and they check their payapal account?

[Heng]

The info sounds dated. Thailand was added to the "ok" list about 1-2 years ago. In the past, proxies were required (but even then not allowed by Paypal). There is also no auto-sweep feature for new customers. It is a grand-fathered feature for those who registered 5-6+ years ago. I have it, but I was with them since the days when it was X.com

I log into Paypal just about every single day, withdrawing to US accounts, from Thailand with absolutely no issues. That said, one should definitely not keep funds (in any amounts that one would consider large: to each their own in terms of what is a large amount of funds) with Paypal.

It's great for small amounts AND legal businesses. Most of the folks I hear complaining about Paypal are those who can't provide faxed verification of their addresses, utility bills, telephone # etc. (that is, folks who for some reason feel this is some big secret or folks who try to use bank accounts or documents that aren't in their own name) when the occasional Paypal funds freeze happens. Don't sign up with fake info. or you're going to end up whinging, guaranteed.

[Smithson]

Most of the folks I hear complaining about Paypal are those who can't provide faxed verification of their addresses, utility bills, telephone # etc. (that is, folks who for some reason feel this is some big secret or folks who try to use bank accounts or documents that aren't in their own name) when the occasional Paypal funds freeze happens. Don't sign up with fake info. or you're going to end up whinging, guaranteed.

I wouldn't agree at all, the biggest complaints with PayPal seems to be their customer service. Whether you're a buyer or seller it's extremely difficult to contact them to resolve problems. If they freeze your account you can fax the requested info many times and they ask for more or say they didn't get it.

Sending from Thailand using registered air mail is a good way to lose money. There's no tracking info so you cannot prove the item was received. If a customer files a complaint with PayPal they will get their money refunded and you will be charged an extra $10.

Ebay is a buyers market, other sellers in Thailand can see what your selling and list it themselves, possibly undercutting you.

I would recommend using Ebay to get started and then see if you can move onto your own site for selling.

[Heng]

Most of the folks I hear complaining about Paypal are those who can't provide faxed verification of their addresses, utility bills, telephone # etc. (that is, folks who for some reason feel this is some big secret or folks who try to use bank accounts or documents that aren't in their own name) when the occasional Paypal funds freeze happens. Don't sign up with fake info. or you're going to end up whinging, guaranteed.

I wouldn't agree at all, the biggest complaints with PayPal seems to be their customer service. Whether you're a buyer or seller it's extremely difficult to contact them to resolve problems. If they freeze your account you can fax the requested info many times and they ask for more or say they didn't get it.

snip

I would recommend using Ebay to get started and then see if you can move onto your own site for selling.

Great advice. People have been doing that for a decade now.

And as mentioned, I'm only referring to the complaints about Paypal I hear or read personally. There are plenty of fraudsters out there and Paypal seems to lump everyone into the same category #1 that if there is a red flag: we'll assume you're a bad guy first so # 2 prepare to fax us a lot of stuff to verify who you are. From what I hear, a lot of people have a problem with #2 because of privacy concerns and often because they simply signed up with bogus info (and are therefore SOL): such as using a friend's address/phone #/ or bank account. They are improving their customer service (admittedly still horrendous). Before, they didn't even list customer service #'s. Now they do.

[thankuverybig]

the only thing i dont like about paypal at the moment is that they list your name on the invoice.it seems like you can remove your address.as long as you have a verified address & home bank account,i think its no problem.i would definitely rather use it,than offer my credit card number to somebody i dont know.

Edited June 27, 2006 by thankuverybig

[bolognamare]

Sending from Thailand using registered air mail is a good way to lose money. There's no tracking info so you cannot prove the item was received. If a customer files a complaint with PayPal they will get their money refunded and you will be charged an extra $10.

You can add a simple receipt that comes back to you with the customer sign (i usually do that for international shippings and i have never lost an item, i think that thai post uses them too), you can also provide a scanned copy of the shipment receipt and describe the shipping time in the item description on ebay (3-6 weeks for ex.).

If a customer wants to pay more for delivery he can choose another described way (like EMS, UPS, etc... more expensive of course, it depends from customers needings).

The main thing is to write correctly the item description, the address on the envelope and wait the feedback.

About Paypal have you ever read or experienced about european government controls about ebay stores? I have been asked too to provide documents to prove who i am (a private) and what i do and i have quickly solved the problem. But for me it's a second income, and taxes applied from ebay (located in Switzerland) are VAT only based (not income based too, and selling licenses are not requested from ebay to open a ebay store...). Is it only a matter of time that governments will start to make controls or is it a false problem?

Edited June 27, 2006 by bolognamare

[Chivas]

Why on earth should I not log onto my papyal account in Thailand.

Why would the account be suspended ??

I use paypal related to ebay for about 15% of monies of the incoming monies.

The rest comes from other activity whereby I use Paypal as a payment option.

I have never had a warning or otherwise and why should I ??

Chivas

Edited June 27, 2006 by Chivas

[steveromagnino]

Shipping costs, lost/stolen mail, long delivery times, possible customs fees.

And who wants to send money to some ebay dealer in Thailand anyway?

Not easy but some do OK.

A few do a LOT better than OK; the gems example is one - key is to be doing the right type of products that allow the seller to upgrade to using UPS type service; shipment of gems to USA is around 1000b+ oil surcharge for someone doing 100kg + a month (min size about 1kg; those top gem sellers probably are doing at least that every week). I recall someone from Ebay saying the top gem sellers on Ebay are mostly Thai.

I've sold in a similar situation (genuine stuff) on a similar market place (not ebay) when the USD was better than it is now; no one was ever aware or cared where the product came from, all they knew was it turned up 2-3 days after they ordered it, and that was about 2-3 days faster than what they had expected. Nothing ever lost, no custom fees (due to the product concerned) and guaranteed delivery.

If I was doing Ebay, I would recommend you just UPS or fedex or similar everything and it gets rid of a major headache; as The Skipper points out, all the lost/stolen/late stuff is a killer when you end up dealing with the customer.

Edited June 27, 2006 by steveromagnino

[bolognamare]

I have never had a warning or otherwise and why should I ??

If your account is located in European Union and you receive payments over 6500 euro by paypal you will be requested to send a fax with your ID and an house parcel (for ex. gas) to verify your address and you will be requested to fill a form where you say what kind of activity you do. It's a matter of Eurpean Union Law to avoid money-cleaning. You have 180 days to realize that. So i think it's better to set up everything from your living country than i think you can manage it well from Los too.

About gems (or high priced items) i think that in this case you need to do custom declarations (with UPS too) and you could risk to see your incomes eaten from custom fees.

Do you know that insurances on deliveries do not work if you haven't a regular bill (a lot of people discover it later...)?

I think that it's better the "gift" way, better little incomes that can give 2-3.000 euro/month.

How? for example selling 12-20 items/day that give you 5,00 euro of clean income (15,00 euro the final price) : 5,00x20x30=3.000

Of course it's an ideal solution, but in Los (if you don't have debits to pay in your living country) you can live with less than the half of this and you can manage everything alone (2-3 working hours/day). You need only a laptop, an ADSL connection, a credit card linked to your european/american bank account (you don't need an offshore company or an offshore bank) and a post office near to your living place and 10-100 products to sell (easy to reach them near to your living place).

For example selling stuff bought to the Pantip in Bangkok could be an electronic-way...

Post your ideas guys!

Edited June 27, 2006 by bolognamare

[poorfarang]

I have a thai paypal account and have no trouble using my account here in thailand. I set it up using a Thai visa card and my USA bank account.

[ChiangMaiThai]

Is this getting banned from paypal if logging in from thailand a new thing? Because I (the wife) ran an ebay store for some 6 months with 300+ transactions all done from Thailand on paypal.

If so, what happens if someone is on holiday here and they check their payapal account?

Eventually, they will suspend it and ask for proof that you have a US address. They will want credit card statement and utility bill. If you don't have it, they will shut down the account and tell you to get a Thai paypal account.

[ChiangMaiThai]

Why on earth should I not log onto my papyal account in Thailand.

Why would the account be suspended ??

I use paypal related to ebay for about 15% of monies of the incoming monies.

The rest comes from other activity whereby I use Paypal as a payment option.

I have never had a warning or otherwise and why should I ??

Chivas

If it is not a Thai paypal account, eventually they will ask you to prove your foreign residence. If you can't, game over. It took them about 18 months with me.

[lannarebirth]

I will not do business with any business that has no alternative to Paypal for receiving funds. I have had nothing but problems with that company, both in the US and here. Feeling others must have had similar experiences, I put my money where by sentiments are and I shorted the stock a month ago. I expect class actions lawsuits against EBAY in the future and likely fraud, money laundering and fencing charges as well.

http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=EBAY&p=D&...id=p76532907040

Sorry for the rant on your thread. Good luck with your business.

Edited June 27, 2006 by lannarebirth

[Smithson]

Sending from Thailand using registered air mail is a good way to lose money. There's no tracking info so you cannot prove the item was received. If a customer files a complaint with PayPal they will get their money refunded and you will be charged an extra $10.

You can add a simple receipt that comes back to you with the customer sign (i usually do that for international shippings and i have never lost an item, i think that thai post uses them too), you can also provide a scanned copy of the shipment receipt and describe the shipping time in the item description on ebay (3-6 weeks for ex.).

If a customer wants to pay more for delivery he can choose another described way (like EMS, UPS, etc... more expensive of course, it depends from customers needings).

The main thing is to write correctly the item description, the address on the envelope and wait the feedback.

I've been told that as an international seller (outside US) you have absolutely no protection against chargebacks. I believe this is true.

In the past 4 years I've had 3 chargebacks, all successful. The buyers claimed the item was never received. In both cases I have emails from the customers saying the item was received and they are happy. In one case the buyer had bought another item and in the PayPal message field wrote, "Got the item , pls send this one asap".

The new item was and 1 month later they filed chargebacks for both. The same person had filed 60 chargebacks in 1 month and was obviuosly a fraud, but they still got their money back.

I still use PayPal, but don't accept large amounts, especially from customers I've had little or no experience with. Instead I offer a 4% discount and ask for bank transfers.

PayPal will tell you chargebacks are rare, which is true because most ppl are honest or aren't aware how easy it is to get their money back.

Bottom line with ecommerce from Thailand is sellers are extremely vulnerable if accepting credit cards.

[Heng]

Why on earth should I not log onto my papyal account in Thailand.

Why would the account be suspended ??

I use paypal related to ebay for about 15% of monies of the incoming monies.

The rest comes from other activity whereby I use Paypal as a payment option.

I have never had a warning or otherwise and why should I ??

Chivas

If it is not a Thai paypal account, eventually they will ask you to prove your foreign residence. If you can't, game over. It took them about 18 months with me.

It's not a problem with those who ACTUALLY HAVE foreign residences. As mentioned above, it's those who sign up with bogus information (using their friend's address, college address, fake phone numbers, etc.) who get permanently frozen.

If you have a home in the US, UK, Australia, wherever (on Paypal's approved countries for local bank withdrawal list), you CAN have a Paypal account and log in from Thailand. But yes, it's possible that you may have to prove it once in awhile. Myself, I have had to do it ONE time in about 8 years.

[solo siam]

I disagree, The registered mail system in Thailand is excellent and it is tracked out of thailand and in some cases (the US) into other countries, although this may not be the info that Paypal insists on, in fact as someone sending from Thailand you would always lose that sort of a paypal dispute anyhow.

We sent out 100-200 parcels around the world as small packet (1/2 the price) registered air mail, Every single item made it, sometimes quickly (4 days) sometimes late (36 days) but mostly in the 2-3 weeks timeframe. Had one piece returned to me from the USA because the buyer had moved.

If you can find something small and easy to mail (under 1kg is best) and make some money on it then ebay may be useful. You can find the Thai postal rates at www.thailandpost.com I believe.

[Smithson]

I disagree, The registered mail system in Thailand is excellent and it is tracked out of thailand and in some cases (the US) into other countries, although this may not be the info that Paypal insists on, in fact as someone sending from Thailand you would always lose that sort of a paypal dispute anyhow.

We sent out 100-200 parcels around the world as small packet (1/2 the price) registered air mail, Every single item made it, sometimes quickly (4 days) sometimes late (36 days) but mostly in the 2-3 weeks timeframe. Had one piece returned to me from the USA because the buyer had moved.

If you can find something small and easy to mail (under 1kg is best) and make some money on it then ebay may be useful. You can find the Thai postal rates at www.thailandpost.com I believe.

I wasn't trying to say the Thai postal system was poor, from my experience it's excellent.

My point is that you are not convered in anyway, so any buyer at any time within a few months can have their money refunded, because sellers in Thailand have no protection.

[bolognamare]

I still use PayPal, but don't accept large amounts, especially from customers I've had little or no experience with. Instead I offer a 4% discount and ask for bank transfers.

To receive payments in Italy I use a prepaid VISA ELEKTRON credit card that is sold from Post Office (the card name is POSTEPAY), it's very useful because buyers pay only 1,00 euro for transaction and they can send me money without problems (they need only my name and surname and the 12 credit card numbers) from every post office or online (if linked to a post bank account). There is a limit of 2.000 euro but it's my favourite way to receive payments, the secondary one is paypal.

Of course Ebay dislike this POSTEPAY way (no fees to its Paypal, but it's enough to hide it on item descriptions and communicate it directly to customers).

Have you ever heard of something similar in other countries (VISA credit cards rechargable from customers without a bank account)?

I don't trust wire transfer directly to my bank account because i have heard about a lot of scams that can be done simply with a fax and my sign (false) sent to my bank. A lot of firms have lost a lot of money worldwide and refunds in the most cases are not paid from banks (they should admit their mistakes).

Edited June 28, 2006 by bolognamare