The "ship only to Germany" is the default setting in the german eBay and I doubt that most sellers would really refuse to send their items abroad if you ask them directly and offer to pay the addional shipping costs. Shipping parts to the US is not more work then shipping to another town in Germany. But it's pretty expensive. Airmail with arrival confirmation for a 1kg package costs around 20EUR. It's different with complete bikes. Usually the eBay sellers use the german "Hermes Versand" which offers a dedicated bike shipping. Very attractive for the seller is that they pick up the bike at the sellers location directly as it is, unpacked without any box. They cover it with a large plastic bag and the seller has no hassle with packing or even cleaning the bike. That this approach is often not the best one for the buyer is another story - but from the seller's point of view this can't be beaten. Therefore it probably requires some effort to convince the seller to find a box, pack the bike and ship it to the US. But try it, most people here understand english, at least the message "Hello, would you sell your bicycle also to America, if I pay all costs?" should be deciphered, and a "Yes" or "No" managable. I would prefer this instead of a babelfish translation.
Besides I'd be glad if I can be of any help, dealing with german eBay sellers, (if my schedule permits). I mean translating a desription or asking more specific questions, maybe even trying to convince sellers to ship abroad. But what I won't do is buying stuff I'm not interested in myself and forwarding it to list members. I've done this before and get such a request from time to time, but if something goes wrong, and this seems to happen more often recently, I don't want to be in the middle of it.
Any interest in a standard german text like "Lieber eBayer wuerden Sie auch,..." ("Dear seller would you....")
Dirk
-- Dirk Feeken sunny cold Heidelberg Germany
-----original message----- Von: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] Im Auftrag von David Bilenkey Gesendet: Mittwoch, 17. Dezember 2003 03:32 An: Classic Rendezvous Betreff: [CR]RE:German eBay, WAS: 50th anniversary equipped bike
While I'd really love to bid on this (and many of the other apparent deals Steven points out on German eBay) I can't help but be put off by the 'will only ship to Germany' and the various difficulties in paying and the cost of shipping from there to here. My last 'deal' from Germany was a cool set of off-topic Modolo ALX-90 brakes that my bid amounted to $19 CDN and ended up costing me just shy of $80 CDN after the transfer fees and postage all added up! :-(
What do others on the list do, or not do, or think about this conundrum? No being even remotely capable in German I would feel severely hamstrung in any attempts to deal clearly as I would with any English speaking seller anywhere in the world. And not blessed with relatives that I could saddle with the pick up or sending duties on that side of the world....
And all this to say that I don't want Steven to stop pointing out these finds across the pond, but it amounts to an enormous tease for me at the moment. I can look and only dream of touching! :-P
David Bilenkey Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
> -----Original Message-----
> From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org
> [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org]On Behalf Of
> themaaslands@comcast.net
> Sent: December 16, 2003 8:27 PM
> To: Classic Rendezvous
> Subject: [CR]50th anniversary equipped bike
>
>
> There was recently some discussion about the value of the 50th
> anniversary gruppo from Campagnolo. Here is a buy it now gruppo
> on a Colnago frame for considerably less than the amount of the
> gruppo then discussed alone.
>
> http://cgi.ebay.de/
>
>
> --
> Steven Maasland
> Moorestown, NJ