svenkateshsmart
Well-Known Member
Hi,
The differences are ebay.in has a buyer protection program called paisapay and ebay.com has "paypal." In ebay.in, the seller has to ship within 7 days, and in ebay.com, within 10 days.
Regarding buying from ebay.com, i.e., US. Very few sellers, especially huge resellers and wholesale resellers, will have the option for worldwide shipping, and majority will not offer overseas shipping. Even if the seller ships to India, he will take care of only the shipping charges and not the customs. You will have to take care of the customs. For example, if the item is shipped through USPS, then if it is stuck at customs, you will receive a memo and you may have to go there personally and get it cleared or using an agent. If the seller ships the item through a freight forwarder or companies like DHL, Fedex, they will pay the customs and other charges on behalf of you and door-deliver the item after collecting the necessary charges from you, which will be, of course, exuberant.
Two options when buying from a US seller
1. Wholesale/retail seller - No escape from duty, as they will attach original invoice and they will not undervalue the item under any circumstances.
2. Individual sellers - Most of them will be okay to undervalue the items, and yes, you can save a lot from customs, but there is a risk involved in getting damaged items, etc., as the seller will know that we would not go beyond our limits to solve problems or return the items all the way back to us. There is a possibility of getting cheated.
To avoid the hassle in the second option, you can use a freight forwarding company like Borderlinx, comgateway, globeshopper, vpost, etc., who will provide you with a local US address and you can get the item shipped to that address and get it delivered to your doorstep and so the seller will not take chance to cheat you. Otherwise, while dealing with individual sellers, you can get your item shipped to a local US address of your friends or relatives, get the item tested, remove the original invoice and ask them to ship the item to India using USPS with a bonafide letter stating that it is a gift.
Also, whether the item is used or new, it is immaterial as far as the customs duty goes. Importing an used item is prohibited and the customs has the right to confiscate the item, with the only exception of "capital goods", which are, for example, machineries, sewing machine, power tools, etc.
There is a thread started by me to calculate the customs value, regardless of the items you buy other than a laptop or cellphone, you will be paying close to 25% to 30% depending on the nature of the item.
I hope this helps!
Cheers!
