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Subject: Re: Collector's Corner...Advice needed on purchases from Europe

Author: Steve B

Date: 15:15:04 04/19/05

Go up one level in this thread


well this is certainly a detailed auditor like  question
:)
i will attmept to answer all parts from my own personal experience
here goes:


>I have yet to purchase a chess computer from a European seller, but there have
>been several I have been interested in.  Much of my reluctance is because I have
>  Stuff like, did you use surface or air
>shipping? Any problems with either, as far as damage goes?

ALWAYS use Air  NEVER surface

surface although cheaper can take up to two months to arrive from countries like
Germany or Italy
Air will take less then two weeks
Air is very reliable and i have never had an item go lost on me
Surface was also pretty reliable but i have had a few items never show up

the shipping costs vary wildy from country to country with the UK being far and
away the most expensive for overseas shipping
Germany is pretty reasonable and about the same as here in the US and the same
for Canada and Austrailia


   Is insurance>available and is it available to a level high enough to cover
the more expensive>items?  Have you ever had to file a claim?

insurance is available but must be requested by the buyer
the seller will then insure it when he ships
it can be as high as you like and you will pay for it

but personally i never take out insurance
i went through the process once of filing a claim and it literally took more
then a year and in the end i got less then half of my purchase price
i think if a seller knows you have insurance he is less likely to come to an
agreeable resolution of a lost item then if you dont have insurance
the few times a computer was lost on me the sellers eventually agreed to refund
a good part of the price and it was settled in a matter of a few months and not
years
 whereas the one time i i lost an item that was insured  the seller sat back and
let the insurance company go at it

my advice for whats its worth to you..
skip the insurance


 Does PayPal take care of all of the
>exchange rates?

yes they do
when you pay with Paypal you simply indicate Euros (for example)
then the seller will receive this exact amount and you will be charged the US
Dollar equivilant


> What do you do when the seller does not use PayPal?

this is much more of a pain
if the seller wont take Paypal then he will  take a direct transfer into his
bank account
you can go to your bank to make the transfer but its a time consuming process
and the bank fees are pretty hefty

the best thing here is to have someone you know in Europe who will take Paypal
make the transfer for you

it dosent have to be a person from the same country
so for example if you win a computer from Germany it will not be very hard for a
person from the UK to make the transfer
then you can reimburse them with Paypal
just yesterday i won a rare Yeno from France and the seller will only accept a
direct transfer
so i asked a friend and fellow collector from Europe to pay for me and he did
of course i arranged this with my friend well before i bid on the auction

All in All my acquisitions from abroad have gone pretty much smoothly
it just takes a bit longer to finally receive the computer
no immediate gratification when buying from abroad
:)

International Regards
Steve



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