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Original Post
You quote Andy Mowery as saying: "As long as you don't use USPS First Class Mail, everything can be tracked—and in some countries, right to the buyer's door!".
Two problems with this statement:
1. First class international is the ONLY reasonably priced way to mail light weight parcels overseas. Parcel post is far, far too expensive for a piece of jewelry costing a few dollars, for example. I ship quite a few items internationally each week and very rarely is it reasonable to require the customer to pay the much higher fees for priority or express mail.
2. Priority mail international does NOT include tracking. Express mail is the only class of international mail with tracking. The USPS site contains some language saying that information about delivery "may" be available for priority packages to some countries under some circumstances, but a shipper counting on priority mail international to provide the information necessary to qualify for Paypal's seller protection is likely to be disappointed in the even the customer files a claim for nonreceipt.
3. Priority mail does NOT require a signature upon delivery, so it does not meet Paypal's seller protection requirements for a signature (viewable online) for packages with a value of more than $250.
I have found that the safest way to ship packages weighing less than 4 pounds internationally is to use first class international and insure through shipsurance.com (which offers insurance to most, but not all, countries at a fraction of the cost of USPS insurance).
Selling internationally is riskier than selling within the US, but it can be worth the risk if you do the research to be sure that you are eliminating risks that are within your control. A seller who ships high value items internationally without carefully evaluating the risk is asking for serious trouble.
Two problems with this statement:
1. First class international is the ONLY reasonably priced way to mail light weight parcels overseas. Parcel post is far, far too expensive for a piece of jewelry costing a few dollars, for example. I ship quite a few items internationally each week and very rarely is it reasonable to require the customer to pay the much higher fees for priority or express mail.
2. Priority mail international does NOT include tracking. Express mail is the only class of international mail with tracking. The USPS site contains some language saying that information about delivery "may" be available for priority packages to some countries under some circumstances, but a shipper counting on priority mail international to provide the information necessary to qualify for Paypal's seller protection is likely to be disappointed in the even the customer files a claim for nonreceipt.
3. Priority mail does NOT require a signature upon delivery, so it does not meet Paypal's seller protection requirements for a signature (viewable online) for packages with a value of more than $250.
I have found that the safest way to ship packages weighing less than 4 pounds internationally is to use first class international and insure through shipsurance.com (which offers insurance to most, but not all, countries at a fraction of the cost of USPS insurance).
Selling internationally is riskier than selling within the US, but it can be worth the risk if you do the research to be sure that you are eliminating risks that are within your control. A seller who ships high value items internationally without carefully evaluating the risk is asking for serious trouble.