Not sure I trust this new system.. I will probably continue to offer international shipping as long as possible and fill out forms myself. I don't like the idea of eBay acting as a "middle man" or import jobber or whatever you want to call it. It could only result in added costs to both the buyer and seller. The buyer has to pay possibly unnecessary customs fees up front (USPS generally is very lenient and the customs offices of most destination countries would generally just follow the "gift" and whatever dollar amount filled in by the seller whereas this would be done likely "by the book" and amounts would be considered retail sales, and they would have to pay according to the sales price and possibly the total including shipping costs). The seller, who now must pay fees according to sale price PLUS shipping costs, now has to pay eBay even more out of the amount paid from buyer. Another distinct disadvantage to buyer and seller is the fact that everything has to stop at another location, one sometimes totally out of the way, and subject items to potential damage through unnecessary and possibly redundant package handling en route.
I think I can see the advantages to eBay: 1)they can transform all sellers into potential international sellers 2)they get a larger fees amount from every international transaction 3)They can potentially grow their market share as has been previously noted from Amazon and other international sellers. 4)They get customs jobber's fees from each transaction.
The advantage to the customs offices of the various destination countries would be a more streamlined customs process whereby they entrust all that stuff's customs fees to be paid in a lump sum by ebay (buyers) and just rush the merchandize to the mailing system to be delivered.
