Buying from ebay.de - anyone in Germany?
 

I was scanning the ads on ebay.de and came across a guy who's apparently offloading a bunch of NEW W123 coupe parts. They just got posted Sat or Sun, so the bids may go up and it might become irrelevant.

I e-mailed and asked if he would ship to the US, but he declined.

Specific items I'd want would be the new(!) coupe seat frame and the new door and window gaskets. The seat frame may get too pricey, right now it's over 40 euros, but the gaskets are still less than 10 euros.

If the price of coupe gaskets is really about $500 each, new, even with higher shipping costs, it'd be a smoking deal if the price for the gaskets doesn't climb too much.

Any suggestions for a purchase? Do you think I can work a pre-paid shipping deal with DHL so all the seller needs to do is drop off a small, lightweight package of rubber parts? Anyone in Germany willing to be a middleman?

Does the seller take Paypal? I've bought a number of things on German Ebay but purchasing practices in Germany are different than the US. For instance, I've never found a German who would take a check. They rely on direct bank deposits instead of checks. So if you talk to your bank and offer a direct bank deposit the seller may be willing to ship to the US. At least that's what I did. I also sent Euros directly thru the mail to Germany. This is a dicey practice from the buyer's point of view but it was a part which was difficult to obtain elsewhere so I took the risk.

I bought a Webasto fuel pump off ebay.de. I used paypal and everything went through perfectly.

Just make sure you contact any seller on ebay.de and make sure they'll send to the US. I had to use one of those free online text translation sites to speak to the seller. Good luck!

I have noticed and experienced that a lot of the private sellers on ebay.de still use a bank-transfer (Uberweisung) for payment, some of them do not even bother of investigating what it will cost to ship it to their neigbouring country within Europe or come up with an amount that is about twice what they have to pay.

I could talk to my friends Sonya and Oliver for you. Maybe they can be your middle men. They live in Stuttgart. Where does the seller live?


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i don't want to be imposing or too direct or be considered an unthinking, impolite person here, but, is this something they'd consider doing for other forum members or more regularly?

they could even charge a little for their troubles....

i only ask because i've had to pass up some good things in both germany and the u.k. because the seller won't even consider selling out of the E.U.

it would be great to have someone on the "inside" to help get some of these wonderful euro and original parts!

Hi, I'm in the UK and would be happy to send bits to the US for a modest fee for my time, or some help in getting Craftsman stuff :)

I've bought stuff from Ebay Germany before and usually there's no problem, though as another poster said sometimes postage can be high.

You can just order direct from China!

German private auction will usually not do paypal or ship to US. Having to deal with DHL, customs and VAT is just to much for some people I guess.

I just have my mom bring stuff back with her. I'd loved to be a fly on the wall when she got pulled aside to explain my euro headlights....

I had no problem getting my 5spd shifter from Ebay.de. the shipping was about $40. it takes about 10-15 working days. DHL hands it off to US postal service so you get a USPS tracking number with a DHL header. BTW, it cant be looked up on DHL tracking :o which was a source of great anxiety for me. but next time I will know to use the USPS site.

I have bought from ebay.de for over 10 years and had no problems.

Most sellers speak English or have friends that do. It is widely taught in school.

Paypal is the easiest to pay, for small things I sent US dollars and it always made it.

My experience is that in Germany they are very honest.

There's no indication the seller accepts PayPal and he did already say in an e-mail "Kein Versand nach America" which means he won't ship it here. His preferred payments are cash or direct deposit.

He's a private seller with a whopping 9 items or so sold, so this is clearly not something he does for a living. I've seen ads from businesses on ebay.de that accept PayPal and ship to the US, but unfortunately that's not the case here.

I've PM'd a few people who said they might be able to help and I'll keep an eye on the prices. If they climb too much, then it won't be an issue. My basic plan would be I bid, buy and pay direct to him through bank transfer; he ships to the middleman in Europe, then they ship to me and I reimburse or pre-pay to DHL and pay a bonus for the middleman's effort.

i've bought plenty of stuff from ebay germany and the u.k. however, there have been a couple sellers who outright refused to sell to someone in the states :mad:. i had my hands on a complete set of w123 headlight wipers and wiring, euro coupe bumpers, and euro corners, that is until i asked the seller about shipping to the u.s. he said he couldn't help me, with no explaination, and wouldn't return any more e-mails about it.

that's the only reason i'd be interested in a middle man, for those last few hold outs.

maybe in the EU they are always getting emails from Americans telling them that they won the lottery, are getting a $3bn inheritance, are the heir to a long lost throne in Scameria....

=)

Hopefully someone can grab this complete 5 speed conversion kit. Looks like it includes the linkage, 5 speed, crossmember, driveshaft, slave cylinder, flywheel. It's at $1 with 4 days left. It's some sort of shop selling this.

http://cgi.ebay.de/Mercedes-Benz-W123-5-Gang-Getriebe-zum-Nachruesten-TOP_W0QQitemZ280392476140QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAutoteile_Zubeh%C3%B6r?hash=item4148b1a5ec&_trksid=p3286 .c0.m14