EBAY selling from Spain

Hi all

Is there anyone there who has a business selling through ebay? I am hoping to move to Spain soon but I rely on my ebay sales to exist and my main worry is the postal services, I need to send small items around the world and I have heard that the Spanish postal service is not up to scratch. Can anyone  tell me their experiences?

Nick

Many people here run business in Ebay, so it must be no problem.

If Correos doesn´t work according to your needs, you can work with any major courier company, lots of them here, including the international ones. Look here for a comparator: packlink

Hope it helps, cheers. 

Thank you for that, unfortunatey I send out about 50 to 100 large letters a day, so a courier would not do, I have to use the post system.

Hi I have done this, sending to Spain,  but not to much from Spain to the UK using the mail system, the best I can come up with is it seems to be a 50/50 service both ways, last item to Spain was some small car parts, never arrived to the person in Spain, a friend bought an electric blanket from a major store in the UK over the internet and arrived within the week, another times I have sent parts and they arrived in less then 10 days, others have sent Christmas cards from Spain  weeks before Christmas and we got them in time for Easter, not always though.

I have no idea and never found out if it's the UK end or Spain's end that items get lost in.

When I have done from Spain to the UK I have often used these guys that advertise vans going back and forth, never had any problems with them, cost might be your factor though but if it's a very small item a couple of quid does the trick.

Might be some help to you.

Hi

It could work out more expensive so you want to take that into account. The post office here in Spain has an excellent website, and this is the link. It is available in English so you can check out the details easily. Also, you need a Spanish bank account to be able to trade in Spain and receive payments through Paypal. To receive over a certain amount in Spain per year, you need to register with your electricity bill and your NIE number. You will be liable for tax so be aware of that, and most professional Spanish eBayers are considered as self-employed, a status which is more expensive than in the UK. I work online and receive all payments by Paypal, the payments are then  transferred into my Spanish bank account. And yes, I do pay tax and National Insurance in Spain 

Also remember that the UK is exiting the EU. You may only have a business which is viable for a couple of years, and then the end user of your business may be subject to VAT and import duty. Could you use a UK fulfilment service??? As you are not sending any goods from Spain, you would in that case not need to be resgistered as self employed in Spain, but you would need private health insurance.

Cheers

Annie

Tony down the pub said ....if you run a business in Spain vat is chargeable on the first euro and you must register as self employed, currently a self employed person pays around €250 per month N.I contributions .

My post problem is that I sell mainly small cheap items (1-5 pounds) as well as more expensive ones. At the moment from the UK I send uk mail by first class and it arrived the next day, for US, Europe and Australia I send international standard which takes up to two weeks.

When I do move to Spain, I will loose a lot of UK customers because they want it the next day, but I hope to pick up more European customers as they will get them quicker, assuming the post can deliver large envelopes quickly.

All items are sent in large envelopes for secuity reasons, very rarely do I need to send a parcel.