I've sold several items on e-bay and when I sell, I limit bidding to US bidders. No real issues shipping to Alaska or Hawaii. Invariably, given the nature of the items I sold, I would get requests to sell to overseas bidders.
I don't care to deal with the customs forms, having to figure out shipping or having to deal with the delays in overseas delivery. If I were selling as a business, I would probably feel differently about it.
The one time I did sell overseas (Eastern Europe), everything went just fine, except the item got held up in the other country's customs for over a week. No doubt I worried more than the buyer, but I did get some e-mails about the delay and I did fret quite a bit over it because I felt it was my responsibility to get the valuable item to the buyer (not simply to get the item in the mail). On the other hand I have never had a problem with the US mail.
Bottom line, selling within the US was simply a lot less stressful for me (albeit likely at the expense of larger profits).
Doug
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