The big difference is – the odd retail sale to Britain makes next to no difference to most companies in the EU, while for the shipper a sizeable volume was at risk, so they had to solve it.
The seller with a sizeable volume has no problem anyway if he wants to sell to the UK post-brexit because (a) B2B is exempt and (b) sales over £135 are exempt.
One issue is that many companies on the mainland aren’t going to know this. I’ve read stuff on other (tech) forums which showed that people (retail-facing traders) picked up some hysterical stuff about selling to the UK and thought it was basically too difficult to bother with.
We did this topic previously – here. AFAICT it is perfectly possible for a mainland seller to simply ignore this and stick the package in the mail/courier; the customer will still get it, just later, and with an extra amount to pay. That is how international trade (both retail and B2B) has worked since for ever.
The registration requirement is a dumb move by UK HMRC. Their reasoning was not unreasonable – protecting UK businesses from unfair competition, while collecting some £££ in VAT – but whichever bunch of narrow-minded morons implemented this, they failed to understand that basically nobody on the mainland will bother to register with UK HMRC, given that simply not selling to “brexit UK which dislikes Europe (another dumb but not unusual stereotype – example)” is so much easier 
In the retail business you rarely have a customer buy twice, so fobbing off any single customer is an intellectually easy action to take. In B2B, repeat business is very much essential so nobody with a brain will do that.
I had no problem with buying from UK , via Ebay or other,
See other thread; Ebay and Amazon are among the retail platforms which implement the VAT collection transparently. They do this for the US and other non-EU countries also.
have to pay substantial shipping costs – were high before also
No change there; airmail costs the same. The only change for my business, selling to the EU, is that previously we used one Royal Mail website and now we use another Royal Mail website which prints off a label with “INVOICE” on it, which you stick on the package. But this is something which is common in 2021, with other countries; it looks like the various post offices around the world did a big change, coincident with brexit but not really related. The old customs declaration sticker is now dead.
The USA is another ridiculous case as the seller is expected to show that goods may not be critical and not suitable for turning into terrorist weapons
That’s always been an issue in certain product areas
so reportedly extra costs for the seller
Only if the seller is charging extra to cover himself for breaking ITAR or whatever 
– very unlikely a US seller would do that. As unlikely as getting a US seller to give you an undervalue invoice – something which is pretty well normal in much of Europe, for exports to sufficiently distant customers
and excuse for astronomic P&P from there
That has always been there, and is usually the result of a lazy seller using an “international fulfilment company”. I once had to pay some $250 postage on a specialised BNC-type connector, worth about $20. This arises because a US company, even a huge one, can make a living selling just in the US. Many of us struggle with this regularly with aviation parts… hence Aircraft Spruce EU (Sandelving GmbH) makes a nice living, adding a big markup It is the same thing as a German company, unless sizeable, and certainly any of the countless small family-owned German businesses, can totally avoid selling outside Germany, if the sector is one where Germany is strong (e.g. industrial control). And for same reasons it is very hard to sell into Germany, in these sectors, but that’s another topic.
A lot of this stuff is cultural (language, attitudes of “old” businessmen, etc). Been doing this since 1978, worldwide…
Bear in mind that many consumers have no idea about VAT on entry. So they order from overseas, and get a bill from the post office/courier plus an admin fee, and get very upset that their “bargain top” turns out to be expensive.
This is clearly the customers fault. However they are annoyed and get onto social media and leave 1 start negative reviews (nearly all reviews are 1 start or 5 stars! Little compromise!).
If foreign sales is only a small part of your business, then these negative reviews just aren’t worth it, and you’re better off preserving your high customer satisfaction rating.
Ebay don´t collect VAT at all
For intra-EU business they don’t. For international transactions they offer a smooth service to sellers, taking care of destination duties and taxes.
Cobalt wrote:
Sure, but what I have personally experienced a few times is that companies offer to ship to everywhere in the world (including US, China, etc.) but have for some reason decided to explicitly exclude delivery to the UK.
Amazon for instance does the same with Switzerland. They ship books but next to nothing else. Quite a few people need to get post boxes inGermany or elsewhere if they want to receive Amazon stock.
We have pretty much stopped ordering from them unless there is nobody else who supplies the said goods.
Interestingly, the Chinese and Taiwanese do not appear to find this a problem. Wish and Ali flood our market with products we used to get from Amazon.
LeSving wrote:
If the options are either consensus or ignoration, then this basically means “agree or shut up”. This is fine if those who shut up do it as a gest to “preserve peace”, in the sense that everybody is entitled to their opinion, no matter how wild it is. However, it could also be that people do care – and – disagree strongly, but still shut up or moderate themselves because disagreement is always taken on a personal level, as a personal attack. Is the latter one civilized discussion? Not really.
No.
It is about civil discourse.
People can violently disagree on things but they can still be civil and discuss other issues in an agreeable manner without personal attacks primarily. That is the main thing about it.
It’s happened a lot that I disagree with someone here. Yet I hardly ever got into the situation where I honestly felt animosity against anyone, primarily because people here discuss things on a level where they will reckognize the other’s right to disagreement. We all are united in our interest in aviation and while we may disagree on certain subjects, at least for me the main goal of my participation here is to learn from others and contribute what I can.
Regarding the debate whether Ebay handles VAT, this has just come through email from them:
Previously Ebay was offering a service where all import duty and VAT was prepaid, and this was good for US imports because it avoided getting ripped off on the Royal Mail surcharge for collecting it.
Interesting the above starts 1st July. A lot of mainland sellers stopped selling to the UK on 1st January. Further digging finds there was a transition period which ends 1st July, so these “traders” didn’t even want to look at it
That said, I have no idea how to share an IOSS number
Silvaire wrote:
I don’t think it’s understandable at all, it is not the role of government to arbitrarily enact totalitarian laws in reaction to natural health phenomena without due process and time limits, or at all.
Some other people do not think it is understandable that countries/states enact totalitarian laws that limit the rights to walk naked in public (very natural), have drinks (or only carry bottles openly) on public places, have adult people to agree to pay money for sex, etc.
Different countries have different social norms. And again: At any given point in time the majority of Germans on balance thought that the measures taken are the right ones. So where is the problem?
And now I will jump in my car and drive home contemplating about the question how people could seriously live in a totalitarian country that arbitrarily restricts their freedom of driving on highways to below 85mph (so basically parking not driving) ;-)
A key element of a liberal democracy is to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority.
