I have been looking at MV lamps on Ebay and have been suprised at the high prices these lamps are going for! I am mostly looking for some decent 175W lamps, really want clear. Just want to stock up on enough to keep a few fixtures running D2D someday. Also want to find a few clear 250W IF I can, just bought 12 coated 250s. And a few 400W, probably coated but maybe clear. And a few 100W lamps, medium base. If anybody has any of these they might sell please let me know. I am going to have to stock up gradually because I don't have much money to spare!

If you have any interest in 175W DX, I can give you a good deal on a couple new-condition BT28 Sylvania or Westinghouse lamps.  Unfortunately I don't have many spare clear lamps.

I'm going to be posting some clear MVL's on eBay soon...I did post them here, but no one paid attention to them, so to eBay they go...

Honestly if you do i may snag one, its much easier to go through ebay’s system than DMs (remember to not use global shipping program though)

If I'm going to sell to another LG member, I'd rather use PayPal and send direct...
On eBay, I'm only selling to other US residents at this time...no international sales due to Hg lamp issues. 

I've bought and sold a few lamps directly from members, and it wasn't overly complicated.  Usually I've used PayPal so it's not much different than buying from eBay.  Obviously you need to keep in mind that Lighting-Gallery does not offer any kind of purchase protection, so be cautious as you would be with any other private sale.  I might end up listing some lamps on eBay at some point, but for now I'm trying to distribute my surplus by posting in my For Sale album (and sometimes linking from the For Sale board as well).  I'm not going be making big bucks selling here that's for sure, and a decent portion of what little I'm charging will go back into packing supplies.  Unfortunately with the price of postage being what it is for an individual without discounts, it's tough to keep it affordable, especially while ensuring adequate padding to prevent breakage.  But hopefully it'll free up a little of my storage space and get some unique lamps into the hands of folks who'll appreciate them.

One way that North American mercury vapor lamps could get shipped internationally is to try using alternative forwarders.

Keep in mind that eBay takes a cut too (I think 30%) so if you want to do the purchase on there instead of LG, be prepared to pay a bit more. For that reason reason I'd rather buy items from a LG member using PMs instead of going through eBay. No need to give eBay any more money than I need too.

Yeah, don't attempt to send any HID lamp through eBay's "International Shipping" they seem to block it and worse, they usually just end up confiscating the lamp claiming it's too hard to return it to the seller. Apparently they either destroy it or for items they can resell, attempt to resell it using a 3rd party. Easiest would be to set international shipping to "contact seller" and ship direct.

I've bought and traded some stuff on here between members and it wasn't too complicated. Usually PayPal is used to send/receive funds but I suppose for within Canada stuff I'd be willing to use Interact e-transfer. If you're shipping out internationally you will have to fill in a customs form but it's pretty straightforward and I usually just put in something vague like "vintage light bulb". You can also prefill it online with most shipping companies now.

 

Yeah Canada Post is fairly lax in inspecting parcels. Parcels with a value of $40 or less from the US or $20 or less internationally are tax exempt so that's probably the reason. For a parcel marked "gift" the exempt value is $60. In practice, they seem to not bother with checking parcels under $100. I suppose the cost to inspect everything is less than what they'll make back in import taxes so they don't bother.

Private companies on other hand would make more of an effort at inspected packages especially when they get a cut from brokerage fees and the like. eBay international shipping is notorious for opening parcels and the like. There are plenty of stories online about the eBay shipping centre doing stuff like opening packages, repacking packages poorly, opening factory sealed items (to the annoyance of some game, vintage electronics collectors), missing accessories from the package after getting inspected or worst, the item straight up getting rejected and "destroyed" by eBay shipping.

I don't mind eBay sellers pricing accordingly to cover the fees, etc but my main annoyance are the sellers that blatantly overcharge on shipping, especially on small items that are around the size and weight of a deck of cards for example. In some cases I would punch in the numbers on Canada Post and I would get something like half of what the eBay seller claims is the shipping cost. I just don't bother buying from sellers like that. To be honest, I'd rather them raise the price of the item instead than pull tricks with the shipping like that.