How I shop on Ebay from Nigeria

One of the ways through which I covert my Paypal funds to cash is by using it for online shopping at Ebay.com.

Ebay.com is one of the best shopping sites where you can get a lot of useful products for cheap. The only other thing you have to consider when shopping on ebay from Nigeria is the shipping cost which comes at around $50 per kg when making use of a US shipping company.

For me, when it comes to online shopping at American stores, Amazon and Ebay are my top two sites but while I make use of my Nigerian bank issued Visa card for the former, I make use of Paypal for the latter.

Why shop on Ebay? As you might already know, converting Paypal funds to naira can be quite a headache so why not just used the funds and buy something like a laptop or even flash drives on Ebay and resell them in Nigeria? This is much better for me than looking for someone to buy my Paypal funds.

When I receive Paypal payments from my affiliate programs, I may decide to let the earnings accumulated and then use it to buy tangible goods on Ebay such as cameras, laptops or flash drives, ship it to Nigeria and then resell them for cash if I choose to.

Here is the break down of how I shop on Ebay from Nigeria:

Things needed:
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- A Paypal account(USA or Asian)
- A US shipping address
- A Dollar Visa or Masterard(To pay for shipping)
- Internet connection
- An Ebay account(With US shipping address)
- A VPN service

As you can see, it can be quite challenging shopping on ebay.com from Nigeria compared to shopping on Amazon.com but I guess it is one of the hazards genuine shoppers from Nigeria have to face when dealing with Paypal and Ebay.

Steps: How I do it
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1. I get a VPN service which is basically a prepaid service that works with your internet connection that changes your ip address. You can get it for around $10 to $15 a month depending on the country.
You'll need to use an ip address for a country you want to use as your Paypal or ebay address.

2 Setup the VPN connection on your computer when connected to the internet

3. Sign up with Paypal and verify your account. It is easier to use Hong Kong or Chinese addresses than US addresses to verify Paypal. However, having a US Paypal account however allows you to buy from many sellers as some sellers may not sell to Paypal buyers who don't have Paypal US addresses even if they use US shipping addresses for cases of fraud. Most however do sell to anyone with a US shipping address.

4. Purchase a US address from any of the providers and it cost about $60 a year or $10 per use. You'll need that address when signing up for ebay.

5. Sign up with Ebay and add that US address as your shipping address.

6. Browse for any products you want to buy on Ebay and choose the ones with Buy it now button.

7. Click to buy and proceed to checkout

8. Make payment with your Paypal account by logging in when you are asked to

9. Confirm and pay for that order when redirected back to ebay.

10. The order would be shipped to your US address .

11. Track the order and you should get a notification of the delivery adn receipt by your US warehousing and shipping agents.

12. Estimate your shipping costs, make payment and order for the shipping to Nigeria.

13. Track and Expect the shipping in about 5 days via DHL or any other courier used. It would be delivered to your doorstep.

Note:
If you are going to ship anything to Nigeria, you should familiarise yourself with details listed on the Nigerian customs website. It is better not to ship things like dutiable items(e.g jewelleries), prohibited items(e.g. guns) and so on so that you don't get a red flag on your shipping.

Also things like laptops tend to get delayed at times by the customs since they suspect that people who import them are Yahoo boys. I've been invited once when I shipped a laptop and they just wanted some clarifications. Other stuff like flash drives and cameras don't get much detailed screening and delays.