How I purchased a rare and brand new vehicle spare part on eBay

Posted on Thursday August 20, 2015 at 9:11:50:

A relative of mine who runs a logistics business recently had a need to purchase a particular vehicle part in Lagos but after going through most of the major markets like Ladipo Mushin and ASPAMDA Trade Fair, he was not able to find it. The few he found were second hand and weren't working efficiently. I told him I could help him get a brand new one from the USA but only that it's going to cost him about double the price for the used ones. I told him I could buy it only after researching for the particular spare part online on sites like eBay, Aliexpress and Amazon. Fortunately, after my research, I was able to find it only on eBay as it was really scarce even on several US shopping websites. I also found it on Aliexpress but that one looked like it was made in China and I didn't also want to wait for up to 30 days or more given the slow pace of delivery on Aliexpress. Well, he hesitated a bit because of the price but after searching for it at the local markets and was not satisfied, he then told me to buy it and I did.

First and foremost, if you are in Nigeria and want to visit an IP restricted website like eBay, one of the things you're gonna need is a US VPN service as that would help you change your IP to a US IP when you are connected to the internet. You also would need a fast internet connection and not one on 3G but something like LTE. I normally use MTN Hynet but since my internet service had expired, I just used a local cybercafe's WiFi internet service and then changed my IP address.

The next thing I did was to ensure that I had enough funds in my US Paypal account and it was OK. Afterwards, I proceeded to eBay to purchase the item by clicking on the Buy Now button. I was taken to the eBay log in page and I purchased it and made payment by also logging into Paypal. The payment was confirmed and I subsequently received an email alert from the eBay to confirm the purchase.

It took about 30 minutes later before I got another email alert that my order i.e. the vehicle part, has been shipped to my US address. You'd need a US shipping address when shopping on US eBay since they don't offer direct shipping to Nigeria yet. I got my US address from my US shipping agent who will also be responsible for forwarding the package to Nigeria after they've received it from eBay.

I also got to know from the delivery period estimate that my package will be delivered within a week after my order. I will have to wait till I receive it at my US warehouse before placing a final order for it to be shipped to Nigeria through DHL, Fedex or UPS and that's going to take about 3 to 5 working days to reach me in Lagos, Nigeria.

I was able to buy things directly on eBay USA from Nigeria because I had 3 things which are a US IP address, an eBay account, US Paypal account and a US shipping agent. I also discovered that even if I only had just the US shipping agent, I could still have told my US shipping agent to just buy it from eBay on my behalf while I would just pay him some commission for it. I have to say that it's easier to buy things on Amazon from Nigeria than on eBay but I only buy things on eBay when I don't see it on Amazon and other sites that are more Nigerian friendly.

Get a US shipping agent
Get a US IP address