I was interested to bid on an item on eBay.com, but the seller had put a restriction on it—only users registered in the US can bid. Boo. I was very interested, and figured that maybe I could ask her to lift the restriction for me, if I’d asked nicely.

ME: I am interested to bid on your item. Even though I am not from the US, I was planning to have it shipped to a mail forwarder in California, who will then ship it to me in the Philippines. Would it be possible to make an exception for me in this case?

SELLER: As long as the address in Cali is legitimate and I receive payment through Paypal within the 3 days, there shouldn’t be a problem. I don’t ship to the Philippines.

ME: The problem is that I am not registered in the US. So I can’t bid on your item, hence the request for possible exception.

SELLER: Sorry, I don’t ship out of US. Thanks for asking.

Meh. It’s not worth the trouble anymore. That item lost its appeal pretty fast.