what are the hassles of attempting to sell a simple game/program through a website to places outside of the united states? is it more trouble then its worth? im creating something i would want to sell through a website to just ship the CD''s myself. (almost 100% profit this way, and reasonable since im not expecting too much customers). what are the restrictions of shipping a CD to somewhere outside of the united states? also since im no business entity, just myself. - jeremiah http://fakemind.com

Sorry I can''t answer your question.

But I would strooooongly advise you to not ship CDs. I have made veeerry good experiences with downloadable fullversions. If I would ship the CDs, I wouldn''t make anything else all day than burning & shipping CDs!!

Well... I plan on doing the same thing. I will be shipping a ''single'' of the vocal song to one of my games sometime next year to anyone anywhere in the word that can send me an order in a language I can read. :-) Not too much difficulty behind that if you ask me, you just have to be aware of any border fee''s tarrifs, ect. In my case, I have a lot of legal forms I need to work into, or get a lawyer to do... I have staff to pay. :-P

Anyhow... I might be able to answer a few specific questions for you, but these are all just assumtions through various collections of knowledge''s that I''ve gathered. (AKA they may not be right...)

If you ship CD''s outside the US (or anywhere in the world for that fact) all you need to worry about from your location is how much your package will cost. :-P Not too much for just a CD.

Alex Ford
PointSoft EA Co., Ltd.
http://www.pointsoftonline.com

the only thing i need to worry about is the price to ship? i assumed there might be some laws regulating exporting/inporting software throughout the world, and i really dont want to get into any legal spurts. it would be awesome if i was able to simply send off a CD through UPS or Fed ex and make the receiving party pay for shipping.

ive looked into U.S. government sites with information on exportation, but they''re not entirely helpful.

if im not mistaken, i believe fed ex will handle border fees and legal forms for me, but im not shur on that one.

is downloadable fullversions really that great of a business? personally, i always liked having the CD just in case my computer blew up. and at $15/$20 a pop, i wouldnt mind burning CD''s all day.

thanx for the replies!

- jeremiah
http://fakemind.com

Check out http://www.swreg.org

They handle online sales (I use them and they're great), have among the lowest rates I've seen, and have great support for keycode generators (if you need them).

Best of all, for an additional fee per sale, they'll burn a CD (you send them a CD image) and ship it to the customer for you (handling all the messy shipping issues). Jester101 is definitely right about not burning them yourself. If you end up with a hit on your hands, you'd be doing nothing but burning CDs all day long.


This still doesn't answer the export law issue, but I haven't gotten to the point of CD sales yet, so I haven't found out how it works.

-----
Chris Roy, Obsidian Games
DirectX Skinned Mesh Exporter for Hash Animation:Master

Edited by - obsidian on December 13, 2001 8:25:35 AM

Yes, there most definitely are export restriction laws in the united states. I believe Iraq is still under export restrictions, even for harmless software like games. Lets try a quick google search......aha...
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~browne/nhse-legal/node6.html

"ITAR specifically controls cryptographic software. Export of ITAR controlled software to any destination except for Canada requires a validated export license issued by the Office of Defense Trade Controls of the State Department.

OFAC imposes a complete export embargo on Cuba, Iraq, North Korea, and Yugoslavia. All software exports to OFAC-embargoed countries must be authored by OFAC."

Thus, for Cuba, Iraq, North Korea, and Yugoslavia, you need permission to ship any software at all. These list change from time to time, so these countries may no longer be on the list, or new ones may have joined them, but I can say with 100% certainty that the only thing you need to worry about is NOT just the price to ship. I am pretty sure (though not positive) that illegally exporting to these countries will land you in federal prison.

ah... I forgot about trade embargo''s... Anyhow, I don''t really plan to ship the game anywhere other than where I am now and back into the states... (I''m considered a resident of both countries... United States and Russia... :-D ) And I''m sure there are other things, but I just don''t know about them. :-P

Alex Ford
PointSoft EA Co., Ltd.
http://www.pointsoftonline.com

Hi there Fakemind! Hope I''m not too late. For your case, check out http://www.regsoft.com

This company is trusted by independent software developers worldwide, and it even pays you US$3 for each software that you sell on CD. You might also wanna check out http://www.bmtmicro.com
You can e-mail BMTMicro and discuss your problems with them. They can then create a custom selling plan just for you. Really cool, u know. They''re one of the best, Fakemind. :-)