Buy From willhaben. We Handle the Seller — You Just Get the Package.

willhaben is Austria's biggest classifieds and marketplace site — millions of individual sellers, with dedicated sections for antiques, vintage items, collectible toys, vintage furniture, rare books, and sports memorabilia alongside everything else. There's no cart, no checkout most Americans would recognize, and the platform's own guidance leans even further toward local-only than most classifieds sites: willhaben's help center actively advises sellers against shipping items abroad.

That's exactly the gap a US buyer runs into. Sellers aren't just defaulting to local pickup out of habit — the platform itself is telling them not to bother with international shipping. Getting a "yes" from a seller who's been told that requires someone who can talk to them in German, in person as far as the process is concerned, and make the transaction feel like a normal domestic one. A basic package-forwarding address doesn't touch any of this — it only helps once a seller has already agreed to ship and you've already found a way to pay them. Getting to that point is the actual hard part.

How It Works

1
You send us the listing. Paste the willhaben link and tell us your budget. If you're weighing a few options, send all of them — we'll tell you which ones are realistic before you commit to any.
2
We contact the seller in German — usually within 24–48 hours. We confirm the item's still available, ask the questions a buyer would normally ask in person (condition, any damage not shown in photos, why they're selling), and find out upfront whether they're willing to sell to a buyer based in the US — even though willhaben's own guidance points them toward local-only.
3
We negotiate and agree terms on your behalf. willhaben listings are often open to offers — we handle that back-and-forth in German so you're not relying on a translation app mid-negotiation.
4
We pay the seller in a way they'll actually accept. Bank transfer, PayPal, or — for sellers who only want to hand it over in person — cash on pickup, which is something a forwarding address could never do for you.
5
Inspection is available if you want it. Just ask, and before it ships we'll confirm it's the item described and check for obvious damage — a match-and-condition check, not a functional test. If you skip this, it goes straight to packing.
6
We pack it — standard protective packaging, reinforced for fragile items, or custom crating/palletizing for oversized pieces on request (may cost more) — then weigh it and send you a separate invoice for shipping. That's billed separately from your original quote, since it depends on the actual weight and size once it's packed.
7
Once that's paid, we ship it to your US address, usually via DHL, in about 7–14 days. That's a typical range, not a guarantee — customs and carrier delays happen.
8
Customs duties are paid on delivery, and we provide the customs paperwork. This is a cash-on-delivery-style charge from the carrier when your package arrives — not something we can prepay or fold into our quote, so budget for it separately.

Pricing

Our service fee is 8–15% of the item's price, with a $20 minimum, on top of what you pay the seller — the exact rate depends on the specifics, so you'll see the real number on your quote. Shipping and packaging are billed separately once we know the actual weight and size (see step 6) — they're not part of this quote.

If it doesn't go through:

Cancel before we've placed the order with the seller, or the seller can't supply the item — full refund, including our service fee.
Cancel after we've already purchased it on your behalf — we refund whatever the seller refunds us; our service fee isn't refunded, since the sourcing work is already done.
The item turns out to be un-exportable, or customs rejects it — we refund the purchase price minus any costs already incurred, and tell you exactly what those were.

Refunds go back through Stripe to your original payment method, typically 5–10 business days. Shipping and packaging fees are refundable until the parcel is dispatched — once it's with the carrier, they're not.

What We Buy

We focus on antique, vintage, and collectible items on willhaben — the platform has dedicated sections for antiques, vintage furniture, collectible toys, rare books, and sports memorabilia, and that's exactly where trust and language are the biggest barrier.

Why This Works

We're already positioned to deal with Austrian sellers in their own language before any money changes hands — which matters more here than on most platforms, since willhaben itself nudges sellers toward saying no to shipping abroad — and we check the item ourselves before it starts a multi-week trip to the US, if that's something you'd like.

FAQ

That's more likely here than on most platforms — willhaben's own guidance points sellers toward local-only transactions. Finding out whether a specific seller will make an exception is exactly the conversation we have with them before you pay for anything.

Credit or debit card, Alipay, or WeChat Pay, all through Stripe's hosted checkout. For large or unusual orders, we may arrange a wire transfer instead.

If it turns out to be significantly not as described, we'll step in and communicate with the original seller on your behalf. Any return depends on that seller's own policies — sales are considered final once we've purchased on your behalf, return shipping is your responsibility, and we can't guarantee the outcome.

No — we confirm the item matches the listing and check for obvious damage, but we don't power things on or run a functional test.

Shipping alone typically runs 7–14 days once we have the item — add the time it takes to reach an agreement with the seller on top of that, which varies listing to listing.

Also buying from Germany, France, or elsewhere in Europe? See all the platforms we buy from →

Get a quote. Paste the willhaben link into our quote page at hobbeex.com — we'll tell you honestly whether we can get it and roughly what it'll cost, before you commit to anything.

GET A QUOTE