Buying on Leboncoin from Germany: why it's shut
Vinted already opens the French market to you from Germany. Here is why Leboncoin is closed to you from Germany, what the usual workarounds are worth, and how to buy anyway.
Vinted already opens the French market to you from Germany. Leboncoin does not — and it has no equivalent, in France or anywhere else, for the kind of thing you find on it.
Why it is blocked
A strictly national site: no German version, no delivery outside France, French card expected at secure checkout. Collection in person stays possible in border areas, around Saarbrücken or Freiburg, but only if the listing happens to be on the right side of the Rhine.
To grasp how firmly it is shut, you have to understand what Leboncoin is. It is not an international marketplace throttled at the border; it is a local classifieds site, designed from the start so that two people in the same region could meet. Shipping is a recent, minority option; the norm is still a rendezvous in a car park. No foreign version is planned, and none will be.
Kleinanzeigen covers Germany, but French residents there come to Leboncoin for specific reasons: antique furniture, car parts, instruments, regional objects that never appear in the German catalogue.
What does not work
A VPN is useless here: the site is already readable from abroad, it is payment and shipping that block, and a VPN touches neither. Asking the seller to post abroad runs into a private individual with no habit, no appetite and no means of filling in a customs declaration for an eighty-euro chest of drawers. Delivering to a friend in France works once, then wears out the friendship: receiving, repacking, declaring, posting and fronting the money starts to look a lot like a job.
Two ways to get a parcel to you
You order yourself. On French sites that accept your card, you enter your FrenchShopper address at checkout. To the shop you're a French customer; the parcel lands at our warehouse, we receive it, and we forward it to you. The address is free and comes with your account.
We buy for you. On Vinted, Leboncoin, and any seller who only ships within France or rejects a German card, you send us the link: we check it, quote it, and once you've paid, we buy with our own French account and card. The details are here.
Either way, your items wait for free for 45 days in our warehouse so you can gather several — and everything leaves in one box, with one shipping charge.
The delivery times we measure to Germany
On our own measurements to Berlin, Colissimo quotes delivery five days after handover, Chronopost about a week. Proximity and sheer volume of traffic make this a fast, inexpensive destination.
What is waiting on arrival
Germany is in the European Union: no customs, no duties, no import VAT. Nothing to declare and nothing to pay on arrival.
The special case of heavy things
Leboncoin is the kingdom of furniture, appliances and spare parts — precisely the things that travel badly. Before you fall in love with a wardrobe, know that carriers cap parcels at around thirty kilos and limit dimensions: beyond that you are into freight, not parcels. For anything that fits in a box, though — crockery, books, clothes, small mechanical parts, collectables — the service works very well. If in doubt, estimate it first.
What to send us
The listing link, and not much else. If the item comes in several sizes or colours, tell us which one — that is what stops us buying the wrong one. Add anything you already know about the seller if you have spoken to them.
We check that the listing is still live and at what real price, then send you an itemised quote. Nothing is bought before you pay: if the item sells in the meantime, you are refunded. Once paid, we buy with our own French Leboncoin account and French card, receive the parcel at our warehouse, open it and check it.
Consolidation changes everything
This is the part most people work out too late. An international shipment costs roughly the same work and the same transport whether it holds one jumper or six; the price rises far more slowly than the weight. Bringing one item over at a time is the worst possible maths.
So your purchases wait free of charge for 45 days in our warehouse. You gather several, mixed if you like with orders you placed yourself at French shops, and everything leaves in a single box with one shipping charge. The details are here.
Frequently asked questions
Does Leboncoin deliver abroad?
No, not to any address outside France. The shipping options offered to sellers stop at the border, and secure payment expects a French card. It is the most closed French site of all, and that will not change: local trade is its whole reason for existing.
Can I ask the seller to post it themselves?
You can always ask, but the answer is almost always no. Someone selling a chest of drawers has no wish to learn how to fill in a customs declaration, and leaving the platform loses them the protection that reassures them. We buy as an ordinary French buyer: the seller changes nothing about their habits.
Can I pay with my German card?
Yes — with us, not with Leboncoin. You pay us by card on an ordinary checkout page that accepts foreign cards. It is our French card that then buys from the seller, which fixes the problem at its root.
What if the seller goes quiet, or the item is already sold?
We tell you and refund its price, its delivery to us, and the part of our service fee that no longer applies. Because we buy after you pay, this does happen: second-hand listings are one of a kind and move fast. It is also why it pays not to sit on a quote too long.
Can I mix several websites in one request?
Yes, and that is rather the point. Leboncoin, another second-hand site, an online shop where you ordered yourself: it all ends up in the same box and pays for one shipment. That is where the service really earns its keep.
