Although I tend to steer clear of buying items from buyers posting items using the Global Shipping Programme due to the extortionate charges imposed, even on items that were exempt from import duty, on the occasions when I did purchase items from Global Shipping Programme Buyers I used to find that the item would take ten calendar days from the date of payment to get from the USA to my home address. However, since the Covid19 pandemic took hold, I found that the total time taken from the date of despatch to the date of receipt had increased to fifteen calendar days with items purchased from Global Shipping Programme sellers, so as a result of that if I'm looking for an item which I can't find for sale in the UK and it's only being offered by overseas sellers I will only purchase items from sellers who aren't selling via the Global Shipping Programme. I've bought quite a few items from the USA in the past and in the majority of cases I found that the items I purchased from American sellers who were not selling via the Global Shipping Programme were usually the items which arrived sooner, and without the extra duty to pay on items which were below the threshold that would have made them subject to import duty.
With regards to items purchased from Europe I can count on the fingers of one hand without running out of fingers how many items I've actually purchased from Europe since I opened my eBay account, but there only seemed to be a difference of about two or three days with both items that I purchased from European sellers, so they weren't that much faster than items being posted from America via the Global Shipping Programme.
