If the seller is a business seller then his or her business details ought to be at the bottom of the listing, which will show you where the business is registered. This is very useful to remember, especially in cases whereby the seller has a fulfilment centre somewhere in the United Kingdom but the seller is actually based overseas. In many cases if the seller is a registered business seller then his or her business address will be visible right at the bottom of the page, and if the buyer is not based in the United Kingdom then this will enable you to find out exactly where the seller is based, which should help you to make a decision as to whether or not to purchase the item.
When you search for an item and look at the page of results you ought to see something saying "From Germany" if an item is from Germany and you're on eBay UK, and this rule will apply to any other adverts placed by overseas sellers that are showing up on the eBay UK site - ie: the buyer's country will show up on the search results when you look at the shots of the item, even before you've clicked on the listing.
Another way to determine a seller's location is to click on the User ID in the listing. If you do that a new page will load up showing you the seller's feedback ratings, his or her User ID and something along the lines of "Based in Germany, [seller's User ID] has been an eBay member since 29 Feb 2016."
If you use one or more of the methods described above you can ascertain whether or not the seller is indeed based in the United Kingdom or is actually based overseas. Should you decide to purchase an item and it has to be sent to you from outside of the United Kingdom then you will have to pay 20% VAT on it, so it is worth bearing this in mind and checking the listing closely before you commit yourself to purchasing an item from the seller. Goods from some overseas destinations can sometimes take up to a month to arrive, so this definitely something that you may wish to consider before you go ahead and purchase an item that is located outside of the United Kingdom. If it's the only one available and you really want it then fair enough - go ahead, but if you can find an identical item being sold nationally and the total cost is lower than that of the same item located overseas then it would probably be better to buy from the seller who's actually based nationally, as you wouldn't have to pay 20% VAT on the item, nor should you have to put up with an exceptionally long wait for the item that can often result from purchasing items from certain overseas destinations.
