Yeah, I’ve gotten seriously caught on ebaying to Germany because of the bank transfer thing. There’s a minimum value in some banks here before they’ll SWIFT transfer, and there’s a hefty fee (25 dollars). In Ireland it costs 3. The only way to see value on a SWIFT transfer is to transfer several hundred dollars at once. Utterly useless for buying off ebay. Also, you can send things via SWIFT/IBAN online, you just have to write to the bank, and get them to fax you a document which you sign and fax back and then they allow you to IBAN straight from your account to one particular person. Only takes two weeks!
Damnit.