It should be like that (and then the problem would be that with that system I would have to pay import tarifs in every article I bought abroad, while if you leave it to the post office you only have to pay tarifs in one out of ten), but it is worse.
Pitney Bowes opens the parcels, removes what they consider excess packaging, consolidate all merchandise, send it to a logistic centre somewhere in UK, and from there they distribute it to Europe.
I don't receive a single piece of paperwork stating that I have paid the relevant tarif (VAT in my case), probably because I haven't. In every other instance I have had to pay tariffs, I have eventually received the official paperwork and the relevant receipts.
Not to mention the fact that if we (foreigners) are blocked out of the bid, we can hardly buy the watch (and sellers [and ebay, come to think of it] are left without our bids).
Predictably, at buyers' end, ebay says restrictions are probably imposed by the seller.