Hey Dave,
Check out all the threads here on the GSP and it might provide a lot of answers - or make more questions lol.
That $47.21 isn't exactly for Ebay. Its for Pitney Bowes to ship your item to you and collect all/any fees, taxes, duties etc. that the Canada Border Agency 'could' decide to charge you. Plus a - I will admit - relatively small fee for them to do so.
They would then send the fees/taxes/duties collected to the Canadian government.
If you're like most of us you probably find that with a lot of things bought from the US the CBS doesn't choose to invoice for the fees/taxes/duties (and have Canada Post collect it). Doesn't mean the fees/taxes/duties aren't valid and shouldn't be charged - it just means that they - for whatever reason - opt to let the package get delivered without doing so.
With Ptiney Bowes, any possible fees are automatically collected without fail. I guess its a win for PB (they get their fee) and a win for the Canada Border Agency (they get their money without having to inspect, create the invoice, etc.)
The 'loss' is to the buyer who might well have received the package without incurring those fees/taxes/duties and I would say to Canada Post who loses THEIR fee (which is higher than PBs btw) if they'd had to collect it. One has to wonder what they think of this program.
Plus, I do myself feel and believe there IS a double shipping charge - you pay for the seller to ship to PB and then for PB to ship to you.
Hope this helps 🙂
