Ebays "Global Shipping Program" cos

[killercreations]

This may be a simple question and has a simple answer.

WHY OH WAY is it so expensive?

I buy a $30 item that has $10 shipping, no worries that's expected....

Then Ebay GSP wants an ADDITIONAL $10 Import **bleep** on top of that after I've already clicked the BIT.

So now my item is a $50 item......I can't justify buying that at all.  I buy from other websites all the time and don't get hit with this useless import and such **bleep** that is valued at 33% of the item cost.

Blows me away.

[mrdutch1001]

Simple answer: Don't purchase from sellers who use the Global Shipping Program.

[marnotom!]

1. The Global Shipping Program is more accurately a forwarding service. As you suggest, you're paying the seller for sending your item to the forwarding point in Kentucky. You then pay Pitney Bowes (DBA the GSP) to have the item shipped to you from Kentucky. You also repay the taxes, duty and processing charges it pays on your behalf.

2. Pitney Bowes requires information from the seller on the item's shipping size and weight to calculate a shipping charge. If it doesn't get this information, the bot has to guess or apply a category average. I recently bought a cell phone where the GSP shipping charge was less than US$13. Because there's not a huge variation in the shipping size and weight of packaged cell phones, a sensible shipping charge was calculated.

3. GSP shipping charges generally tend to be competitive with parcel post (USPS Priority International), not oversize letter mail (USPS First Class International).

[reallynicestamps]

Here are the costs for tracked international USPS shipping.

https://postcalc.usps.com/?country=10440

It's not cheap.

Canada has a duty-free allowance of only $20CDN or ~$16 USD.

(CBSA has an unofficial/illegal policy of ignoring small /low value parcels because it may cost more to assess the items than could be collected. But the parcels are not exempt just lucky.)

Most of the import fees collected are actually sales taxes GST/PST/HST/QST which can be up to 15% of the import's value, including shipping cost.

The service charge from GSP is ~$5USD. For Canada Post it is $9.95Cdn. For couriers like UPS it starts around $25 and rises with the value of the item.

[marnotom!]

Just noticed you were more focused on the GSP's "import charges" than on the shipping charges.

The Global Shipping Program pays--on your behalf--any duty and GST or HST owing on the item and tacks on a processing charge of around US$5.00 to see your item processed for customs purposes.  The "import charges" are your repayment to the GSP.

Items sent by mail see the importer (that's you) paying GST/PST/HST/etc. and duties plus a ten dollar fee to Canada Post on receipt of the item.  All postal imports with a declared value of over C$20 are subject to these charges, but Canada Border Services doesn't slap all of them with a tax bill, just like the cops don't always ticket you if you're speeding.

If you're not seeing import charges on items you purchase from outside of Canada on other sites, either those items are seeing the import charges added to the price of the item, the items are being sent by mail, or even worse, they could be shipped by the ground via the likes of UPS or FedEx where you'll be slugged with even more expensive processing and clearance fees.

You may find this ancient but still useful thread of interest:

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Buyer-Central/CANADIANS-Read-before-you-purchase-from-the-USA/m-p/56679