Anyone Using ChitChats / Stallion Express Or Similar In Kingston, Ontario -ish Area?

[locoworks]

Hello Fellow eBayers,

Just curious if anyone in the Kingston, Ontario general area is using Chit Chats / Stallion Express or something similar to get their packages to the US? If so, how are you getting them there (to Pickering or Markham or wherever)? I'd love to hear what you're using, discuss pooling shipments to them, things like that.

Thanks!

Dave

[momcqueen]

Chitchat takes it to the US for to mail on behalf of the sender; it provides that service and saves the sender that trouble. Otherwise, if you had to take your parcels to the USA to mail them, you could just buy postage from USPS yourself.

Or do you mean you’re looking for a travel buddy to get items to your nearest Chitchat?

[retroman_studios]

You can also mail your shipments to ChitChats. So if you deal with small items that could go in small packets, you could ship your entire box of goodies to ChitChats fully labeled and they would then transport it.

For small volume seller's shipping may not work but for large scale sellers that may save them hours of time.

[momcqueen]

I don't know the geography of Ontario at all. Is any of this helpful? Drop spots?

https://chitchats.com/locations

[locoworks]

Haha "travel buddy", I like that. Yes essentially, either someone here who's driving stuff there already or someone who wanted to pool together for a trucking service or something. The nearest of any of the cross border shippers that I've found is the Chit Chats in Pickering which is somewhere around 4 hours drive round trip plus traffic/construction/weather/protests/etc.

I'm currently putting shipments into a bigger box and sending that to Chit Chats either UPS or Canada Post Expedited 3-4 times a week. It works okay but there's a lot of waste in that process, financially and otherwise (and amazingly still way cheaper than just sending Canada Post directly). Some of my shipments are very small boxes, others fairly large, it really varies. Chit Chats does apparently offer a pickup service to certain customers in certain places, but as yet I've been unable to get a reply or any info on what might be available on that front. There was a message on their website in December that the pickup service was at capacity and not accepting anything new until 2019.

In general I'm interested in connecting with any mail order shippers locally for things like a buying group for supplies (I buy boxes, paper, bubble wrap, etc by the skid anyways), etc.

Dave

[momcqueen]

In addition to asking here, you might try picking random items and filtering search results to get Nearest First to find sellers of various eBay wares near you. Then you could ask them directly. Plus get to know your friendly neighbourhood eBay aficionados.

[recped]

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@locoworks wrote:

Hello Fellow eBayers,

Just curious if anyone in the Kingston, Ontario general area is using Chit Chats / Stallion Express or something similar to get their packages to the US? If so, how are you getting them there (to Pickering or Markham or wherever)? I'd love to hear what you're using, discuss pooling shipments to them, things like that.

Thanks!

Dave

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I'm sure there is somebody in Kingston. I actually know someone who lives in Kingston and commutes to Markham 4 days a week. They wouldn't have the time or interest to help you but there must be others and there are lots of eBay sellers in Kingston.

As previously mentioned, if you have even a moderate but steady volume you could ship your packages to Pickering in bulk, I would suggest UPS or Canpar, Canada Post would probably be too expensive (depends on size and weight).

In the days before ChitChats, I would bulk ship (via UPS) my packages to a mail drop in Niagara Falls to be turned over to USPS. It cost about the same as ChitChats but didn't have the same flexibility although at that time my volume was much higher so I could do two shipments per week.

ChitChat are set up for this sort of thing as they have many customers who are not located close to a drop off point.

[waxworx_gemm_com]

 have used both services and both are top notch.  I have since started using Stallion f/t as I like their services a little better, and the international pricing is a bit lower than CC.  I typically mail a box to them weekly and give notice on my selling platforms that I do once a week 'batch shipments'.  I have been doing this for several years and this works great.  I use Good ol Canada Post to ship to them.

If you find similar area sellers you can pool your shipments together and do more frequent shipments to them 🙂

[waxworx_gemm_com]

Forgot to mention that ChitChats has several drop locations within Ontario (ie Burlington) at the UPS store.  There is a small handling fee of $3 for the box, but trust me you won;t like running that gantlet yourself either to Markham or to Mississauga (I did this once or twice a week and it was hellish).

You can also contact Stallion; they will pick up if your volume is high enough (ie pool with others) or they already do pick ups in your area.  I'm Niagara way so this wasn't an option for me.

[tyler@ebay]

Hi everyone,

Due to the length of time that has passed since this thread began I have locked it from future replies. If this is still an issue that warrants discussion, don't hesitate to begin a new thread!