Are there places in the world NOT served by Canada Post Xpresspost or Air Parcel?

[momcqueen]

I'm thinking aloud again....

If Canada Post offers a tracked service to 'shady or trouble-spot' destinations still served by Xpresspost or Air Parcel, where do the dangers lay in shipping there? Delay at Customs? Parcels that are emptied before they reach their destination? 

I know there are longtime members who ship worldwide even without tracking, but if I was to expand my 'tracking only' postal service options to destinations such as Mexico or Russia, where could things to awry? Even shipping to Antartica is possible by Air Parcel for buyers willing to pay the price. 

I'm not saying I necessarily expect my sales to exotic destinations to skyrocket but maybe the interested 'views' would increase which, in turn, leads to higher placement in Best Match which, in turn, may translate to better sales performance. 

What risk am I not seeing? False SNADs because the buyer is angry it cost them as much as it did? 

[pocomocomputing]

Based on this Canada Post document called "International Shipping Chart", I see Syria and Somali not serviced by any Canada Post service. These may be on a United Nations sanctions list.

https://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/prices/RCRZ-e-ISC.pdf

[rose-dee]

Are you worried mainly about timely delivery, or about insurance?  They are two different parameters when deciding where to ship, although for some countries I think both are problematic.   

I'd say the guarantee of timely delivery is really only as good as the destination's postal system (and, by extension, government).  You can ship anywhere you like that Canada Post will agree to serve, but that doesn't mean you get the same level of comfort you might have in shipping to, say, the U.S. or U.K.  

In the final analysis I think it depends on your risk tolerance and stress level, and balancing those against the potential gain.  Is one sale in a hundred to Russia worth hoping the "touchdown" rule won't work against you?   (Insurance ceases once the plane hits Russian soil, probably for good reason).  Are you willing to trade off the occasional lost, stolen, or late parcel for a few extra international sales?  

If you have a reasonably high turnover, like many stamp sellers do for example, an infrequent loss or late delivery can probably be absorbed without too much impact on either profits or (for defects) your eBay status.  Or impact on your nervous system, for that matter.  Otherwise you may be opening the door for issues you'd rather not have to deal with.  I think you're right that the cost of tracked services to exotic places is so high now that people are going to expect a higher level of service for the price, i.e. more SNAD risk. There is clearly more potential overall risk in shipping to Timbuktu than New York, but only you can know your ability to take it on. 

I may be wrong, but personally I can't see that the extra views in far-flung places would have a significant long term impact on actual placement and sales sufficient to balance the risk.  

In any case I don't think I'd let that be my determining factor.  I'd be thinking more about dealing with that first problem in a language I don't speak (and that Google doesn't translate well) that might end up in a big fat defect.  I'm fortunate to have a quiet life and a calm nature, but I've decided I don't want the extra strain and potential problems for the sake of a few more sales.  Others will no doubt feel differently.  If you're already selling hundreds of items a month, selling worldwide likely won't be an issue either.  Your turnover will absorb any problems. 

[femmefan1946]

I recall advice that sellers looking to ship internationally consult the shipinsurance list of destinations they will and won't insure, and base their shipping choices on that.

Since an insurance company plans to make money, refusal to insure to a destination would be a pretty good red flag.

[dutchman48]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:

I'm thinking aloud again....

If Canada Post offers a tracked service to 'shady or trouble-spot' destinations still served by Xpresspost or Air Parcel, where do the dangers lay in shipping there? Delay at Customs? Parcels that are emptied before they reach their destination? 

I know there are longtime members who ship worldwide even without tracking, but if I was to expand my 'tracking only' postal service options to destinations such as Mexico or Russia, where could things to awry? Even shipping to Antartica is possible by Air Parcel for buyers willing to pay the price. 

I'm not saying I necessarily expect my sales to exotic destinations to skyrocket but maybe the interested 'views' would increase which, in turn, leads to higher placement in Best Match which, in turn, may translate to better sales performance. 

What risk am I not seeing? False SNADs because the buyer is angry it cost them as much as it did? 

---

Tracking does not prevent a SNAD which is very costly for international countries, especially questionable ones.

[momcqueen]

I now find it super hilarious that the question behind this thread seemed very important to me this morning.... right up until the Fall Seller Update was announced. Now, it doesn't much matter, I won't be expanded my ship-to destinations on eBay because I won't be staying on eBay past February 2018. Problem solved!

Thank you to everyone who replied, I've really enjoyed working with you.

[rose-dee]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:
Now, it doesn't much matter, I won't be expanded my ship-to destinations on eBay because I won't be staying on eBay past February 2018. 

---

Why?  What changed from this morning?  What happens in February (other than the possibility Trump may start WWIII)?

Are you referring to the eBay catalogue issues?  I wondered how that would be received by sellers of commercial goods.  I'm sure it must be advantageous for the mega-sellers on this site, who it seems are eBay's main interest.  

The only reason I personally continue to stay here has been the enhanced exposure compared to other sites, but even that is becoming harder to justify.  

Whatever the reason, I'm very sorry to hear you won't be staying.  I know you've worked very hard to do well here. 

[dutchman48]

Don't you remember her post from some time ago re watermarking pictures. If Ebay forced removal so they can use her images, she would be gone.

I am sure there will be many more in the not so distant future which is exactly what Ebay wants.

[rose-dee]

Ah, yes, the watermarking.  First they let us do it, now they don't.  Good thing I didn't watermark all my photos at the time.  I'd considered it, then decided not to bother because I don't sell standard commercial products so no one else can really make any good use of my photos anyway. 

I think there may be creative ways around the problem, for example including a small but unique visual "tag" in each photo itself so that at least one could tell if another seller was purloining the pictures or eBay was sharing them around.  Maybe a business card that just happens to be somewhere near the bottom of each picture, or the same child's little drawing with the business name in child-like letters, or (in my case for example) a woven clothing label, that sort of thing.  Nobody wants a picture with someone else's business name showing.  

This could actually also work as a recognizable marketing feature.  (I spent several years in marketing and product development in a competitive industry, so brainstorming and inventiveness was always necessary).  I'm past my 9-to-5 life now, so no charge for the handy tip, just pay it forward. 

[momcqueen]

Except that those tactics are also currently prohibited by the present photo policy. Otherwise, yes. If they weren't eBay-illegal at present, they might work. Did I ever mention I also studied Marketing? It's funny the way so many of us are so experienced so many venues. It must be the hallmark of entrepreneurs.

[momcqueen]

But, yes, dutchman is correct, and thank you for the kind words, rose-dee. Between the Fall Seller Update setting my blood to boil and burning supper while trying to pack an order at the same time as I watch the kids, I missed a few of the emails that notified me of new posts on this thread.

When the Spring Seller Update warned us ebay was planning to claim any photo they liked on ebay for its Product Catalogue, I pitched a fit and said I wouldn't allow it with mine. The Fall Seller Update is now banning watermarks which is the last bastion sellers have to maintain the integrity of whatever stolen photos they took, so... I quit.

I've heard from buyer time and time again that they pick me because of the attention I pay to detail with the photographs on my listings, and I pay dearly in time for those detailed photographs; they're mine, they are my brand, I won't allow them to be swiped to sell my competitors' goods so that lazy sellers can make more sales than me with zero effort on the back of my time and effort. 

My friends and family and other business owners and sellers have been telling me since I began selling here that I should have my own online store and yet I resisted out of some foolish sentiment for the days when ebay was cool, and misplaced loyalty to the memory of same. I liked ebay for the longest time, I really liked it. But even I have my limits and theft is one of them. 

On this stand I will not budge. The day ebay as a corporate entity buys rights to my photographs to use is the day they have my permission to use them. There are literally millions of product images available for everything under the sun, provided with permission by the manufacturer of said items, no one needs mine except me, the one person who worked to make them happen. 

[pjcdn2005]

I think that it is a great idea to set up a website for yourself but you might want to think about doing that in conjunction with selling here. Apparently it's not that easy to get traffic to your own site which is why many sellers stay here while they build up traffic to their own site.

[silverpinups]

Apparently it's not that easy to get traffic to your own site which is why many sellers stay here while they build up traffic to their own site.

Yes, that's the best way to do it but if eBay forces one's hand you have to try and adjust accordingly.

My website is ready to launch in the next week or two so I might be leaving as well. 

I have accounts set up on Facebook and Instagram for advertising purposes.

There is life without eBay and some sellers will find that out a lot sooner then later........

[momcqueen]

Is there a third-party listing tool that can copy active listings for export to then use to import elsewhere? I've never used a third-party listing tool prior to this but I'm willing to bet this feature exists somewhere. It's daunting to stare at blank spaces where 1250 product selling pages need to be recreated from scratch like the past five years of my labour didn't exist. Perhaps I'll have to reach out to the site which now houses the skeleton structure of my new online store.

I suppose it would be possible to stay here in March with stock photos and 50 free BINs plus 50 free auctions on ebay.ca and ebay.com but I'm not sure I'd want to do that. I prefer clean breaks and if I have to sink or swim on my own, I'd probably rather not carry a pile of ebay baggage.

I'll miss the Community side as much as anything else. If iamvivian ever comes back, can you say goodbye to her from me? I sent her a PM a few months ago after she'd already been disappeared for a few months but there was no response. An endeavour as large as rebuilding a store from the ground level upwards maybe could have come at a better time, I'm in the middle of a few fairly large projects right now including a pair of photobooks and special events for which I volunteer as a chairperson. When it rains....

[silverpinups]

It's daunting to stare at blank spaces where 1250 product selling pages need to be recreated from scratch like the past five years of my labour didn't exist.

The web company used Turbo Lister to export my listings and then reformatted them from there. Starting from scratch is something that I would not do again after relisting 80% of my listings after the USD fiasco on eBay.ca back in Jan-Feb/17.

iamvivian actually responded to a post a month or two ago.... so I'm sure she will be around again. If you do leave you don't have to stop posting here just be more selective and respond to posts that you feel strongly about.

I will continue to watermark my images until I get kicked off or I will finally decide to list them without (I'm undecided right now). I might also be down sizing my store to a basic after Mar/2018 or go without.  

Some of my competitors don't watermark while others do so I will need time to process this change... 

[rose-dee]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:
Except that those tactics are also currently prohibited by the present photo policy. Otherwise, yes. If they weren't eBay-illegal at present, they might work. Did I ever mention I also studied Marketing? It's funny the way so many of us are so experienced so many venues. It must be the hallmark of entrepreneurs.

---

Are they really prohibited?  I've looked all over the photo policy pages and couldn't find or recall anything specifically prohibiting a seller from including their own logo, branding, clothing label, or any other "prop" in the picture itself -- provided of course they have the rights to use such branding.  If you can find it, can you please post the link here?  

I'm not referring to add-on text or images with text superimposed on a photo, which I realize was banned some time ago.  That's a different matter.  However, if taking a picture of one's own brand or company name isn't allowed, I'd find this very odd, because many photos by commercial retailers include a shot or two showing the brand/company name -- heck, even eBay itself takes pictures of its logo-branded products for its shipping supply listings.  

For what it's worth, I'd think twice about abandoning eBay completely if you can find a way to make it continue to work for you here.  Properly set-up full commercial websites can be surprisingly expensive and time-consuming to maintain (you never get the full cost picture up front), and it can take several years to build up exposure to the point where sales begin to equal the potential on eBay.  

You could consider doing what I've done, and set up a non-shopping website but with live links to your products on secure platforms like eBay (i.e. no worries about providing your own checkout facilities and security, and far, far cheaper to run).  There is another issue with private websites, at least from buyers' perspective, and that is having complete trust in the seller, the transaction, and the follow-up service.  Buyer trust is something eBay does try to provide for us as sellers, whether we always agree with their methods or not.  

I also sell via Facebook and Pinterest, although to be honest, they aren't the gold mines people seem to think they can be.  Too big a candy-store at no cost to those selling, I think. 

Running your own website in conjunction with eBay, as many of us have done, does help to increase exposure, but relying on a private website for your income can be tricky.  I think it's also easier to make a go of website sales if you're in a niche market and have a ready-made target buyer group or highly recognizable brand, along with few direct competitors.  Or if you're so big that you can advertise all over the place and the costs don't kill you. 

(I didn't study marketing, I was under pressure to produce results for the company paying my salary.  That can be quite different.  That was several years ago, and as I said, anyone is welcome to use my suggestions -- or not.)  

[rose-dee]

Well, it took some more searching, but I think this may be what you were referring to in terms of photo policies: 

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/picture.html

I find eBay's "Help" and policy pages (and their search tools within "Help") are hopelessly inadequate.  This page didn't pop up in any of the earlier searches I did on "picture policy", "photo requirements" or "photo policies".  If you don't enter precisely the right text string, you'd never know it's there.  

So, it seems that this proscription applies: "Adding additional text, artwork, or marketing to photos", although I'm not sure how on earth eBay's bots have enough judgment to interpret what actually falls into this category and what doesn't.  

It still seems to me that they'd be looking for superimposed images, artwork, etc. added to the photo after it was taken (which presumably can be picked up as a digital add-on), not something included in the original picture, especially if it's done subtly and with thought. 

[momcqueen]

Okay, thanks. I'm doing a bit of research on efficient methods (if they exist) of migrating the 1100+ listings that I have here. I cannot be the only seller in the history of ebay who wanted to move their active ebay listings to another site entirely, and I can find a selection of apps that promise to monitor and manage and coordinate ebay listings while simultaneously listed on the sales platform I chose for my online store but that's not quite what I'm looking for. If I had more choice in the matter, I wouldn't have picked the lead-up to Christmas to depart ebay as it's busy as a rule and this unscheduled endeavour will set me back, especially at a time when I have made commitments to other parties to do significant tasks outside of online sales. But maybe that's the reason ebay picked the Fall Seller Update to alienate sellers such as me, because they expected we would not and could not protest it while facing the busy season. 

[silverpinups]

Am I reading something wrong? Are they banning watermarking now? Or in March 1, 2018?

I assumed it was Mar 1/18.

If I were you I'd continue to list on eBay until it's time to leave.... take full advantage of the Fall and Christmas season. Start marketing today to all your customers (I think you know what I mean..).

Turbo Lister will store all your listings until you are ready to reformat them into your site inventory. Unfortunately you will have to relist them individually. I paid over 2000.00 for this service because I wasn't going to be doing that again (I'm still recovering from the USD fiasco on eBay.ca). Remember to keep things simple and mobile device friendly...  

I will be listing everything going forward once I get trained on how to use the site. 

I wish you all the best in your future endeavors...

[momcqueen]

Watermarks will be banned March of 2018. I was planning to keep listings live here until such time that they are migrated over to the other platform. But that means double work until it's done. So, so much extra work on top of all the extra work that accompanies holiday sales. My store subscription ends in May but I'm not taking any chances with my photos being stolen so anything that stays here will have stock photos instead of my own. I'm saving that work and quality for someplace where it counts, and that's not eBay anymore.