eBay

webianostore · ‎03-25-2015

I have a friend operating from Truro Nova Scotia that have difficulty with shipping fees. He created a decent e-commerce site selling t-shirts and caps etc and was hoping to start selling in eBay but was totally turned off by the expensive shipping costs to the USA. I believe he does not spend less than $15 to ship to anywhere in the United States using Canada Post which makes it impossible to compete with US sellers.

I know for us Torontonians it is much easier to get cheaper rates in general but I was wondering if someone knows of a cheaper shipping options based in Nova Scotia.

xavierg66 · ‎03-26-2015

Check out Chit Chats express they have a satellite location there. Their information is on their website
I use them in Ontario and they have been a great help

mr.elmwood · ‎03-26-2015

How heavy are these shirts? I can mail Small Packet, under 250grams, to the US for $8.13 Cdn, $6.70 US.

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rose-dee · ‎03-26-2015

Hi - Mr. E. is right, the Small Packet services to the U.S. are very reasonable for lightweight items. The current cost is $8.13 for up to 250gms and $10.79 from 301 up to 500 grams. I would think 250 grams would cover most T-shirts.

If the T-shirts can be packed flat enough to reliably fit below the 2cm thickness limit and the 37 x 27 dimensions -- which is a #5 bubble envelope -- and the weight is under 300 grams, then you're looking at Light Packet for the US, which is even cheaper ($7.00 at the moment).

I'm in Nova Scotia and I've never paid $15 to ship a small article of clothing to the US. That is, unless it was worth more than about $150, in which case I use Expedited through Paypal labelling and get the very generous discount -- I think it's about 15% or 18%. Even then, with the Expedited discount I find most lightweight items in a small box or bubble envelope ship for around $12 to $15.

Is your friend shipping everything with tracking (i.e. Expedited USA)? That may account for the cost, but in my view, unless the shirts are worth a lot of money (say over $150), it's neither worthwhile nor necessary to use a tracked service.

Also, if he's not using Paypal labels through eBay, he'll be paying much higher prices for tracked shipping (Expedited/Tracked Packet/Xpresspost) to the U.S. even if he's using a Venture One account.

mr.elmwood · ‎03-26-2015

Rose, I would suspect we have another case of "I have to use tracking" before us.

Tracking is NOT required by eBay.

It is helpful in a case of INR and you are then asked for it. The last time that happened to me, was, was, um, a couple YEARS ago? Maybe?

Why pay for something you do not use?

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maxwar82 · ‎03-26-2015

I ship a lot of low value small item to the united states in flat bubble wraps.

It costs me 5$ CAD flat per item with Light packed USA ( Purchased with ebay-Paypal )

pierrelebel · ‎03-26-2015

Shipping "Light Packet" to the USA is $5.00 (up to 200g)

Buying your postage through PayPal costs $5.00

Buying your postage at the post office also costs the same $5.00

You can use postage stamps purchased below face value from dealers and discounters (typically 30% below face) at a cost of approximately $3.50 if saving money is important to you and you have the time to sort denominations and affix the right amount of postage stamps. Some sellers put a high value to their time and feel it is not worth the exercise to save only $1.50 for every parcel.

pierrelebel · ‎03-26-2015

From Canada Post: http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/prices/US.pdf

tobyshitzu · ‎03-27-2015

If he can use chitchat in Halifax he can mail at the same rate as American sellers +.65. Which is a lot cheaper then small packet. And quicker. And tracking too for what its worth. If it was 8 oz it would be US$2.59, +.65 instead of that 8.13. Being there are millions of t shirts listed in the USA that make a big difference

booksandbobs-us · ‎03-30-2015

I use chitchats USPS postage account for the discounts,They are way above any discounts I can get from using paypal labels. in fact their Canadian and international discounts are better than paypals as well.

webianostore · ‎04-01-2015

mr.elmwood,

You are right. They require tracking. I know that eBay does not require tracking per se but I believe it is a must nowadays.

The t-shirts are indeed 230 grams or so. I will look into this further in the weekend.

mr.elmwood · ‎04-01-2015

Tracking is a myth. You know how much money tracking would have saved me in the last 3-4 YEARS? Nothing. Not one penny. Zero, zilch, nada, squat. Thousands of sales. In the last 3-4 years, I have NOT paid an additional, oh, say, $14,000 to gain something I would never have used. That fourteen thousand dollars went straight into my pocket.

Add in the cost of tracking, which throttles your profit, decreases your sales, well, it is a very poor business decision.

You are paying an extra $7 a packet. Whose pocket does that $7 come from? Customers will not pay an extra $7 so you can have a number. Every packet you mail, that is $7 you will lose out of your pocket.

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rose-dee · ‎04-01-2015

@webianostore wrote:
mr.elmwood,
You are right. They require tracking. I know that eBay does not require tracking per se but I believe it is a must nowadays.
The t-shirts are indeed 230 grams or so. I will look into this further in the weekend.

A good way to look at this issue is this: if it costs an extra $7.00 per parcel for tracking, and you send every parcel every month with tracking, if you sell 100 items in a year, you will have spent an extra $700.00 that you didn't have to spend.

Ask yourself whether you're likely to lose that $700.00 because of parcels not arriving at their destination over that year. For most sellers, the answer will be definitely not. Then ask yourself how much of that $700.00 you'd feel comfortable risking and how much you'd like to keep in your own pocket.

This may vary depending on where you are shipping, what sort of goods you sell, and the item value(s). Tracking is not required, and -- as hard as it is to accept this -- it does not benefit the buyer at all. However, it may be helpful for your own peace of mind in some situations. Use tracking selectively to protect yourself if you feel you don't like the risk factor in a particular case. Or if you'd be ready and willing to refund immediately if you had to, then use ordinary air parcel services.

Personally I occasionally use tracking on higher value items (over about $150 or $200) to protect my seller status. I also believe there is a certain element of buyer comfort in knowing an expensive parcel is being tracked and being able to see the tracking online, but this is buyer perception, not reality. The reality is that tracking protects the seller (in most cases, but not all!).

In years of selling on eBay, I have never had a Light or Small Packet (untracked) parcel go astray or not arrive. I had one -- only one -- that I recall that was unusually late, but that was due to extreme weather conditions. However, I ship mainly to the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Australia, which have reliable postal systems.

Keep in mind, as 'Mr. Elmwood' pointed out, that higher, tracked shipping costs are a deterrent to buyers -- they'll look for the lowest, best deal on shipping every time. So you have to weigh the ability to sell against the risk of having to refund an occasional item.

If you're selling T-shirts and you're just starting out on eBay, I would strongly recommend restricting your selling to Canada and the U.S. for a while, and using non-tracked services. You may end up with the occasional lost item (or more likely stolen or misrepresented non-receipt) that you'll need to refund to the buyer, but overall you'll save yourself hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in wasted shipping costs.

reallynicestamps · ‎04-01-2015

If it was 8 oz it would be US$2.59, +.65 instead of that 8.13.

You are mixing currencies. But the actual arithmetic is beyond my dysnumeric little mind.

reallynicestamps · ‎04-01-2015

I also believe there is a certain element of buyer comfort in knowing an expensive parcel is being tracked and being able to see the tracking online, but this is buyer perception, not reality.

But some buyers go totally insane if their package is not tracked. Even if it carries Delivery Confirmation, which is just as useful to the seller, and just as useless to the buyer.

I mention on my listings that all my parcels are insured. This seems to make the few nervous nellies happy enough, although I use third party (Hugh Wood International) or self-insurance as appropriate, rather than the weaker insurance offered by the PO.

webianostore · ‎04-08-2015

rose-dee,
I can see where you are coming from. $700 dollars is a lot to save per year if you only sell 100 items and of course the savings grow when the volume grows but you to have to take in consideration that a lot of us are shipping USPS from Canada (through Chit Chats Express) and with that method a tracked package can cost you as low as $3.50~$5.00 tracked. If compare that with shipping non-tracked using Canada Post, you can't really beat that price.

I don't think there is a room for savings if take tracking off with USPS. So you pretty much get tracking for half what you spend using Canada Post non-tracked

maggiebvintage2010 · ‎04-08-2015

So if you know all this, what was the purpose of your question? If you are already using chitchatsexpress in Toronto, you or your friend need only have a quick look at their website to see that they have contact information for Halifax.