eBay

leogexx · ‎02-13-2012

Recently I sold some items on ebay (I try this once a year usually) and with the shipping costs by Canada Post and the ebay fees ,it really doesn't seem to be worth the time and effort to sell on ebay unless you have small envelope sized items or items you know will fetch a decent price. I find the high cost of Canadian shipping scares customers away or really effects the selling price . I have even had a customer (long time ago ) give me a negative for what the canadapost rates were.

spotgold · ‎06-18-2014

sending from Canada to the UK USPS quoted me $100 shipping for a 200 gram item. Meanwhile 500 gram items from China and Hong Kong are being sold for under $20 with free international shipping. Something is wrong with the postal service Canadians get. Also, if a postal service can't ship a small item insured to most parts of the world for under $40 then the business structure has to change.

The charge at Canada Post was $41 insured or $9 uninsured. the package weighs just over 6 ounces and is valued at about $100. Had to take the risk and send it uninsured. picture this: telling a new Canada post clerk recently hired on a summer job that you have a $100 piece of jewelry to send uninsured. is there a chance they take the package ? are they monitored ?

So here's what many non business Canadian sellers have to deal with

- 4% paypal fee

- ebay fee rates ranging from 10 - 14%

- shipping costs that are 40-70% the value of the item

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-18-2014

It can definitely be a challenge to sell and ship items from Canada especially higher priced and/or larger items. All we can do is do our best to work around it.

Some sellers will buy insurance online from a 3rd party insurance company so that they can insure a parcel when Canada Post doesn't offer that service. The cost is about $1 per $100 to insure items to the U.S. and about $2 per $100 to other countries. If you do use a service, make sure you first read their rules and regulations as you may have to provide proof of shipping in order to make a claim.

I doubt that a CP employees is going to take a $100 package and risk their job however it is always best to be a bit ambiguous on the customs form. When I ship jewelry, the description I put on the package is fashion accessory. If you use paypal shipping you enter all of the customs info yourself and can then just put the package in the mailbox rather than standing in line at the post office....that's assuming that you don't need proof of shipment.

- ebay fee rates ranging from 10 - 14%

The maximum ebay final value fee is 10%.

legendofpikachu · ‎06-21-2014

Don't get me started on Canada post, 8$ for delivery confirmation or 10$ for tracking? HOW DO YOU MAKE MONEY WHEN THE BUYER LIES AND SAYS THEY DIDN'T GET THEIR ITEM? What if you sell an item for 5$ and they say they never got it? 99% of the time they did get it and they just wanna save a couple bucks because there's no way for anyone else to know that they didn't get it unless you put tracking or Deliv. Con. on which is more expensive than the item you sell. I sold some cards awhile ago for $50, I was new and naive and didn't put tracking, few weeks later the guy said he never got them, then I had to refund him the $50 AND I WAS OUT $50 WORTH OF CARDS basically I lost $100 because either 1) People are liars or 2) CANADA POST CAN'T DO THEIR JOB. I've got %100 positive feedback only because those who have had complaints, got all their money back and an apology or I resent them more cards forcing me to lose ALOT of money in the end. Also, STAMPS ARE 90CENTS NOW WHAT'S THAT? IT'S BASICALLY $10 FOR 10 STAMPS AND THAT'S RIDICULOUS. Canada post sucks a lot, I had a buyer leave me neutral feedback because his items took awhile to receive, I called Canada post and they said that the person's post office was having staffing issues and all the items were taking awhile, HOW IS THAT MY FAULT? WHY DO I GET NEUTRAL FEEDBACK FOR THAT? THAT'S BS, at least it wasn't negative but that's still BS.

pierrelebel · ‎06-22-2014

"HOW DO YOU MAKE MONEY..."

Is making money important to you?

Then, eBay is not for you.

Listing your items at fixed price for $2 with "free shipping" pretty well guarantees you will never make money even if everything goes well.

You have to pay to package the goods (envelope, packaging materials)

You have to pay for postage

You have to pay eBay a fee (Final Value Fee)

You have to pay PayPal a fee to receive payment (flat fee plus percentage)

You have to pay PayPal to withdraw the funds to your bank account.

How could you possibly make money? Not to mention the value of your time?

There is no point in blaming buyers, Canada Post, eBay, PayPal, and everyone else.

Selling by mail is clearly not for you.

Good Luck

reallynicestamps · ‎06-24-2014

TOM--

Another thing that may be affecting your sales (and mine) is age. Ours, our customers', and the writers'.

I find it easier to know what vintage SF books to sell when the writer was active when I was first reading. Anyone who started writing in the 21st century is almost a mystery to me. Make that 1990.

In addition, the advent of e-books (and other forms of on-line publication) makes books less attractive to younger readers . And by younger I mean under 50.

Being involved with a literary conference (CAN-CON2014) has made me very aware of the changes in publishing and selling. It is cheaper and faster to sell your own book online. The profit margin to the writer is higher if there is no professional publisher involved. Even cheaper when there is no paper to be shipped about.

And for professional literature like yours, updating is faster and easier. Also although those books are still pricey, there's a lot of work goes into the manuscript, they are more affordable for the buyer, especially students.

Which reminds me, I have to get in touch with the Ottawa Public Library about joining panels on the current state of publishing and on how to get your self-published book into the Library.

reallynicestamps · ‎06-24-2014

While you should check your shipping online, more important is to use Calculated Shipping when listing your item.

Be careful about the dimensions of your package. Use metric. Canada Post went metric in 1974. Anything else will be approximate.
There is a known disconnect between USPS and Canada Post on some packages. If you use the correct CP sizing, it will be slightly smaller than the USPS dimensions for the same service. I check by looking at the listed, but not indexed, listing and verifying that there is in fact an S&H rate for US destinations. (I use 90120 because it is memorable.)

If not, I go back and Revise to add a cm to one of the dimensions. This is my way and probably not the 'best' way.

With this you also get around the problem of having customers get shirty about shipping costs. The Calculated Shipping just feels more official than any Flat Rate, no matter how right the Flat Rate may be.

Oh, and, in case you didn't notice. There are different rates for US shipping and for Overseas Shipping. Take some time and fiddle about with the Sell Your Item form. And ask specific questions when needed.

reallynicestamps · ‎06-24-2014

The best example would be my 20 KG package shipped from Hong Kong to me would cost $213.47 while I will have to pay $376.12 to ship the same package to Hong Kong.

China Post is heavily subsidized by the Chinese government.
Canadian workers earn more in an hour than most Chinese workers earn in a day.

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-24-2014

If you use the correct CP sizing, it will be slightly smaller than the USPS dimensions for the same service.

USPS and CP do not have the same services.The problem...as explained before...is that the measurements being entered are too small for that particular CP service. It has nothing to do with USPS.

reallynicestamps · ‎06-24-2014

Even though I cannot prove that Employees of Canada Post are doing anything illegal (and have been informed by their UNION REP that I will be charged with slander if I even mention them in any investigation)…..and the fact that I, without catching them red handed, cannot prove any of these allegations…

I take it then you have already reported this problem to the Postmaster of your local Post Office, that an investigation was undertaken and that the union rep for the accused worker threatened you in the course of that investigation. Interesting.

Or were you just complaining over donuts at Tim Hortons? That would be a case of slander if you were naming names. Not that the named worker would necessarily win.

reallynicestamps · ‎06-24-2014

sending from Canada to the UK USPS quoted me $100 shipping for a 200 gram item.

USPS doesn't pickup in Canada, so you should add the cost of taking your parcel over the border to the cost of USPS shipping.

LetterPost would be $10.30. by Canada Post.

By Small Packet Air, 200 grams would ship for $36.70 although that rate would carry up to a kilo.

Expedited which is tracked and insured would cost $61.00 and again would carry up to a kilo.

If you are selling gold or coins, you probably know that most carriers won't insure them. Look into third party insurers. Their rates are pretty reasonable because they know that they will very rarely have to pay out.

Meanwhile 500 gram items from China and Hong Kong are being sold for under $20 with free international shipping.

Yes, China Post heavily subsidizes export shipping. And Chinese workers earn less in a day than Canadian workers (like you and I ) do in an hour.

latte403 · ‎06-24-2014

China Post is different from Hong Kong Post.

While I have no idea if China Post is subsidized by the Chinese government or not,

Hong Kong Post is definitely not being subsidized by the Hong Kong government.

Hong Kong Post is a government service but works like Canada Post as a Crown

Corporation. It is a business on its own and does not require government to subsidize.

The fact is that Canadian Postal workers earn more in an hour than most of other

Postal workers in this world. This is partial

Another fact that one should consider is how we share resources per capita.

Hong Kong is nearly 3 times smaller than the size of metro Vancouver but has over 6 million population

to share the cost of an operating post office. While we as Canadian have to share the

cost of operating a post office with our population of just 35 million at the size of our land.

We take up way more space per capita.

latte403 · ‎06-24-2014

Use one of the services in Toronto chitchatexpress or calgary dyklogistics

to get your parcels to USPS.

www.dyklogistics.com has a very good comparision on

both USPS and Canada Post rates.

@reallynicestamps wrote:
sending from Canada to the UK USPS quoted me $100 shipping for a 200 gram item.

USPS doesn't pickup in Canada, so you should add the cost of taking your parcel over the border to the cost of USPS shipping.

LetterPost would be $10.30. by Canada Post.
By Small Packet Air, 200 grams would ship for $36.70 although that rate would carry up to a kilo.
Expedited which is tracked and insured would cost $61.00 and again would carry up to a kilo.

If you are selling gold or coins, you probably know that most carriers won't insure them. Look into third party insurers. Their rates are pretty reasonable because they know that they will very rarely have to pay out.

Meanwhile 500 gram items from China and Hong Kong are being sold for under $20 with free international shipping.
Yes, China Post heavily subsidizes export shipping. And Chinese workers earn less in a day than Canadian workers (like you and I ) do in an hour.

reallynicestamps · ‎06-24-2014

HOW DO YOU MAKE MONEY WHEN THE BUYER LIES AND SAYS THEY DIDN'T GET THEIR ITEM? What if you sell an item for 5$ and they say they never got it?

If you sold an item for $5 planning to make a profit, can we assume that, including all eBay and PP fees, you paid less than that for the item?
You make your profit when you buy, not when you sell. That's an old old saying but still as true as it was in Timothy Eaton's day.

then I had to refund him the $50 AND I WAS OUT $50 WORTH OF CARDS basically I lost $100

The amount you are 'out' is not $100 (from your early experience) but the amount you paid for the card plus fees and postage.
It is still a nasty learning experience.
BTW, you are selling in one of the 'bad' categories. Your customer demographic runs heavily to young males. That's where most convicts come from.
Add in a certain amount of social ineptitude and youthful arrogance and -- well just ask any gamergirl. Wear asbestos undies when you do.
Some things are not meant for mail order. Cheap but heavy items are an obvious no-no. Items with high levels of fraud that are bought at low prices one at a time are another.

Consider selling your cards as lots of 10 for $20 or $30. Take out your losses on 'not delivered" and on expensive tracking. You may find yourself ahead. Yes, this involves arithmetic.

Also, STAMPS ARE 90CENTS NOW WHAT'S THAT? IT'S BASICALLY $10 FOR 10 STAMPS AND THAT'S RIDICULOUS.
Single stamps are now $1.00 including a service charge. Booklets are $8.50 plus GST , slightly less. It is possible to buy postage at a discount on eBay. Paypal labels are discounted between 5% and 18% of the PO counter price.

blooknight · ‎08-03-2014

The States is the same.....unless Canada and the U.S. become competitive with their cost then people will be buying from China more and more......while you understand the need for the employees to get a decent wage they will have to rethink the practice because before long no one will be using them and then you have no wage. I gave up selling and buying on Ebay North America because they are out of control......$20 to ship a $3 item.....get real and in Canada, where you thinks the costs would be better for us living here....well it's gone through the roof............welcome to Canada where the government and their agencies stay up nights thinking of how to make your business fail and when you stop spending how to tax more from you.

bigted99 · ‎10-20-2014

Canada post definitely hurts ebay the are the worst shippers in north America I get items faster from china than within Canada

femmefan1946 · ‎10-31-2014

http://business.financialpost.com/2014/10/28/canadians-are-burdened-with-antiquated-customes-paperwo...

Interesting article by Andrea Stairs, Country Manager, eBay Canada.

femmefan1946 · ‎10-31-2014

Oddly all those items from China travel from the airport or dock via Canada Post.

lillfog · ‎11-28-2014

I hate canada post from the bottom of my heart
, as a stay at home mom I sell small items or jewelry to make some extra $$$ but thanks to Canada post there's no way I could ship those item with tracking no to US or worldwide customers & everyone 1 out 6 buyers comes with claim of INR then honestly it makes me cry walking to corner mail box in minus 31then these cases life's looks like hell ...

All countries ( china post smallest ever possible package comes with tracking no ) usps provide tracking under $5 for small packages ...what the hell is going with us Canadians ?
Why we are paying so much to live in this snowy hell ?
I hate canada post more than those black sheep buyers who run over me frequently ...
I hate Canada post so much .

reallynicestamps · ‎11-28-2014

Let's go over insurance once more.

You can use a tracked service. As you know, this is expensive compared to the value of your items.

You can use a third party insurer like shipinsurance, which gets good reviews here from posters who use it. I don't but I understand insurance on each shipment is $1.00. I don't know if that is USD or loonies.

Then there is Cookie Jar Insurance, which works fairly well for those of us who sell low value items.

All this means is that the seller adds a few pennies to each asking price or to the shipping cost to cover occasional claims of loss or damage. This virtual money goes in a virtual cookie jar.

You can increase the effectiveness of Cookie Jar Insurance by using Light Packet mailing, which has a bar code just like the tracked services, even though it isn't.

When such a claim comes in, the seller makes a voodoo doll of the claimant, sticks pins in it, refunds with a polite note, and takes the refund money out of the cookie jar.

And Blocks the sketchey buyer.

None of these are perfect.