eBay Canada EIS
Summary: vintageandglamor inquires about rumors of eBay Canada launching an EIS program in the fall, hoping it will help Canadian sellers access the European market and offset US revenue losses. flipistics confirms the program's announcement and rollout plan, while marnotom! provides a link to a relevant discussion thread. electronicsextraordinaire and zhang43676 share concerns about challenges in the European market, such as high shipping costs, limited shipping options due to battery restrictions, and lengthy delivery times. Participants like shallow_karl and darak10 express the belief that the European market, further complicated by VAT and environmental regulations, is not a viable replacement for the US market, a sentiment echoed by others noting cultural appeal differences.
Hello,
I heard a rumor eBay Canada is planning EIS this fall. Is there some truth in this? It would greatly help especially opening up the European market to us Canadian sellers and will help offset lost US revenue.
easoss
·11 months agoFor me I'm mainly into pop culture type items that really only have appeal in North America. The saddest part is even though we are 2 different countries we share so many cultural similarities. The European market is of no value to me.
zhang43676
·11 months agoI tried to sell a few things over to Euro market. However, it can't replace US market due to shipping -
1. If you ship anything with a lithium battery, you can't ship it with Canada Post. I have a package return to me due to a battery inside. However, CP US packages allow you to ship a battery.
2. Shipping with tracking is crazy expensive - I chose the cheapest option for a 200g thing with tracking, it will cost me around 27 cad to EU. However, the CP US tracked parcel is normally around 7~10 cad
3. Shipping time - EU is normally more than 30 days. But US is like 10~20 days in most cases, except PR and Hawaii
I hope de minimis will be gone in one day soon. Otherwise, we will be all shutdown this year or next year
flipistics
·11 months agoI'm pretty sure you can't send the lithium batteries without special labels via Tracked Packet USA either. A postal worker was probably misinformed. That's better than my situation though, where my local post office doesn't let me send them even with the proper labels.
Where are you trying to send it to in the EU? It shouldn't cost nearly that much. Isn't Maple down in Toronto somewhere? If you're near a Stallion branch, you can probably send to most of the EU for much less. Even tracked packet international probably shouldn't be more than maybe $16 ish.
The delivery time shouldn't be 30 days. It should be 6-12 business days.
dinomitesales
·11 months agoAs long as the (lithium) batteries are installed in the equipment/device and said device doesn't exceed 4 cells (or 2 separate batteries), then it's fine to ship to the States via any method with no battery marking label required.
See here.
shallow_karl
·11 months agoThe average overtaxed European is as broke as the average overtaxed Canadian. The discretionary spending is FAR high per capita in the U.S. than anywhere else. Canada's purchasing all things equal should be about 1/10th the U.S. It's not, it's around 1/20th. Disposible income is the key and Americans have more than anyone else. The Euro market with the shipping and the insane VAT costs is no substitute.
easoss
·11 months agoReally depends where you live. I'm in Alberta and people have lots of disposable income here. My local sales are very strong.
darak10
·11 months agothis. Europe stopped being a viable market for most over here when they brought in VAT with more and more countries adopting the environmental package regulations. They are over here in terms of an ecommerce market.
electronicsextraordinaire
·11 months agoOther than potentially better shipping prices (not a given), what was holding up sales in the European market for you?
eBay has already been collecting EU/UK VAT for us (on sales up to 150 EUR / 135 GBP, but at that point, the customs determination fee works out to a relatively low percentage).
marnotom!
·11 months agohttps://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/eIS-Canada-coming-October-2025/m-p/526731
flipistics
·11 months agoIn case you haven't seen it yet, the program was announced earlier today. I believe it's supposed to begin sometime in October for some sellers and be fully rolled out in 2026.