How are your Aug 29 plans developing?
Summary: sapphyres-designer-jewellery discusses the challenges of continuing to ship to the US amidst changing tariffs and plans to use Stallion for CUSMA goods shipping. They describe waiting for further information about tariffs on UK-made items and considering increasing prices to cover costs. videotimeplus states their intention to message US buyers about tariffs, while vintage_america questions the feasibility of shipping from Canada via Stallion. musicyouneed intends to remove US shipping for certain items and is unsure about tariff exemptions for informational materials. recped shares plans to use Stallion for domestic and international shipping while adjusting US shipping charges based on duty rates, expecting some buyer resistance similar to past changes in eBay VAT collections.
I know many people have already said they're not shipping to the US. If you are determined to keep shipping, how are the plans taking shape to cope with this change?
Stallion's message yesterday helped shape what I plan to do after Aug 29 (but on time away until early September, then I'll see what is actually happening before I jump in with both feet).
So my plan is to use Stallion to ship CUSMA goods (for me that's Canada and US, accounts for 30% of my store). I'm waiting for Stallion to sort out the details with their broker and CBP to tell me what I need to do to prove my items qualify. I'll have to sort that out with them, and then I have ideas (like printing a page from Numista that shows where the coin was minted, and putting it in the package just in case it's checked and CBP sees the coin is from the Bahamas, but it was minted at the Franklin Mint).
I have a number of Royal Mint and Pobjoy Mint items made in the UK. I'm waiting until Sept to find out what the tariff ends up being. If it's at 10-15% I may raise prices so I can ship these things DDP. Lots of other places don't have low enough tariffs to implement DDP. So those items will go with Canada Post.
I send a lot of seller initiated offers, I used to advertise that packages were shipped as a domestic shipment from the US. I need to revise this to tell everyone the package is shipped from Canada (even if it goes with Stallion, I'll use Stallion's tracking which shows shipping from Canada) and invite buyers to reach out to me if they have questions about shipping (some buyers might want to ask if there's going to be tariffs, since it's dependent on which item I'm shipping at any given time I need to answer on a case by case basis, and let the buyer know it's because the item is CUSMA there will be no tariffs, or it's going by Canada Post and I can't say if they'll be charged).
I'm determined to survive this until it's sorted out. Obviously if I do DDP I'll have to raise prices, but on certain items i can't. It's kind of like there are magic numbers of what people will pay, and making it $1-2 more expensive won't work. One issue is that the CUSMA stuff is subject to a processing fee up to 1.99 and I can't raise shipping prices enough to cover that, I'm trying to stay competitive with other US sellers by having similar shipping prices, and actually Canada Post is similar to Stallion's USPS/US Economy services. both run in the 6.50 to 8.00 range. I've increased my US rates to 5.25 USD.
I have read on the US forum there's been a USPS rate increase and anyone not passing their discount on to buyers will have around $7.50-8.00 USD in shipping to mail 4oz across the country. Those who are passing on their discount will be charging around $5, so I need to go with that if I want people to see my items as the same cost as the domestic US sellers (of course tariffs will put a monkey wrench, but I'm hoping if the CUSMA stuff can go tariff free and I can make Stallion happy with the proof they need, that will be what keeps me afloat).
My Stallion balance is currently under $2, so if this doesn't work out come September, I'm not out a bunch of money I won't get back. I did a pretty good job of adding $20 at a time until all my packages were shipped before time away. Watching the tracking on my outstanding orders and hoping most get delivered by tomorrow. I think I have 8 outstanding shippments (all international) and a bunch in Canada that may or may not have been delivered by now. I kind of like stuff to be wrapped up before I end up with infrequent internet access (which is the case if I travel).
C.
recped
·11 months agoI don't have a solid plan in place because I'm on Time Away and I'll be completely off the grid for 3 - 4 weeks starting in a day or two.
Most of what I sell into the US is made in Canada, if Stallions DDP service is not to complicated and only costs up to $2 on those items I will use it and simply add $2.50 to the US shipping charge.
For my items that are do not originate in Canada I may initially stop offering US shipping on those. If the DDP service is working well then I would open up those listings and alter the shipping charges to cover the duty rates for the countries involved (almost all are UK or EU or US).
Keep in mind that increasing International shipping charges does not affect eBay fees since they use the Domestic shipping charge for the fee calculations.
As far as a pre-paid postage with Stallion, not an issue for me as I would still be using Stallion for domestic and overseas even if I stop shipping to the US. (I have a few dollars sitting in my Stamps.com that I can no longer use plus a similar small amount in my ChitChats account from 6 years ago....Meh!).
I have read on the US forum there's been a USPS rate increase and anyone not passing their discount on to buyers will have around $7.50-8.00 USD in shipping to mail 4oz across the country.
The seasonal USPS rate adjustment for Ground Advantage under 1lb is 30 or 35 cents (urban/rural), hardly a major issue at all.
One thing you may find, when you are pretending to be a US seller matching the rates offered by other US based sellers is important. When you are selling from outside the US most buyers expect the shipping charges to somewhat higher and the delivery times slower. Sure there are some buyers out there that never think about where the seller is located even when it is clearly shown on the listing pages.
Bottom line, if you have stuff people want and either can't buy domestically or the domestic sources are priced a lot higher they will continue to buy. For what I'm selling it's pretty easy to match or beat the price US sellers are asking for. I do expect some initial resistance just like when eBay started to collect VAT, my sales to the UK and EU dried up for a year but slowly came back as buyers adjusted to the new reality.
sapphyres-designer-jewellery
OP11 months agoHave fun off the grid! I won't quite be off the grid, but internet will be by satellite sometimes (going to Iceland and Greenland), so basically using it to resolve any INRs that might arise from untracked items.
I think you nailed it on the head about me "pretending to be a US seller". Managed to do that since 2016 with Chit Chats (and then I joined Stallion last year when Chit Chats in my city closed). I did tell buyers I was in Canada and using a cross border shipper though (generally when I sent seller initiated offers). With Chit Chats and Stallion in my city since about 2021 (or was it 2022?) I was able to drop packages off every couple of days and ship items really fast. In my tenure of pretending to be a US seller I only had a few people get upset about that, it was a bit delicate to explain and calm things down. In the end the buyers were happy even though their package originally came from Canada.
Anyway the gig is up (with the being a US seller stuff) and now I need to start a new chapter on eBay as a Canadian seller. But I still plan to use Stallion if it works into my plan for getting this across the border without long delays at customs.
C.
musicyouneed
·11 months agoWell, what a mess.
45% of the CD's I sell were produced in the US so those I will continue to sell. The others that is confusing, 45% have been made in Canada so I am not sure how CUSMA would play into this. The other 10% were made in Japan and Europe, those I will remove shipping to the US. I am moving any Canadian CD's from .com to .ca. I may put myself on time away until I get that all done.
I am also not sure about the exemption from tariffs for information material.
Headings 9903.01.22, 9903.01.12, 9903.01.03, and 9903.01.31 describe informational materials, including but not limited to, publications, films, posters, phonograph records, photographs, microfilms, microfiche, tapes, compact discs, CD ROMs, artworks, and news wire feeds.
Goods properly classified under the following headings and subheadings of the HTSUS may qualify for the exception under 9903.01.22, 9903.01.12, 9903.01.03, and 9903.01.31: Chapter 49; goods provided for in headings 3704, 3705, 3706, 5807, 8310, and 9701 through 9705, inclusive; goods provided for in subheadings 6307.90.30, 6307.90.85, 8523.80.10, 8523.29, 8523.41, 8523.49, 9405.61, and 9405.69.
vintage_america
·11 months agoAre you stating that your items are located in USA and then shipping from Canada with Stallion or Chit Chats? If so, I don't think that's going to work anymore due to these tariffs. And other reasons.
sapphyres-designer-jewellery
OP11 months agoOn this account, they all say Ontario, Canada.
On my dot com account they used to say Niagara NY (or Sanborn NY) and I shipped them with Stallion using USPS. Now that the tariffs are happening and I need to provide manufacturer information for it to be DDP approved, I've updated all my listings to say Ontario, Canada (but buyers who bought from me before might have an expectation that it's a domestic shipment simply because I did it before, so that's what I'm grappling with at the moment).
C.
videotimeplus
·11 months agowe are continuing business as usual. Most our sales are within Canada anyways so when we sell something to the U.S we will just message the buyer letting them know about the tariff possibilties.