Payment of customs fees: seller in Canada, buyer in the US | Selling

citroen2cv83 · 2026-01-19T14:24:23.510000Z

Hi! I just started selling on eBay again (first time since a couple years), I've always been a "beginner" seller: I sell an item, put it in an envelope, write the addresses by hand on the envelope, and take it to the post office—really old-fashioned...but it worked quite well in 2019/2020 when I spent a few months selling on eBay I'm in Canada and I'm now facing the issue of the end of the de minimis exemption, which I unfortunately hadn't heard about... I just sold my first item (a 1997 Acura car advertisement flyer worth $19 CAD) to a buyer in the US.When I arrived at the Canada Post office to ship my item, they explained that I have to prepay the customs fees via a third-party application (Zonos Prepay)...okay? I downloaded the application, filled out the form, and apparently the customs fees are $0. The application generated the 13-character customs code allowing Canada Post to ship the item and US Customs to process it (?), so the item was shipped to my buyer. My questions are:[Sorry if some of these seem really stupid or the answer obvious for people used to selling online]1) Is it normal for the customs fees to be $0? I thought all items crossing the border were now subject to customs fees? If so, what are the exact conditions? What types of items are exempt from customs fees? 2) Why would I having to pay customs clearance fees when they are usually the buyer's responsibility? I understand that eBay itself charges customs clearance fees when the order is placed? Did my buyer pay any fees at the time of ordering? 3) Is there a risk that my buyer will end up having to pay additional fees upon receiving their item, that he will refuse to pay these unexpected fees, and that the item will not be delivered? 4) On that note, I just saw online that sellers are advised to clearly state in their listings that customs fees may be charged to American buyers. Isn't that obvious? I'm looking at listings from several Canadian sellers on eBay for similar items, and none of them mention this. 5) I saw that eBay recently started offering an eBay International Shipping service, but I can't seem to access it when creating a listing. How can I offer this shipping service to my potential customers? Is it worthwhile?If I enroll in this eBay service, will I be able to continue offering the "lettermail" postal service (without tracking but much more advantageous in terms of price on lightweight standard size documents)?Could I choose to ship my items by myself if the buyer is in Canada, but via "eIS" if the buyer is international? I know that when you start selling on eBay it's quite difficult; there's this "ridiculous" (in my opinion) SEO and algorithm issue that prevents my listings from being shown to potential buyers, so obviously I want my current buyer's buying experience to be 100% positive even more to get a perfect feedback.Many of my items can be found on eBay from other sellers, but I have many rare items sought after by collectors who would also benefit from the algorithm showing them these items. Therefore, I spend a lot of time making the clearest and most well-structured listings possible, but so far it's barely worked. The increasingly exorbitant shipping costs certainly don't help either (and I know that on this point it's not eBay's fault), and now they've added this issue of customs fees which supposedly must be paid by the sender, I'm starting to get discouraged... There are probably many things I've misunderstood, and my internet searches haven't yielded much, so I thought I might get some answers here. A great thank you in advance to those who have the courage to read this and take the time to reply!

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Payment of customs fees: seller in Canada, buyer in the US | Selling | eBay Canada EN