Re: Paying your buyers tariffs survey | Selling | eBay Canada EN

Re: Paying your buyers tariffs survey | Selling | eBay Canada EN

Buying & Selling

Re: Paying your buyers tariffs survey

Summary: La discusión gira en torno a la opción de que los vendedores canadienses paguen o no las tarifas arancelarias en nombre de sus compradores estadounidenses, en el contexto del comercio en plataformas en línea como eBay. lotzofuniquegoodies inicia el debate expresando firme oposición a pagar estas tarifas y pregunta si los otros vendedores planean trasladar sus listados a eBay Canadá en lugar de EE.UU. Muchos participantes comparten sus decisiones, con algunos optando por cesar envíos a EE.UU. debido a la imposibilidad de absorber estos costos sin comprometer sus márgenes de ganancia, mientras que otros, como dache_us, mencionan aceptar pagar tarifas para mantener sus negocios a flote. daisydaisy999 añade humor a la situación al ajustar sus tarifas de envío, y muchos expresan preocupaciones sobre la implementación de nuevos sistemas para manejar estos aranceles, incluido el uso de intermediarios como Zonos. La mayoría de los participantes prefieren esperar y observar cómo se desarrollan las políticas y decisiones de plataformas como eBay.

Seeing where the consensus lands on paying the tariff on behalf of your buyer or not. Important to consider that even if you were willing to pay tariffs there would still be any processing fees for these transactions. Next to impossible to cover that out of any profit you "might" have left.

Please put me down on this side of the poll:

Or a hard no!!!

If you list on dot com are you planning on moving your listings over to ca?

lotzofuniquegoodies

2600 View listings

Posted 11 months ago · Edited 11 months ago·Last reply 11 months ago

56 comments

visual-sound

·11 months ago

I have removed US shipping for all my items. It's just not worth it. Another nail in the EBay coffin.

golfing_in_style

·11 months ago

Never will pay the customer tariffs. Im going to make way less money by selling to Canadians only but so be it

sunraycity_store

·11 months ago

There are services such as https://www.ecomdataminer.com/ that offer up the ability to scrape your data from a site.

sparx_63

·11 months ago

Hello all

I stopped all shipping to the USA in February due to the uncertainty of tariffs, customs, and the almost daily changes being made by the president to commerce in general. I decided that rather than deal with the stress ( I ship through Chit Chats and they had many shipments rejected early on) I would take the hit in lost sales and see where I would end up. My sales have been the lowest in five years. I was unsure how long I would continue but as I ended up still making profit every month I decided for the summer to cut back hours developing the store (new listings, refresh etc). Now as fall approaches I will start listing new stuff again.

It is a shame with what happened to deminimus, but I feel I have to embrace the paradigm shift and wait and see how it all shakes out in the end. It may take a year or more to see how good/bad the tariffs have affected the economies of both the USA and Canada. In the meantime, I do not think there is enough margin in most goods I sell to justify the extra work and cost required to sell into the USA at this time.

lotzofuniquegoodies

OP11 months ago

@sparx_63 wrote:
Hello all
I stopped all shipping to the USA in February due to the uncertainty of tariffs, customs, and the almost daily changes being made by the president to commerce in general. I decided that rather than deal with the stress ( I ship through Chit Chats and they had many shipments rejected early on) I would take the hit in lost sales and see where I would end up. My sales have been the lowest in five years. I was unsure how long I would continue but as I ended up still making profit every month I decided for the summer to cut back hours developing the store (new listings, refresh etc). Now as fall approaches I will start listing new stuff again.
It is a shame with what happened to deminimus, but I feel I have to embrace the paradigm shift and wait and see how it all shakes out in the end. It may take a year or more to see how good/bad the tariffs have affected the economies of both the USA and Canada. In the meantime, I do not think there is enough margin in most goods I sell to justify the extra work and cost required to sell into the USA at this time.

@sparx_63

Coming at this from the opposite end of the spectrum, besides implementing a Canadian eIS program (who knows when it will be fully functional.... meaning up and running without major glitches, that could potentially cause more grief than sellers already have) is there much else eBay can do to even closely level the playing field for Canadian sellers???

Important to remember this will be one of the few jourisdictions where the seller will be paying tariffs AND processing fees for their customers. What will be the % of sellers that can afford to even consider such an option or have the margin to do so? Probably very low!!!

Canadian sellers have been behind the 8 ball for a number of years when it came to being competitive. Majority of new features when they got rolled out got rolled out for US sellers first...Canadian sellers second. Often either much later or without the same full functionality meaning as more of a lite version.

Due to the volume of listings currently out there, it's next to impossible to be found at the top of the list via a normal search(unless maybe you are able to promote at an extremely high rate). Most of us can't but in the end might be forced to do so. Could it get better if sellers start packing it in? Maybe? Another wait and see'r!!! All I know for the current forseeable future selling consistently (Canada and rest of world only) on eBay is going to be very hit or miss. (((As per several others and their observations/conclusions how much are Canadian sellers really being seen right now when a buyer searches via dot com? That is very likely how most buyers seach and definitely how a US buyer does so. At the moment, this may be my biggest concern keeping me awake at night!!!)))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCY0aeUx-Ns

lotzofuniquegoodies

OP11 months ago

@byto253

@sparx_63

@ilikehockeyjerseys

In checking my most recent traffic report on both sites this is what I am now seeing. I turned off US shipping sometime on the 25th.

Dot ca:

Dot com: The spike on the 25th could have been me tinkering and testing. Shouldn't be but hard to know for sure. Could have been other ebay sellers from forum.

You may see a bit of a discrepancy between the 2 sites in totals. From my own personal occasional checks they only time I see a major dip or spike in traffic is when a block of promotions either start or end.

Will this be the new normal until DDU gets figured out in maybe October? Or when we can re add USA as a place we would be happy to ship to? I'm educated guessing so!!! My last Canadian sale was 18th. Last US sale was 19th.

Has anyone else that lists just on ca seeing similar dips (drop off a cliff) in traffic? What are Canadian sellers that list on dot com seeing for traffic. Both with USA turned on and off?

lotzofuniquegoodies

OP11 months ago

Add on report where my items are being found. I understand many sellers are not big fans of promoting but it definitely can influence traffic and sales.:

daisydaisy999

·11 months ago

I kind of love that US is finally going to have to pay the duties that everyone else has had to pay all these years if we wanted to shop out of our country but it sure is creating a hassle for us as sellers! Because of course they can't pay their duties upon receiving like everyone else does - why do all the work when you can make all the other countries do it for you?! That being said - I changed all my listings to $100 shipping for the US so there shouldn't be any buy it nows and added this disclaimer:

To my American friends:
The $100 shipping cost is just a placeholder - message me before buying so I can figure out your cost for duties. Your government now runs imports like a mob boss - Nice little package you've got there - shame if something happened to it... They call it "duties." I call it protection money. Supposedly I pay it, but let's not kid ourselves, you're the one getting whacked. I could hide it in the price like a casino skim, but I prefer to be upfront about your extortion. You'll have to slip the cash through PayPal before shipping, and no, it's not refundable - because once the Feds get their cut, it's gone faster than common sense in Congress. Maybe one day eBay will add an easier way to collect, but until then: pay up, or fuggedaboutit.

I still don't think anyone there will really understand duties or how they are really something they ultimately cover but I figured at least I could amuse myself in the process... 🙂

lotzofuniquegoodies

OP11 months ago

@daisydaisy999 wrote:
I kind of love that US is finally going to have to pay the duties that everyone else has had to pay all these years if we wanted to shop out of our country but it sure is creating a hassle for us as sellers! Because of course they can't pay their duties upon receiving like everyone else does - why do all the work when you can make all the other countries do it for you?! That being said - I changed all my listings to $100 shipping for the US so there shouldn't be any buy it nows and added this disclaimer:
To my American friends:
The $100 shipping cost is just a placeholder - message me before buying so I can figure out your cost for duties. Your government now runs imports like a mob boss - Nice little package you've got there - shame if something happened to it... They call it "duties." I call it protection money. Supposedly I pay it, but let's not kid ourselves, you're the one getting whacked. I could hide it in the price like a casino skim, but I prefer to be upfront about your extortion. You'll have to slip the cash through PayPal before shipping, and no, it's not refundable - because once the Feds get their cut, it's gone faster than common sense in Congress. Maybe one day eBay will add an easier way to collect, but until then: pay up, or fuggedaboutit.

I still don't think anyone there will really understand duties or how they are really something they ultimately cover but I figured at least I could amuse myself in the process... 🙂

@daisydaisy999

The US government has been collecting any applicable tariffs for the pas number of months until they could get this NEW system designed/rolled out. The last time I checked the amount collected was in the many many many billions (sounds like a bad Austin Powers quote. 29.6 B into July.) There have been reports that IF and this is a very large IF congress could get this order undone they would be on the hook for refunding. I personally can't see large businesses from anywhere that ship to the USA on a regular basis prepaying customers tariffs. Just like the chance of a vast majority of smaller sellers doing it. Like George Bush stated so elequently...."Isn't gonna happen!!!|

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-tariff-refund-2078606

daisydaisy999

·11 months ago

totally agree - it will be interesting to see what kind of giant clusterf*** this turns into! I just know that if anyone from the States wants to buy from me - they are going to have to pony up the tariffs in advance by Paypal - I wouldn't even want to add them to the listing price - if they return it then I am out the tariff cost as my understanding is that it's not refundable... I also don't want to have to pay FVF on tariffs - if eBay does come up with a way for those to be invoiced with everything else I sure hope they will be exempt but I am guessing not... there are just too many unknowns to really know what the hell is going on yet! 🙂

lotzofuniquegoodies

OP11 months ago

@daisydaisy999 wrote:
totally agree - it will be interesting to see what kind of giant clusterf*** this turns into! I just know that if anyone from the States wants to buy from me - they are going to have to pony up the tariffs in advance by Paypal - I wouldn't even want to add them to the listing price - if they return it then I am out the tariff cost as my understanding is that it's not refundable... I also don't want to have to pay FVF on tariffs - if eBay does come up with a way for those to be invoiced with everything else I sure hope they will be exempt but I am guessing not... there are just too many unknowns to really know what the hell is going on yet! 🙂

@daisydaisy999

As far as I know if a US seller sells using eIS they pay FVF's just up to their hub. Beyond and processing fees to cover are not charged.

Here is an explanation of how eIS works and the options it has available.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/shipping-delivery/changing-delivery-address-method/international-purchases-shipping?id=4057&st=3&pos=2&query=International%20purchases%20and%20shipping%20for%20buyers&intent=eis&lucenceai=lucenceai&docId=HELP1028

Hopefully if something like that was set up for Canadian sellers it would be set up in a similar fashion. My concern would be shipping to a central hub (probably Toronto) would be more expensive for sellers located at the opposite end of Canada vs sellers located in Ontario. Would eBay be choosing the shipping method for us?

daisydaisy999

·11 months ago

well that would be excellent as far as fees go. you are right on shipping costs depending on where you live to get to the hub - I would hope that as long as you send it tracked you could send it however you want but this is where it can get expensive for the buyer since they are paying for the shipping twice so buying something going from Vancouver to Toronto first is going to add to the costs for sure.

femmefan1946

·11 months ago

So if a shipment is turned back because the seller does not prepay tariffs (which are also questionably legal), can the seller cancel as "Problem with address"?

rdemaree

·11 months ago

I moved all my listings to .ca back in March and will not go back to .com

I am very actively working on selling more to Canada and International. I am not delusional to think the USA wont still be a big portion of my base tho. I am just trying to even the playing field so im not so reliant on the USA.

A big reason why im trying to expand to selling in physical stores in Canada.

I am trying to "trump proof" my business so even if the USA keeps getting crazier and I lose a chunk of buyers there or the buyers are rollercoaster buying that ill survive it ok.

meddshaw

·11 months ago

I moved my listings to ebay.ca a few years ago. I will not be paying for anybody's duties as I no longer will be selling to the US for the time being.

sylviebee

·11 months ago

I don't understand why or how sellers could have the option of pre-paying tariffs on the buyer's behalf.

How would that even work? I'd be happy to pre-pay on my buyer's behalf because it would mean that I, as a seller, could avoid having to pay processing fees which in many cases would be higher than the actual tariffs. Most of my items are Made In the USA, and as such should be tariff-free.

I've been required to pay duty (really same as tariffs) for about the past year for items bought from the USA. Perhaps eBay could borrow that model and put it into effect ASAP (unless TACO renegs which could well still happen). If he does delay, then eBay would be prepared for what's likely to come.

mrdutch1001

·11 months ago

duty and tariffs are not same thing...they are 2 different/separate fees

https://dclcorp.com/blog/supply-chain/duties-taxes-tariffs-explained/

sylviebee

·11 months ago

AI Overview

They pretty much are the same thing. At least as far as the eBay seller is concerned.

A tariff is the specific tax, or rate, levied on imported goods, while a duty is the broader concept of a fee or tax on goods crossing borders, which can include tariffs. You can think of it this way: a tariff is the policy that sets the duty rate, and the duty is the specific amount collected for a particular shipment based on that policy. All tariffs are a type of duty, but not all duties are tariffs, as some duties may not be associated with a specific trade policy or trade restriction.

reallynicestamps

·11 months ago

@sylviebee

A duty is applied to a thing.

Every importer pays the same duty on every doowinkey they import, no matter where it is made.

A tariff is imposed on a country.

The importer pays a different tariff depending on where the doowinkey is made. Ten percent for Russian doowinkeys, 143% for Chinese doowinkeys , 35% for Canadian doowinkeys.

dinomitesales

·11 months ago

@sylviebee wrote:
I don't understand why or how sellers could have the option of pre-paying tariffs on the buyer's behalf.

How would that even work? I'd be happy to pre-pay on my buyer's behalf because it would mean that I, as a seller, could avoid having to pay processing fees which in many cases would be higher than the actual tariffs. Most of my items are Made In the USA, and as such should be tariff-free.

"Pre-paying the tariffs" just means shipping DDP (Delivered Duties Paid). Canada Post is working on a system that will allow (rather, require) Canadian shippers to pre-pay any and all cross-border fees before they can send a shipment to the States. Couriers like UPS and FedEx already offer DDP options, and cross-border shippers like ChitChats and Stallion are preparing their DDP options as well. If you're happy to pay them yourself then options currently exist, and other options will emerge as August 29th comes and passes.

@sylviebee wrote:
I've been required to pay duty (really same as tariffs) for about the past year for items bought from the USA. Perhaps eBay could borrow that model and put it into effect ASAP (unless TACO renegs which could well still happen). If he does delay, then eBay would be prepared for what's likely to come.

You're referring to the "eBay International Shipping" (eIS) service (formerly the Global Shipping Program). This is only available to American sellers for international sales (and a slightly modified program is also available for sellers in the UK). Supposedly a Canadian version of this is coming in the next few months, but implementing a program such as this is a huge, monumental task. Frankly, I'm surprised eBay is even bothering to do so considering how small of a market eBay Canada is.

----------

To answer OP's question, I will not be pre-paying any American's tariffs. I have always listed on dotCA and have always priced my items to be the cheapest option for Canadian buyers. I have excluded the USA for all my listings for the time being. I will sell to the USA again once a) Canada Post's processes are in place to handle the tariffs; and b) eBay implements a way for the tariffs to be collected from US buyers at the time of the sale via a separate line item (or the Canadian global shipping program is launched, whichever comes first).

byto253

·11 months ago

A big question for me is how will Made in USA items be handled. Will we need to "prepay" the zero tariff but still have processing costs and need to sign up for Zonal or whatever it is called.

sylviebee

·11 months ago

dinomitesales, I don’t think any seller will offer to pay tariffs out of pocket. However, I will check it out because if they don’t have additional fees it might work if there is no duty owing. Even couriers don’t charge brokerage fees if no tax or duty is owed.

Yes, eBay International Shipping has been charging me duty for about the past year, but not only EIS. I’ve been paying duty on a lot of shipments from the States and every shipment has been assessed.

If others, which are much smaller than eBay are doing it, then it can’t be that hard to put into place. Pretty much the same as charging tax and eBay (and others) should have been prepared for this. Everyone knew it was coming.

lotso……….. In response to your question: I’m not sure why anyone would alter how they’re doing things because of duty (other than finding a fix for eBay's failure to have a way to bill buyers for duty in place). If Americans are buying their items now in any quantity, they’ll likely keep doing so. Sellers who are dribbling out a few low cost sales to the U.S. might have a problem, but maybe not.

I always had to wonder why the US had this big break of $800 de minimis while almost everyone else had $20. As a buyer I envied that, but as a seller I thought it was just fine, but every time I heard them (the Americans) go on about how they needed $ I’d look at this and wonder why they didn’t change their de minimis. I am the furthest thing from being a Trump fan that one can be, but I get why it’s being done. We (Canadians) have had protections for on line sales in place for a long time.

I’m curious to see how Americans react because this might be the first time they get a taste of what these tariffs mean for them. They might not even notice or care much, but it could really get under their skin. Could go either way, but I’m pretty sure that the best option is to watch, wait, and see what comes of it.

tryubik-useonlyasdirected

·11 months ago

This is why it is so stupid. Most items are already duty free and this can be assessed using the full code from the HTS schedule, mostly. It adds an additional level of user fees by introducing a new middle man. Corruption at its finest.

marnotom!

·11 months ago

@tryubik-useonlyasdirected wrote:

It adds an additional level of user fees by introducing a new middle man. Corruption at its finest.

I don't understand what you mean by this point, @tryubik-useonlyasdirected. Can you elaborate a little, please? What "user fees" are you referring to?

second-to-nature

·11 months ago

L'orange stupide as only approved 2 companies as capable of handling customs DDU, one Zonos is a venture capital backed corporation based out of Utah and the other is (i can't recall the name of it, a few people have posted it around the forums) but they call themselve an AI solutions company. - Both charge a brokerage or fee to set up the DDU process. Previously it was handled in house, customs and via the broker either DDU or at the Buyers door. By only approving two private and questionable companies that charge a fee between seller government and government buyer there is a new middle man. Its corruption, a racket of sorts to favour private business, undermine public services, create chaos, and profit out of the middle.

sylviebee

·11 months ago

"" This is why it is so stupid. Most items are already duty free and this can be assessed using the full code from the HTS schedule, mostly. It adds an additional level of user fees by introducing a new middle man. Corruption at its finest.""

tryubik, you are so right on with that. You can already see the gears going. EBay is already trying to figure out how they can make an extra buck at this by adding a middle man. Canada does not need an International Shipping program. That was implemented in the US for sellers who didn't want to ship out of the USA. Not as a tool to collect tariffs, and it's expensive. Canada has ChitChat for that and he's doing a crack up job a it at a fraction of the cost!

What we need is for eBay to caluculate duty or tariffs (if you prefer) the same way they calculate taxes. How hard can that be?

lotzofuniquegoodies

OP11 months ago

@sylviebee wrote:
"" This is why it is so stupid. Most items are already duty free and this can be assessed using the full code from the HTS schedule, mostly. It adds an additional level of user fees by introducing a new middle man. Corruption at its finest.""

tryubik, you are so right on with that. You can already see the gears going. EBay is already trying to figure out how they can make an extra buck at this by adding a middle man. Canada does not need an International Shipping program. That was implemented in the US for sellers who didn't want to ship out of the USA. Not as a tool to collect tariffs, and it's expensive. Canada has ChitChat for that and he's doing a crack up job a it at a fraction of the cost!

What we need is for eBay to caluculate duty or tariffs (if you prefer) the same way they calculate taxes. How hard can that be?

@sylviebee It is still extremely important to consider even the concept of eBay collecting in advance there is the concern they are not in possession of the actual goods. The tariff is based on the documentation which has to be submitted to US customs which can at their discretion inspect to confirm. For the foreseeable future there may be much inspecting going on. Confirming the right tariffs and that sellers are not using inaccurate info to try to bypass the system either with bad info accidentally or on purpose to escape the tariffs. Saying something is worse less than customs thinks it is a major no no.

sylviebee

·11 months ago

lotz, yes while it's true that eBay would not be in possession of the actual goods, eBay has possibly the best tool available for ensuring that the seller has accurately described the item. Sellers' feet are constantly held to the fire to ensure items are described accurately. Of course some sellers will fudge a little, but so what? There is no possible way for customs to examine every package, and doing so would add a layer of complication that is way beyond the means of the system.

The GSP used to open a lot packages and cause a lot problems doing that. As far as I can tell the ISP and couriers do not open packages either.

Besides, you'd think they have their hands full with all the fentanyl we're shipping down there.

sparx_63

·11 months ago

Chit Chats absolutely opens every package they ship to the states.

thefruga-84

·11 months ago

“ Saying something is worse less than customs thinks it is a major no no. ”

I hear this a lot and it makes me wonder how auction houses that ship to the US are going to get swept up in this concept.

Prior to going full bore on eBay the last year, I ran a small auction house operating off hibid, we weren’t consistent nor did we manage to get many done but it was our first crack at unloading the chaff so to speak. We sold A LOT and a lot of it went well under eBay prices as one would expect.

My move right now is to pick up the digital gavel and sell things at well below market rates at a high volume. As I will have the ability to charge cards for shipping (and tariff fees) I’ll still be able to accept American business. However, when I say under market rate I mean we’ll under market rates. Most items would sell for 10-30 cents on the dollar with some special categories going for market rates.

To turn this back into an eBay issue, how is customs going to look at Auctions that go off well under market rate because there was only one bid and it was for say 30% of market value? There’s really no fair way to say what the value of an item is other than what has been paid on that item.

Not really a question just a concern about the concept of undervalued products and application of custom fees.

reallynicestamps

·11 months ago

If it sold at that price that's the market value.

Be sure to include not just a packing slip but an invoice (marked Paid).

marnotom!

·11 months ago

@sylviebee wrote:

EBay is already trying to figure out how they can make an extra buck at this by adding a middle man. Canada does not need an International Shipping program. That was implemented in the US for sellers who didn't want to ship out of the USA. Not as a tool to collect tariffs, and it's expensive. Canada has ChitChat for that and he's doing a crack up job a it at a fraction of the cost!

I'd be really surprised if eBay International Shipping is doing better than breaking even at this point.

Remember the old US Global Shipping Program that was administered by Pitney Bowes' Global eCommerce division? That arm of Pitney Bowes declared bankruptcy about a year ago.

https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/pitney-bowes-global-ecommerce-bankruptcy-chapter-11/724545/

cottagewoman

·11 months ago

As many others stated not for now. But once the dust settles I'll see what makes sense. Eat 17% on vintage Japanese electronics. Make 33% back on exchange rate, difference (more or less) covers eBay fees. So break even. Before that 33% exchange bump was nice, but the new reality means it goes away for certain items, but hey, at least it breaks even to sale price, not sale price minus fees as when selling in CAD.

rosscd57

·11 months ago

Pulled off all my US listing a couple of days ago. There is no way I am going to help the orange man by prepaying his tarifs - let the buyers and US boarder customs do it like they are supposed to. That is the only way this may be resolved.

If you go ahead and do it - you are not helping sellers or your self. I doubt you will get the amount right, the carriers are much expensive, there is a good chance it will be stoped at the boarder anyway and it is possible that you will not get your money back - or your sale item either.

The whole world is cutting of their Postal Services on this issue because they are not as stuped as the orange man. It would not surprise me in the least if the orange man pulled it on the 29th or shortly after or; kicked it down the road for a while.

lotzofuniquegoodies

OP11 months ago

@rosscd57 wrote:

Pulled off all my US listing a couple of days ago. There is no way I am going to help the orange man by prepaying his tarifs - let the buyers and US boarder customs do it like they are supposed to. That is the only way this may be resolved.

If you go ahead and do it - you are not helping sellers or your self. I doubt you will get the amount right, the carriers are much expensive, there is a good chance it will be stoped at the boarder anyway and it is possible that you will not get your money back - or your sale item either.

The whole world is cutting of their Postal Services on this issue because they are not as stuped as the orange man. It would not surprise me in the least if the orange man pulled it on the 29th or shortly after or; kicked it down the road for a while.

I am wondering how fast or if eBay will be removing the disclaimer that is attached to ALL listings that ship to the USA? Will it happen tomorrow on the 25th? Will it get revised on all eBay websites when applicable?

International shipment of items may be subject to customs processing and additional charges.

It's been an eBay disclaimer for years in it's various forms.

electronicsextraordinaire

·11 months ago

Just jacked my US "shipping" fees except for my made in USA item (tho it isn't marked that way, they only manufacture in USA).

ricarmic

·11 months ago

At this stage in the "game" I'm not going to say 100% I'll never pay any tariffs.

I can say I'll never pay anything like 25% or 35%, but if it's 5% or 10%, I don't know, I might waffle a bit on that.

My reason isn't patriotism, because we are doing what we can in our household to buy Canadian, but I do have a number of very good very long time repeat USA customers, some with me for over a decade. They may have or may not have helped put the current regime in power, nonetheless, I would hate very much to just cast them aside. (I will add that I am very sure I had US folks buying from me on purpose because I AM from Canada to make a statement of their own).

I am very much at a loss as to what the best course of action will be for me at this time.

At this moment, I am of the mind to only list stuff on .CA going forward when my store reopens sometime in mid to late September. I have seen some good approaches suggested here like plunking a blanket flat rate shipping charge on folks in the US.

I'm for sure going to watch folks experiences here, I'm also of the mind I will probably extend my store vacation here longer than my current plan unless by some miracle a good plan comes to me by then based on what I am seeing.

As I mentioned in other threads, my biggest problem is I've got 2500ish items on each of .COM and .CA under the same userid. This reduces my options a lot, and makes the ones I choose more often "no going back" results, which I really hate to pursue unless I really have no other choice.

Time will tell.

reallynicestamps

·11 months ago

I have seen some good approaches suggested here like plunking a blanket flat rate shipping charge on folks in the US.

My newest listings have a $10 shipping charge for USA in place of the previous Free Shipping. Canada remains Free Shipping.

As with tracked/untracked shipping, I hope that enough pieces go through without problems to make all thosse $10 charges pay for any tariffs that are charged back to me.

I mostly use lettermail and always use Canada Post.

tryubik-useonlyasdirected

·11 months ago

It appears Royal Mail UK is in the process of implementing a program that will calculate and allow a pre-pay portion to be disclosed for a mere 50p a shipment.

- No additional accounts with 3rd party US Venture Capital companies headquartered in Utah like Zonos as apparently being implemented with Canada Post. -

Surely, Canada Post can find another way. This is also a potential data security issue - we're literally in the middle of a data cold war.

Screenshot-2025-08-24-at-12-17-30-Solved-Re-Overseas-Shipping---The-eBay-Community.jpg

At least we can find out the amount to charge US buyers.

eBay does need a portion specifically showing and allowing the input of duty/tarrif though.

prescilaschina

·11 months ago

It looks like continuing to sell to the US through Canada Post will require setting up an account with Zonos, a US company to prepay tariffs and a brokerage fee and a percentage of the tariff, none of which are refundable. It’s just too much money and too much hassle.

easoss

·11 months ago

I agree. I'm not giving personal information to a US based collection agency. That has problem written all over it. I list on .ca but another one of my ID's is a .com account (I just haven't used it in over 10 years). Unless something dramatic happens I will be finished with eBay at the end of the year.

femmefan1946

·11 months ago

I am adding "US buyers may be subject to the Trump Tariff." to all my new listings .

And I will be using Snap Ship to buy Canada Post Tracked USA labels where needed since eBay has decided to cut off the least expensive and most reliable shipping service we have available. proud canadian.jpg

EBay does not require sellers to refund when a shipment is Undeliverable.

https://www.ebay.ca/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy?...

@devon@ebay If the USPS will not accept an otherwise properly addressed shipment (ie using the Tracked label with Country of Origin and HS code) will eBay consider it Undeliverable?

silverpinups

·11 months ago

"US buyers may be subject to the Trump Tariff."

I like that.

marnotom!

·11 months ago

@silverpinups wrote:

"US buyers may be subject to the Trump Tariff."

I like that.

I like it too, but I’m not clear on how @femmefan1946 intends to handle the tariffs when items can't be sent DDU.

fergua3

·11 months ago

your picture says it all for me lotz. There is no chance i would pay the tariffs. Easy for me to say now that i'm not selling anymore and if all this had happened a few years ago i would have been flipping out with panic, but, i know that even then i would not cave and have paid tariffs, even if it was affordable for me to do so.

No chance in bleep (i might as well just type it in since it will get edited into a "bleep" anyway) i am going to do anything to help DJT win. F him.

busybeas_books

·11 months ago

I'm only on .ca. Turned off shipping to USA for all my listings last week, going to keep it off for anything that needs to go tracked or expedited. Stopped other-than-USA-international a few years ago. I'm going to start up allowing USA sales on my advert pages, mailing them letter-mail (legality? I know)

prescilaschina

·11 months ago

I’m in the process of copying my listings from Etsy to eBay, (over 400) I have several categories but plan to clear out all but popular china patterns either at discount prices through both venues or through local auctions. I’m considering carrying on with sales only to Canada afterwards with items that will eventually sell. I have a considerable inventory but not purchasing anything now but popular china patterns.

First step in shutting down altogether.

byto253

·11 months ago

Are you going from etsy to ebay.ca? Does etsy not allow you to select what countries you will ship to?

My impression is that there are a lot of Canadian who will buy from etsy but will not go near eBay.

dache_us

·11 months ago

Canadian economy is dead and will only get worse for the next 2-3 years imo. Businesses have no other choice. I sell more to one state (CA), than the rest of Canada. 100% will pay the tariffs or I go bust, and I highly doubt many businesses don’t feel the same. Politics aside, Canadians don’t have much leverage and we need to be honest about that.

chicweb

·11 months ago

I'm not paying any tariffs. The customers pays.

And, it will always be the case, except for businesses willing to take that money from their profits which a very very few would do. Retail margins are often around 20%, I think? People would sell at a lost, most of the time with the 35% tariffs. Only big corporations with specific contracts might be able/willing to do that.

The duties/tariffs must be paid by the customers, but integrated into the prices. Since, on eBay, we cannot set different item prices per country, we must find another way. I will not make everyone in the world pay the consequences for a single country tariff. There's ways with Table Rate, but I want to use Calculated Shipping. We cannot mix Fixed prices with Calculated shipping for international, sadly. And, too risky to guess some countries out there.

At the moment, the only way I've found is to force customers to contact us for shipping options. This will allow us to go case by case, check for DDP and charge the total DDP included in an eBay invoice. For legality, I will write in the invoice note the amount specific for tariffs (since we cannot add lines on invoices on ebay).

Right now, there's no way to use DDP on eBay except using UPS/FedEx, and I don't trust that. Returns or refusals to pay by customers are too risky. That is why I want to make an invoice before hand so the customer don't have any surprises at the reception.

I'm waiting to see what will be implemented with Canada Post and eBay with the API.

mrdutch1001

·11 months ago

I stopped listing on .COM 3 weeks ago(I mostly listed on .CA but alternated my items between the 2 sites).I discontinued shipping to the USA about 2 weeks ago as no way in H*LL am I pre-paying tariffs for the USA...I am not supporting the USA economy and we Canadian sellers may want to consider engaging ourseves in more efforts to acquire more Canadian buyers and support our Canadian economy...

triplecgirl

·11 months ago

Look at it for an American buyer's side. Why would they pay them unless you sell something unique that is unabailable elsewhere? It has ended me on eBay after 20 plus years as this situation makes my product unsalable at a profit.