So what are we all going to do now?
Summary: sapphyres-designer-jewellery discusses the impact of tariffs on Canadian items and notes that their sales have been affected, with confusion among buyers regarding Canadian-origin items. plinkyplonky shares a similar experience, focusing on domestic sales and adjusting shipping methods due to international trade challenges. hansatrade and apmtrade mention that shipping within the EU has become complex due to new regulations and fees. chicweb and transtraders discuss specific items affected by tariffs and eIS shipping costs. Participants express frustration over regulatory burdens impacting their sales operations in both domestic and international contexts.
There's been no posts since the deal fell apart (and tariffs started Saturday at midnight).
I've made my Canadian items (subject to tariffs) only available to buyers who are NOT in the US.
I have numerous items for sale in my dot com store, most of it not from Canada (and the Canada items are things I'll ship in an envelope with a stamp, or it's under a tariff code that's not on the list).
I've had only two US sales for the past week (ironically they occurred today). Buyers aren't understanding the difference between "made in Canada" and "shipped from Canada" (the term I hear is "goods from Canada", it's not specific that the items must also be made here, not shipped from here and made somewhere else). So they've all been scared off a few weeks ago when this started.
CUSMA has been a safety net which helped me get lots of things across tariff free, and this latest round of tariffs has basically made the CUSMA agreement go away. I'm not upset with Carney for not being able to make a deal, I'd rather no deal than a bad one that hurts Canadians. At least with no deal we are not letting ourselves be pushed around. Deals aren't worth the paper they're written on anyway coming from you-know-who, so I don't believe making a deal would permanently fix things, just be a stay off until the next threat comes.
I did get one sale for some stamps going to France today, shipping with Stallion. I guess my listings aren't yet hidden from EU buyers (I don't have any registration numbers nor will I pay 300 euro a year to ship to some place, my partner calls the packaging requirements a "non tariff trading barrier").
C.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·1 week ago · Edited@chicweb A large part of the tariff problems is how it directly affects Canadian sellers (small and large) and buyers trying to locate a whatzit. There is very little the Canadian government can do to make things easier on those folks. This is our livelihoods for various reasons. Doesn't matter if it is a small/large business, to just pay the bills or keep items out of the landfill. This part of the situation is not getting the attention it deserves.
eIS has been a non starter from a personal perspective . It's amounted to 1/10th of my sales by transaction and 1/20th of dollars. (Just under 8 months). US used to make up 60 %. Intl 10 and Canada 30%. It (eIS) may make a bit of a difference in some categories but not in any the grouping that I sell in.
Disclaimer: For every seller you ask you will probably get a totally different response.
As a side, its been discussed in the news in dribs and drabs about how any of the what has been designated "illegal tariffs" where large businesses have actually gotten credits. I'm betting next to none of those credits will likely ever be seen by their customers. If you hoped to try to get a refund, all I can say is good luck and have plenty of patience.
How the Refund Process Works
The Government Payout: The U.S. government collected roughly $166 billion under the invalidated International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs. As of late July 2026, the administration has certified and paid back over $100 billion (about 60%) to corporate importers through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection system.
Corporate Importers: Major Fortune 500 companies like Amazon, Target, and Walmart have received hundreds of millions or billions in direct payouts (e.g., Walmart received about $2.9 billion, Amazon got around $600–640 million, and Target received nearly $1 billion).
sapphyres-designer-jewellery
OP1 week agoStallion is still working to get our refunds. They told me it's a lengthy complicated process for them to get back what they paid, and once they get it back, they have to split it among all the people who shipped items in that time and paid. Not sure how difficult splitting the money will be when they get it back, but I was told by someone in charge that CBP is not making it easy for them to claim what's rightfully theirs, and to please be patient, they're doing their best. I just want to know if they won't be able to get it back so I can stop waiting for it... I won't be mad, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if there was some rule about how the IOR has to be in the US (which Stallion is not, they're a Canadian company). I'm owed around $1000 in IEEPA tariffs that were illegally collected.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·1 week ago@sapphyres-designer-jewellery
For some sellers that money may be much more than for others. $1000 is substantial. It was still illegally collected. When it was decided that it was an illegal fee it should have a straight forward process to be refunded. Sadly, there was very chance it wouldn't be.
It's similar to when eBay started overcharging sellers for shipping without an explanation and nothing has happed regarding those refunds. My low estimate in my case is between 250 and 300. To date I have seen 5.00.
sapphyres-designer-jewellery
OP1 week agoPart of the fact I paid those tariffs is my fault, there were multiple HTS codes for things I ship and I didn't know some had tariffs and some didn't, and the ones that didn't were more accurately what I was shipping. I found out by accident not long before the announcement was made that these tariffs were illegal.
If I do see that money, Stallion is going to credit my account so I can spend it on shipping. I'm hard pressed to spend anything on Stallion's portal as the US buyers aren't buying, so I have nothing to ship.
chicweb
·1 week ago · EditedI have checked our CD listings... It seems they have a lot more tariffs on them while using eIS.
So I guess, eBay is already applying that 50% tariffs on specific categories? But we would need an official announcement about this....
As for the US market, I think we must put a big red cross on it for the moment for items that are affected by the tariff. Other items might also be slower to sell in the United States because of incertainty by the buyers... I can't blame them. What is happening is complicated and businesses need stability to perform well.
We must wait and see and adapt.
transtraders
·1 week agoI checked a couple of your CD's and the the COO USA one was $16.84 EIS ship to USA, and COO Canada one was $16.39 EIS ship to USA.
sapphyres-designer-jewellery
OP1 week agoI don't think CDs were affected by tariffs, but DVDs are.
chicweb
·1 week ago · Edited@transtraders @sapphyres-designer-jewellery
You have to check the Import fees, not the Shipping cost.
For CDs
Import fees:
Est. C $6.14 Final at checkout
for a CD at almost 10$.
For DVDs
Import fees:
Est. C $4.00 Final at checkout
For a DVD at 6$
Comic Books
No import fees shown (Might be because of COO?)
Books
Import fees:
Est. C $1.03 Final at checkout
For a 12,95$ book.
flipistics
·1 week agoI'm only shipping international via eIS. Will my sales to the USA decrease? Probably, but they're only about 23% of my sales volume. I'll just have to list 23% more items.
For domestic I use rate tables. I use a spreadsheet with base values to various locations and a fuel surcharge calculation so I can easily update it and monitor when I need to make changes.
rdemaree
·1 week agowho has to pay 300 euros to ship and to which countries?
hansatrade
·1 week ago · EditedWell, basically everyone! What's even more weird, they imposed the new fees on themselves - so a German or Spanish seller cannot ship to Netherlands anymore without paying that fee. And now imagine, they are all in the EU! And that fee must be paid for EVERY country you ship to - so if you sell to all EU countries, you need to multiply 300 euros by 27. The amount and rules are different for every EU country, but the total amount to pay yearly is still enormous. There is already a petition to stop this madness: "Stop destroying EU micro-businesses: Immediate moratorium on cross-border EPR fees".
apmtrade
·1 week agoAlso. You need to have a representative located in each of the countries you sell to. The 300 Euro (could be more ) is a yearly fee for each country you sell to.
sapphyres-designer-jewellery
OP1 week agoSo being within the EU doesn't get you out of paying the fee? How are they going to police that? The enforcement of this goes on eBay's site where they hide your listings from buyers in the countries you have not been approved to ship to.
The purpose of the fee is to indirectly prevent external trade from the EU, but they have now put a hindrance on trade within their own borders.
I hope the US doesn't get any ideas from this...
hansatrade
·1 week agoThey imposed this on themselves, too. There are plenty of videos showing people from Germany, Hungary, Italy, etc. complaining about this madness. EU was always known for their weird regulations, but this time they really exaggerated. There is an EU petition to stop this idiocy asap.
ypdc_dennis
·1 week agoEuropean packaging/recycling laws for producers/manufacturers with flat rate fees that hit low volume sellers the hardest. Nothing to do with actual shipping costs.
rdemaree
·1 week agoWhixh countries have this and what if you aren’t registered in their system of whatever?
I just paid $1200 CAD for a toxicology report on my products to keep compliant with the new CPSC rules which they aren’t even enforcing as far as I can tell. I did this because USA is a huge customer gif me .
Paying massive fees to ship to Europe would be a massive waste of money for me.
I do hate that governments around the world are strangling micro businesses tho with taxes and regulations.
plinkyplonky
·1 week agoI only ship to the US using EIS right now.
After the third time having to recalculate all my flat rate shipping I decided I was done being a boat in a storm
I have focused on domestic sales. I have my shipping costs as low as possible and price based on comps from other Canadian sellers as well as the general market.
I flipped on EIS for all of Europe earlier this summer after their import fees were put in place. I am working to recalculate those costs now and put flat rate shipping back for some countries including UK, Germany, and France.
Sales remain steady, although August has been light. It seems like whenever the trade war is in headlines that sales dry up but then once the next wave hits things go back to normal
Last week I decided to ask AI if trade relations would ever go back to normal. Even the robot designed to tell me what I want to hear couldn't find a compelling lie.
dr.pontiac66
·1 week agoIs there any saving shipping to EIS? What if you didn't charge enough for shipping, does EIS charge you. Do they charge you duty?
plinkyplonky
·1 week agoEIS is good from the seller side.
As long as your parcel weight and dimensions are reasonably accurate then you shouldn't have any additional charges.
Seller buys the label to the Ontario hub and once it's there, your job is done. eBay clears customs and handles any customer service issues including returns.
For the buyer, it's more expensive because they pay shipping to the hub and then shipping from the hub to them plus tariffs and other costs.
I think it's worth having at least as a catch all for international orders. If you can ship more cheaply direct then great but otherwise you have this in place.
reallynicestamps
·1 week agoMy norm is that all weekend sales happen on Sunday. And it seems to be holding.
One nice sale to Indiana and one to Ontario.
Normal for August.
September (Q3) is better than Q2 for me.