US sellers using Ebay International Shipping are missing out on higher bids.
Summary: kdwebber expresses concern about high shipping fees charged to Canadian buyers by eBay International Shipping (EIS), arguing that this discourages bids from Canadian buyers and potentially lowers sellers' profits. marnotom! explains that EIS acts as a forwarding service with perks for sellers, but involves multiple shipping charges between the domestic seller and the forwarding hub, justifying higher costs. murphcrud shares a personal experience detailing misunderstandings between sellers and the program, emphasizing that many sellers don't understand the high costs associated with EIS, which can restrict sales to the US market. mrdutch1001 and reallynicestamps highlight that some sellers might willingly restrict sales to US buyers due to these high costs, while pjcdn2005 clarifies a common misconception that sellers receive the full shipping charge minus fees and shipping labels, whether domestic or international.
I don't know if US sellers get a cut of the shipping fees that Ebay charges Canadian buyers when sellers use Ebay international shipping, but they should. I see a $1.50 USD football card with free shipping within the US, and the EIS charge is $14.56. I see single trading cards all over Ebay with similar outrageous shipping fees charged by Ebay. The prohibits Canadian buys from bidding on those items, which could cause the items to sell for less, meaning the sellers don't make as much as they could. Sellers shipping directly to the buyers would save in shipping costs for the buyer, and give buyers incentive to bid on the item, making sellers more. Anyone disputing that either doesn't know how much Ebay charges for shipping, or works for Ebay, and is just trying to push their unnecessary service.
murphcrud
·2 years agoI should have mentioned, the seller of that $2 coin cancelled and refunded my purchase.
Now he is a lot wiser !!! He has removed listings while opting out of that International Shipping Program.
murphcrud
·2 years agoWow! I just went through this whole exercise with a seller in South Carolina.
We must have exchanged 25 emails to finally get it straightened out in his mind.
Most US sellers who sign up to use this International Selling that eBay offers, do not understand the consequences of doing so. This particular seller told me that he is unable to sell to buyers out of the US as per eBay I explained that this was not true, but with the fees that eBay charges, it is really no wonder that he can't sell his low priced items outside of the US. I explained that for me to purchase a single coin from him valued at US$2, to ship to me it was going to cost very close to C$20. He mails to the US under a special deal that eBay anyone who signs up using this International Shipping Program. For items being sold under $20, he is charged by eBay, based on the item price ($2) plus $1 mailing. This gives him tracking on the envelope to the US customer, but the US buyer is charged shipping at $3.95 as posted on sellers site. So eBay scoops up the other $2.95. To demonstrate this to this seller, I purchased this US$2 coin from him and paid the approximately US$14 shipping (total close to C$20) and he received, from eBay, a notice that the sale was complete and that seller's buer paid $2 plus $1 shipping and that the envelope would be sent to an address at Glendale Heights, Illinois, which is the eBay distribution centre. That confused the heck out of the seller because he though he was sending me the coin directly. I explained how to opt out of that ridiculous Internation Shipping Program (disguised from the GPS designation as most knew it before). He did that as he has thousands of 'foreign' coins that he his unable to sell in the US and for the most part, anywhere else because of the high shipping being charged by eBay. He was wondering why he didn't even get an inquiry outside of the US, until I happened to see one of his listings for a Canadian coin, that had errors in it. I contacted him to let him know of the error and we got talking.
He is so grateful for receiving that information on his listings and how he can do something about selling his hoard of coins. Grateful to the point that he wants to buy me a brand new 2025 Lexus ES350 --------- or not. :-), or send me a picture of one.
A number of US sellers are catching on to the whole Canadian market for selling Canadian coins, as they realize that Canada is their largest market for them. Now if only the rest of the US sellers would understand that why do you need tracking for a $2 item??
Yes, a few (very few) get lost or GET LOST (wink, wink). In the over 22 years that I have been selling on eBay, and another 25 prior to that, I have had only 3 lost shipments and one of those was my fault with an incorrect addressed envelope.
Anyway, I hope this clarifies, at least somewhat
reallynicestamps
·2 years agoFor items being sold under $20, he is charged by eBay, based on the item price ($2) plus $1 mailing. This gives him tracking on the envelope to the US customer, but the US buyer is charged shipping at $3.95 as posted on sellers site. So eBay scoops up the other $2.95.
No.
The seller gets the whole amount of the shipping charge.
They then buy shipping from that charge.
If the charge was $3.95, and the label was $1.00, the seller keeps $2,95.
You are right that eBay charges their fees on the full amount of the $3.95 charge
One of the advantages of the new discounts on Tracked Packet USA, is that the buyer sees the Canada Post counter rate unless the seller allows the discounted rate to be seen (and charged).
In other words, shipping can be a profit centre for the seller.
pjcdn2005
·2 years agoSome of your information is incorrect. If the US buyer is charged $3.95 for shipping then the seller receives 3.95 less fvf fees and less actual shipping cost if they buy an ebay label. If the seller is using EIS and a Canadian buyer makes that same purchase, the seller pays the same as if a US buyer had made the purchase and will still receive the 3.95 less fees and the cost of the domestic shipping label but the buyer would pay the international portion of the shipping to the EIS.
Very few US sellers ship using lettermail without tracking within the US so it is unlikely that they will be willing to ship without tracking to another country. Of course some of them do but they seem to be few and far between.
marnotom!
·2 years agoThere's a couple of things to unpack here. The first thing to consider is that you're probably accustomed to US sellers sending inexpensive cards to Canada as letters. It's actually not "postal legal" to send merchandise in the mail as an international letter, although domestically it's fine. Merchandise sent in the mail requires customs documentation and letters just don't have that. The cheapest counter option for sending a card in the mail via USPS is now US$17.00, so that price you're seeing is actually less expensive than the base price that USPS shipping offers.
The second thing to consider is that "eBay International Shipping" (eIS) is basically a hyped-up forwarding service that just happens to have a lot of perks for the sellers who use it. A lot of US sellers like the fact that eBay takes responsibility for the shipment of the item once it's accepted at the forwarding hub.
Because it's a forwarding service, the shipping price you see on the listing page is actually the sum of two shipping charges: the seller's domestic shipping charge (to get the item to the hub) plus eIS's shipping charge (to get the item from the hub to you). eIS will be charging you for a tracked package, not a letter, and the seller will be using a tracked shipping method to get the item to the hub.
There are cheaper ways to get merchandise to Canada by mail, but some of them are untracked. There probably is a healthy mark-up on eIS's share of the overall shipping cost, but those seller perks have to get paid for somehow.
As for sellers losing bids if they use eIS to forward items out of the US , don't forget that the US market is about ten times the size of the Canadian market. Many US sellers can do just fine by selling only within the US. Offering international shipping is more of a customer service move in the US than it is a survival move for Canadian sellers.
mrdutch1001
·2 years ago