Using Lettermail for International Shipments | Selling

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · 2025-07-29T20:54:35.253000Z

This has come up in other threads, and always turns into a huge argument. I'm not here to debate whether or not you're allowed to ship this way, just want to discuss with people who do ship goods as lettermail. I had an interesting experience at the post office. I was sending a greeting card and she flexed my package to see if there was anything inside (other than printed matter/paper). There was no one in line behind me so I was asking what was going on, and got some interesting feedback. Apparently, as per the postal agent at the Shoppers Drug Mart I went to, people are all the time trying to slip goods into letter mail. The one thing I forgot to ask at the time is whether or not they're using bubble mailers to do it (where it's obvious) of if it's more sneaky things in paper envelopes, but apparently Canada Post is turning things back that contain goods. So what I was told is the people who are most guilty of using lettermail to send goods international are the trading card (or sports card) group, and it's the top loaders that are calling attention to what's inside the package. Apparently when my letter was flexed, if it had a top loader in it with a trading card that would have been rigid in the middle and not flexed quite so well. When Canada Post catches it, they put a sticker on it and send it back. The postal clerk said customers are always coming in angry about their stuff being returned, so as a matter of pratice she flexes anything that isn't obviously a sheet of paper to see if there's anything hiding inside. There's another post office I frequent and the manager there (it's also at Shoppers Drug Mart) has been there 30 years. His attitude is that if you send goods as letter mail and Canada Post catches you, that's on you, he takes no efforts to screen what people are dropping off (I imagine the letter people are using stamps anyway and just putting it in the out bin at the post office). He said he's not going to dicker with a customer about a collectible stamp or postcard being put in an envelope and shipped as a letter. Even the agent where I was at today told me if the package flexes and you're shipping merchandise that is nothing more than paper, she'll let it pass (so think of stamp sellers who are mailing one stamp on a card in a letter). Would like to hear experiences from people who've shipped this way, or what they know from Canada Post about shipping this way. Not interested in hearing that it's not legal, I already know that, I use Stallion Express to ship stuff with USPS, and we've used eBay Standard Envelope with USPS. The encounter at the post office got me thinking because this comes up in other threads, often times people say "start a thread on this", since I have two cents to contribute I thought I'd do that today. C.

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Using Lettermail for International Shipments | Selling | eBay Canada EN