CANADA POST INCREASE/COSTS are No Longer Affordable to eBay Sellers

[sugarbaby2011]

I would like to comment on the new Canada Post Shipping changes effective January 14, 2013.

eBay Canada Sellers will slowly faze out selling due to the changes implemented by our friendly, unionized Canada Post.

After doing the research, it appears USPS postal service & Royal Mail service are the cheapest postal services when it concerns sending small items with weights under 100 grams.

Canadian sellers who ship anything 100 grams and under, are forced to use Small Packets Air USA & Small Packets International which have an automatic cost starting at $7.60 & up. Gone now is the Light Weight Packet Service all together at an affordable cost of $3.00. Gone now is the $100. automatic insurance Small Packets provided up until this new change.

The new change Canada Post is boasting about. What a crock of ka ka.  To Tracket with automatic insurance starts at a lovely $13.00 for a package of 0-100 grams .

Has Canada Post actually lost profit, or is this about Canada Post wanting to rub shoulders with ???? Someone can fill in the blanks.

Seriously?

Thanks to Canada Post, eBay Sellers can count on even a greater difficulty selling items online.

eBay should then turn around and thank Canada Post for the cause of decrease in annual percentage sales volumne overall.

What a wonderful corporate decision!

[ornament4u]

Yup, Canada post has completely killed my business, won't be able to ship anything from Canada to the US for under 15.00 minimum if you want any type of insurance. or you can take your chance and pay for small packet airmail (no insurance) but who wants to take that chance (not me). If it fits through the slot to send as lettermail 3/4" then that will be the only thing i will ever be able to sell. Guess I may get a few more Canadian buyers now that their shipping will now be cheaper than to the US but that brings my market way down. The only items now worth selling are items over 1kg in weight as people will understand the 17-19.00 expedited shipping cost but they won't understand 15.00 on a small 3" Christmas ornament that only weighs .04 grams. Dont forget also people that Ebay now takes 10% of whatever your customers pay's in shipping too and paypal also takes a small cut of the shipping cost so it makes no sense to charge actual shipping but only to add that amount to it, why the heck would we pay for any shipping out of our own pocket.

God I could go on and on how I feel about this new Tracked packet idea I think they are making a huge mistake and in the end are going to lose, as if it wasnt for us ebay sellers Canada post wouldn't be making the money they make today.

[zoomrr69]

ebay is laughin..

remember they get a cut of S/H rates

[grannio204]

Dont forget also people that Ebay now takes 10% of whatever your customers pay's in shipping too ...

Kinda like they knew this was coming ...

[westernstargifts]

Canadian sellers who ship anything 100 grams and under, are forced to use Small Packets Air USA & Small Packets International which have an automatic cost starting at $7.60 & up. Gone now is the Light Weight Packet Service all together at an affordable cost of $3.00. Gone now is the $100. automatic insurance Small Packets provided up until this new change.

Light Packet mail is NOT being discontinued.  The price will go up slightly but the service will still be there.

I rarely use Sm. Packet Surface so the only change for me will be no insurance on Small Packet Air.  I have never put in a claim for that anyway.  I am not planning to use the Tracked Packet as it would be too expensive for the products that I sell.

[pocomocomputing]

Still affordable for me so not all sellers are affected as you claim.

Light Packet is till available with a small increase.  I had no lost packages sent by Light Packet USA and International in 4 years of selling on eBay. I had one lost (?) Small Packet USA Air and no lost Small Packet International. So insurance is not an issue at this time for me. I will evaluate international sales if I get lost items.

Each seller will be affected in different ways. Most will adapt either by taking the risk to ship without insurance or using the new service or not sell some items internationally.

So not all sellers need to stop selling because of the Canada Post changes.

[surrealgirl1]

I wonder if service will stay the same or get worse for Small Packet Air with Canadapost now not offering Insurance if lost Or if there will be an increase in Lost packages since we are out of luck if that happens and now get nothing in compensation. ( Also a way to push sellers to spend more and use new tracked packet for light weight items) I sure hope not, time will tell.... 🐵

[i*m-still-here]

Your subject states that the increase means that shipping costs are no longer affordable to sellers, but what's really happening is that ........

Transactions for many types of items everywhere, with the exception of those taking place within the US borders and China, have become increasingly difficult for buyers.

Sellers may see a lot more buyers with low FB because they may be the only ones willing to pay high shipping costs on an occasional basis.

This is not just a Canadian thing.

It applies to all international transactions.

When you consider that someone who buys just 10 items a week and used to pay $5 shipping/item, is now asked to pay $15 or more/item, that's an extra $100.week.............. or over $5,000/year.

Ebay is a nice tool for Americans to buy and sell online within their own country.

Others use it too, but never with the same ease as Americans.

On the one hand ebay really wants international sales, but on the other hand they continue to make those transactions more and more difficult.

I know I'm very tired of all the messaging about shipping costs and I'm going to buy a lot less and maybe even stop altogether.

[pierrelebel]

"Gone now is the Light Weight Packet Service all together at an affordable cost of $3.00."

$3.00 ???

The new rate effective January 14th for Light Packet (USA) is $2.53 (a few cents more than last year) for up to 100g.

This compares to $2.20 the new rate for LetterPost (up to 100g) to the USA.

For shipments from 101g to 250g Light Pocket is $5.26

For shipments from 251g to 500g Light Pocket is $8.46

[kosmic64]

"The new rate effective January 14th for Light Packet (USA) is $2.53 (a few cents more than last year) for up to 100g."

Where are you seeing this? I was just on Canada Post site using the Find a Rate tool and it does not give a Light Packet service as one of the options as it used to do when I entered the same parameters for the packet dimensions/weight. Cheapest that it shows is Small Packet - USA Air which is $7.80....?:|

[pierrelebel]

"Where are you seeing this?"

It is right there, printed in black on white on the new Canada Post "Postal Prices" brochure (T455151 (13-01) - effective January 2013 - available at no charge from your postal outlet or post office.

[i*m-still-here]

I've been an ebay lover from it's start and was on board right away........

LOVED it, but now not so much any more.

For the first time I think that the challenges for Canadians buying  on ebay may no longer be worth the effort and selling will see greater challenges as well.

There have been 3 or 4 changes on ebay and shipping cost changes come at an unfortunate time.

IMO Canadian buying on ebay is going to slow down notably.

Some sellers will hang in there but many will throw in the towel as well.

Americans are buying American, and now buying from them is much too difficult as well.

I'm not about to leave ebay.......... probably never will......... but I will be buying a fraction of what I used to and I think that holds true for a lot of seasoned buyers.

Sellers who complain about all the buyers with Low FB might be in for a rough ride..

[steelbookdepot]

I typically ship Blu-ray steelbooks internationally, and before today, I was able to ship an item less than 500g via airmail small packet with $100 in insurance for on average $17.76.  Before the rate change I shipped a package to switzerland for that very price.  After the rate change, the only option I have to ship with insurance is Tracked packet, at a cost of $44.68, with a venture one discount.  I don't know about other sellers, but this is really going to impact my sales.  About 60% of my sales are international.  Now I have to pass this cost along to the buyers, and that is not going to go over well.  On combined purchases I might be able to make it fly but on the average I am going to lose revenue, as will a lot of other sellers, and Ebay as well.  It is unfortunate.

[i*m-still-here]

Quoting $45 for shipping would be the kiss of death for anyone other than American sellers who could care less if they lose the sale because they'll sell it at home eventually any way.

Ebay really is an American toy.

You could use Third Party Insurance or no insurance at all.

I'll bet if you do the math that you'd find that shipping without insurance is more profitable............

It's a very expensive sleeping pill.

[dutchman48]

steel

Use light packet and private insurance if you have to insure. Costs about 1.50 per $100 through shipsurance but have to be very careful due to restrictions of countries and items. That is also why Canada Post quit insuring non trackable mail. too many looses internationally and they have a lot of restrictions as well

[bbleila56]

I had to send some application within Canada, registered mail and it cost me over 12 bucks.

For a letter?  This is outrageous. Seems, things are getting from bad to worse and they bleeding us dry. The sad part is, they are still saying we are nearly bankrupt.

I am scared to even think about the income tax, have not seen the forms yet, wonder what little surprises we will find in there.?:|

[nuvistors]

They have to find more money to cover the unionized postal employees raises .

Who did you think mwas going to pay ?

556

[femmefan1946]

I had to send some application within Canada, registered mail and it cost me over 12 bucks.

For a letter?

Overlooking the fact that Registered Mail is not  accepted by Paypal as a Confirmed Delivery service (which is pretty strange, but not Canada Post's fault), the cost of registration has always been very high.

In 1929 when the Bluenose stamp was issued, you would have paid three cents to post your letter and fifty cents for the registration. Registration cost more than 16 times the postage. Today that letter would cost you $9 and the postage 63 cents, only (;-) ) 14 times the postage.
Making registration today, once we allow for inflation, cheaper than during the Depression. Add to that, the Ontario minimum wage is $10.25 an hour, so sending that Registered letter costs less than an hour's work today.  How many of your grandfather's earned even 50 cents an hour in 1929? (The minimum wage in Ontario came in in 1961, as I recall, pulling up my wages to a munificent 35 cents an hour.)

[Anonymous]

I just sold an item that I wasn't able to have time to revise to put in a new shipping cost and I just printed the shipping label that cost me $2.00 more than listed for the shipping cost. 

If I don't revise every listings, I would be out of $$$ for a few weeks coming. 

Why can't Canada Post offer Tracked Packet at the shipping rate of the Small Packet with a few dollars increase instead of charging more than double?  Canada Post is becoming more greedier than ever. 

Thanks to those uniozed employees whose jobs are unskilled "blue collar" jobs wanting more and more $$ which we are paying dearly.  

[scrappin_rabbit]

As Ebay loses sellers as a result of Canada Post's outrageous shipping rates, so will Canada Post. I wonder if CP would still exist if it wasn't for online shopping.