Can I filter out GSP

[rosscd57]

I don't suppose this is possible - but is there anyway to search .com and filter out sellers using GSP?

[amcdc79]

Yes, you are correct, I did mean the GSP is for the sellers, thank you.

I stand corrected, First Class Package from US to Canada is now $10USD. for 8oz(225g) or less (up from $9.50), $16 for 9oz to 2lbs(907g). This service includes tracking.

First-Class Package International Service™**

Other than rolls: Max. length 24", max length, height and depth (thickness) combined 36"
Rolls: Max. length 36". Max length and twice the diameter combined 42"

Value of contents can not exceed $400.00

This is not a letter post service.

[momcqueen]

I thought First Class was considered ‘letter post’ by USPS and that ‘Second class’ is untracked lettermail?

[momcqueen]

I do believe First Class is letter post because it’s onky for ‘small’ packages which may be parcels unlike Priority which is Parcel
Class due to different size restrictions and speed.

Canada Post organizes itself differently. We’re missing ‘letter post’ that allows for larger ‘small packages’ and instead caps itself at 2 cm deep.

[momcqueen]

https://www.stamps.com/usps/first-class-mail/

[momcqueen]

Finally, I have to correct myself. Second Class Mail isn’t regular letters, second class is magazines and newspapers. At least, according to the way USPS is established. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail

[marnotom!]

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@amcdc79 wrote:

Yes, you are correct, I did mean the GSP is for the sellers, thank you.

I stand corrected, First Class Package from US to Canada is now $10USD. for 8oz(225g) or less (up from $9.50), $16 for 9oz to 2lbs(907g). This service includes tracking.

First-Class Package International Service™**

Other than rolls: Max. length 24", max length, height and depth (thickness) combined 36"
Rolls: Max. length 36". Max length and twice the diameter combined 42"

Value of contents can not exceed $400.00

This is not a letter post service.

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USPS's First Class Package International Service is defined by USPS as encompassing the categories of mail that were formerly known as "small packets".

https://pe.usps.com/text/imm/immc2_021.htm

"Small packets" fall into the Universal Postal Union's Letter Post Manual.

http://www.upu.int/en/activities/letter-post/letter-post-manual.html

"Small packets" are handled in the same international mail streams as what we consider to be letters, documents, magazines, what have you.  In Canadian towns such as mine where letter mail delivery is separate from parcel post delivery, letter carriers often handle the smaller small packets, while the larger ones are handled by delivery people responsible for delivering parcel post items.

Fun fact:  Up until a little over a decade ago, USPS's international letter mail services were "air mail letter post" and "economy (surface) letter post".  This confused some people as items up to the dimensions you specify (and a weight of four pounds) were permitted with those services.  I had to clear this up for a number of people on the .com site's International Trading Discussion Board.

[steveross]

So, after all sorts of off-topic replies, I will answer the original poster's question:

Yes. There is a tool that can stop those annoying GSP listings from wasting your time!

Funnily enough, it can be found on the UK eBay community forum, even though the Canadian community forum actively censors information about how to delete GSP listings. I know they do. I tried to post the formula here, and it was deleted by one of the eBay mods. Much the same as the other person's experience described previously:

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"When the GSP first came out, I asked a fellow eBay member to make a browser filter to hide GSP listings in search results by looking for the Customs text above. So a search page would get 50 listings on a search page and show only the say 22 listings that were not GSP. They were still there but just hidden. If you scrolled to the next page of the search, it would show you again the non GSP listings. Worked great. You could toggle it on and off.

That member posted back here in these forums in Canada the tool and got suspended from the forums for a while. Never attempted to post that tool again."

Anyhow, if you go to this link:

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Archive-Buyer-Central/A-way-to-eliminate-GSP-listings-from-search-re...

You will find the recipe.

Copy it to your hard drive, since drawing attention to it may result in it being deleted like my code was.

[blackranda2]

I agree it is a joke. I tried it once and never again. Item took almost a month to get to me from a seller in California due to the extended trip all the way to across the US to Kentucky and all the way back to me in BC. To top it all off one of the items in the package arrived damaged. Took another 3 weeks to get this all sorted out.  I was finally refunded in the end but ever since I rarely look at a GSP unless it is to contact the seller and ask them WHY they use it. For the record my efforts have managed to convert some US sellers to opt out f it and go back to shipping through the USPS. Some but not as many as I would like.  I think they use it because it is easier for them to list that way. Little do they know (or maybe even care?) just how many sales they are losing out on because of it. 

[marnotom!]

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@blackranda2 wrote:

I agree it is a joke. I tried it once and never again. Item took almost a month to get to me from a seller in California due to the extended trip all the way to across the US to Kentucky and all the way back to me in BC. To top it all off one of the items in the package arrived damaged. Took another 3 weeks to get this all sorted out.  I was finally refunded in the end but ever since I rarely look at a GSP unless it is to contact the seller and ask them WHY they use it. For the record my efforts have managed to convert some US sellers to opt out f it and go back to shipping through the USPS. Some but not as many as I would like.  I think they use it because it is easier for them to list that way. Little do they know (or maybe even care?) just how many sales they are losing out on because of it. 

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It's important to consider that with a domestic market ten times the size of that of Canada, many US sellers really don't need to sell internationally to make a decent go of it on eBay.  Sales shunned by international buyers because the seller has the GSP applied to their listings aren't always "lost" as the sellers just see international sales as just a little extra, and quite often those items that don't go to an international buyer will eventually be snapped up by a US buyer anyway.

So I think you're right that most US sellers using the GSP won't really care if a non-US buyer ignores their listings.   International sales aren't going to make a big difference to their bottom line.  They feel (if they even realize the GSP has been applied to their listings) that they're doing their international buyers a favour by having the program available to forward their items to a non-US destination, because, as you seem to have found, their alternative is to not have the item available for shipping outside of the United States.

In the "old days" before the GSP, there were quite a number of posts on the .com discussion boards from sellers who felt "burned" by a single international sale that had gone south because a buyer had filed a claim of non-delivery on a ten dollar item on which they couldn't prove delivery (it probably never was delivered at the time of the claim anyway).  Having lost the claim, those sellers would claim that they would never ship internationally again, rather than rethinking their international sales strategy or just treating this as the isolated incident that it was.

I can't help but think that giving up using the GSP as a buyer after one unsatisfactory sale is an example of the same mindset those US sellers have.  The lengthy transit time for an item to get from the seller to Kentucky is not the GSP's fault, for example.  The greater possibility of damage?  Can't really make a call on that, but if the seller hasn't really prepared the item or the listing properly for a sale outside the US, it's going to get damaged on a skid of freight headed out of the country.

But it's ultimately the buyers' call, I guess.

[blackranda2]

I wanted to wait to reply to this until some time had passed to see if I might change my mind about the GSP but must admit I haven't. In this more than 6 month time period I have purchased numerous times from US sellers who have shipped to me using 1st Class Mail or Priority Mail where necessary. 1st Class Mail is much less expensive, has online tracking which shows when it is delivered, has no extra fee for the GSP and it arrives quickly. Usually within a week even from the eastern United States.  So for me this is the most sensible way to go.  And yes I agree it is ultimately the buyer's choice.

[tyler@ebay]

Hi everyone,

Due to the length of time that has passed since this thread began I have locked it from future replies. If this is still an issue that warrants discussion, don't hesitate to begin a new thread!