About Adding GSP After the Sale

[sylviebee]

For an American selling to me in Canada it used to be impossible for a seller to use the GSP after the sale.

Does anyone know if that's changed?  That is:  I've won an item but the seller doesn't ship out of the US.  Is it possible to coach the seller how to ship via the GSP without cancelling the transaction and relisting and just using the GSP to ship withing the current transaction?

[marnotom!]

Nope, this hasn't changed.

It’s still considered best practice and considerate to the seller to make alternate shipping arrangements prior to bidding or hitting the BIN button.

For situations that make this impossible, I suggest having a US address (e.g. a friend or relative who can hold the item or send it to you) or a forwarding service of your own choice that you can use for the sale. Depending on how you do this, you’ll forego some of your “protections,” however.

[reallynicestamps]

GSP is not possible.

But if the seller is willing to consider it, she is considering shipping outside the USA or UK and there is a simpler way of doing that.

She just has to scroll down to the bottom of the USPS international shipping rate card and choose

First Class International Package.

This gives her the tracking she wants at the lowest price.

You will be paying duty and sales taxes on receipt, not beforehand, and the Canada Post service charge is higher than the GSP ($9.95 instead of ~$5.00).

https://postcalc.usps.com/?country=10440

[msau4301]

As the others have said it is too late after a sale to go through Global Shipping but if you contact the buyer to ask if they will ship to Canada and what the cost would be is the way to find out. Sometimes I've found them willing to make an exception for Canada.

Some US sellers stopped shipping to us (or anyone internationally) since all the changes here with taxes and fees.

I had a few long time favourite US sellers I've bought from for years that stopped shipping outside of US because of higher fees charged (for exchange and taxes) and complaints of items taking longer over the past crazy year and a half. Could be that also in which case if they ship that would be pretty much the same.

You were lucky you were able to bid/win as I've sometimes tried on items "seller may not ship to Canada" and it won't even let me in! Good luck!

[reallynicestamps]

Some US sellers stopped shipping to us (or anyone internationally) since all the changes here with taxes and fees.

Could you explain this a bit more?

The "new NAFTA" agreement puts our duty-free allowance up to $150 and tax-free allowance up to $40 from the previous $20. That would be a lower not a raised level.

The GSP fee seems to remain at ~$5-- the exact amount seems to vary around that core price.

In any case those fees are paid by the buyer and don't affect the seller at all.

GSP was designed as a Seller Protection for paranoid US sellers (and later UK sellers) against the horrible scary foreigners and offers little for buyers.

USPS does charge more now for international shipping than they did a decade ago, and since eBay does charge their fees on the entire payment including shipping, that is a rise in seller costs. But I don't think the seller sees the GSP charges at all.

[marnotom!]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

Some US sellers stopped shipping to us (or anyone internationally) since all the changes here with taxes and fees.

Could you explain this a bit more?

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I suspect that it's the dreaded "international fee" which was also charged by PayPal but without some US sellers' knowledge, so it may seem as though it's a "new" fee to some US sellers.  It may also be a misunderstanding of how the Seller Currency Conversion charge works.

I'm also suspecting that some US sellers don't like the idea of paying FVF on sales to countries that have VAT rates in the teens and twenties.

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

USPS does charge more now for international shipping than they did a decade ago, and since eBay does charge their fees on the entire payment including shipping, that is a rise in seller costs. But I don't think the seller sees the GSP charges at all.

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Remember that for international sales, GSP or no GSP, the FVF calculation for shipping is generally based on the seller's lowest domestic shipping rate, not their international shipping rate(s).