eBay

Anonymous · ‎01-13-2019

Used to be you could get a bargain on ebay as a buyer and now with the global shipping taxes and duties its no longer the case...As a seller now ebay takes its 10 percent fee plus paypal fees too we have to raise our prices in order to cover expenses.time to look around for other options...EBAY and its partners are losing the plot...Greed

reallynicestamps · ‎01-13-2019

Paypal fees have not changed -- although if you list on dotCOM it is possible to get a lower fee through their micropayments service.

EBay has charged 10% FVF for some time, although at the turn of the millennium FVF varied from 5% to 7,5% depending on category.

Store sellers and TRS sellers have reduced FVF in some categories.

BTW at the turn of the millennium there were rarely Free Listing days, and the 50 Free program did not exist. Listing fees ranged from 25c to $2.00 depending on the opening price and pictures, which are now free, were 25c.

It will be interesting to see how the acrimony to towards the Global Shipping Program plays out if Parliament and Congress pass the new NAFTA (CMUSA? ) and the Canadian duty free allowance rises to $180 from $20. A change which is well overdue even if the treaty falls through.

marnotom! · ‎01-13-2019

@reallynicestamps wrote:

It will be interesting to see how the acrimony to towards the Global Shipping Program plays out if Parliament and Congress pass the new NAFTA (CMUSA? ) and the Canadian duty free allowance rises to $180 from $20. A change which is well overdue even if the treaty falls through.

Expect more complains about PitneyBowes' "bogus" import charges.

Since deals like this are about eliminating duties and not taxes, the media is going to play up the fact that the tentative deal adjusts the duty-free limit considerably for personal imports by mail or courier, while ignoring the fact that the de minimis as it applies to taxes is only going to be raised by a small amount.

Assuming that the treaty will be ratified, It will be interesting to see if CBSA will be tasked to assess and charge taxes on low-value postal imports more aggressively.

Anonymous · ‎01-13-2019

You certainly have points concerning the different programs and yes 180 is more in line than 20

ypdc_dennis · ‎01-13-2019

The new CUSMA / USMCA (if approved) would have Canada's de minimus raised to $150 for duty, and to $40 for sales tax.

interesting trade fact from the retailcouncil.org

... the United States utterly dominates its own online retail space, with only 22% of U.S. customers reporting having made a purchase from a non-U.S. seller. By contrast, 67% of Canadians report having made online cross-border purchases.

-..-

reallynicestamps · ‎01-13-2019

I'm gonna assume that most of those US buyers were purchasing from Asia.

And the Canadians were half and half Asia/USA.

momcqueen · ‎01-13-2019

Paying the sales tax is, in my opinion, no biggie on most items imported by mail but paying the handling fee and/or brokerage fee to the carrier collecting it feels like a kick to the pants. I mean, we can hardly expect carriers to collect that tax money for free when all they're doing is handing it over to the federal government but still..... it doesn't feel like money well spent to most people, including me... which is the reason we self-broker our stuff at the border. For what little we import these dark days in North American history.

momcqueen · ‎01-13-2019

@reallynicestamps wrote:
I'm gonna assume that most of those US buyers were purchasing from Asia.
And the Canadians were half and half Asia/USA.

Well.... maybe. I sure don't import from Asia but I will make the occasional purchase from a seller in the UK or Europe. Even Australia. Sometimes the USA. China? Maybe one per cent of my foreign purchases which these days are less than five per cent of my overall spending for home and/or business. I shop Canadian. Woo. Eh?

pocomocomputing · ‎01-14-2019

@ypdc_dennis wrote:
The new CUSMA / USMCA (if approved) would have Canada's de minimus raised to $150 for duty, and to $40 for sales tax.

interesting trade fact from the retailcouncil.org
... the United States utterly dominates its own online retail space, with only 22% of U.S. customers reporting having made a purchase from a non-U.S. seller. By contrast, 67% of Canadians report having made online cross-border purchases.
-..-

I remember reading in these forums way back when the new trade deal came out that it was announced that if shipped by courier, sales tax applied at $40 + and if delivered by Canada Post from USPS, and other country post offices the sales tax was still at $20+. And something about the duty at $150 not applying to items by Canada Post, and only couriers or the limit was $60 when delivered by Canada Post.

femmefan1946 · ‎01-14-2019

When I worked for the Canadian Tourist Council (government) one of the big concerns was that the US had just started to demand passports for entry to the USA from Canada.

Not a problem for Canadians, over 75% of Canadians hold passports, but at that time less than 40% of Americans had a passport.

They could come to Canada but they couldn't go home again.

That has changed in the past decade or more, but it was a shocking statistic.

And it did make a difference for several years in the number of tourists who drove up here.

Didn't affect fly-in numbers.

broad_arrow_bayo · ‎01-27-2019

As a Canadian, I don't mind the global shipping program if it means I can get an item from a US seller who used to "ship to the US only". I have noticed that before the implementation of the GSP, some sellers would not ship to Canada. Now, those same sellers technically ship within the US (to Kentucky) and then the GSP ships to me. I treat the GSP as a mail forwarding service and I don't mind paying Pitney Bowes the fees if I can get items now that I was not able to in the past. Just my 2 cents.

maximepull · ‎01-29-2019

I agree, it's hard to find deals nowadays. I find it's just a place to find things I can't find anywhere else. I use it to sell but I rarely use to buy anymore.

Canadian sales are too expensive and other sales, with taxes and duties and broker fees make items not worth buying from ebay, especially considering the absence of (long term) warranty or customer service. +Shipping from purchases outside of Canada takes forever!

*The 10% is taken from the sale, on the seller side though. So you pay $1.15 for listing an item + 10% of the sale price, that's a lot!

ypdc_dennis · ‎01-29-2019

@maximepull wrote:
The 10% is taken from the sale, on the seller side though. So you pay $1.15 for listing an item + 10% of the sale price, that's a lot!

How are you managing to pay $1.15 to list an item on ebay?

Are you using 1 or 3 day auction listings which have a $1 premium listing cost, instead of 5, 7 or 10 day listings which have none.

-..-

ypdc_dennis · ‎01-29-2019

@maximepull wrote:
The 10% is taken from the sale, on the seller side though. So you pay $1.15 for listing an item + 10% of the sale price, that's a lot!

How are you managing to pay $1.15 to list an item on ebay.ca -- are you using 1 or 3 day auction listings which have a $1 premium listing cost, instead of 5, 7 or 10 day listings which have none.

-..-

nuvistors · ‎02-11-2019

*The 10% is taken from the sale, on the seller side though. So you pay $1.15 for listing an item + 10% of the sale price, that's a lot!:

Compared to live auction houses that is an extremely small amount.

sonometrics · ‎02-11-2019

As a Canadian, buying anything from the US on ebay is usually krazy - the shipping is usually ridiculous and can cost the same or even double what the item costs. And then there's the customs charges on top. And I'm not talking about big heavy items like tires or disk brake rotors. Even small, light items can have shipping costs that are all over the place. I've bought used CPU chips and memory from asia, shipping is usually free (or ridiculous like 25 cents or maybe a dollar), stuff is delivered by Canada post. In fact all the stuff I've bought from china over the past 2 years has been delivered by canada post, and I've never had to pay any duty or taxes on it.

femmefan1946 · ‎02-12-2019

If Congress and Parliament ratify the new NAFTA agreement, our duty-free allowance will rise from the current $20Cdn(~$15US) to $180Cdn (~$135US).

Which will make buying from the USA more reasonable.

I haven't seen it mentioned, but the new Canada /EU free trade pact should also kick in soon. I don't know if that $180 duty free allowance will be for EU countries as well.

To confuse matters, Canada will only be raising the GST -free allowance to $40 Cdn($30US).

So your US -made $50 purchase may be duty free, but you will still be paying sales tax.

CBSA has very sensibly been ignoring low value postal imports, but we'll see what happens with GST/PST/HST/QST.

If it was made in BanglaDesh or Vietnam, you will still be paying duty AND sales tax. Even if you bought it in the USA.

Oops.

Not Vietnam, when the new TPP kicks in, because they are signatories.

And while CBSA have been ignoring low value postal imports (which is why your small inexpensive but dutiable items have not been charged import fees) couriers like the Global Shipping Program /Pitney Bowes, UPS or FedEx cannot do so without penalty.

So.

Avoid any GSP enabled purchases unless it is the absolute best buy and another is not likely to come along for years.

Avoid sellers who export using couriers. USPS only.

the shipping is usually ridiculous and can cost the same or even double what the item costs.

Shipping cost is not based on the value of the item being shipped.

It depends on the weight, dimensions, distance, and service used.

You can ship a $5.00/100 gram CD to the USA by LetterPost for $2.95.

If you want to track it, it will cost at least $14.04.

If you are sending 10 CDs weighing a kilo all together, you will pay $17.16 without tracking (Small Packet USA) or $22.03 by Tracked Packet USA, even though the value for the ten is $50.00.

sonometrics · ‎02-12-2019

----------

It depends on the weight, dimensions, distance, and service used.

You can ship a $5.00/100 gram CD to the USA by LetterPost for $2.95.

----------

I'm talking about shipping *from* the US to Canada. I could care less about duty-free limits changing. I just went to ebay.ca and searched for mens saucony. Those are shoes. I selected "new in box" and then sorted based on price (not price + shipping). Here is a summary of what I found - the price (buy now) of the item followed by shipping cost:

From US:

$26, $30 shipping
$26, $12 shipping
$27, $39 shipping
$29, $16 shipping
$32, $15 shipping
$33, $35 shipping
$40, $73 shipping
$40, $15 shipping

From Israel:

$53, $19 shipping

From Italy:

$164, $9 shipping

See what I mean about the US shipping costs? They're all over the place, and ridiculous. $40 for a pair of shoes plus $73 shipping? And remember, the shipping cost does not include customs handling fees, duties or taxes.

If you want something to fight against when it comes to raising duty-free allowance, how about having canada customs not include the shipping cost when calculating the GST charge? It's a crock that duties and taxes are charged against shipping costs. That's why buying from the US is way down on my list. I'll buy from China first, with practically no shipping cost and rarely any customs charge.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎02-12-2019

The shipping from US sellers CAN be all over the place because it depends on what service to ship the seller has decided on, followed by the packaging they choose(Some sellers pack in larger than necessary boxes or just guess on the final pkg. weight) and finally their location to your location. All those factors can throw several wrenches into the calculation.

-Lotz

momcqueen · ‎02-12-2019

“If you want something to fight against when it comes to raising duty-free allowance, how about having canada customs not include the shipping cost when calculating the GST charge?”

That practice stopped about three years ago. To the best of my knowledge, based on experience at the border self-brokering.