eBay

wolfsden359 · ‎04-15-2023

Just a general question.. What is it with the shipping cost out of the USA to Canada... When I was recently looking to purchase a small travel tool kit for my motorcycle, I found two similar kits. Both were being shipped from Pennsylvania. Shipping cost for one is $14.02 Canadian.. which is reasonable..the second was listed at $106.98 Canadian.. just wondering who is setting these prices. I do know for a fact that shipping cost is dictated by distance and weight within the country and import charges are added on for international. Never in the 35 years of working in logistics have I seen shipping costs so high for such a small item from any country. I recently purchased replacement cell phone screens for my cell phone. Two exact items listed. One from the USA the other from Austraila. I saved about $100 in shipping cost placing the order for the ones from Austraila. A country on the other side of the world from where I live whereas to go to the USA from where I am is a 3 hour flight including stopover... Unreal !!

clemowbooks · ‎07-22-2024

Shipping by post from USA to Canada.

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

You may notice the cheapest tracked rate is at the bottom of the list, First Class International Package.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎07-22-2024

@marnotom! wrote:
For what it’s worth, @lwhyte604, the cheapest USPS counter rate for a one pound package to Canada is now just shy of US$25.

It does seem like US sellers do have a very nice discount for shipping domestically. 15 to 25 % off vs the 4 % off for shipping Internationally. (6% on premium services). Too bad they don't have access to Canada Tracked service?!?🤠 That would an actual cause for a yeehaw for Canadians!!🤠

https://www.ebay.com/shp/Calculator

leaky-bucket-labs · ‎07-24-2024

ebay is a joke. I been complaining about this for years. even when it was GSP.

all these lame excuses is all they are: lame!

I'm looking at a 12" piece of plastic that weighs 15 grams, they want $60 to ship it in some listings and less in others, some want double the shipping price if you dont pay duties now...its a mess.

I wanted to buy pistons and I bought them from summit and saved $100 because its free shipping over $250

ebay wants to kill the average American seller its obvious

FYI THE FREE SHIPPING IMAGE IS FROM JAPAN.

SO FREE FROM JAPAN BUT NOT FREE FROM OUR NEIGHBOURS TO THE SOUTH.

WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU?

flipistics · ‎07-24-2024

Many US sellers don't input dimensions when listing. This isn't really an issue for within the USA, but it makes a HUGE difference when shipping internationally as the system likely has to guess a worse case scenario. I suspect that's part of the reason for the discrepencies we see.

frankieandjohnnie · ‎09-20-2024

I agree. I used to buy on Ebay on a regular basis but not anymore. ALL SELLERS now have ridiculous shipping costs. The last time I tried to make a purchase, it was a used tablecloth for 25$ US dollars but the shipping cost was nearly 65$ US dollars. This is ridiculous. When I am really interested in an item, I ask the seller if they would ship directly to my address instead of going through the Ebay Global shipping program which is the reason for these ridiculous shipping fees. The sellers don't care because it's easier for them to sell to US customers. I cannot find anything I want or rarely on Ebay Canada unfortunately. The Global shipping program is absolutely uneccessary. You get a tracking number for your shipment from the seller. No need to go through this **bleep** system which makes the cost higher and it takes twice the time to receive a package because of the stop to their Hub. I NEVER have issues when I purchase from Ebay UK or Ebay Japan. They ship directly to me and I receive my packages faster, which makes no sense considering Canada is the US neighbour.

frankieandjohnnie · ‎09-20-2024

I totally agree. This is so frustrating. When you ask the seller about the high cost of shipping, they reply they have no control over it, they say it's decided by Ebay. It seems like all sellers are part of the Ebay Global shipping program automatically and that is the main issue. I used to have reasonable shipping costs from the US to Canada but I stopped purchasing from Ebay USA as the shipping costs are ridiculously high, no matter the item you want to purchase. The sellers should just ship directly to the customers. I do not have any issues when I buy from other countries to Canada. The only issue is from the US to Canada. And US sellers don't seem to care as they find it easier to sell to US customers. Therefore, I shop elsewhere.

frankieandjohnnie · ‎09-20-2024

Exactly! This system is not working. Canadian buyers are penalized when purchasing from US sellers. I only had a seller once who sent my item directly to me but that's because it was his first time shipping to Canada and I received my package within a week. I do not buy anymore from Ebay US. I receive packages faster from Europe or Japan. This makes no sense.

flipistics · ‎09-20-2024

@frankieandjohnnie wrote:
Exactly! This system is not working. Canadian buyers are penalized when purchasing from US sellers. I only had a seller once who sent my item directly to me but that's because it was his first time shipping to Canada and I received my package within a week. I do not buy anymore from Ebay US. I receive packages faster from Europe or Japan. This makes no sense.

It's not just one way either. Sellers (listing on dot ca) not having access to the global shipping program for overseas is also a problem given a lot of the new regulations that are starting to come into effect.

Giving sellers access to the global shipping program where we'd ship the item to the States, and partnering with someone like Stallion for orders coming to Canada would solve a LOT of problems both ways.

marnotom! · ‎09-20-2024

@frankieandjohnnieand anyone else, you might find this recent thread from the .com discussion boards on the subject of the eBay International Shipping system to be of interest:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/USA-sellers-shipping-through-International-shipping-hub-is-not...

reallynicestamps · ‎09-21-2024

The Global shipping program is absolutely uneccessary.

Both EIS and the GSP (still used by UK sellers) are Seller Protection programs.

They were set up by eBay to encourage xenophobic and paranoid US/UK sellers to sell outside their comfort zone.

Did you know US sellers can refuse to ship to Alaska and Hawaii? Possibly more to the point to military addresses? (No you can't buy my second hand DVDs of Rambo. Thank you for your service.)

Once the shipment reaches the shipping hub, the seller is no longer responsible for delivery.

The seller does not have to spend that ten seconds filling out a customs declaration.

The seller does not even have to weigh and give dimensions for the package.

And.

The buyer is giving up a great deal of their protection under the Money Back Guarantee.

The buyer who wants a refund gets it from eIS not from the seller.

And that is why sellers are not going to ship directly internationally.

marwo507547 · ‎09-26-2024

As a recent buyer on ebay, I've noticed these outrageous prices for shipping - yes shipping from the USA to Canada is crazy expensive so I've decided to not buy from sellers in the USA unless it is an absolute must. What I've noticed in Canada is that shipping is still rather expensive - I've seen $20 for shipping for a single comic book and that is very expensive especially if it is just standard mail without any tracking or insurance. I've asked sellers to justify their shipping cost when they are sending by standard mail and most of the sellers never bother replying - so I don't buy from them.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎09-26-2024

@marwo507547 wrote:
As a recent buyer on ebay, I've noticed these outrageous prices for shipping - yes shipping from the USA to Canada is crazy expensive so I've decided to not buy from sellers in the USA unless it is an absolute must. What I've noticed in Canada is that shipping is still rather expensive - I've seen $20 for shipping for a single comic book and that is very expensive especially if it is just standard mail without any tracking or insurance. I've asked sellers to justify their shipping cost when they are sending by standard mail and most of the sellers never bother replying - so I don't buy from them.

@marwo507547

What is very important to remember, especially for shipping within Canada, rates depend on final package weight, dimensions, where you are located in Canada in relationship to the seller, tax based on the province you are in and a thing called a fuel surcharge that floats depending on the current price of gas. For shipping from the USA much of that has to do with limited options with USPS to Canada. Finding sellers that ship that way is the next challenge. Majority of defaulted to eIS which has either everything built in like customs clearance and tax or it's collected at your door.

-Lotz

reallynicestamps · ‎09-26-2024

These might be useful for new or returning buyers who are unaware of the high cost of both domestic and international shipping.

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/tools/find-a-rate.page

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

If you need a US zipcode, 90210 is easy to remember.

Note that USPS puts the cheapest tracked rate (First Class International Tracked Package) at the bottom of the list of available services. Many US sellers never look below "Priority" shipping.

marnotom! · ‎09-26-2024

@marwo507547 wrote:

As a recent buyer on ebay, I've noticed these outrageous prices for shipping - yes shipping from the USA to Canada is crazy expensive so I've decided to not buy from sellers in the USA unless it is an absolute must. What I've noticed in Canada is that shipping is still rather expensive - I've seen $20 for shipping for a single comic book and that is very expensive especially if it is just standard mail without any tracking or insurance. I've asked sellers to justify their shipping cost when they are sending by standard mail and most of the sellers never bother replying - so I don't buy from them.

@marwo507547, what are you defiing as "standard mail"? As it's not "postal legal" to send merchandise internationally as a letter because letters don't have customs documentation, something like a comic book would have to be mailed as the US equivalent of the Canadian postal system's small packet. If you check the link to the US Postal System that @reallynicestamps provided, you're going to find that the lowest counter rate for a lightweight item like a comic book is now US$18.45.

There are sellers who can do this for less than that, but they tend to be using services provided by mail consolidators which can sometimes be quite a bit slower than shipping directly by mail. But I urge you to do some homework before you pester US sellers about their shipping rates. The price of shipping by mail has gone up considerably in the past few years, and the use of eBay's inhouse international mail forwarding and consolidation system (boringly called "eBay International Shipping") has also increased considerably. Ask us if you need to know more about that after reading through this thread.

marwo507547 · ‎09-27-2024

I did not "pester" US sellers just mentioning the cost of shipping as expensive - $18.84 usd becomes $25 cad - so that is expensive - yes it is the cost of shipping that USPS or whatever charges but that does not change that it is expensive to buy from the USA and ship it to Canada.

And you will note that the post was mostly about Canadian shipping and that is some outrageous cost of shipping.

marnotom! · ‎09-27-2024

@marwo507547 wrote:

I did not "pester" US sellers just mentioning the cost of shipping as expensive - $18.84 usd becomes $25 cad - so that is expensive - yes it is the cost of shipping that USPS or whatever charges but that does not change that it is expensive to buy from the USA and ship it to Canada.

Sorry, I guess I must have misunderstood this part of your post:

I've asked sellers to justify their shipping cost . . .

@marwo507547 wrote:

And you will note that the post was mostly about Canadian shipping and that is some outrageous cost of shipping.

I interpreted your statement "What I've noticed in Canada" as being about what a Canadian buyer notices about US sales. After all, this is what the thread is about.