$3.19 oversized bubble now being sent back Canada to USA!?

[hockey-card-inserts]

I am in Ontario, Canada. Seller of hockey cards for almost 25 years. NEVER have i had an oversized bubble mailer $3.25 cdn Canada to USA ever sent back if it met the oversized dimensions. They now want us CDN sellers to send this as small packet rate, no tracking either. I am so **bleep**- I called C.P. and lady had no answers. i called my local Shoppers P.O. outlet, where I send my mail and she said they are sending back all mail to USA in a bubble envelope so we can pay the $9.95 cdn to send it as a small packet, even though the dimensions fall under oversized rate. FYI- the cards i sell are cheap, almost always under $10.00 people in US will not pay $10.00 cdn for s/h for one or two cheapy cards; esp. if no tracking. They really do want to put us out of business. I will try to send a card or 2 in a letter envelope, without a hard top loader- and use a thinner/lighter less thick card saver instead, and wrap it in a letter sized plain paper.

[brettjet38 · Accepted solution]

You cannot ship merchandise via the letter post system to the USA it is illegal & you have to have a customs declaration on your package.

Customs declaration

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All mail containing merchandise must have a customs declaration form completed when sending the item to the U.S. or an international destination (see Completing customs documents).

The customs declaration is part of our shipping label and also includes the addressee and sender names and addresses.

It’s your responsibility to make sure you provide all customs documentation and item content information and certificates for the goods you ship.

You must also make sure that the documentation and information is complete, accurate, and legible. Failure to do so may cause us to return the item to the sender at your expense. It could also result in delays, non-delivery, voided guarantees, or fines or customs seizure in the international destination (if applicable).

If you "Sold" it on eBay it's "Goods" aka "merchandise" and is not "Letter Mail"

This is why Canada Post has a website that very clearly explains ALL the rules for Letter-Post to the USA...

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/support/articles/letter-post/overview.page

Required customs documentation

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All services  

Online transactions

You can produce labels using Electronic Shipping Tools (EST) or a customer-developed or third-party shipping system. You must also complete a Customs Declaration CN22 or CN23, depending on the value of the item. 

At the post office (automated only)

The post offices RPS system prints an indicia and a barcoded label, which we use in combination with a 43-074-253 CN22 Customs Declaration for items with a declared value of less than CAN$500. For items with a declared value of over CAN$500, you must complete and affix Customs Declaration 43-074-172. 

Priority™ Worldwide

• Document
  • Priority Worldwide shipping label (43-074-277)
• Non-document
  • Commercial Invoice or Invoice Declaration (33-081-002)

Xpresspost™ – USA

• Xpresspost - USA Shipping Label 43-074-281 
• Xpresspost - USA shipping label 43-074-236 (includes the Customs Declaration) 

Xpresspost™ – International

• Xpresspost - International shipping label 43-074-244 (includes the Customs Declaration) 

Tracked Packet™ – USA, Tracked Packet™ – International, and Small Packet™

• 43-074-253 (includes the Customs Declaration - CN22). For items with a declared value of over CAN$500, you must also complete and affix a Customs Declaration - 43-074-172. 

Expedited Parcel™ – USA

• Expedited Parcel-USA shipping label – 43-074-243 (includes the Customs Declaration)

International Parcel (Air or Surface)

• International Parcel shipping label – 43-074-172 (includes the Customs Declaration)

Letter-post (includes letters, postcards, and Literature for the Blind)

• Documents of no monetary value 
  • No customs documentation required

The ONLY thing you can ship to the USA without customs documentation is Documents of no monetary value...

[marnotom!]

Your card wasn't sent back because of an issue with its dimensions; your card was sent back because it was merchandise, and merchandise isn't supposed to be sent internationally as a letter.  Merchandise requires a customs form, which letters don't have.

This requirement has actually been the case for the past decade or so, but it's only been in the past few years that Canada Post and US Customs and Border Protection have been fitfully enforcing it.

This thread goes back a few years, but you may find it useful:

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/NEW-Canada-Post-lettermail-to-USA-Disaster/m-p/471538

[hockey-card-inserts]

it wasnt sent as a letter, its in a bubble envelope- a letter would be in a letter envelope.

[phc64]

Anything other than documents shipped outside of Canada must be shipped as a parcel regardless of its dimensions. I sell primarily 45rpm records in 21x21x1 cm shipments weighing less than 100 grams. Within Canada these can be shipped via Lettermail for $1.94. But to all other countries including the US these must be shipped as small packets (eBay's current promotional rate is $7.19 to the US). As a result, about 85% of my sales are within Canada.

[mrdutch1001]

‎

"it wasnt sent as a letter, its in a bubble envelope- a letter would be in a letter envelope" ..

What you sent was oversize lettermail and that is still lettermail...

AND if you continue to send goods/merchandise disguised as lettermail you will continue to take the risk of having items returned..

[brettjet38]

More and 

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@mrdutch1001 wrote:

‎

"it wasnt sent as a letter, its in a bubble envelope- a letter would be in a letter envelope" ..

What you sent was oversize lettermail and that is still lettermail...

AND if you continue to send goods/merchandise disguised as lettermail you will continue to take the risk of having items returned..

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...more and more often as they are installing new scanning tech for international lettermail.

[femmefan1946]

It was sent Letter Rate.

The contents were commercial goods.

Not allowed.

The bubble envelope may have attracted a postal worker's attention, but that is not the reason for the return.

[red27pete]

The point that you obviously didn't get, was that she's been doing it for years, as have I.  I'm part of the card selling community in Vancouver, and cards going to the USA in bubble mailers were always fine, until a couple of weeks ago, when they all started getting sent back to us.  This essentially means sellers in Canada won't be able to sell cards to the USA anymore, unless they charge at least $7 for shipping, which rules our much of the inventory.  I've already ended most of my listings and am making alternate plans to sell.  Sellers just keep getting punched in the gutt.  Pretty soon, Canadian sellers of items under $50, will be a thing of the past. 

[flipistics]

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@red27pete wrote:

The point that you obviously didn't get, was that she's been doing it for years, as have I.  I'm part of the card selling community in Vancouver, and cards going to the USA in bubble mailers were always fine, until a couple of weeks ago, when they all started getting sent back to us.  This essentially means sellers in Canada won't be able to sell cards to the USA anymore, unless they charge at least $7 for shipping, which rules our much of the inventory.  I've already ended most of my listings and am making alternate plans to sell.  Sellers just keep getting punched in the gutt.  Pretty soon, Canadian sellers of items under $50, will be a thing of the past. 

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This isn't a Canada Post thing or an eBay thing. Merchandise cannot cross borders without customs information, regardless of what country it's coming from or going to. Countries, especially the USA, are just cracking down on it now where in the past they usually ignored it. 

Since you're in Vancouver, if you're not too far from a Stallion Express location you might be able to use the eBay Standard Envelope. I think Stallion charges something like $1.50 to accept an item with a label they didn't supply. Worth looking into at least.

[mrdutch1001]

"The point that you obviously didn't get, was that she's been doing it for years, as have I."

just because someone has "been doing it for years..", doesn't make it right, doesn't mean it was legal to do so...Like so many other sellers who have been caught over the past 2+ years, the time has come to accept, adjust, and carry on...(however you may decide) with doing things correctly as per postal policies or accept the responsibility for the consquences resulting from not following the postal rules.

[travis7s]

I'm surprised this is the first time you got caught, my local postmaster never let any bubble mailers go through to USA as lettermail when I got started on ebay around 7 years ago. Reality is you keep at it and accept the consequences, just ship to Canada where you can safety do it for $1.94, or increase the size of your lots to make small packet a viable option.

But yeah, it sucks when shipping costs wipe out an entire market of products. The ebay video game/DVD market in Canada would be destroyed if they stopped letting those go through lettermail, although Expedited Lite bridges the gap a bit. I also remember 10-15 years ago when they had "Light Packet USA" which was around $2.50 for <100g.

[maximus7001]

We put such a thing inside a christmas card in a christmas card envelope. The christmas card gets filled out with the persons name and dated etc. Christmas cards are cheap in bulk especially right after christmas or at a thrift store in bulk. The last bag of about 400 cards with envelopes cost $2.99 at value village and also contained birthday, easter, valentines, st patricks cards too, something for any time of year.

[mrdutch1001]

don't matter, any enclosures/goods/merchandise of any value within an envelope being sent to a location outside Canada is NOT lettermail and it is against postal rules & policies to do so...

[alacar-8]

I have been selling comics to the US for years as lettermail and finally got my first return from customs.  The funny thing is that my 240 gram oversized letter costs $10.90 while a 240 gram small packet costs only $8.96!  My postal prices may have changed a little in the last while but still, small packet is actually cheaper for me.  Still, I may put the US on my restricted country list and go out and get a part time job!  Later guys and gals

[killincards]

Party’s over. Ebays promotional rates now dictate entire categories in Canada. Starting to get more and more returns.

[mrdutch1001]

The only "party" was for those sellers taking the risks to get cheaper shipping rates by participating in shipping methods that were against postal policies...

and what do returns have to do with promotional rates or categories?...

This is about shipping methods and how to use them correctly!

[brettjet38]

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@killincards wrote:
Party’s over. Ebays promotional rates now dictate entire categories in Canada. Starting to get more and more returns.

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Soon, you will not even get them back they will be seized and disposed of...

...implementation by 2025.

[fergua3]

if they are going to start doing that, they better be darn sure, and i mean 100% sure, that they aren't seizing and destroyng ligitmate letter post ie people's correspondence, pictures sent to friends and love ones, documents etc.

It's a Federal offense to tamper with or destroy mail.  Postal workers are subject to those laws too.  I can't see it being legal for Canada Post to accept mail and most importantly, payment for that mail and then destroy it at their whim rather than deliver it.  That sounds scammy to me.

[brettjet38]

They will start by opening suspect items for inspection, once the news gets around that illegal merchandise being sent by international letter post is being stopped and destroyed instead of returned. The few lawbreakers still doing it will finally get the email and vanish...

...the new sorting systems and barcode postal stamps will also track letters and counterfeit stamps. In the UK they are already pulling letters with counterfeit stamps and returning them to the senders.

Here in Canada, they are implementing a new sorting system in a few Montreal depots.