Canada post is killing business

[rocketscollectibles]

Its getting out of control out there shipping with mail. Ive seen so many people on different platforms and social medias having the same issue past 2-months. Its getting totally out of control. There is a tendency from quebec located people.

I got returned over 20-30 orders now past few weeks. I talked about it previously but i suspect its a single employee, and maybe in a main transit spot, messing up the whole province. This is concerning. Its like someone is spotting specific packages and look to cause trouble on purpose by being over-severe.

On top of letterpost bubbles getting now instantly rejected (and returned damaged bent on purpose), they now reject $0.92 domestic bubble mailers for being oversized, just because its bubble mailers. I do have the canada post tool and the packages are valid. Ive shipped single trading card this way in bubbles for over 2 years... Last week they rejected a white envelope for being 2g too heavy (what a joke), while in rules they must accept 5g difference. I also got totally legit white envelopes 1mm 10g getting returned too on regular basis (employee probably think postage is $1.07). And many more.

I forget many situations. But i have a return for a new reason every week now. There is an employee making fun of returning packages for everything and anything. Its getting totally out of control. I truly would like to understand what the heck is going on.

Ive lost past weeks probably $100 in postage, damaged items, damaged supply, canncelled orders. I face negative feedbacks and late deliveries non-stop. Canada post also clearly losing money returning those packages, while most of them are 100% legit.

Is there a way to do a complaint or something?

Anyone else facing this situation as intense as i do?

[mrdutch1001]

since this seems to be a trading card seller's dream world then perhaps all the trading card sellers should band together and form their own "postal system"/"card carrier system" and let Canada Post do what it was intended to do "serve the country" as a whole and let there not be all this "lobbying" for "wants" by a small portion of online sellers who seem to think they deserve priority treatment....why should trading card sellers get priority treatment? why should there not be blanket coverage for ALL sellers of  ALL "printed matter" goods that no longer qualify as lettermail to USA & International countries?

Card sellers need to get over themselves and stop thinking they are more worthy than others... 

wanna sell cards..deal with it...the rest of us "printed matter" sellers have had to accept, adapt, adjust and carry on!

C'est la vie!

Que sera, sera!

[flipistics]

In the UK, I believe they've changed their stamp system so that every stamp has a QR code that gives it tracking through the system (obviously not final delivery though). I suspect this would be similar to the USPS, who are (probably) using the eBay standard envelope as a test bed for something similar.

Bringing this in here in Canada would help more than just sellers. A platform like eBay would just give them a way to work the kinks out on a smaller scale before rolling it out to everyone.

[rocketscollectibles]

let Canada Post do what it was intended to do "serve the country"

Sorry but i laughed. The intent of canada post is to make money.

why should trading card sellers get priority treatment?

I took the first random link. Seems it's 2020-2021. So all those stats most likely drastically increased. But it's just to show a general idea of the category.  

Trading Card Industry Statistics [Fresh Research] • Gitnux

• Annual sales of trading cards in the U.S. market had reached $200 million in 2019.
• The industry has a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.4% from 2014 to 2019.
• In 2020, the global sports trading card market size was $13.98 billion.
• The trading card industry grew by more than 142% in the first three months of 2021.
• In 2019, trading card games generated $11 billion in revenue worldwide.
• eBay reported a 142% increase in trading card sales during 2020.
• PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator) and Beckett Grading Services graded over 5 million cards in 2020.
• In 2020, the Pokémon trading card game saw a 574% increase in sales on eBay.
• The average price of baseball cards on the secondary market increased by 50% during the first half of 2020.
• The sports trading card industry is estimated to reach $98.8 billion by 2027.
• The value of sports card sales on eBay surpassed $877 million during 2020.
• The most valuable trading card ever sold, the 1909 Honus Wagner card, was sold for more than $3.1 million in 2016.
• Confidence, nostalgia, lack of sports, and increased screen time contributed to a 92% increase in trading card interest during 2020.

eBay also aquired the trading card platform tcgplayer for $300 US million since. 

Trading cards and sports cards is a dominant category in online sales.

[mrdutch1001]

and I laughed likewise...especially so of a comment coming from someone whose main mission in the forums these days seems to be to  **bleep** about ebay, **bleep** about Canada Post,  etc.etc etc.

BTW, "Mandate. Canada Post Corporation's mission is to serve all Canadian residents, businesses and organizations by providing protected conveyance of messages, information and parcels throughout Canada and by providing quality value-added service that earns customers' loyalty.'

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Just a heads up for anyone who is still looking for a cheap method to ship trading cards or paper items to the USA. 

Chit Chats does in fact offer USPS First Class Lettermail. I have looked into it, and you can send goods since there is a customs declaration at the time you print the label. If I recall, it costs $1.31 CAD for anything around 25 or so grams. 

There is no tracking, and the letter cannot be non-machineable. Which means, you may have to look into something like Hobby Armor, which are cardboard sleeves shipping that can be used in place of toploaders, and ship in a standard envelope (otherwise known as a PWE), not a bubble mailer. Shipping in a PWE is generally accepted in the trading card hobby, but it is certainly something you should state ahead of time. 

If you have any questions about the service, I would encourage you to contact Chit Chats directly, but it seems there is at least one work around to send goods via lettermail to the USA. I suspect other carriers like Stallion may offer a similar service. 

_______

Here is some info directly from Chit Chats:

Thank you for reaching out to inquire if you are able to ship trading cards to the US using our letter mail postage.

​Trading cards can be shipped to the US using letter mail postage as long as the piece is uniformly flat and can be machinable and does not exceed the following weight (3.5 oz) and dimensions (L x W x H) 11.5 x 0.25 x 6.125 inches.
​
Bubble mailers cannot be used using letter mail postage, however it would be fine to use standard white paper envelopes.
​
To comment on value declaration, the value declared will be electronically submitted to ensure that US Customs is aware of the goods being shipped and its respective value.

I hope this information helps. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to respond back.

[rocketscollectibles]

especially so of a comment coming from someone whose main mission in the forums these days seems to be to  **bleep** about ebay, **bleep** about Canada Post,  etc.etc etc.

I'm posting legit threads about legit issues that active sellers facing. You hate my threads and everything i post, but read and post on them all the time... I'm done with this community anyway until this is changing. You guys are 3 users with the same behavior ruining most of my threads. Always pointing me or anything i do. This community crucially need an option to block users. 

[pjcdn2005]

I believe that service with ChitChats is the ebay standard envelope, the one they use in the US.  I know a stamp dealer that uses that method and ChitChats to send her stamps to the US.  Since they are using usps postage, not Canadian postage they are able to do it that way. 

The system that ebay uses for ebay standard envelope isn't a new system or a system that ebay helped implement.  It already existed and is called 'metered mail.  It is only scanned at the sorting centers so in theory isn't truly 'tracked' but it has more tracking than a regular letter mail so it works well for the US market.   That service cannot be used from the US to Canada, just domestically.

Regarding your other post, the problem isn't necessarily the customs form, it may be the cost as well.  I know that the UPU helps coordinate international postage between the different countries and perhaps goods in packages rather than in letters is required so that the countries involved get more money for processing the packages.  But as I said before, I don't totally understand how the UPU works but @recped might be able to give more insite. He seems to know more about the UPU than I do.

[recped]

Stallion also offers USPS LetterMail, you pay the standard USPS postage fee plus a handling charge to Stallion to get it across the border.

You fill out the same customs information as you would for a package so that Stallion can get it across the border (pre-clearance).

As far as eBay working with Canada Post for some sort of budget LetterPost, I just can't see that happening. LetterPost to the USA at CA$1.30 is already at best a break even proposition. Light Packet was an attempt at that and I presume discontinued for that very reason.

Keep in mind that for LetterMail/LetterPost the volume that eBay could provide would be minimal.

[reallynicestamps]

let Canada Post do what it was intended to do "serve the country"

Sorry but i laughed. The intent of canada post is to make money.

Both right.

The intent of Canada Post is to make money.

But that money goes to the nation's General Revenues and is used to pay for government services.