eBay

torontonian · ‎05-02-2017

I have found an item on Alibaba I would like to sell. It costs $1. Others are selling a similar item for $7 with FREE SHIPPING. I just went to Canada Post to get a quote for my product and they said: $9.14.

How is this possible? How can somebody sell the item for $7 when shipping is $9??

momcqueen · ‎05-04-2017

The smartest thing is to see what your future potential competitors are doing, and how they do it. If they move thousands of units per month, and they are really shipping from within Canada as they claim, they may have a sweet high-volume deal with a courier. That kind of arrangement is simply not available to a new user without a proven business volume to demonstrate. But if your item is really thicker than 2 cm, you'd be running a big risk to try to send it via lettermail. You may discover those competitors are not being truthful about item location (which is a serious eBay violation) and that they are shipping from China for pennies. There's nothing a Canadian seller can do to compete with a Chinese seller on price. You'd need to add value to your wares instead.

momcqueen · ‎05-04-2017

Also, you say 'post Office' in your replies.

Do you mean an actual Post Office? A stand-alone building run by the Crown Corporation staffed by a postmaster being paid a living wage?

Or do you mean 'authorized postal agent or dealer' which is a counter inside your nearest drug store or grocery store?

These two terms are not synonymous. The latter are often if not always minimally-trained minimum wage employees of the retail store. If you need real answers, call the knowledgeable people at Canada Post 1-800-number. Or go to an actual Post Office in your city or town.

momcqueen · ‎05-04-2017

That's not to say an authorized postal agent or dealer cannot have helpful, knowledgeable staff. They can. Some do. But it's not a guarantee, as employee retention of the smart ones depends entirely on the culture of that retail environment. If you see new staff every two weeks, it's not a good or happy place to work and those postal counter staff will be long gone by the time they've learned the complicated world of shipping.

torontonian · ‎05-04-2017

Thanks for all your replies.

I have contacted one of my future competitors in regards to the shipping. I asked him if the item is really being shipped from Toronto and how come the item is $7 with free shipping when shipping only should be around $10. This is his reply: "If you order it for that price its yours, we also deal with multiple carriers, depending on the size of the order, distance, speed ..etc". I do not know what to make of this...Also, this person sold 400 items in the last 12 months.

By post office I mean Canada Post in Shoppers Drugmart.

As I said before, I will purchase a couple of items from my future competitors.

widgetc · ‎05-04-2017

The only way you will know is to purchase something.

I purchase ink cartridges for a major seller on a different account. He mails items at least 3cm thick as letter mail. Clearly his outlet is not properly enforcing the rules for some years now. It could be a similar situation.

widgetc · ‎05-04-2017

oops...

I purchase ink cartridges FROM a major seller on a different account.

pierrelebel · ‎05-04-2017

"Clearly his outlet is not properly enforcing the rules for some years now."

I have always been careful about the 20mm thickness limit.

Many years ago, although accepted at the local post office, I had an envelope returned to me by Canada Post - weeks later - because the thickness was 24mm and requesting extra postage.

momcqueen · ‎05-04-2017

I always err on the side of caution. I've never tried to slip something thicker than 2 cm through lettermail. Untracked already, you've no way to know how badly you're jeopardizing Estimated Delivery Dates.

thestuffofchris · ‎05-04-2017

I have a habit of always measuring my OS Lettermail thicknesses just to make sure they are <20mm. I also can't remember a time where I took it to the postal outlet and they didn't put it through the little handheld slot.

thestuffofchris · ‎05-05-2017

Maybe it's this heat here in Edmonton frying my brain, but I don't quite understand. Is this sarcasm?

reallynicestamps · ‎05-05-2017

She said the same thing, there is no other option due to the fact that my item is too thick (over 2 cm). I mentioned lettermail.

LetterMail and LightPacket must be less than 2cm thick and 500 grams.

Them's the rules.

That's also one of the reasons I don't use bubbleenvelopes. Too thick.

By post office I mean Canada Post in Shoppers Drugmart.

That's a Postal Outlet.

Not a Post Office.

Semi-trained workers. (Although some are great, I will always remember 'Ms. Pierce' so named for her many facial rings and studs in the Ottawa South 7-11. Charming and intelligent.)

Their management insists that the outlet make money, so cheaper services are rarely mentioned. I have had an outlet worker refuse to give me the VenturePost/Small Business Solutions discount.

BTW, other ways to lower your costs are:

Use PP shipping labels for shipments that must go Parcel. You get 5% to 18% discounts off PO counter rates. And you can drop the parcel into the nearest mailbox.
Buy discounted mint postage stamps on eBay. *cough" The Dominion of Canada has never demonetized any postage. Even Newfoundland stamps are still valid.
Weigh and measure your own packages. Use metric. Canada Post went metric in 1974 and everything else is approximate.
Use Calculated Shipping.

torontonian · ‎05-05-2017

Well, it's pouring here in Toronto, people are getting evacuated downtown near the lake, so this is probably me. ..but it's nice to know some Canadians are getting some sunshine 🙂

Yesterday I took the bull by the horns and ordered a product from my future competitor. The item was 4 cm thick so I knew they had to ship it as a parcel. The product was $9.27. The parcel is around $9. How do they manage to make a profit? I placed my order yesterday at noon. 3 hours later I received a message from the seller saying he processed my order and I should receive a tracking number from the carrier.

In the morning I checked the tracking number and my product was in transit, ready to be delivered today! At 3:30 pm I went to pick up my son from school and I stopped to check the mail. I opened the mailbox and my jaw dropped. It was pouring outside and I was just standing there like and idiot watching the yellow envelope from Canada Post. This cant't be happening. How is this guy making a profit? I went into the car and looked at the envelope. It was shipped from Amazon. AMAZON!

I picked up my son, went to my office and checked Amazon. And there it is. My product, in all it's glory, waiting to be purchased for $6.38 with free shipping!

So the seller sold the product to me on eBay for $9.27, he then went and purchased the same product on Amazon for $6.38 and shipped it directly to me!

There you have it. The profit is small, but it's something. They probably do it for fun, otherwise I cannot explain it.

thestuffofchris · ‎05-05-2017

Ah, okay. I understand now.

Unfortunately, I've heard of this happening before. You'll even come across sellers whose feedback will be full of buyers wondering why their purchase came from A*. (It's still unclear about whether or not we can actually name the company, so I'm just being safe here.)

One time I even decided to see if anyone was selling specific A*-branded items on eBay and...yep. There are people selling items from the A*Basics line, and doing it just as you said: "selling" the item on eBay, purchasing it on A*, and having them ship it to the customer as a "gift". Their feedback, as expected, is rife with buyers wondering why their purchase came directly from A*.

I don't understand it either.

reallynicestamps · ‎05-06-2017

sold the product to me on eBay for $9.27, he then went and purchased the same product on Amazon for $6.38

Amazon dot COM in US dollars or Amazon dot CA in loonies?

Some of us make a few quarters by buying in loonies and selling in U$.

As the song goes:

'Plagarize plagarize plagarize.

But be sure to be always calling it please RESEARCH!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXlfXirQF3A

torontonian · ‎05-06-2017

Well I just went over this seller's reviews and everybody was happy because of the fast shipping, I guess they don't question where the product came from, as long as they got it fast. Still, there's so many people doing what this seller is doing,

torontonian · ‎05-06-2017

On the envelope is says Amazon.com.ca, Inc.

I assume it's amazon.ca since the shipping address is from Mississauga.

momcqueen · ‎05-06-2017

I'm not certain the mods will allows this thread to stand without some heavy editing but this link explains as well.

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2017/4/1492393456.html

pjcdn2005 · ‎05-06-2017

Apparently the seller is not supposed to use prime for resale purposes. I don't know if amazon enforces that or not.

Prime members are not permitted to purchase products for the purpose of resale, rental or to ship to their customers or potential customers using Prime benefits.

momcqueen · ‎05-06-2017

I could see how this represents a murky area. Plus, sellers are allowed to pay to use their warehouses for storage meaning they may essentially buy from themselves on that site and ship for free using the membership. To me, this has always seemed like a risky sort of shell game. It's not one I'd entertain.

ypdc_dennis · ‎05-06-2017

@mjwl2006 wrote:
I could see how this represents a murky area. Plus, sellers are allowed to pay to use their warehouses for storage meaning they may essentially buy from themselves on that site and ship for free using the membership. To me, this has always seemed like a risky sort of shell game. It's not one I'd entertain.

The A-river warehouse does have a multi-fulfillment program where they ship the sellers product no matter where it is bought (no requirement that it be sold on the A-river). Shipping and other fees do apply using that service.

...

On the other hand, a seller using their A-river Prime membership to buy and ship sales, will get booted by the A-river if caught. It's one of the strongly prohibited uses of Prime.

-..-