Shipping Costs being a Canadian Seller

[rigginscards]

I was looking for some insight as I have recently tried to make my eBay a secondary source of income. I am getting a lot of messages about shipping. The majority of my sales are graded cards which I always send tracked however I am getting asked frequently to lower shipping and send letter mail. I would be more than happy to accommodate however I do not want negative feedback and issues. Any ideas or insight would be appreciated greatly. I’m sure I would sell a lot more if I could adjust shipping rates

[dinomitesales]

Most Canadian card sellers (including your primary competition) are just sending items under a certain value as Lettermail (that value is up to you to decide).

The only risk is that the buyer says they didn't receive it and opens an "Item Not Received" claim with eBay. You will have to provide a full refund and don't have any recourse. This is a risk, yes, but in my experience it doesn't happen often. Most people are honest and just want the item they purchased. Consider setting aside a small amount of every sale as "cookie jar insurance" - if something goes wrong and you have to refund you can 'break the cookie jar' and refund them from that balance.

Personally I'll mail anything via untracked Lettermail under about $50. Once it hits that $50 threshold then I'll consider adding tracking, but it's a case by case basis depending on how I feel about the buyer.

[flipistics]

I agree with dinomitesales. I've had almost no issues at all with lettermail (I don't sell many cards though, mostly CDs, DVDs, and video games that way). Make sure you address things correctly. It doesn't hurt to double-check the addresses with Canada Post either. You'll probably want to send them as oversized lettermail with stiffeners around the cards or in small stayflats. I don't think I'd want to send cards out and have them bend around the machines with regular lettermail.

Keep in mind that you'll also save eBay fees on the lower cost for shipping (probably $1.50 to $2.00 per order), so if the odd one does go bad you should still end up way ahead.

[ricarmic]

My threshold before I track is normally $100 unless my spider senses kick in lower, and sometimes I'll go up to $150 before I'll track, especially for repeat customers. Note that I live in the somewhat safer "stamp" world though.

Generally the higher your volume the easier it is to cookie jar insure yourself so you can evaluate that as you grow in size.

Ones loss "feelings" are generally much worse than one's "actuals". Here's a link to my actual results if you haven't seen it already. Keep in mind your categories might be worse.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/RICARMICs-Self-insurance-cookie-jar-statistics-to-end-of... 

Another note, I am a very firm believer that including the shipping in the price as "free shipping" items because the algorithms favour free shipping items and as a result the higher visibility increases the chances of getting it in front of someone that considers the "shipping in" price ok, even perhaps if it includes tracked shipping. Something to consider.

Yet another note, I see you're generally auctioning stuff, generally astute folks are figuring in the shipping, so if you're getting $36 plus $15 shipping the buyer was willing to pay $51 as a buy it now free shipping item (probably more, BINS normally sell in my world for double or more what they'd get at auction). Auction wise if you have an idea what stuff will generally go for, you can adjust the shipping to not/include tracking according to your threshold. If you think it will go below your threshold, make the shipping free.

My suggestion would be to try some BINs with free shipping both tracked and not tracked size and see what happens, it doesn't cost you anything if they don't sell.

[ricarmic]

I see I was too late to edit this line:

My suggestion would be to try some BINs with free shipping both tracked and not tracked size and see what happens, it doesn't cost you anything if they don't sell. 

Note that the BIN price includes the shipping added to the BIN price, I forgot to include that for clarity.

[recped]

I don't sell trading cards, I have the impression that buyers of such items (especially lower value) can be "difficult".

I do sell cd's and cassettes and 7" vinyl, buyers of such items can be "picky" but are generally perfectly fine if items are as described.

CD's, Tapes shipped within Canada all go via Lettermail, I can't remember the last time I had a not received claim, it might have happened once or twice in the past 30+ years.

[intimewithmusic]

Based on your typical item price, the actual weight of  a card, the scarcity of your items and the nature of your buyers why would you risk your seller rating and deal with lettermail issues when you don't have to worry about them with tracked packet ? 

You can ship a card to most USA destinations tracked, insured and seller protected for under $15CAD ($11.00 USD). That difference is not going to be a problem for a rare item costing $50 plus dollars.

Collectors paying $50 plus (you have a lot  of $100+) respect business-like shipping. Lettermail is not business like. If your items were under $20 and not rare you could do whatever it takes while maintaining your seller status. It doesn't look like you're that kind of seller to me.  

With respect to your Canadian buyers you may consider offering them free Expedited parcel; shipping on a purchase of $50 or more (or what works for you) . They can combine 1 or 2 of your lower priced items. No worries no issues. 

[pjcdn2005]

How would the op risk his seller rating by shipping lettermail? 

Many of use lettermail within Canada for items up to a certain value without a problem and many of are trs.

[pjcdn2005]

As others have suggested, many do use lettermail within Canada for lower priced items.  You might want to experiment with it.   I do agreed with recped that trading cards may have more problem buyers than in other categories so you may want to start off slowly. As other posters mentioned it might be a good idea to experiment with different shipping and ways of pricing to see what works best.

[byto253]

Great feedback given.  The only thing in your post that is a bit of a red flag for me is people asking for shipment by lettermail.  That is not normal for US buyers, if they are asking.   For shipments inside Canada you can send by registered letter for $12.27 (13% Ont HST included), so that splits the difference between untracked letter and parcel rates.

You can also check out https://try.sendle.com/en-ca/pricing as you can send up to 500 grams nationally for the registered mail amount, and less if in province and even less if within 250 km.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

It is standard for sellers of sports cards to offer lettermail shipping for lower priced items. You have to keep in mind that you are not protected by eBay if you send without tracking. This means that if a buyer claims the item did not arrive and opens a request, you are required to provide a refund by the deadline given to you, or eBay will automatically refund the buyer.

Because of this, most people will send expensive cards tracked, and send lower priced cards untracked. Your level of risk tolerance may vary. You have to keep in mind that if someone will pay $20+$15 shipping for a card, that means that the card was worth $35 to them. You could have sold the card for $32+$3 shipping, and made an extra $12 in revenue. Let's say that works out to an extra $10 in profit after fees.

If you sell 10 $35 cards untracked, you will make an extra $100 in profit via sending untracked. Which means you would have to lose more than 3 out of 10 $35 cards for untracked shipping not to make sense. Most people will tell you they don't lose that many packages to item not received claims, but it will vary by category. 

There is no cheap tracked shipping in Canada. For sports cards within the country, the cheapest tracked shipping is usually registered mail. This costs $9.75 on top of the lettermail rate (usually $1.94 for a sports card). You can lower this price through buying your stamps at Rexall when they go on sale (10 percent off).

You can ship to the USA using USPS via Chit Chats. This should cost about $8 give or take for a small bubble mailer. You might be able to ship USPS lettermail via Chit Chats, but you would have to contact them to see what qualifies. You technically cannot ship goods Canada Post lettermail to the USA.

Ultimately, if someone who won an auction asks for an invoice with lettermail, I would not do it. They already saw and agreed to the shipping price before they bid. You do not make any additional revenue in the scenario where the auction has already completed because people bid based on the ceiling set by the top bid combined with the higher shipping price. You also take on all the risk because there is no seller protection. It's different if you offer lettermail at the beginning of an auction, because your final bid might be higher because of the lower overall cost.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

A side note since you bring up HST/GST.

eBay collects that automatically for all Canadian buyers. If OP is intending on this to be a business operation, they should consider registering to collect HST/GST. If they only operate on eBay, eBay already collects it regardless and they can claim back their taxes as input tax credits. This dramatically lowers input costs.

Obviously, I am not an accountant and this random post on an eBay web forum should not be a subtitute for professional accounting advice. 

[intimewithmusic]

I like your creativity @byto253. I'm not sure Reg mail accepts slabbed comics, toploaders etc. the answer here depends on @rigginscards  long term business plan. It sounds like he/she/them want to develop something not necessarly full time but long term.

Seller "A" wants the most profit with the least time spent. They may choose higher profit, fewer items that are less competitive.

Seller "B" is unable to source higher value items due to location. time, available funds etc. They choose to sell easy to find low value items. 

Seller "A" wants to compete long term in a pond selling internationally to collectors. In order to maintain that a professional,  efficient and creative business model to attract repeat customers is necessary. 

Seller "B" excels at selling low value items that can easily be sourced.  It's a numbers game that doesn't rely on developing your "brand".   The more listings you can stuff into a stamped  envelope the more you sell.  The higher volume minimizes damage to a Seller's Rating. Most of the buyers don't care about the delivery method of a pair of socks.  The slow service, no insurance, no Seller Protection and greater potential for loss, theft and delays and other problems for the seller doesn't matter to the buyer because all they have to say is "Item Not Received." and it's free.

In a nutshell, your business model is illustrated to your buyer through your choice of delivery so you have to decide what buyers you want to attract and how much work you want to do. 

You suggested this which I also noticed. 

" The only thing in your post that is a bit of a red flag for me is people asking for shipment by lettermail.  That is not normal for US buyers, if they are asking."

When I saw that red flag I  looked at the items. They can have a long term sourcing problem as well as a long term popularity problem.  I think it's a great idea to branch into other niches. There's no "one size fits all" when it comes to delivery. 

[intimewithmusic]

There's  a fairly new Canadian podcast on most networks coming out of Vancouver BC. She does a really great job of identifying the unique shipping challenges of Canadians in all arenas who are selling on eBay. 

I highly recommend giving this a listen!

IT

The Business Of Reselling Podcast Episode 22 "Let's Talk Shipping" Posted 02-07-23 

[femmefan1946]

I use letterpost for practically all my shipping and even call it Free Shipping.

The advantages are higher visibility in Search, buyers who like getting stuff "free", and lower costs.

Free shipping as mentioned above means your costs for shipping, which include Cookie Jar Insurance, are included in your asking price.

And you have more flexibility. If you promise "free economy shipping" you can choose how to ship. For one buyer it may be letterpost and no tracking. For another Tracked Packet USA, which costs you (but not the questionable buyer) more but insures you against fake Not Delivered claims.

Something that hasn't come up.

If you get a high value sale but are feeling a little nervous, you can add Signature Confirmation to ANY shipment. EBay demands this as Proof of Delivery when the transaction is over $650, but you can add it for $1.75 which is cheap insurance for a sketchey $100 sale.

You can't charge the customer for upgrading his shipment.

And I agree that the customer who asks for a cheaper shipping service is in the "sketchey" category since cheaper usually means untracked.