eBay

ericsells75 · ‎07-31-2020

I'm doing a pretty decent business just shipping Video Games within Canada that I might not even open it up to US but wanted to know in case I do.

Can I just mail a video game in bubble mailer to the US without worrying about customs? It makes no sense to pay $20 to ship (with tracking) a $10 item but if I can drop it in the mail for $5+ it would open up the US to me. Just not sure about customs.

Anyone with experience lend some thoughts?

mrdutch1001 · ‎07-31-2020

Letter mail rates to the USA and International destinations apply to printed matter only.

Letter mail as defined by Canada Post and what constitutes as acceptable and unacceptable can be found here:

https://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/PGletpost-e.asp#1395417

Therefore, the best and most economical option is Small Packet Air , which requires the appropriate customs information. You can purchase the shipping labels on line through PayPal and/or eBay's Shippo service or at the Postal outlet counter.

intimewithmusic · ‎07-31-2020

Hi. As a Canadian seller I've also asked myself this question over the years. There are 2 different perspectives from other sellers. It seems to depend on what they sell and how LARGE their feedback rating is. Not necessarily how good it is.

If you choose to ship without tracking and the item does not arrive OR, the buyer says it didn't arrive the seller takes a hit on their feedback score. Here's a scenario. Let's say you have 100% positive feedback but only 100 reports. Then you ship out 100 items. 5 of those items that are not tracked are reported as not received by the buyer. This scenario effectively lowers your feedback score from 100% positive to 95%. I think that on eBay a score of only 95% is poor enough to stop anyone from buying from you.

If you have 5000 positives and a feedback score of 99.5% those 5 "lost" shipments won't make much of a dent in your score.

Like the other response to your question said you can used Light Packet Air but it does not have tracking and you are subject to the same problem. Chances are your video games could be sold in lots. You may want to figure out how many you can ship in a box for the same price as one. Then either sell them in lots or promote combined shipping to the US.

mrdutch1001 · ‎07-31-2020

Although I do not sell video games, I do sell vinyl LP records on eBay and have been shipping via Small Packet Air to USA and occasionally to Europe, for more years than I can remember...have not had any issues with not received and/or buyer claiming not received, so I continue to go with that method. If an item has low value, it is not economically feasible to ship with tracking, so for myself, the risk is not something that overly concerns me.

However, If a seller has a very low feedback score, which can be a target by scammers, I see where it may be beneficial to take precautions until more established. If the item has more value, shipping by a method that has tracking can be safer, and may be worth it initially... and some of those shipping costs could be rolled into the price of the item. Whatever one's comfort and confidence level may be a factor in deciding how to proceed.

travis7s · ‎07-31-2020

Some postal workers seem to allow it, some will stop you from sending it if it doesn't seem like documents.

Use Small Packet USA and upload the "UR" number into eBay manually. USPS will almost always send the scan info to eBay and eventually give a delivery confirmation. For a video game the cost is around $7-9 depending on your Canada Post discount level.

reallynicestamps · ‎07-31-2020

US residents have a $800 duty free allowance so no customs worries.

Two answers to the postal cost question.

Use Flat Rate shipping and move things around.

Which is cheapest A $10 DVD with $20 shipping? A $20 DVD with $10 shipping? A $30 DVD with Free Shipping?

Use Letterpost anyway and drop the padded envelope in the nearest mailbox. Neither the truck driver nor the guys in the terminal really care.

Mark the HS code 852340 on the envelope anyway.

While shipping labels for some parcel services get you a small discount, you can buy mint postage on eBay at a better discount. *cough*

Be aware that LetterPost is never tracked, and only some parcel services are. Your customer demographics should be considered.

jt-libra · ‎08-01-2020

I would do as reallynicestamps suggests:

"Use Letterpost anyway and drop the padded envelope in the nearest mailbox. Neither the truck driver nor the guys in the terminal really care."

With no customs declaration and only stamps on the envelope, it'll fly through the U.S. border along with the other hundreds of millions pieces of mail going through.

I recall several years ago, a seller of DVD's stated that he only uses lettermail and he has shipped thousands of these to the U.S. He added that only a fool would do otherwise .... lol! Of course there's no tracking, but if the items are worth approximately $10.00 and only the odd one goes missing, you're still better off financially than having spent a bundle on shipping each one.

But if you do decide to do that, mark it Shipped and send the buyer a brief note telling them how many days it usually takes for an item from A to B to arrive, with potential delays due to Covid. If you don't do this, the first thing they're going to do is look online for the tracking number and think that you haven't shipped it.

brettjet38 · ‎08-01-2020

It is actually a criminal offense in Canada, the UK, and many other Countries to ship any "Merchandise" without a customs declaration using "Letter-Mail", and you do so at your own risk and penalties if you get caught.

Lettermail is for Documents and Letters, not "Goods"...

jt-libra · ‎08-01-2020

Of course ... that's understood!

femmefan1946 · ‎08-01-2020

If you choose to ship without tracking and the item does not arrive OR, the buyer says it didn't arrive the seller takes a hit on their feedback score.

Although some buyers pay attention to Feedback, eBay does not use it to assess member accounts.

Most buyers think 95% is a "A".
The ones that look at feedback often do not understand that having 582 negative feedback is no big deal if the seller also has 30748 positives from happy customers. (The important thing to look for is a pattern of quality complaints or Items delayed or Not Received.)

The only hit would be if the buyer leaves feedback.

And less than 40 percent do.
On this account, I have left over 6000 FB for customers, and have 3600 from customers.

EBay pays attention to Disputes, although even there, if a seller cooperates with the Dispute (which means he refunds promptly) there is no effect on his account.

Light Packet Air has not existed for a few years.

The available services to the USA include

LetterPost(not available online)
Small Packet (untracked)
and Tracked Packet
plus the more expensive ExpressPostUSA
ExpeditedUSA( with Solutions for Small Business Account)
and Priority Post USA.

esclyons · ‎08-01-2020

i use expedited and tracked packet almost all the time, and the rates for 125 gram packages, ranges from 16-22$ not really worth it, if you are shipping 10$ items, but they do come with tracking...

Don't sell anything untracked, that you can't afford to lose..

and video games are a higher risk category..

i would look at bundling games, and selling them in lots of 4-10 games, and send with tracking..

ilikehockeyjerseys · ‎08-01-2020

Lettermail is supposed to be for paper only. People break the rules, but you would be taking a risk.

In normal times, the best service to use is Small Packet Air. It is technically untracked, but so is lettermail, so I assume that is not an issue. You can send any video game under 250 grams for roughly 9 dollars. While it isn't supposed to have tracking, you can manually copy the UR code from the underneath the barcode on the shippo label. If you place this into the tracking info, USPS will usually provide tracking. It is only provided directly to the eBay item history page.

With that said, Small Packet Air was really bad for me during the later months of the pandemic, so for the last month or two, I've switched to tracked packet. Packages were taking 40+ days without any tracking updates to the eBay item page. I don't have any insight on whether the service has stabilized in the last month or two, because I haven't gone back to using it yet.

Tracked Packet is 16 or so dollars for a 250 gram package, so it is quite expensive. You won't get many sales to the US if you use it since we're talking about a difference of about 13 dollars compared to lettermail rates within Canada. So the way I see it, is that I'm basically not offering my services to US buyers by deliberately pricing myself out. Any US orders I get right now are like bonuses. I plan to experiment with Small Packet Air again soon though.

travis7s · ‎08-02-2020

Small Packet was dicey there a couple months ago but its been working great lately.

Standard lettermail USA isn't even that cheap. A 201g letter is $11.xx, compared to the 250g Small Packet for $8.xx (which includes tracking that can win you disputes) Plus you are limited to 20mm thickness with letter while you have the extremely versatile 30cm x 30cm x 30cm maximum size for packet.

widgetc · ‎08-02-2020

"Small Packet for $8.xx (which includes tracking that can win you disputes)"

Small packet is not tracked, tracked packet is.

martianbazaar · ‎08-02-2020

Have you considered using USPS First Class Mail via Chit Chat Express or DYK Post? It may cost a little more than your current option but certainly, no more than CAD$10 if you keep the contents under 1 lb. And you get Tracking #.

Depending on your location, these options may be available.

https://chitchats.com/us-bound-shipping
https://www2.dykpost.com/us-bound-shipping/

You need to declare a USD value in the e-manifest and there's a cap up to USD800 per US address.

P/S: Depending on your video games, some hard to find or rare titles might justify the slight increase. It's still cheaper and faster than Canada Post!

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎08-02-2020

@widgetc

Small Packet USA is not supposed to be tracked but if we enter the UR tracking and monitor it does seem to get scanned some of the time. Consistent scans dropped off after Covid started but seem to be getting a bit more back to normal. In my case, my packages go west to Richmond and then down to either LAX or SF for processing then forwarded on for delivery where they've been showing the dropped on porch scan. 7-10 days now vs 3-5 days in the past to the first scan. Just did a quick check and from my last 10 shipments there were scans on 7 out of 10 shipments. No data for shipments passing through S. Ontario. Not a perfect system but much more economical for low valued items. Recent example below.

-Lotz

Jul 28, 2020
12:48pm

DELIVERED FRONT DOOR/PORCH
WAXHAW, NC 28173

Jul 28, 2020
7:10am

OUT FOR DELIVERY
WAXHAW, NC 28173

Jul 28, 2020
4:41am

ARRIVAL AT UNIT
WAXHAW, NC 28173

Jul 27, 2020
3:25pm

PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
CHARLOTTE, NC 28214

Jul 18, 2020
12:40pm

PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94128

Jul 14, 2020
10:04pm

Tracking number provided

ypdc_dennis · ‎08-02-2020

@widgetc wrote:
"Small Packet for $8.xx (which includes tracking that can win you disputes)"
Small packet is not tracked, tracked packet is.

It is not tracked online by Canada Post or USPS -- but ebay does have access to internal scans that the USPS makes. Many US postal employees use the see-a-bar-code then scan-it method, and skip reading the fine print that says no delivery scan.

an example of Small Packet USA on ebay