The problems with returns to Canada from U.S. with Ebay

[shallow_karl]

1.  Most of the customers won't or can't provide a paypal address which would make it easy to refund shipping back.  Since Ebay stopped allowing deposits of funds in paypal, fewer buyers have paypal accounts anyway.

2.  If you follow Ebay and generate a UPS or Fedex label, you end up paying brokerage ($20-$80) on any return in addition to the shipping cost, if it's shipped by ground and if not, it costs you $$$ anyway.

3.  If you don't get the customer to declare it at a minimal value,  you will end up paying tax on the full value as if you'd purchased it from the U.S.  Canada customs doesn't care about "returns" and treats them as purchases.

4.  U.S. to Canada mailing rates are two to three times the price of Ebay sales from Canada to the U.S.

[recped]

You can open an account (free) with PirateShip to print USPS labels to provide to your buyers needing to return (they also have alternative lower cost carriers). You buy the label, you fill out the customs info.

There are several other similar services available.

[ae_purveyors]

Yes, you can open an account with Pirate Ship to buy a USPS label.

But make sure you select USPS International Label and not the Pirate Ship Simple Export Rate. Simple Export Rate is a Pirate Ship program that is very cheap international shipping . However, it gets sent to a Global Export facility that prepares it for export, much like the eBay International Shipping processing centre.

The problem with the Simple Export is that the return tracking will show as Delivered in eBay. But, it will only have been delivered to the Export processing facility. Leaving you no way to inspect the returned item for condition prior to issuing the refund to the buyer.

I recently had a return from the US. A small item, about 340 grams. Simple Export rate was $7 USD to ship. But to receive it directly to my address, the USPS International Shipping was $25 USD.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Regarding GST on returns, if you only sell on platforms that are online, register for GST. Because eBay, Amazon, etc now charge GST for everybody, there is almost no reason not to register for your business. Yes, there will be a $9.95 fee via Canada Post, and you won't get the input tax back until tax time since eBay holds the GST/HST, so it's not perfect.

If you are a casual seller, I don't think eBay is a good platform to sell on, especially not internationally. eBay is great for people with a certain level of volume because there are still a lot of items you can sell here that will attract a greater market than on a local classified site or elsewhere, but the buyer protection and overall liability can be tough for casual sales. 1 or 2 sales going badly, and it can cost you a lot of time and money with little benefit. For someone who sells a lot, eating the cost of a sale gone wrong is a lot easier because they get a greater amount of value from eBay as a platform. 

Otherwise, you just have to factor in the liability of dealing with international returns. Certain items, I simply don't ship to the USA because the cost of shipping along with the cost of return shipping (if the sale goes bad) is too high compared to what I will make on the item.