eBay

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎01-31-2025

For anyone interested here is a nice and neat explanation of tariffs.

Tariffs: What are they, who pays for them and who do they benefit?

In response to heightened interest in tariffs resulting from recent political proposals and policies, a USC Dornsife economics professor and expert on trade explains the ins and outs of these international taxes.

ByDarrin S. Joy October 1, 2024

ShareCopy Link Facebook X LinkedIn Bluesky Email

The United States government first implemented tariffs shortly after the Constitution’s ratification to help fund the young nation’s government. Over time, these taxes on internationally traded goods largely fell out of favor, only to resurface between World Wars I and II before fading again. Recently, tariffs have once again emerged as a favored policy tool, sparking debate over their impact and effectiveness.

What is a tariff and what is its function?

A tariff is a tax placed on goods when they cross national borders. The most common type is an import tariff, which taxes goods brought into a country. There are also export tariffs, which are taxes on goods a country exports, though these are rare. The United States does not allow export tariffs; the Constitution (Article I, Section 9) forbids them.

Tariffs are typically imposed for protection or revenue purposes. A protective tariff increases the price of imported goods relative to domestic goods, encouraging consumers to buy from local producers, who are thus “protected” from foreign competition. A revenue tariff, on the other hand, is mainly used to generate money for the government.

Who pays a tariff and who benefits from it?

In the U.S., it’s the importer — the company or entity bringing the goods into the country — that pays the actual tariff to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, part of the Department of Homeland Security. This payment occurs when the goods enter the country, though the true financial impact extends beyond the initial payer.

The impact of a tariff depends on whether the country imposing it is “large” or “small” in terms of its ability to influence world prices.

See link for the rest of the story:

https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/tariffs-explained-by-economics-professor-trade-expert/#:~:text....

mrdutch1001 · ‎01-31-2025

As I have stated previously, no matter which way eBay sellers want to spin this tariff thing, this is not something to be panicking over...

Unless sellers are suppliers and import/exporter businesses that provide goods, parts,etc to other businesses to resell there is little concerm for eBay sellers...

most eBay sellers are simply NOT worth the bother!

Industries,Automotive, Manufacturers and the like are the big fish in the tariff world.That's where the tariff monies benefit the country that is imposing said tariffs.

fergua3 · ‎01-31-2025

Tariffs are really only useful to protect domestic economies from foreign undercutting of prices. For example, Chinese made EV's. They can be sold for half the price of domestic made EV's. In that case tariffs make sense as they protect a large chunk of the domestic economy. There are numerous other examples.

However, to tariff stuff you don't have and need to buy, like Trump is doing, is stupid. All you are doing is raising the cost of goods you need, raising domestic prices to consumers.

Trump is a bullly, he doesn't think much of Canada and thinks we will cave to his pressure. It is VITAL that when tariffs come nobody and i mean nobody lowers their prices to offset the tariffs. In that case Trump wins. The US consumers will not experience and significant price increases and the US benfits from the tariff revenues. In that case the tariffs will never go away.

The only strategy that makes sense is to put retaliatory tariffs on goods from a few key Republican states, causing significant pain to those States. Introduce a Covid style financial relief plan to help those effected by job losses from the tariffs and as quickly as possible find new markets for our goods.......which will take time.

It's medium term signifcant pain vs long term pain that will never go away.

Not lowering our prices will eventually cause domestic pressures from US consumers to eliminate the tariffs.

mrdutch1001 · ‎01-31-2025

"The US consumers will not experience and significant price increases and the US benfits from the tariff revenues. "

oh but that is a fallacy...

have you forgotten Trump's previous tariffs?... on metals/steel/aluminum/lumber in which the USA consumer saw increased prices on all goods related to those industries. As an example,Something as simple as construction nails saw a big increase in prices for the USA retailers and consumers...

fergua3 · ‎01-31-2025

that's because we didn't lower the prices of our goods, so the tariffs bit deep.....like i said in my post. This time there is a lot of talk about how much we can discount our goods to help offset the cost impact of the tariffs. That would be folly, as it would give Trump exactly what he wants.

Keep the prices of our goods the same or even put export tariffs on them. Let the US consumer feel some pain and the taiffs will be gone for good.

flipistics · ‎01-31-2025

@fergua3 wrote:
that's because we didn't lower the prices of our goods, so the tariffs bit deep.....like i said in my post. This time there is a lot of talk about how much we can discount our goods to help offset the cost impact of the tariffs. That would be folly, as it would give Trump exactly what he wants.

Keep the prices of our goods the same or even put export tariffs on them. Let the US consumer feel some pain and the taiffs will be gone for good.

A 25% export tariff on oil would be a good response. The US refineries need that oil. Put the money into building Canadian refineries, which also solves the short-term problem of tariffs on aluminum and steel. Better for us, better long-term for Alberta, and when the refineries come online it fixes the trade imbalance.

mrdutch1001 · ‎01-31-2025

"This time there is a lot of talk about how much we can discount our goods to help offset the cost impact of the tariffs."

Talk,talk,talk...

Talk is cheap...let's wait for the "doing"

visual-sound · ‎01-31-2025

Exactly. Sellers getting their panties in a knot over something that for most won't be an issue.

dezember32 · ‎02-02-2025

How does it work? If I order a $100 item from a Canadian seller, will I have to pay a $25 tariff, or is that such a small amount it won't apply?

flipistics · ‎02-02-2025

@dezember32 wrote:
How does it work? If I order a $100 item from a Canadian seller, will I have to pay a $25 tariff, or is that such a small amount it won't apply?

I don't think anyone is really sure right now as we don't know exactly how Trump is implementing all of this.

Normally a tariff is charged on a good based on the country of origin (where the item was made, not where it is shipping from). So if you buy something from a Canadian seller that was made in Canada, the $25 tariff would probably apply. If you buy something from a Canadian seller that was made in Japan, in theory, it shouldn't (but there could still be some tariff specific to Japanese goods, I'm not sure). Whether that's how they'll actually be implemented or not, I guess we'll find out on Tuesday.

It's also not clear to me if the de minimis is being eliminated for all countries of origin or just for Canada, Mexico, and China. The de minimis is what previously allowed small(ish) value items to not be charged a tariff even if one would normally be applied.

recped · ‎02-02-2025

@dezember32 wrote:
How does it work? If I order a $100 item from a Canadian seller, will I have to pay a $25 tariff, or is that such a small amount it won't apply?

In the US, import duties do not apply to imports valued at US$800 or less.

Trump has indicated that he may remove this exemption (the same exemption applies to imports from any country into the US). at this time we do not know if this will actually happen. It's possible the exemption would be returned to the level it was prior to 2016 of $200, a level that had been in effect for decades. Of course it's possible that Trump will try to remove the exemption completely.

As you say, there is a point when the costs of collecting tarrifs outweigh the revenue generated, if Trump was actually serious about eliminating government spending the concept of spending more money to collect a tarrif than the tarrif is worth makes absolutely no sense. Of course Trump doesn't really care because the tarrif will be paid by regular Americans and Trump can use that money to pay for his giant corporate tax cut he promised his billionaire friends.

"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.

da6170 · ‎02-02-2025

Trump has removed the exemption so far from Canada.

byto253 · ‎02-02-2025

This was brought up in another thread, but so please forgive the overlap but I think a very important question is if the tariffs are applicable to Canadian produced goods, or anything shipped from Canada. If it is applied to made in Canada, vs shipped from Canada, then the de minimus may apply unless it is from another tariffed country. That will also require more detailed customs information that is generally provided for now.

As a mainly used good reseller, few of my items were originally produced in Canada and the country of origin is on the product or package. Country of origin will not be on everything, particularly if dealing is decorative items but it will provide an avenue for a lot of goods.

sin-n-dex · ‎02-02-2025

@byto253 wrote:
This was brought up in another thread, but so please forgive the overlap but I think a very important question is if the tariffs are applicable to Canadian produced goods, or anything shipped from Canada. If it is applied to made in Canada, vs shipped from Canada, then the de minimus may apply unless it is from another tariffed country. That will also require more detailed customs information that is generally provided for now.

As a mainly used good reseller, few of my items were originally produced in Canada and the country of origin is on the product or package. Country of origin will not be on everything, particularly if dealing is decorative items but it will provide an avenue for a lot of goods.

I sell coins, stamps and banknotes. If it's applicable to goods from Canada (and other tariffed countries) I'm going to move those items to eBay.ca (where I'm sure I will have Canadian buyers purchasing Canadian stuff, as most of my customers who purchase Canadian things are in Canada), and sell the rest of the goods.

But he's talking about tariffs on lots of places, so it will become a very long excluded list of items after some time.

The thing with the stuff i sell, you can easily tell where it's from.

C.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎02-02-2025

@sin-n-dex wrote:
@byto253 wrote:
This was brought up in another thread, but so please forgive the overlap but I think a very important question is if the tariffs are applicable to Canadian produced goods, or anything shipped from Canada. If it is applied to made in Canada, vs shipped from Canada, then the de minimus may apply unless it is from another tariffed country. That will also require more detailed customs information that is generally provided for now.

As a mainly used good reseller, few of my items were originally produced in Canada and the country of origin is on the product or package. Country of origin will not be on everything, particularly if dealing is decorative items but it will provide an avenue for a lot of goods.

I sell coins, stamps and banknotes. If it's applicable to goods from Canada (and other tariffed countries) I'm going to move those items to eBay.ca (where I'm sure I will have Canadian buyers purchasing Canadian stuff, as most of my customers who purchase Canadian things are in Canada), and sell the rest of the goods.

But he's talking about tariffs on lots of places, so it will become a very long excluded list of items after some time.

The thing with the stuff i sell, you can easily tell where it's from.

C.

In doing some research discovered this delightful tidbit. Take it at face value and if it will move with these tariffs

eBay receives 1.27% of its online traffic from Canada.
According to Similarweb data, the majority of eBay's online traffic originates from the United States, accounting for approximately 81% of its total website traffic.

brle_5065 · ‎02-02-2025

There has been an exemption in the past for items under $800- which Dump has closed that loophole- so everything is subject to the tariffs. The attached picture of the differences between duties and tariffs is below. It explains it a little better than above. I spent most of my adult life in international trade and know what to expect. I have shut down my eBay.com listings and stopped selling to the US for a couple of reasons- one being that I don't want to argue back and forth with buyers from the US who believe that because of Dump claims, the selling countries pay for tariffs and customer service with eBay who have no clue what's going on.

To be fair to the CSRs- eBay's Tax Department knew for months that this was a possibility- but did nothing to prepare sellers/buyers or staff for it- including creating a clear policy that explains what a tariff is and how it would affect everyone.
I'm willing to bet that when they buy gas on Tuesday and see that the prices have gone up 20-30 cents a gallon overnight because of the tariff HE put on oil/gas, he will blame Canada even though it's his 10% tariff.
I sell a lot of coins, and even a $5 coin will be subject to the tariff. Yes, I could send it by standard Canada Post mail and hope it gets through as it usually does. Honestly, I'm not prepared to waste my time and money because there is a chance they won't. If it's a package- there is no way it will somehow not be subject to tariffs.

When shipping a parcel to the US, there are two potential outcomes at Customs once the item arrives, provided it meets all necessary requirements. The first possibility is that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) may release the item back to the courier or USPS, attaching a tariff notice. In this case, the recipient will need to pay the tariff before receiving their package.

The second possibility, which seems more likely given recent developments, is that the item could be rejected by US Customs due to unpaid tariffs and subsequently returned to the sender. In this scenario, one might question whether eBay would require the buyer to cover the shipping costs for an item that was not delivered. Don't hold your breath.

We need to push eBay to explain tariffs to buyers and sellers everywhere. This set of tariffs is the first blow—it won't be the last. We must stand together as sellers and Canadians to navigate the impact of these tariffs.

Good luck all- and stay strong and free. 🇨🇦

sin-n-dex · ‎02-02-2025

@brle_5065 wrote:
There has been an exemption in the past for items under $800- which Dump has closed that loophole- so everything is subject to the tariffs. The attached picture of the differences between duties and tariffs is below. It explains it a little better than above. I spent most of my adult life in international trade and know what to expect. I have shut down my eBay.com listings and stopped selling to the US for a couple of reasons- one being that I don't want to argue back and forth with buyers from the US who believe that because of Dump claims, the selling countries pay for tariffs and customer service with eBay who have no clue what's going on.
To be fair to the CSRs- eBay's Tax Department knew for months that this was a possibility- but did nothing to prepare sellers/buyers or staff for it- including creating a clear policy that explains what a tariff is and how it would affect everyone.
I'm willing to bet that when they buy gas on Tuesday and see that the prices have gone up 20-30 cents a gallon overnight because of the tariff HE put on oil/gas, he will blame Canada even though it's his 10% tariff.
I sell a lot of coins, and even a $5 coin will be subject to the tariff. Yes, I could send it by standard Canada Post mail and hope it gets through as it usually does. Honestly, I'm not prepared to waste my time and money because there is a chance they won't. If it's a package- there is no way it will somehow not be subject to tariffs.
When shipping a parcel to the US, there are two potential outcomes at Customs once the item arrives, provided it meets all necessary requirements. The first possibility is that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) may release the item back to the courier or USPS, attaching a tariff notice. In this case, the recipient will need to pay the tariff before receiving their package.
The second possibility, which seems more likely given recent developments, is that the item could be rejected by US Customs due to unpaid tariffs and subsequently returned to the sender. In this scenario, one might question whether eBay would require the buyer to cover the shipping costs for an item that was not delivered. Don't hold your breath.
We need to push eBay to explain tariffs to buyers and sellers everywhere. This set of tariffs is the first blow—it won't be the last. We must stand together as sellers and Canadians to navigate the impact of these tariffs.
Good luck all- and stay strong and free. 🇨🇦

I do coins too, and wouldn't chance sending them as a letter (the Xray will rat out that there's something tariffable inside).

I sell stamps and banknotes which can go through as letters (they're not supposed to, but a card with a few stamps is as thin as paper and no one would know). However trying to get US buyers to see the listing and read the TOS that says how I ship the item (in a manner that would miss tariffs) is a whole other challenge when US buyers are going to be screening listings to avoid international ones.

In the US ebay forum lots of people say they won't buy outside the US unless it's something they really need. The thing with collectibles is it's a worldwide market. In order to be shipping something as printed matter I would have my shipping location as Canada (which means the listing probably won't be seen), you can't indicate you ship from the US and then ship it from Canada.

eBay's position on the cross border carriers is if the origin scan with USPS is in the US then you can say you ship it from the US because the package is treated as domestic when it's brought across, and customs has been taken care of. I use the USPS and UPS tracking for my shipments. I considered using Stallion's tracking and putting that I ship from Canada (which would line up with their tracking) however it was pointed out that I'll lose a lot of visibility on my listings.

Most of my buyers know I'm in Canada from the business card, and when the tariff talk started, things suddenly got very quiet. I had one auction end today to a US buyer and I let him know there might be issues shipping (I have a plan on how to satisfy this buyer if I get push back). It's an auction, so it hasn't been paid yet. I'm a little apprehensive since the longer it goes as not paid, the more likely there is to be problems at the border. Even in a few days they'll be backlogged with packages.

C.

brle_5065 · ‎02-02-2025

I also sell banknotes- good chance they could slip through- much like your stamps. I've tried Stallion but honestly wasn't happy with their customer service- to be fair- being in Hamilton, they only have ONE drop off location that won't scan the item while I'm there- which means there is no proof it was actually dropped off.

I have a P.O. Box in Niagara Falls NY that I have used in the past- it's easy to mail items from the US once you cross the border- but it confuses eBay when you put a tracking number for the USPS on your .CA sales. I've used it in the past to receive items from the US and then bring the stuff back to Canada- usually just getting hit with HST at the border which I'm fine with.

If you are considering using Stallion, I'm sure you have gone shopping occasionally in the US for a day trip- things have changed- when you would pull into a mall on a Saturday you may have seen half the cars were from Ontario- not so much anymore.

Frankly, I can't buy US items in good conscience- I've cancelled all future orders. I am, first and foremost, a Canadian. I will not be contributing to the US economy in any way until there are major changes in US policy. Hey- I'm having a firesale on my US items- if anyone is interested- lol. Stay strong and brave and we WILL get through this together 🇨🇦

Brian

carlmarxx · ‎02-02-2025

Manderion Orange 45/47 will be back tracking removing the tariff's soon then later ,since the Red states will be hit harder for supporters . then those of U.S. in blue states . We California's thank the Canadian and Mexican firefighters for their help. So Far he has commited 15 empeachable crimes with in 10 days .