eBay

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎03-13-2016

Just looked at the new announcements for Canadian sellers. I find it a joke that the US can buy products from Canada for up to $800.00 now without paying duties etc. Thought the $200.00 limit they had before was pretty nice. What do we Canadians buyers get? We can buy items from the US up to $20.00 without being charged duties etc. Or we can buy from the US through the Global Shipping Program which charges us extra fees. Doesn't seem fair either way.

femmefan1946 · ‎03-13-2016

Write to your MP-- You don't even have to stamp the envelope, just write OHMS on the corner.

Her address is

Member's Name, MP

House of Commons

OTTAWA ON K1A 0A6

The limit on duty free goods is set by Parliament.

recped · ‎03-13-2016

@dustmite007 wrote:
Just looked at the new announcements for Canadian sellers. I find it a joke that the US can buy products from Canada for up to $800.00 now without paying duties etc. Thought the $200.00 limit they had before was pretty nice. What do we Canadians buyers get? We can buy items from the US up to $20.00 without being charged duties etc. Or we can buy from the US through the Global Shipping Program which charges us extra fees. Doesn't seem fair either way.

Most imports from Canada to the US are free of any duty when they enter the USA regardless of value, they don't have a Federal Sales Tax and US Customs do not collect State Sales Tax so all an importer of a $2000 item would pay is the processing fee which for a postal shipment is about $6.50 or via UPS/FedEx about $15 - $20.

As a Seller I'm not sure why you would want a higher limit, it would just make it even harder to compete with US Sellers if you don't have unique items. On the other hand the increase certainly helps sellers who ship orders between $200 and $800 who can now ship via UPS/Fedex and not have to deal with brokerage charges.

Of course I'm also a buyer and it would be great if the limit was raised from that view. Right now it's the exchange more than paying some GST that reduces my interest in buying from the USA.

"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.

hlmacdon · ‎03-14-2016

There would be a tremendous amount of pressure from the Canadian retail sector against any large increase to our exemptions, and a lot of that has to do with upstream factors which drive Canadian pricing from a supply chain point of view. The US on the other hand does not have as much to worry about in that respect.

sylviebee · ‎03-14-2016

I hope the Canadian government doesn't change a thing.

It's perfect just as it is.

Unless I find an item shipped via the GSP which is too good to walk away from, I almost never pay import charges regardless of cost.

If the Canadian limit is increased they will likely charge on all applicable imports, at least at first. (Bad for me.)

Many Canadians don't realize that they waive import taxes, and in theory that bumps them towards buying Canadian (Good for me).

With an increased US limit I won't have to worry that shoppers might not buy from me because of import taxes and/or get nailed when their items arrive. (Good for me.)

hlmacdon · ‎03-15-2016

For those who process shipments through the US border commercial crossings to ship via USPS, the new procedures are straightforward. Anything under $800 goes through with the standard inward cargo manifest procedure. Simple and painless.

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎03-15-2016

My comments were only made from a buyers point of view. I rarely buy from the US anymore because of the extra fees. As a seller I couldn't care less if they have increased the US buying to Canada.

muttley_redec3 · ‎03-19-2016

Now that the individual invoice limit was bumped up to $800, I wonder if there were any changes to the total shipment amount of $2000 (as a matter of fact, from researching online, I never managed to figure out if the limit per crossing without the need for a broker was actually $2000 or $2500). So, was the total limit bumped up as well?
Thanks!

hlmacdon · ‎03-19-2016

@muttley_redec3 wrote:
Now that the individual invoice limit was bumped up to $800, I wonder if there were any changes to the total shipment amount of $2000 (as a matter of fact, from researching online, I never managed to figure out if the limit per crossing without the need for a broker was actually $2000 or $2500). So, was the total limit bumped up as well?
Thanks!

Informal entries are still limited to $2500 from what I was told as of yesterday. Anything over that and it needs to go through a bonded process. The $800 increase was more to do with entry via the mail system.

muttley_redec3 · ‎03-31-2016

Another point nobody has touched so far (at least not that I am aware of) is in regards to overseas shipping. What happens when the parcels are actually in transit to a destination outside the US? Are those parcels still subject to the same $800 per package // $2,500 total per crossing limitation? 60% of my packages would have the US as their final destination but the other 40% are shipped to countries all over the world and it would be more advantageous to me to ship overseas from USPS than Canada Post. Thoughts, anyone??

lady.stark · ‎03-31-2016

@muttley_redec3 wrote:
Another point nobody has touched so far (at least not that I am aware of) is in regards to overseas shipping. What happens when the parcels are actually in transit to a destination outside the US? Are those parcels still subject to the same $800 per package // $2,500 total per crossing limitation? 60% of my packages would have the US as their final destination but the other 40% are shipped to countries all over the world and it would be more advantageous to me to ship overseas from USPS than Canada Post. Thoughts, anyone??

I think the $800 - $2,500 is for imported items by US citizens only. Not exported items.

hlmacdon · ‎03-31-2016

@muttley_redec3 wrote:
Another point nobody has touched so far (at least not that I am aware of) is in regards to overseas shipping. What happens when the parcels are actually in transit to a destination outside the US? Are those parcels still subject to the same $800 per package // $2,500 total per crossing limitation? 60% of my packages would have the US as their final destination but the other 40% are shipped to countries all over the world and it would be more advantageous to me to ship overseas from USPS than Canada Post. Thoughts, anyone??

With respect to crossing the border, the informal entry limit would take precedence and be your limiting factor. I don't believe there are exemptions for the bonded process if a shipment is to a destination outside of the US. Apart from that limit, the declared value only comes into play with respect to the individual exemption limits of each country before duties and taxes as applicable are levied as US Customs can't collect duties/taxes for shipments going outside of the US (hence the $800 threshold isn't applicable). For inbound mail shipments to those countries the declared value only matters with respect to establishing the value for those to be levied. If it's over the threshold, duties and taxes will likely be applied unless it slips through. Nothing will get blocked.

If the overall batch of shipments can enter via an informal entry you are good to go. For smaller packages this makes sense, once you start getting over 4lbs you may find package aggregators here there offer commercial discounts to be comparably priced. Regardless of the value of the items, just make sure whatever you are bringing across can actually enter the US without prior approval/etc, even if it is going out of the US ultimately, it still needs to be admissible into the US. For things under 4lb I ship quite a few international packages via USPS, although the new rate structure sucks.

muttley_redec3 · ‎04-05-2016

Thanks for clarifying, hlmacdon. It is a pity that packages to destinations outside the US will still count against the $2,500 limit. I was hoping that I would have some leeway since my weekly shipments vary between $2,000 to $3,200 but the actual value of products destined to the US is always under $2,000. Well, it is what it is, I guess.

As for the new USPS rate structure sucking, I cannot comment as I have no experience whatsoever with USPS as I've been shipping to the US and overseas via Canada Post and FedEx. Hopefully USPS will still be more competitive even with the unfavorable exchange rate. I plan on working with ShipStation in the near future for USPS labels.

Now one last question to all Canadian stores involved in cross border shipping: Regardless of savings with shipping and faster delivery times, being able to have your shop marked with **ships from the US** as opposed to **ships from Canada**, has it actually improved sales significantly?

Thanks again!