eBay

dutchman48 · ‎01-14-2017

And now a humorous issue and then some serious questions.

Humor but not really.

Item is retail $15.00 and is listed for $7.95 with free shipping to Canada and shipping to the US as $7.50 due to increase on Monday.

Get an email offer from a US buyer for $8.00 and free shipping. What is he thinking? After shipping and before fees, leaves me $1.16

Serious question 1:

How many sellers are selling coins and tokens and shipping letter mail to the US as if were paying light packet, no way they could do it for cheaper items?

Serious Question 2:

Is it worthwhile to list these in the US with rates doing what they are for light packet as I won't ship letter mail.

Sales are almost nil to the US and all 4 late shipping defects are from US buyers and all INR are from US buyers

Serious Question 3:

What are the chances more US sellers will start INR due to the high shipping and low item price and losing more and more due to CP ridiculous shipping for light packet.

Serious Question 4:

How many others sellers are in the same boat right now and have the same issues I do. Leave US open or close it?

snoopwiz · ‎01-14-2017

Serious Question 2:

Is it worthwhile to list these in the US with rates doing what they are for light packet as I won't ship letter mail.

Reason why you won't ship letter mail?

dutchman48 · ‎01-14-2017

It is against CP regulations to ship commercial items by letter mail outside of Canada. If you get caught, can be serious issues.

Also, if you do not do custom forms, can also be serious problems.

snoopwiz · ‎01-14-2017

I was not aware of that. With commercial goods being defined as anything/everything that can be shown as having been sold? No matter what it is or...?

dutchman48 · ‎01-14-2017

Letter mail for outside of Canada is non commercial paper products, and yes, what is sold for monetary value is commercial.

I know a lot of sellers that mail stamps, cards, etc as letter mail because is is hard to detect and is still paper, but coins, medals, tokens etc should only go as a parcel if mailed outside of Canada.

I am sure many send those letter mail as well but I don't. If you get caught, all you mail could be opened and/or postage due tacked on to the recipient.

US has started to do the same with Media mail which was also badly abused.

snoopwiz · ‎01-14-2017

Appreciate the heads up.

ypdc_dennis · ‎01-14-2017

As for your US buyer offer, they are thinking USPS domestic rate shipping (which despite American screaming on other forums is still quite cheap).

For low value items shipping is the big elephant in the room.

Taking a quick look at some of your items, I'd say target the USA only for items over a certain minimum price. And perhaps put together bundles of associated items for a higher selling price (while keeping an eye on the total shipping weight), with shipping making less of an impact.

I assume you've checked out DYK Post (dykpost.com) which pretends it's USPS with Alberta outlets (all shipping goes via USPS, so cheap tracked domestic for the USA).

-..-

pjcdn2005 · ‎01-14-2017

@dutchman48 wrote:
Letter mail for outside of Canada is non commercial paper products, and yes, what is sold for monetary value is commercial.

I know a lot of sellers that mail stamps, cards, etc as letter mail because is is hard to detect and is still paper, but coins, medals, tokens etc should only go as a parcel if mailed outside of Canada.

I am sure many send those letter mail as well but I don't. If you get caught, all you mail could be opened and/or postage due tacked on to the recipient.

US has started to do the same with Media mail which was also badly abused.

If Canada post thinks that you underpaid postage they would send it back to you which wouldn't be good but wouldn't fixable. USPS will not collect postage for Canada Post so your customer is not going to have to pay extra postage.

I have never heard of Canada Post sending an item back because it should have gone light packet...have you? Has anyone here had that happen to them? Even if it happens once in a while, what are the chances...1 in 100??? 1 in 1000? I do realize that because you are in a more rural location your post office might be more diligent than those in a city.

dutchman48 · ‎01-14-2017

I've thought about that but I would have to do separate listings for US and Canada for singles and groups which becomes a complete headache as well. Token collectors tend to buy specific items for their collections and not bulk for the sake of it.

My problem with DYK is I am over 100 KM from Lethbridge and more than double that from Calgary and I have to get the items to them with postage etc already applied. That means getting it ready and then mailing it to them in another envelope because driving is out of the question.

Small hamlets have disadvantages

redc5 · ‎01-15-2017

@dutchman48 wrote:
Letter mail for outside of Canada is non commercial paper products, and yes, what is sold for monetary value is commercial.

I know a lot of sellers that mail stamps, cards, etc as letter mail because is is hard to detect and is still paper, but coins, medals, tokens etc should only go as a parcel if mailed outside of Canada.

I am sure many send those letter mail as well but I don't. If you get caught, all you mail could be opened and/or postage due tacked on to the recipient.

US has started to do the same with Media mail which was also badly abused.

How does that work? I've always thought CP returns the item to the sender if there isn't enough postage. I can't see them passing the item on to USPS in that case.

dutchman48 · ‎01-15-2017

Please read post #8

and/or but probably should have worded better

It will probably be returned to you by CP if you are caught and you will be on their radar.

If it gets to the US, no one will care.

dutchman48 · ‎01-15-2017

Here is a link to some interesting reading in regards to out of country shipments by various methods.

https://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/PGcustoms-e.asp#1382681

katlover1952 · ‎01-17-2017

Most of my items, although not coins or tokens, are low value items too and I was disappointed that Canada Post increased their light packet rate by such a large percentage. I had tried to use the light packet on some of my small items (although it was sometimes a challenge to get it through that 2 cm postal slot) and offer free shipping or low shipping to the US on some of my items to hopefully attract more purchasers. I had been told that you showed up better in search results if you free shipping. My sales have not been wonderful the last couple of months but really they seem split pretty much down the middle between free and paying for shipping. With Canada Post rates it is definitely difficult for us to compete with US sellers, even though their rates have increased still cheaper for them to ship across the US than for us (especially for us to ship within Canada). Majority of my sales are still to US and as I have a store I try to use my listings on both sites.