What do you think is going to happen to our shipping on May 2?

[sin-n-dex]

So de minimis on China/Hong Kong made goods goes away May 2. If history is any lesson, there's going to be bedlam at the border.

I'm wondering what the shippers like Stallion and Chit Chats are going to do, while we are allowed to continue to ship non-China goods across the border, I'm expecting chaos while they're sorting all the packages to determine what can go, and what is subject to 145% tariffs (which no longer apply to electronics from what I read in the US forum).

With 145% tariffs, no one will be using services like Stallion and Chit Chats to send their items across duties paid, it would cost the seller money to sell the item with those types of tariffs. But it won't likely stop some people from trying to sneak their China items across under the guise of them being from a different COO.

There was talk a few weeks ago about needing manufacture name and address info for the shipments. That's going to cause chaos for those of us who ship vintage goods. Declaring it as "vintage" instead of providing a manufacturer was correct according to CBP, but whether or not that's accepted under the new rules is anyone's guess.

I think I'm going to have to go offline a few days before May 2 (yet again, for the fourth time) to wait and see what happens. There's no sense in continuing to sell if they just decide to treat all shipments as if they're Chinese (like I was told they were doing when the de minimis on China items first went away, February was it?) Stallion told me all my packages were going formal entry and tariffs were going to be charged back to my account even though I didn't ship anything made in China, they were treating all the packages as if they were made in China, then they repealed the rules and put de minimis back, and at that point my packages made it across the border (without tariffs).

It's just complete chaos, and this "wait 30 days" for things to happen and having to stop selling every 30 days to make sure we can comply with the new rules is exhausting.

For those of us who've decided to just ship Canada Post, I still think there's going to be bedlam at the border, significant delays in Canada Post packages, customers getting mad and filing INRs. I don't think shipping the items from Canada and letting the tariff be the buyer's problem is necessarily going to help escape the chaos that's pending. Plus the fact I think numerous packages will not be claimed due to tariffs. If the tracking is anything like the EU packages that are refused due to tariffs then a lot of customers will be entitled to refunds. Although I knew my EU package was refused, the integrated tracking didn't show what the carrier tracking showed me, and eBay forced me to refund the customer $50 because he didn't want to pay VAT on his import. I'm expecting with US tariffs to see a lot more of that noise.

C.

[thereandback864]

Not a bad idea, they are supposed to assess the higher of the two between a $100 flat fee (going up to $200) and a 125% duty. It may be slightly cheaper but even so there will be many upset buyers. Additionally CBP will still not issue duty drawback so they are still going to try and collect. The mechanics of using the postal service might still offer an advantage, if anyone has recent experience I’d be interested to learn more.

[itolduandso]

Except many sales cancellations on yout account may trigger an automatic red flag, not a good thing, I wouldn't want to deal with that given that there is nobody to speak with at Ebay about account issues. 

[itolduandso]

Exactly because of Temu now redirecting sales to Europe. Same issue. Millions of individual packages.

[fergua3]

i totally disagree that the seller is responsible for the consequences of selling Chinese made goods to Americans.    The American buyer is the one who should be totally responsible.  Ignorance of the law is no excuse.  If they are unaware of tariff consequences, tough.

For decades American sellers have been uncaring and unhelpful regarding buyers outside the US buying US goods and paying tariffs on them.  Why should US citizens be treated with kid gloves now?

They elected Trump.  They can live with the consequences of doing so.  Everyone else has to.

[reallynicestamps]

@cottagewoman since there is no way to set a different price based on destination country, there's no way to add a surcharge of the value of the tariff at the item level.

Of course there is.

In Flat Rate Shipping, we can choose -> Destination Country-> USA

Then set a rate that will cover both shipping cost and tariff.

Then choose again-> Destination Country -> Europe (etc)

And set a different rate for those locations.

For the rest of the world we have to choose Will Ship Worldwide and then further down again choose our Exclusions.

[reallynicestamps]

@thereandback864 

eBay operates under the assumption that shipments are DDU. That’s fine - until a buyer refuses delivery due to unexpected charges, like a 145% tariff.

The seller is golden - or at least goldish- on that one since a Refused delivery is considered by eBay to be Undeliverable, and eBay does not require the seller to refund anything at all for an Undeliverable transaction.
https://www.ebay.ca/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy?....

In addition, many years ago eBay gave sellers this bit of boilerplate to add to Descriptions about import fees.

Import duties, taxes and charges are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding/buying

[dinomitesales]

I wonder how the resellers in the UK are doing. Are they concerning themselves with these matters as much as we are? I know they don't sell as much to the USA as we do, but it's still the same changes in de minimis that would be affecting them. How is this being represented on their GSP program? Is eBay collecting the tariffs up front for any American buyers?

[da6170]

https://pages.ebay.com/tariffs/ Ebay's response

[cottagewoman-ca]

Well finally eBay is going to be warning US buyers!!  Thank God.

[thereandback864]

eBay provided an update; while they aim to help sellers they will not be providing any assistance regarding duties or sharing any kind of responsibility. If a buyer refuses a parcel, the duties will get billed back to the account and the seller will have to pay. They reserve the right to review each case individually.

eBay agrees duties are the buyers responsibility, however this only seems to apply as a concept.

All of the 145% China duties are under IEEPA and CBP is not allowing drawbacks so that money is gone and not coming back. UPS won’t file any drawback requests.

The buyer will likely file a chargeback. We will see if eBay provides seller protection. There’s a possibility they could abuse the SNAD process, surprisingly so since goods were refused.

There’s a new disclaimer on the tariff page, “ *Effective May 2, 2025, goods of any value from China and Hong Kong will be subject to duties. Duties will be included in the item or shipping cost on goods less than $2500 from China or Hong Kong.”

I am unclear on how that is being set up? Maybe something is in the works… for now beware that if buyers refuse a parcel with Chinese or Taiwanese goods, sellers may be on the hook as well as enduring hard conversations with the buyers.

[flipistics]

That's interesting. Right below the part about duties being included it also says that if shipping via a non-eiS option the buyer doesn't see the duties. Isn't eIS only in the USA? I'm kinda confused on exactly how this is supposed to work.  Maybe they're going to roll eIS out to other countries soon too.

[flipistics]

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@thereandback864 wrote:
eBay provided an update; while they aim to help sellers they will not be providing any assistance regarding duties or sharing any kind of responsibility. If a buyer refuses a parcel, the duties will get billed back to the account and the seller will have to pay. They reserve the right to review each case individually.

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Do you have a link for that?  I'm having trouble finding it.

[thereandback864]

I don’t have a link, I received the update through direct communication with eBay

[mrdutch1001]

There is no announcement for this on either.COM or.CA

[cottagewoman]

I agree the mention of e-IS is confusing as that's a program for US shippers to export. Unless they're referring to UK sellers who also have an e-IS available.

[ricarmic]

PROGRESS UPDATE:

My $15 China stamps sale mailed on May 2nd spent two days in Chicago customs, a day longer than the other items that went through, today it is out of customs and on its way to the buyer. 

Don't know what happened re tariffs, will find out likely tomorrow or Monday once the buyer has the item.....