eBay

evilkozak · ‎01-08-2026

I was trying to track my order on ebay. I was informed that my items were LIQUIDATED the shipping hub. What does that even mean? How does one contact the shipping hub? Ebay customer service was NO HELP.

mrdutch1001 · ‎01-08-2026

I suppose that it may mean that your item could not be imported into Canada for whatever reason....and if that being the case you should be able to initiate an item not received claim after the appropriate expected delivery date...

john_koenig99 · ‎01-08-2026

Like @mrdutch001 said, you just keep checking the date. If it's passed the estimated arrival date, you can file an INR claim. Some items are just not allowed to import into Canada from the US.

It happened to me a while ago (before the Big Oompaloompa 2nd term). I bought a ebike battery and it got stopped at customs, after being okayed by the US hub. It got returned there and pufff! Disappeared. I got my money back without even filing a INR claim.

grann-4629 · ‎01-08-2026

What is the 'respectful" length of time a buyer should wait before filing an INR?

If, for example, you ordered a piece of life saving equipment or something needed for a birthday present, arrival estimates vs. actual date received would be important. But, if you order stuff like I do (DVD's and such), arrival date within a week or two of the estimate is no big deal.

marnotom! · ‎01-08-2026

@evilkozak wrote:

I was trying to track my order on ebay. I was informed that my items were LIQUIDATED the shipping hub. What does that even mean? How does one contact the shipping hub? Ebay customer service was NO HELP.

If that's pretty much all you told the eBay customer service rep, I'm not surprised that they weren't any help. I'm guessing that you purchased an item from the States that was forwarded through eBay International Shipping (eIS). Not all US sellers use eIS, so if you didn't tell the rep that the seller was using eIS, they might have been pretty confused.

While eIS has a list of items and categories that have export prohibitions or restrictions, the "bot" checking the listings doesn't catch all of them before the listings go up, particularly if the seller forgets to note some important information in the Item Specifics section of the listing. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess by your purchase history that you purchased an acoustic guitar made from wood (or suspected to be made from wood) that's not exportable to some countries. Your item, or at least the data on the item, was reviewed by somebody at the forwarding hub and they made a judgement call that it would be problematic to get it through customs.

When it's determined at the hub that the item can't be forwarded to its final destination, the item usually isn't returned to the seller. Instead, it's set aside to either be destroyed or liquidated--that is, sold below market value to another party that will resell it on eBay as a "ships to United States only" item--at the hub's discretion. The seller keeps the monies they received for the sale, the buyer should get a refund automatically, as @john_koenig99 suggests. If you don't, go through eBay's Money Back Guarantee process to get it before time runs out (30 days from last estimated delivery date).

Sorry this happened to you. Whatever the item was, you probably had your heart set on it and it sucks to see it dead-end like this. Hope you can find something similar through other channels.

marnotom! · ‎01-08-2026

@grann-4629 wrote:

What is the 'respectful" length of time a buyer should wait before filing an INR?

If, for example, you ordered a piece of life saving equipment or something needed for a birthday present, arrival estimates vs. actual date received would be important. But, if you order stuff like I do (DVD's and such), arrival date within a week or two of the estimate is no big deal.

This is a bit off-topic, but seeing as you posted it here, I'd say that it also depends on how the item was shipped, where it's coming from, and if the tracking information (if any) suggests that the item is merely delayed.

If you're referring to items that are forwarded through eIS, keep in mind that the seller's responsibility for the item ended once the item reached the hub in Illinois and any refunds would come from eBay, not the seller. I've read a few posts that suggest that there are times when, rather than issue a refund post haste, eBay will extend the delivery timeframe on eIS-forwarded items that are delayed, as there's no means to repay eIS if the item arrives after a refund is made, unlike a sale where the seller has shipped without the involvment of eIS.

Apologies for leaping in here if you were wanting a response from @john_koenig99. Perhaps, unlike myself, he'll actually answer your question. 😜

grann-4629 · ‎01-08-2026

Thanks. I was actually responding to post #2 that stated:

you should be able to initiate an item not received claim after the appropriate expected delivery date...

just wondering what the word 'after' might mean

ETA: If I was a seller I would never punish a buyer by using eIS nor would I ever buy anything from a seller that uses it. It's a huge ripoff for lazy people!

marnotom! · ‎01-08-2026

@grann-4629 wrote:

Thanks. I was actually responding to post #2 that stated:

you should be able to initiate an item not received claim after the appropriate expected delivery date...

just wondering what the word 'after' might mean

That was my initial thought, but without a quote to refer to I couldn't be positive.

My unsolicited advice regarding eIS-forwarded items still stands, then.

@grann-4629 wrote:

ETA: If I was a seller I would never punish a buyer by using eIS nor would I ever buy anything from a seller that uses it. It's a huge ripoff for lazy people!

Tread carefully here. Remember that eIS has been launched up here in Canada, too, although I'd say that most Canadian sellers who are adopting it are doing so for different reasons than our American cousins are. In addition, with the possible exception of shipments to the US, they're tending to offer it as an option in addition to one or two other shipping methods whereas US sellers aren't doing this. I should add that even with the cost of shipping to the Mississauga hub, eIS tends to run in the middle of the pack for pricing, particularly to the EU.

grann-4629 · ‎01-08-2026

Again, thanks for the info ... it's interestesting to see this from a seller's POV.

I see it from a buyer's POV. There are many items I would love to add to my collections and interest, the majority from US sellers. Item prices are generally competitive, selection is much greater, but most of the sellers use eIS which puts the buy out of financial reach regardless of rarity. I was looking at a magazine ad for the first car I ever owned back in the early 60's. The price of the ad was around four bucks and the shipping was twenty-six bucks, American.

Not gonna happen.

mrdutch1001 · ‎01-08-2026

Totally agree..eIS has ruined the eBay buying experience for Canadian buyers and will do so for USA buyers>combined with the Tariffs of course...

flipistics · ‎01-09-2026

@grann-4629 wrote:
Again, thanks for the info ... it's interestesting to see this from a seller's POV.

I see it from a buyer's POV. There are many items I would love to add to my collections and interest, the majority from US sellers. Item prices are generally competitive, selection is much greater, but most of the sellers use eIS which puts the buy out of financial reach regardless of rarity. I was looking at a magazine ad for the first car I ever owned back in the early 60's. The price of the ad was around four bucks and the shipping was twenty-six bucks, American.

Not gonna happen.

Shipping prices from the USA to Canada are really high regardless of whether the seller uses eIS or not. My guess is you'd probably be looking at $18 USD even if they shipped it directly (at least via USPS), and that's not including a potential handling fee for collecting duty/taxes.

marnotom! · ‎01-09-2026

@grann-4629 wrote:

I was looking at a magazine ad for the first car I ever owned back in the early 60's. The price of the ad was around four bucks and the shipping was twenty-six bucks, American.

Break that shipping charge down by changing your shipping location to United States, ZIP code 61039. That's the location of the eIS shipping hub in Illinois. Unless the seller isn't providing accurate information to eIS on the nature of the item and its shipping dimensions and weight, I'm betting that the seller's charge to ship the item to the hub is about half of that.

I just found a listing for an old magazine ad with an eIS shipping charge of US$16.81 to Canada. US$5.95 of that would be the seller's charge to use USPS Ground Advantage to get it to the hub, so eIS's share would be US$10.86.

Over the past year or so, it's been discussed on these boards a fair bit from both buyers' and sellers' perspectives how it isn't "postal legal" to send merchandise internationally by letter-post and that enforcement of this Universal Postal Union regulation appears to have increased.

reallynicestamps · ‎01-09-2026

You have two different points.

but most of the sellers use eIS which puts the buy out of financial reach regardless of rarity.

EIS from the USA includes not only the cost of tracked international shipping, but also Canadian import fees, shipping fees, sales taxes, and a service fee that stays with eIS.

Canada charges import fees when the value of the shipment is over $20 (there are some CUSMA exceptions which have a duty free allowance of $150).
Some provinces charge sales tax on shipping and service fees.

EIS includes these fees, and the Buyer pays them even before the Seller sees their address.

If it did not, the import fees would be payable on delivery.

The price of the ad was around four bucks and the shipping was twenty-six bucks, American.

USPS international shipping is quite high and couriers charge even more.
https://www.usps.com/international/mail-shipping-services.htm

Some couriers (FedEX for example) charge $10-$25 as a "customs brokerage fee" on exported shipments.

reallynicestamps · ‎01-09-2026

so eIS's share would be US$10.86.

Is that the eIS service fee?

Or is it all import fees plus the eIS service fee?
The old GSP service fee was generally reckoned/guesstimated at about $5.

marnotom! · ‎01-09-2026

@reallynicestamps wrote:

so eIS's share would be US$10.86.
Is that the eIS service fee?
Or is it all import fees plus the eIS service fee?

It's neither. It's eIS's portion of the shipping charge. Seller to hub is US$5.95, hub to buyer is US$10.86.

This particular listing does not have a charge for import fees but has the usual eBay warning that there may be charges on delivery. Some eIS listings show an import fee, some don't, and some give the buyer a choice between paying those charges at Checkout or on delivery.

Weirdly enough, the listings I've seen recently where there's a choice show lower shipping charges for the "pay at Checkout" option than the "defer import charges" option, at least for shipping to Canada.

I don't think it's possible to figure out eIS's service fee. The listings I've seen where there's a line item for import charges have the taxes charged as part of the checkout process. The service fee is probably added to the shipping charge.

Taxes and duties themselves are not added to the shipping charge. Those are separate line items.

grann-4629 · ‎01-11-2026

You folks have provided some great information and I thank you for that.

It's been a long time since I packed and mailed stuff to my American trading partners. I haven't kept up with the postal rates, so I appreciate the info about the increased costs to use both Canada Post and USPS. Their costs are very much higher now.

When stuff was coming across the border to me, about 80% to 90% of it made it past Customs, regardless of declared value. I never asked the shipper to make a false declaration to save me a few bucks. I ordered a dual-deck VCR from New York many years ago. It was around 500 bucks and was being delivered by UPS. UPS wanted a huge fee to clear Customs (for me) and I told them where they could put their fee. They took it back to the Customs warehouse, where I went the next day and cleared it myself for 5 bucks. Duty, at least on this item being unique at the time, was not an issue.

I'm probably boring you with these stories, but my bottom line is simply that I cannot afford the extra costs associated with buying an item where eIS shipping is the only option.

😎

marnotom! · ‎01-11-2026

@grann-4629 wrote:

I'm probably boring you with these stories, but my bottom line is simply that I cannot afford the extra costs associated with buying an item where eIS shipping is the only option.

eIS's own charges tend to be less than USPS's counter rates. You saw in my own example that it was charging about US$10.00 to ship the vintage ad that I found, and with the shipper's domestic shipping charge on top of that it still came to less than the USPS counter rate (the US$18 quoted by @flipistics earlier).

What tends to make eIS expensive is the addition of the seller's domestic shipping charge to eIS's charge. I've seen listings where eIS's charge for shipping from the hub to Canada is actually less than the seller's charge for shipping to the hub. Sure, there are ways to ship items from the US to international destinations that are cheaper than the USPS counter rates, but I suspect that most sellers of vintage materials haven't really investigated them because their items don't see the international interest that some other countries have. I've had CDs shipped to me from the US for less than half of the USPS counter rate for First Class Package International, but I don't know if that's because the sellers haven't been keeping up with rate increases. The last CD I purchased from the US (not through eBay) saw me charged C$26 in shipping, and the band's shipping agent wasn't shipping directly through USPS.

Anyway, we're way off topic here and I doubt that @evilkozak is planning to post again, so I'm bailing out.

reallynicestamps · ‎01-11-2026

about 80% to 90% of it made it past Customs, regardless of declared value.

Yes.

When our duty free allowance was $20, CBSA and Canada Post had an agreement that items that were "low value " and not bulky would not be assessed and charged duty.

Or sales tax, since that was assessed at the same point.

The point was that it would cost more to do this than could be collected. Just labour costs-- CBSA officers get about $80K a year.

Meanwhile couriers like UPS were required by law to assess and collect. And they charged for the service--$25 or more.

The current duty free allowance /de minimus is about $150 for US imports. I think it is still $20 for other imports. There are variations due to CUSMA etc.

grann-4629 · ‎01-25-2026

It was a piece of paper!! No hub needed .. buy a stamp and drop it in the mail.

USPS wants a little over 3 bucks to mail it in a 10x12 manilla envelope International, even with a piece of cardboard on each side.

Greedy seller, or just a symptom of eIS?

flipistics · ‎01-25-2026

@grann-4629 wrote:
It was a piece of paper!! No hub needed .. buy a stamp and drop it in the mail.

USPS wants a little over 3 bucks to mail it in a 10x12 manilla envelope International, even with a piece of cardboard on each side.

Greedy seller, or just a symptom of eIS?

That's illegal. Some people may still try to do it, but you cannot send any item with commercial value across an international border without customs information (which is not supported in the lettermail system).