News on eBay international in Canada?

[gearsanddenim]

Title. Any news or updates? Is it still happening this month? Looking forward to it. Thanks!

[mrdutch1001]

No One is going to know Until there is an announcement by eBay....

so patience whilst waiting...there are still 27 days 10 hours left in October!

[raanana]

Opted out of it,to expensive and might/would scare potential buyers away.I have just searched for some collectable postcards in USA , without eIS buyers charge 3-4CAD,with eIS shipping range between 16 and 23CAD even for few dollars card.

[reallynicestamps]

some collectable postcards in USA , without eIS buyers charge 3-4CAD,with eIS shipping range between 16 and 23CAD

What are the buyer and sellers getting for their money?

Seller gets Confirmed delivery when the shipment reaches the US eIS plant, not the buyer's foreign address.

Duty and tariffs are prepaid, a benefit for the Seller ---and for the Buyer much as they may resent it. That is often the greater part of the eIS charge. 

I'm assuming that the $3-4 Cdn is a lettermail rate.

Technically any goods , even a postcard or a stamp, is supposed to be declared for customs.

The cheapest rate has been $7-8 for Tracked Package USA which includes the customs declaration. 

Much the same for USPS. 

US sellers don't understand that there is a slightly lower rate for shipping to Canada, and we get lumped in with Australia and Austria as International which has higher rates. 

And many are too lazy to fill in the weight and dimensions, never mind Country of Origin (COO). One result is that your postcard of Chinese ricefields, printed in Germany in 1899, is deemed to be from China and to weight one pound. 

Protip-- if the seller is not filling in Item Specifics, there is a very good chance that you will be overcharged on shipping. 

Ditto using AI to write the description.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

---

@reallynicestamps wrote:

some collectable postcards in USA , without eIS buyers charge 3-4CAD,with eIS shipping range between 16 and 23CAD

What are the buyer and sellers getting for their money?

Seller gets Confirmed delivery when the shipment reaches the US eIS plant, not the buyer's foreign address.

Duty and tariffs are prepaid, a benefit for the Seller ---and for the Buyer much as they may resent it. That is often the greater part of the eIS charge. 

I'm assuming that the $3-4 Cdn is a lettermail rate.

Technically any goods , even a postcard or a stamp, is supposed to be declared for customs.

The cheapest rate has been $7-8 for Tracked Package USA which includes the customs declaration. 

Much the same for USPS. 

US sellers don't understand that there is a slightly lower rate for shipping to Canada, and we get lumped in with Australia and Austria as International which has higher rates. 

And many are too lazy to fill in the weight and dimensions, never mind Country of Origin (COO). One result is that your postcard of Chinese ricefields, printed in Germany in 1899, is deemed to be from China and to weight one pound. 

Protip-- if the seller is not filling in Item Specifics, there is a very good chance that you will be overcharged on shipping. 

Ditto using AI to write the description.

---

@raanana 

@reallynicestamps 

devon@ebay 

I thought everything that qualifies for eIS Canada had to be shipped with a tracked service to the hub. Letter would/should not be an option as a seller protection. Also states there would be issues if it arrived damaged. Actual clarification on these concerns would be very helpful. 

This adds to the fear sellers located in the far corners of Canada or shipping anything heavy/bulky will have more costs involved than someone located in GTA or close by when using this program.

[raanana]

It looks like many US sellers just fine with they own market and do not care about international buyers.In any case seeing common 1.00$ card with 17$ international shipping is really strange.

As for shipping small unexpensive items in letters,99% of anything I bought in 25 years  from worldwide private sellers and online stores was mailed as regular mail.Most of us doing it,othwerwise many collectors would stop buying from other countries. It might change esp. with USA,last month got two INR's from US buyers who didn't receive letters after a month.It could happen once in a while,also sometimes buyer can abuse ebay policy  and get an item and money back,but twice in short period of time is concerning.

[reallynicestamps]

Oh I agree. You are preaching to the choir and I'm over here singing soprano. 

US sellers get a slight boost in Search for shipping internationally, but most don't want to ship internationally from a mixture of paranoia and xenophobia. 

Us furriners are scary.

The members of the UPU have been cracking down on goods shipped as letters in the past couple of years. Before that, the postal services didn't really have a good way to check. The HS system has been a help on that front for them. 

In the 21st century the amount of international small scale shipping has exploded. Even just parcels. 

Some years ago a new female vice president of Canada Post told the Globe and Mail that CPO was once again handling the percentage of parcels they were before WWI. 

At that time, there was little mail invoicing and bill paying which was the mail part of lettermail, especially to home addresses. The post office carried business to business mail and parcels parcels parcesl. By 1950 or 1960 most bills were paid with a cheque in the mail.

It probably should be noted that Parliament controls two PO prices-- the first letter rate (currently $1.24) and Registration rate (currently $13.75). Every other price is set by Canada Post staff based on their costs. CPO is required to break even annually, and since 1974 has usually actually been profitable. 

Lately with the building of the Winnipeg plant and settling the long standing pay equity problem (management lost), they have had large capital losses and preferred to put them all in one year, rather than spread them over time.