09-30-2025 11:33 AM - edited 09-30-2025 11:34 AM
09-30-2025 12:40 PM
Unisex cloth 🤣 Poor chitchats, they seem to be a bullseye on CBP radar.
09-30-2025 01:24 PM - edited 09-30-2025 01:35 PM
@byto253 wrote:Unisex cloth 🤣 Poor chitchats, they seem to be a bullseye on CBP radar.
Seriously, I wonder if they will survive this mess.
I asked them, what to put into "manufacturer's name" and manufacturer's address".
The item in question is an antique German map, printed in 1540 🤣
Fortunately, at least the "phone number" section can stay blank 😄
Until now, no answer ... 😁
09-30-2025 01:25 PM
Even before the Trump Tariffs, when shipping apparel the type of material was a key requirement because different duty rates and quotas applied to different materials and the country of origin.
Goods cleared under the de minimis exemption did not have the same requirements.

09-30-2025 01:45 PM - edited 09-30-2025 01:47 PM
saw that Trump today said he's going to reduce drug prices by 100%. What a dope.
He's also underway with his take over of the military. No more 'political correctness', laxer discipline and hazing to be allowed again....i guess he wants an undisciplined rabble instead of an army. He's going to fire any generals he 'doesn't like'.....i guess being good at what they do is not important.
09-30-2025 04:34 PM - edited 09-30-2025 04:34 PM
unfortunately, the USA is losing its "freedoms" and the process of the USA being under the leadership of an authoritarian facist dictatorship is fast becoming a reality...
09-30-2025 04:58 PM
@fergua3 wrote:saw that Trump today said he's going to reduce drug prices by 100%. What a dope.
How do you reduce a price by 100%? Make it free for everyone?
I didn't see the article, so I don't know what it said. I'm guessing he said something like "we're going to reduce pharmaceutal prices 100%" (meaning he's 100% going to do it, not reduce by 100%), and then he was requoted as saying he's going to reduce them BY 100%.
C.
10-01-2025 07:33 AM
no, he said he was going to reduce them by 100%. He probably meant he was going to reduce them by 50% ie cut them in half but he's a dope who can't do basic arithmatic.
A while ago he said he was going to reduce the price of something by 200 to 300%.
10-01-2025 10:58 AM
I wonder how many times sellers will have to get kicked in the teeth before they join me in no longer shipping to the USA? Is this hassle really worth it? I don't think so!
10-01-2025 11:04 AM - edited 10-01-2025 11:05 AM
problem is the hassle of shipping to the EU is significant as well. And the same goes for many other countries around the world. Not to mention much higher shipping costs which discourages people from buying.
Selling to Canada only, for many sellers, just isn't a big enough market. That leaves the US. Hopefully the new EIS program for Canada will be a big problem solver for Canadian sellers.
10-01-2025 11:12 AM
"Hopefully the new EIS program for Canada will be a big problem solver for Canadian sellers."
Don't hold your breath on that thought!!
10-01-2025 05:27 PM
@38e_avenue wrote:
@byto253 wrote:Unisex cloth 🤣 Poor chitchats, they seem to be a bullseye on CBP radar.
Seriously, I wonder if they will survive this mess.
I asked them, what to put into "manufacturer's name" and manufacturer's address".
The item in question is an antique German map, printed in 1540 🤣
Fortunately, at least the "phone number" section can stay blank 😄
Until now, no answer ... 😁
Could you mark the map with directions to where the company was located? Email addy should be be www dot one dot de. Phone would be that of the local town cryer. The things one has to do to appease customs. Oye vey or in this case.... Ach du lieber himmel!!!
10-01-2025 06:12 PM
@fergua3 wrote:no, he said he was going to reduce them by 100%. He probably meant he was going to reduce them by 50% ie cut them in half but he's a dope who can't do basic arithmatic.
A while ago he said he was going to reduce the price of something by 200 to 300%.
I live with someone who has trouble with arithmetic.
He thinks if your mortgage payment is $1200 and $1150 goes to interest you are paying more than 100% in interest on the house you bought. I'm explaining to him the interest is for what you're borrowing for a term, and if interest rates rise and your payment doesn't, then you pay more in interest each month.
Then I had to explain if you had a 3% interest rate on your mortgage and now you have 6%, it's 100% increase. But he thinks it's 100% in interest.
He also doesn't understand that the things I sell on eBay have a cost (he asked me why I'm buying stuff, I said because people don't give me free stuff to sell). We got into a big fight with me trying to explain what cost of goods sold is on an item.
C.
10-02-2025 07:20 AM
lots of people don't understand mortgages and that's just the way they are. And i'm sure many people didn't even realize Trump's 'reduce prices by 100%' gaff was a gaff. And that's fine; not everyone is good at math.
But Trump passes himself off as some sort of business genius, in fact a stable genius, whatever the bleep that is and he is also the leader of the most powerful country on earth. He should have more on the ball....if not, he is unfit.
10-02-2025 11:48 AM
@sapphyres-designer-jewellery IMO one of the most generally poorly understood aspects of selling is the true cost of goods sold for an item. Granted, there are a lot of pieces to it some much more difficult to identify on a "per item sold" aspect, and especially now the large number of aspects that are changing regularly (generally in the upward direction of course!).
This presents from both the sellers (not really understanding if they're ultimately making money on the final sale) and buyers (not understanding why a seller with 300% markup on original item price needs to add that much to make a profit).
Given I'm now past "medium old", selling for 47 years, I've seen situations where a poor understanding of the cost of goods sold has ended the (otherwise viable) business, to the point that a $100 sale is seen as "I just made $100", when in fact it really is "I just made $10 (before tax)" - and pulling $75 out of the business on the belief thats enough to keep it going is ultimately a recipie for failure because the actual cost of selling the material is not properly understood.
10-02-2025 02:31 PM - edited 10-02-2025 02:37 PM
@fergua3 wrote:problem is the hassle of shipping to the EU is significant as well. And the same goes for many other countries around the world. Not to mention much higher shipping costs which discourages people from buying.
Selling to Canada only, for many sellers, just isn't a big enough market. That leaves the US. Hopefully the new EIS program for Canada will be a big problem solver for Canadian sellers.
Here are the available options I am seeing for a current sale to Spain with eBay labels. Note: Only options are CP (which buyer paid for). CP options are displaying as unavailable.
According to the eBay calculator tool there should be the option to ship with Fedex but would not be reasonable on low value item as a shipping method.. UPS is MIA. There is nothing close in pricing when compared to the Tracked CP option.
Is eBay even aware that these discrepancies in price/limited to nil options exist? eBay's current work around during the strike is to offer different options for shipping. Very difficult to do when eBay is not offering anything additional in a discounted service with other couriers. (Calculated shipping method.) If you went to flat rate you aren't even able to anything except in generic terms for a method.
10-02-2025 03:02 PM
Revised comparison using eBay calculator tool. Even updating weight minimum pkg size does not update to a UPS option. Post above is based on 1 KG. Actual parcel is 0.050 kg
10-02-2025 04:26 PM
@fergua3 wrote:lots of people don't understand mortgages and that's just the way they are. And i'm sure many people didn't even realize Trump's 'reduce prices by 100%' gaff was a gaff. And that's fine; not everyone is good at math.
But Trump passes himself off as some sort of business genius, in fact a stable genius, whatever the bleep that is and he is also the leader of the most powerful country on earth. He should have more on the ball....if not, he is unfit.
I get not understanding how mortgages work (which may make sense if you've never had one). I get incredibly frustrated arguing business stuff with people and they don't listen, and keep repeating the same stuff over and over again. (The person in question of my previous post has told me almost every year that he doesn't think he should pay taxes to take money out of his RRSP because he paid tax when he earned it, I've told him like 10 times he gets a tax break at tax time for contributing to an RRSP that's why he pays tax to take it out, and every year he makes the same complaint).
I didn't hear T say about the decreasing prices by 100% but I think it would have annoyed me a whole lot to listen to him say that. The only way to decrease something 100% is to make the price zero. Somehow I don't think that's happening.
C.
10-02-2025 04:30 PM
@ricarmic wrote:@sapphyres-designer-jewellery IMO one of the most generally poorly understood aspects of selling is the true cost of goods sold for an item. Granted, there are a lot of pieces to it some much more difficult to identify on a "per item sold" aspect, and especially now the large number of aspects that are changing regularly (generally in the upward direction of course!).
This presents from both the sellers (not really understanding if they're ultimately making money on the final sale) and buyers (not understanding why a seller with 300% markup on original item price needs to add that much to make a profit).
Given I'm now past "medium old", selling for 47 years, I've seen situations where a poor understanding of the cost of goods sold has ended the (otherwise viable) business, to the point that a $100 sale is seen as "I just made $100", when in fact it really is "I just made $10 (before tax)" - and pulling $75 out of the business on the belief thats enough to keep it going is ultimately a recipie for failure because the actual cost of selling the material is not properly understood.
Ooh, you have totally touched on another thing that annoys me when talking to my friends and family!
I've tried to explain, if I have a brick and mortar store item that costs $1, when I sell it, the first $1 goes to them for their cost, then I pay eBay fees, shipping, etc, etc, and then after that we have the profit which is split as per a pre-agreed calculation that my spreasheet figures out when I log my weekly sales.
This person I argue with a lot has said "why are you paying for the shop's coins?" and I said "because the shop doesn't give them to me for free", then he says "tell the shop to pay for their own coins". And then I say "the shop did pay for the coins, they bought them from the customer, now that I have the item and sold it I have to pay them back for what they paid the customer". Then I get some stupidity of "you shouldn't be doing that". (That's why I sell things for other people and he doesn't, he also makes his own stuff and sells them and yaps about how much money he makes when in reality he's losing money because he's not covering expenses).
Anyway it turned into a huge fight at the kitchen table where I was accused of wasting money and paying for stuff I shouldn't have to pay for. It's not like this person is a spouse or someone with any invested interest in my business, just a know it all who doesn't listen when I try again and again to explain how this stuff works.
C.
10-02-2025 05:50 PM
@sapphyres-designer-jewellery wrote:
just a know it all who doesn't listen when I try again and again to explain how this stuff works.
Boy, oh boy, do I know someone like this...One of my in-laws. He's the soul (-sucker) of every family gathering! 😁