Sending sports cards and coins in plain white envelope and dropping off in mailbox. Tariffs?

[pixiechickcollectibles]

I sell sports cards and coins. The cards are shipped in sleeve and toploader and are sent in a plain envelope. $1.75 to ship to the States and dropped in my local mailbox. Never a problem and buyers always get my items. Now with the new tariffs do I have to go to the PO to mail my stuff to the States? Will eBay calculate the tariffs on my order summary?.So confusing .

[justbrosoutpost]

No, lettermail is not affected by tariffs. 🙂

[justbrosoutpost]

Also, sending anything other than paper goods, such as coins, to the US by lettermail is technically not allowed. You must camouflage them well. 😉

[reallynicestamps]

"Goods" , stuff that has been sold, has always been subject to import fees.

Because they are usually low value, the PO and customs officers usually just ignore them.
Like running a red light at 3am on a deserted corner.

That being said, a few notes.

If the customer is in Canada, it is perfectly legal to ship goods by letter mail.

Tracking is not actually required by eBay, unless the seller needs to prove delivery in an Item Not Required claim.

EBay has temporarily suspended selling discounted Canada Post shipping labels.

No one sells letter mail shipping labels online.

You can buy discount mint postage stamps on eBay.

You never have to go to the PO to mail your items.Shipping labels are still available through SnapShip (Canada Post) although the discounts are not as good and the interface is more complex.

https://sso-osu.canadapost-postescanada.ca/lfe-cap/en/login?stepupId=smb_mode1,consumer,commercial_l...

Then drop the labelled (or stamped) shipment in the nearest mailbox.

Tariffs and other import fees are the responsibility of the importer/buyer, not the exporter/seller.

[pixiechickcollectibles]

Coins can be sent by lettermail to the U.S.. A couple of years back I checked CP website and coins were allowed. I have gone to the PO many times and said the envelope contained coins ...everything was good to go. Check out their website..items not allowed lettermail. It will say coins with a asterisk...allowed.

[apmtrade]

So, no tariffs on lettermail items??

[marnotom!]

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@pixiechickcollectibles wrote:

Coins can be sent by lettermail to the U.S.. A couple of years back I checked CP website and coins were allowed. I have gone to the PO many times and said the envelope contained coins ...everything was good to go. Check out their website..items not allowed lettermail. It will say coins with a asterisk...allowed.

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“Lettermail” is the domestic service.  Just about anything goes when it comes to a domestic letter except dangerous goods.  As long as it doesn't exceed the maximum dimensions for the service, of course.

“Letter-post” is the service for international mail, including mail to the USA.

This Canada Post document doesn’t mention coins being acceptable in letter-post:

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/doc/en/support/letter-post.pdf

Thanks again to the much-missed @pjcdn2005 for teaching me this distinction.

[marnotom!]

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@apmtrade wrote:

So, no tariffs on lettermail items??

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There are no tariffs on letter-post because letter-post is officially a means of shipping documents internationally, not goods or merchandise. See the PDF from Canada Post I linked to in my other post.

[nhl_automotive]

I used to do this around 2016 and it was fine until one day it got returned to me with a green sticker that said I needed to add a customs form. I asked the post office why and they said sports cards in top loaders are considered small packages and not only need customs forms but I need to pay a higher shipping rate. That's when I stopped shipping them to the US lettermail.

[mrdutch1001]

I suspect ALL lettermail sent to the USA will be subject to stricter scrutiny now as there will be more suspicion that goods/sold merchandise is being sent as lettermail to avoid the tariffs...time will tell how many sellers get caught for disguising their goods/merchandise as lettermail to avoid tariffs...doing so was/is at seller's risk...

[dinomitesales]

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@pixiechickcollectibles wrote:

Coins can be sent by lettermail to the U.S.. A couple of years back I checked CP website and coins were allowed. I have gone to the PO many times and said the envelope contained coins ...everything was good to go. Check out their website..items not allowed lettermail. It will say coins with a asterisk...allowed.

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As others have stated, this is definitely not true. You likely confused domestic Lettermail for international Letter-post.

And this just shows how terrible and inconsistent the training is amongst post office employees (the majority of which aren't Canada Post employees, and receive no formal training into the rules/regulations aside from maybe a few shifts with the manager, who may be just as clueless and passing along bad information).

[cleanpartshere]

I can see a US customer not familiar with the tariffs , wanting to return their item and they could use any excuse they want to, to make the return shipping the responsibility of the seller , total lose lose situation for the seller as it always is with ebay     

[reallynicestamps]

Well, they can't return the item without receiving it.

And to receive it the tariff must be paid.

If they refuse to pay the tariff, and the shipment is returned as Refused, does that make it Undeliverable under eBay's criteria?
Because eBay does not require any refund on Undeliverable shipments.

Note that most sensible sellers, aware that the buyer can open a chargeback if they paid by credit card, will refund the purchase price. But the fees, shipping costs, tariffs, sales taxes, import fees, and return shipping? Nope. The seller never gets those monies and is not responsible for paying them.

devon@ebay

[tryubik-useonlyasdirected]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

Tariffs and other import fees are the responsibility of the importer/buyer, not the exporter/seller.

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 That last bit could use to be stated more often, espectially in the media and other official news and brokerage sources.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

There are a few things to unpack here.

Canada Post is only accepting delivery duties paid parcles for the USA. This means that you have to put the customs information in the Zonos app and provide Canada Post with a duties paid code when creating a US label.

That means, there is no situation where USPS will charge a buyer tariffs. The package will either go through customs and be inducted into the USPS system, then delivered. Or, it will be refused at customs and returned to the Canadian sender. 

In terms of the OP, they are asking about sending goods letterpost via Canada Post. This is against customs regulations. Goods need to be declared to customs, because you cannot declare goods inside a letter you are not allowed to use it to send goods. If someone sends goods letterpost, it will either get through without customs charges because customs did not catch that it was goods, or it will be returned to sender. It won't be assessed customs. 

There are no DDU shipments that go to the USA, but some couriers like UPS will accept shipments without duties prepaid by the sender. These couriers will then pay the duties on behalf of the sender so that the item can be imported into the USA. These are the types of shipments where buyers will be charged at the door and might refuse a shipment. This will never happen with Canada Post, only couriers.

If a buyer refuses a shipment due to not wanting to pay duties, the courier will most likely charge the duties back to the original sender because they paid them on behalf of the sender and they are non-refundable. 

As far as eBay is concerned, a buyer refusing a package invalidates their buyer protection.

If a buyer does this, you do not have to refund them. Normally, for a basic return to sender type return where USPS or Canada Post screw up, or even the buyer makes a mistake with their address, I would probably just be a good guy and refund them because mistakes happen. But if at this point if a buyer purchases something in spite of the multiple disclaimers plastered across listings that say they will be charged duties/tariffs, and they refuse it due to a tariff, the only recourse the seller has is to keep the item and sell it again to recoup the unrefundable duties that will now be charged to them. 

It is a big reason why I would recommend not using couriers that don't offer true DDP, because there is so much risk and liability since you're still liable for the cost of the duty if the buyer doesn't pay it but unlike with Canada Post, you can't see what it will cost before you send it. 

[marnotom!]

Tagging @cleanpartshere as they posted two weeks ago and may not be following this thread anymore.