The race to the bottom (2025 sales year in review)

[rdemaree]

Now that we are approaching 2026 how does your 2025 compare with prior years?

Between trumps tariffs, Canada Post protests, inflation, and EBay’s blue banner warning and EIS/ promoted listings cash grabs it’s been a pretty hostile environment to do business in.

As a full time seller since late 2019 this year has been my worst year for sales to date, in June I only sold just under $200 worth of stuff (my worst month as a seller of all time) and this December is shaping up to be my worst December on record. Usually it’s my best or 2nd best month of the year.

For context I offered a different sale event (or sometimes 2!) every month of this year, optimized my listing photos and descriptions, offered more products, offered entry level products, got all of my items CUSMA approved and went out of my way to inform customers my items have no tariffs and I’m STILL on track for roughly 35-40% less in sales this year vs last year.

It’s pretty depressing being a small business e commerce seller in Canada right now. The environment is very hostile from all directions.

Share your wins and losses. I’m trying to get a feel for the environment by reading other sellers 2025 experience given all of the hostile things thrown our way this year.

(Part of me wonders whether separating my item and shipping cost instead of offering free shipping and migrating from .com/ USD to .ca/CAD both earlier this year when trump went haywire on Canada earlier this year has had any dramatic effect on my sales performance this year. If you have any data to share for your own experience I’d love to hear it!)

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@rdemaree 

Down approx 30 sales year to year. Substanially higher shipping costs (according to the comparisons). Majority of sales were US in 2024. In 2025 mostly Canadian because of limited access to US market from end of August. Intl sales were about the same from year to year. Very minimal compared to the distant past.  Possibly very likely VAT collection related. 

As a side observation as promoted suggested rates went up and I stayed firm the number of promoted sales dropped. Average transaction price has remained consistent year to year. Still baffling that tax and shipping are considered as part of the average....In comparing 2023 my numbers they were substantially higher. Approx. 20 % higher number of sales. and 45 % higher dollar total profit compared 2025. Not sure I was ready for that amount of difference. 🤢 Blame most of that to higher overall eBay fees including promoted fees.

1 other statistic that KEEPS dropping year to year to year is feedback received. That's been plummeting for the last 5 or so. (Receive for purchases...but not for sales.)

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Revenue is down about 66 percent. I do in 3 months less than what I previously did in a month. We're dealing with numbers in the 5 figure range. 

I've had eIS for a bit under a month. Around 10 percent of orders are through eIS. So it's a welcomed boost. 

I experimented this month by using eIS as my primary US shipping service. eIS doesn't work for the US market because of the sticker shock, even if the end price is the same as what I was charging with Tracked Packet+Zonos. Previously, I capped US shipping at $40 CAD and worked in the tariffs to the item total. 

Or, they need a "free shipping model", where you can assign a different total price by country. For example, if I have an item that is $200+$20 to ship in Canada, I can price it at $220 in Canada. If that same item is $200+$100 to ship to the USA, I can price it at $300 in the USA.

The risk of this is that in the event of a return, you lose $100. But I would recommend adding $5-$10 in self-insurance to each USA order to cover this. As in, $10 per order gets you $100 for every 10 orders. If your return rates are less than 1 in 10, you're covered.

The psychology of free shipping is interesting, because it completely goes against basic economics. People shouldn't view an item that is $220+$80 shipping differently than an item that is $300 w/ free shipping, but in my experience, they do. 

[flipistics]

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@ilikehockeyjerseys wrote:

The psychology of free shipping is interesting, because it completely goes against basic economics. People shouldn't view an item that is $220+$80 shipping differently than an item that is $300 w/ free shipping, but in my experience, they do. 

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It is interesting. In my media store I used to offer free (lettermail) shipping and it worked really well.  People hate "paying" for shipping. The reason why I don't anymore is the nightmare it creates when you get a postal rate increase. If the shipping cost is baked into the price, you either have to eat the increase or you have to edit prices on all your items. The same would apply for changes in tariffs, which are even more likely.

As far as different prices for different regions, I THINK it's possible to do that with ebaymag. It doesn't really seem to be geared toward people with lots of one-off items, but it might work. Disclaimer: I've never tried using it.

[sapphyres-designer-jewellery]

I'm down 50% (compared to previous years). I was doing OK until Aug 29.

Now if I have some sales I get very excited, especially if it's a big sale. There have been a few of those happening which has kept me afloat and put food on the table.

C.

[rdemaree]

Despite doing literally everything any business would do to stave off bad sales I’m looking at losing 1/3 of my income and then eBay’s solution to this is to ask for more of my profits and to recommend I send out more offers/ lower my prices and use the $50000 per package EIS shipping program.

It’s as if the ship is sinking and they want us to hand all of what little profits we have left over to them. I guess they forget they don’t make money unless we make money. Thinning out your sellers margins and jacking shipping prices to the moon is an unsustainable business model even if they squeeze as many fees out of us as they can it won’t be sustainable in the long run.

I will 100% be getting a part time job to supplement my income going into 2026 and won’t be investing into many new products for eBay until things improve. Also looking into expanding to other sites just to scrape any meager wins I can in this terrible environment for small e commerce Canadian sellers.

It’s difficult in my position because I have AS and most of my spine is fused solid making my movements rigid so working from home these past 5 1/2 years full time has been the perfect fit for me since my disease intensified. Luckily I got my Canadian PR and got insurance and medication since then but finding part time work that suits me will be another challenge.

Wishing I could press fast forward on this incredibly greed driven and trash chapter of world history riddled with out of control bug ridden AI, greedy and malicious politicians etc.

[rdemaree]

If eBay really wanted to help sellers during this tough time (especially Canadian sellers) they could do the following

- Scrap the promoted listings change. It’s more fees for no additional services. It’s very literally a cash grab that only benefits eBay. If they are dead set on doing this they should wait until sellers arent nosediving due to numerous reasons external factors that are out of our control. There is zero incentive to continue using baseline promoted listings going forward.

-Make EIS more flexible. I personally might consider opting in if it wasn’t a blanket opt in for all of my listings and appears as the default. In reality Its more expensive, takes longer to ship, is more prohibitive on what can be shipped and honestly for someone like me who lives in Toronto I have absolutely zero incentive to use it when I have chitchats, swiftpost or stallion express. The only reason I’d like to maybe use it is as a backup plan if my 3rd party shipper (chitchats) isn’t available temporarily and/ or for my small amount of items I sell that are COO China and only then because the tariff rate keeps bouncing all over the place thanks to the orange clown. EIS would automatically adjust for these rapid changes (in theory). I also wouldn’t mind adding to all listings for all countries as a last resort option because I want my flat rate to show to my US and most international customers as default. ALWAYS. PERIOD! My flat rate option is much cheaper, faster and doesn’t have as many shipping restrictions as EIS. It really has limited use to me. Currently I have zero incentive to use it.

-EBay should once and for all separate USA from international for when setting shipping rates. Most courier sites do this. It’s usually Canada (domestic), USA, International. 3 categories. Especially in the era of the orange clown USA should be its own category because it is always changing depending on if he took his meds or had his daily happy meal or not. Ideally I don’t want to have flat rates for ALL countries outside of Canada just because trump is insane. I prefer using eBay calculated shipping because it automatically adjusts for location and price increases by the shippers. Prior to the felon reality tv show host getting re-elected I used calculated shipping for ALL countries via Canada post eBay labels.

- EBay should really try and work on giving us an alternative to EIS in Canada knowing that many of us rely on the American customers base due to proximity to the USA and their population size vs ours plus how remote and spread out our smaller population is. We need a cheaper option integrated similar to the discounted Canada post labels of before. Maybe work with chitchats/ stallion express/ swiftpost or try and cut a deal with Canada post. It is different for other countries that use EIS like UK or EU countries because they can still ship amongst themselves using their local post office discounted rates via eBay. Most Canadian businesses simply can’t thrive on Canadian customers alone + the occasional EIS sale. We need a real solution because as it stands we practically cant ship to the USA through Canada post without being hit with enormous tariffs (CUSMA doesn’t work with Canada post).

-Reword the tariff warning on listings that don’t use the EIS. 80% of my items are CUSMA compliant and go into the USA tariff free. Saying my customers have to pay additional import fees is a lie and causing me and many others to lose business in an already challenging time.

These are just a handful of the most practical and logical things that I think eBay should consider for its Canadian sellers to thrive.

Feel free to add your own suggestions.

Will any of these actually come to fruition or is eBay washing their hands of eBay Canada and it’s sellers as more of an afterthought?

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Most of my revenue on eBay is not from media right now. Aside from a few choice titles from a distributor, I haven't focused on relisting any media due to the reliance on Canada Post, the strike, and other products doing better. I'm sitting on thousands of piece of media that would have been listed over the past year if there wasn't a strike.

I've experimented with paid shipping for lettermail media, with the logic being that maybe I could push people to buying 2 or 3 titles at the same time to save on shipping. It doesn't work. People generally just want the one title they want. 

Outside of rare titles, I think the easiest way to approach media is just to have a flat price for most of your stuff. The amount of time it takes to research each title and try to undercut the next guy isn't worth it. eBay also goes by 'Best Match', so buyers seem to rarely choose the "cheapest", they choose the best one that is pushed to their face the earliest. Of course, that doesn't mean a $13 DVD can be priced at $30, but if it is priced at $15, it probably will still sell. Pricing a bit higher also gives you runway to send offers to buyers, accept offers, etc. 

We're approaching the rubicon where it doesn't make sense to sell lettermail based used-media anymore due to rising input costs, unless you have a fantastic source to get titles for pennies, like a retail storefront that accepts trade ins on collections. 

I was doing something like 4000 lettermail packages at my peak volume, so I buy stamps in bulk and set in my price. This makes me a bit less prone to dealing with price increases. I still have thousands of P stamps on hand from my last bulk order because of the strike. But I absolutely would not advise anybody to get into selling used media, unless they already have the knowledge base and have a physical store front or source for extremely cheap inventory. 

Boutique titles from distributors might be more prone to the tariffs, because even though they are duty free, the average buyer may not know this. Outside of rare titles, used media to the USA was never big business for me. It was like a bonus, almost like eIS is now. 

[thevillage1955]

My main beef this year is the deterioration of Canada Post reliability. I never had to refund this many 'unreceived' items in the last 10 years as a seller. Hundreds of dollars - almost $700 - of sales had to be refunded because they never reached the customer. And since I sell mostly cards  it is not feasable for me to offer tracking on $10 sales. Postage would then be more expensive than the item. At first I thought it was due to the strike but the conflict has been over for many weeks and there is rarely a week that I don't have to deal with 'not received items' claims.  Could it be that the USPS deliberately messes with Canadian parcels ?  The same for International (Spain being the worst). And on all those items refunded because they were 'lost', I've never received any item back so someone somewhere got them. Even when I do buy tracking it is no guarantee that the customer will receive his item. A sale to Mexico in October never reached the customer and even with the most patient of client I did have to refund a sale of $245 in vintage magazines. And to this day the package has the mention 'OUT FOR DELIVERY'...I am losing merchandise and money. A bit discouraging frankly. This situation has never been as bad as this before

[john_koenig99]

I guess my case is somehow an outlayer among all the bad peformances in 2025. 

This year I have had a "record breaking"  24 sales (well, 21 and 3 cancellations). Much better than the previous years.

The items I deal with are not exactly easy to sell, as they are mostly collectible items from the 70s, 80s and 90s. So I know this is not a substantial income source for me. I am thinking about diversifying my listings, to see if this would make this hobby more profitable. But, TBH, I will probably go the path of looking for a part time job. 

[cassettecellar]

Sales in 2025 are down for me fairly substantially, especially to the US. Well, on eBay anyway. Orders, domestic and otherwise,  have been plentiful on other online marketplaces. I'm well deep into wondering why I bother here at all.

As rdemaree said: "-Reword the tariff warning on listings that don’t use the EIS. 80% of my items are CUSMA compliant and go into the USA tariff free. Saying my customers have to pay additional import fees is a lie and causing me and many others to lose business in an already challenging time."

This idiocy is what I think is causing my US sales to tank. I think I only have two (non-media) items out of almost 3000 total that cannot be shipped tariff-free, yet that blue banner is on the top of all of my listings.

I will be watching my 2026 eBay numbers very closely, but it's high time that maybe I accept that the juice here just ain't worth the squeeze.

[reallynicestamps]

Just took a peek at my Payouts from the last 90 days. 

There are three weeks (of 12)  with less than $100 in payouts, but otherwise sales appear normal to good compared to last year Q4. 

 Next year will be easier to see when we have the 2025 income report (for Revenue Canada) to compare to the 2024 report. 

In addition to the postal dispute, Trump Tariff, mentioned above by others, and my own confusion about how eIS would work , I also had a substantial part of my stock closed while DH went to the BNAPS show and bourse. I didn't get all of the unsolds from that relisted until December. 

And the unclear situation about the PL Halo Effect changes led me to remove PL from all my listings after mid-November. 

The other thing I did was to move all my new listings to dotCA rather than dotCOM as I have been doing for several years, so that I can use eIS. 

In spite of those actions on my part, sales seem stable. 

One big change is that I am seeing fewer US sales and more overseas sales. Domestic sales are about the same to slightly higher. 

[rdemaree]

I guess for me the hard part is most of my sales have always been from USA.

About 70% have traditionally been from USA with about 15% Canada and 15% international .

I want to make it more like 50% USA , 30% Canada, 20% international but it’s a challenge.


I also strictly ship parcels. I don’t sell stamps or trading cards or flat media. I sell things that require tracking and require being shipped inside a box and need 3rd party shippers to be CUSMA approved.


I’m getting hammered from all angles right now. Most garbage time to be in business right now and I will definitely be downscaling my business and getting a part time job next year unfortunately.

[reallynicestamps]

-EBay should once and for all separate USA from international for when setting shipping rates. ... It’s usually Canada (domestic), USA, International. 3 categories. ... USA should be its own category because it is always changing... Ideally I don’t want to have flat rates for ALL countries outside of Canada just because trump is insane.

It's my understanding that there are different charges for different countries.

USA does have its own rate.

And the overseas rates do differ since they are going to different countries with different import fees and delivery distances. 

It's irrelevant though because 

a.) we get charged based on the cost of delivery to Mississauga

b.) the buyer pays the shipping plus eIS handling plus import fees, not the seller

Please confirm this, in case I am wrong devon@ebay 

So your customer in Australia will see a different delivery cost than your customer in Austria and both will be different than for the American customer. 

We are in agreement about much of what you say.

[reallynicestamps]

But I absolutely would not advise anybody to get into selling used media, unless they already have the knowledge base and have a physical store front or source for extremely cheap inventory.

I was selling used paperbacks on another ID but stopped buying a couple of years ago. The big Times Colonist Book Sale is coming up in May and I am considering donating the last few  hundred books, keeping only the best sellers, like Wyndham, Adams and (shudder) John Norman. 
The philatelic literature I sell on this ID has a slow but consistent sales rate. 

[rdemaree]

What I mean is we should be able to use calculated rates for all countries except USA

Currently if I want to use calculated rates for international locations I HAVE TO also include the USA in that.

I am basically being forced to offer fixed rates for ALL countries outside of Canada simply because trump is a conman and eBay won’t separate USA from international categories

[visual-sound]

I learned a long time ago - NEVER SELL TO MEXICO! You've learned that lesson now yourself!

[reallynicestamps]

@rdemaree eBay won’t separate USA from international categories

Look more closely at the Shipping section of your Selling Form for "Destination"

You can choose "USA" or "North and South America".

Don't choose North and South America, it includes the USA but also more troubled destinations.

You can also choose, with another shipping cost, Europe , UK, France, Germany. Although the latter three are  also included in Europe.

And, of course, you can pay a fee to appear on the UK site, but you also appear there by choosing UK as a destination at no charge. 

[440snojet]

Im currently down 7% for both $ value and number of sales from last year. I found that rather surprising as I normally sell a fair amount to the US especially $ wise. I was closed for part of September and most of October due to the postal strike and being busy with work. For the stuff I sell, September is the begining of the busy season. I didn't add many new listings this year either, just tried to keep the popular ones stocked.  20% of my orders have been shipped through eIS since it started. 2 to Europe and 18 to the US. So for me, Domestic sales really picked up and balanced out the lost US sales and being closed for over a month. 

[rdemaree]

What I want to do is be able to have calculated shipping rates via Canada post eBay discounted labels for every country in earth except the USA.

To my knowledge this is impossible. Since I’m using fixed rates for USA (because eBay doesn’t have chit chats labels and I have no choice) I have to use fixed rates for which automatically means I have to use fixed rates for all countries on earth since anything outside of Canada is considered international. Do you understand what I mean?

Ideally I’d just use Canada post calculated rates for everything but trump screwed that up