Question for ebay canadian buyers

[bigbeze]

I buy on a regular basis on eBay, but always from Canadian sellers because I once had a bad surprise with fees that the UPS delivery guy charge me when delivering my boxes from USA ( 60$ additionnal charge for a 120$ order ) So I saw on some eBay US sellers this :

No additional import charges at delivery!
This item will be shipped through the Global Shipping Program and includes international tracking

So I tought that the additionnal fee problem was solve. Then I look more closely at the shipping information and saw this note :

Any duties or taxes that may be imposed by the respective countries are your sole responsibility. Import duties, taxes, and charges are NOT INCLUDED in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer's responsibility.

So my question is, when a seller mention that "Customs services and international tracking provided" am I 100% sure that what I pay on eBay will be the final price or is there still a chance that I have to pay something else at delivery? Thanks.

[ReimerFan]

I find a lot of the people you'd get dinged with customs fees already incorporate it into their shipping prices. You'd see something like Shipping to Canada $15 (and if it's a fixed price) you'd also be able to see customs charges. If both are paid you won't pay customs again. That being said you still pay customs just up front.

Now it's possible this is taken into consideration when buying an item. Meaning that the people who charge customs would get less for their item than those that don't. It's hard to say.

Most of my purchases I don't pay customs on. Once in a while you will have to (and all those nonsense brokering fees shipping companies love to add) It's a number game. If you buy 10 things for a better price than you can get it here and have to pay customs on one or two orders it still ends up being a good deal.

[creasecollector]

i don't like the GSP when I see it on a listing. I prefer to stay away from it when I can. Especially with the exchange rate, it can be brutal.

[Inferno]

I immediately skip over any listing I see with the Global Shipping Program unless it's something I REALLY want, biggest ripoff on eBay. They charge minimum $20 CDN for shipping, even if the card only costs you $1, plus import fees that get out of hand quick in the higher value cards. If I'm looking to buy a $40 MacKinnon card on eBay I'm not interested in paying almost $30 to ship the thing when $5 used to be plenty.

Unless it's a card you desperately need and have no other option I'd say ignore it unless the seller is willing to change the listing to ship normally.

I don't know how US sellers make any sales to Canada anymore with that program charging crazy fees. And if you email the seller asking for cheaper shipping, a lot of the time they don't even realize just how insane the charges can be because they don't even see them on their end. I've had a couple of sellers offer to ship the standard way after hearing the GSP charges blew their minds, but sadly many others won't budge and sometimes don't bother answering at all. It's only getting tougher and tougher to be a Canadian buyer on eBay :)

[rydlar99]

I don't get why US eBayers just don't ship regular mail to Canada... I ship regular mail to the USA (unless expedited is required) and everything works out fine. If people on both sides would just have a little patience and trust in one another, the very MINOR amount of slippage more than makes up for the gains to be had for lower shipping rates, GSP & duties. In shipping probably more than 15,000 items, I think I've had a grand total of 5 or 6 not arrive at their destinations, and probably only 3-4 were legit people saying they didn't receive the item. (ie. the other 2-3 were people who had a history of magically not receiving items).

Patience... trust... people not being weasels... it's all what's needed nowadays to keep costs down.

[bigbeze]

Thanks for your answers. I think I'll stick with canadian sellers for eBay.

[26CRDS]

You just need to check the US sellers and how they ship. Some are smart and don't use eBay's Global Shipping Program. They typically charge $4USD to ship to Canada.

The ones who use GSP are lazy!

[Wookster]

Its to the point where I don't usually even browse US sellers anymore because of the insane shipping prices they are quoting. $16 US to ship a card to Canada??? no thanks. There are a couple of sellers down there that have seemed to figured it out and will sell and ship to Canada for a reasonable rate (around $4 US) but the rest haven't figured it out yet I guess, or don't care maybe? Although if I was selling a hockey card I would think I would want to figure out a way to ship to the Canadian market.

[creasecollector]

Thanks for your answers. I think I'll stick with canadian sellers for eBay.

That's what I try and do most of the time. Just a lot easier that way, especially if the card has a relatively higher print run.

[goflyers]

[QUOTE=Inferno;14472765]...
Unless it's a card you desperately need and have no other option I'd say ignore it unless the seller is willing to change the listing to ship normally.

When sellers won't respond and it is something I really really want I can always use a mailbox service. Usually knocks the shipping down to 4 or 5 bucks with the fee in.