Yeah I've always assumed it was an incorrectly configured postage estimator, like the seller hasn't bothered to put in the size and weight correctly. It's frustrating, I have a VLB graphics card on the way from the US (to Aus) and the seller - who initially wasn't even offering international shipping until I asked nicely - is charging me 9 bucks for it?? Why can't all sellers do that?

Shipping from the UK is generally very reasonable though I've noticed.

Being in Canada, almost any item I buy is coming from the US... even when said item was originally made in Canada. *eyes latest game purchase*

The eBay system is weird when it comes to showing shipping prices. Occasionally, I see a really high price for shipping but it's clearly some kind of rush-delivery sort of thing, and scrolling down reveals other prices. If the price seems way too high without other options I usually ask the seller why it's so high and if they offer any other options. Sometimes the reason is because sellers don't want to use lesser-priced shipping options due to the lack of certain features like tracking or insurance or whatnot.

Ultimately, it's always best to just ask first, no matter what number eBay is giving you. :P

quick and easy answer is "tracking".

They probably do this to protect themselves vs paypal and fraudulent customers etc.
And often the only options that carry tracking are the very expensive ones.
Or they just don't know of the (albeit only slightly) cheaper options.

http://pe.usps.gov/text/imm/ab_012.htm

Normally regular "First Class" mail + "Registered"($11.75) would actually be sufficient, as it has tracking all the way and signature on delivery, and it even includes some insurance ($30-ish?).

You could of course suggest this option to the seller, to see if total cost could be lowered. Provided they are at all willing to ship via USPS that is.... 😜

Barring this, the next step up is the Priority Parcel, which also has inherent tracking, but starts at a much higer price. There are also Flat rate boxes, but only the medium/large ones carry tracking.

Download the pdf for all details, pages 36-42:
http://pe.usps.com/cpim/ftp/manuals/dmm300/Notice123.pdf

And Gemini000 has some good points as well... 😎

most of the US sellers I've dealt with were more than happy to offer a (simpler) cheaper shipping service provided you don't care about insurance... just ask!

A lot of US shippers also don't realize that First Class Mail International can be used up to 4lb's (64 oz) because First Class USA can only be used up to 13oz, they assume it's the same limit and only offer Priority Mail International, which is expensive. Ebay shows both as "expedited shipping" so the buyer doesn't really know what's going on.

Another problem though is some countries (like Canada) have a limit on the value of the item before it goes through customs. In Canada, anything over $20 is subject to customs fees and broker fees. Sometimes as high as $20! So if a buyer gets something on ebay for $20.01 ships it using Priority Mail ($15-$20), he is still subject to those fees. The problem is that the value is calculated in CANADIAN DOLLARS! it's $20 Canadian, not US! So if a US shipper puts down value of the product at $20 US, that converts to something like C$20.49 therefore is subject to customs and broker fees. It's all very confusing. I believe the only way that can be avoided is if you mark the item as "Gift" but supposedly, that's illegal.

I never quite understood this notion of a "gift".

"Selling? Oh, no. You see, this nice guy I communicated with online was kind enough to send me a donation of $20! To return his considerate gesture, I'm sending him this nice widget in which he expressed an interest!"

I think it has to do with the sheer unpredictability of international shipping. I know for a fact that I add $20 to international orders just because of the hassle of dealing with the customs bull-crap at the post office.

Jan3Sobieski wrote:

Another problem though is some countries (like Canada) have a limit on the value of the item before it goes through customs. In Canada, anything over $20 is subject to customs fees and broker fees. Sometimes as high as $20! So if a buyer gets something on ebay for $20.01 ships it using Priority Mail ($15-$20), he is still subject to those fees. The problem is that the value is calculated in CANADIAN DOLLARS! it's $20 Canadian, not US! So if a US shipper puts down value of the product at $20 US, that converts to something like C$20.49 therefore is subject to customs and broker fees. It's all very confusing. I believe the only way that can be avoided is if you mark the item as "Gift" but supposedly, that's illegal.

Close. What's actually going on is that the EXACT kind of item being sent is considered, as well as the description provided on the customs declaration label, as well as if the address being sent from is known for marking retail transactions as gifts or not, as well as if the items you're being sent are taxable if sold retail here, and the alignment of the moon may play a role too. :P

The more descriptive the customs label, the less likely it'll be stopped, opened and checked over, which almost instantly ensures you'll pay for taxes and handling if it's valued over $20. The handling fee is almost always around $10, the rest are typical taxes you would pay to buy that same thing at retail. So a $40 item going to a province with both provincial and government taxes will probably get you roughly a $16 import fee at the door. If you're really unlucky though, some items can have tariffs applied, sporting goods being a great example for us Canadians, and importing such an object can get you hit with ridiculous fees. x_x;

And sometimes it's just luck of the draw. They do a random search of your package, spot an invoice, realize it's not a gift and charge you handling and taxes for it. :P

Brokerage only comes into play if you don't go through the postal service and is damned expensive. I avoid non-postal service shipping whenever I can. :|

Gemini000 wrote:

Close. What's actually going on is that the EXACT kind of item being sent is considered, as well as the description provided on […]
Show full quote

Jan3Sobieski wrote:

Another problem though is some countries (like Canada) have a limit on the value of the item before it goes through customs. In Canada, anything over $20 is subject to customs fees and broker fees. Sometimes as high as $20! So if a buyer gets something on ebay for $20.01 ships it using Priority Mail ($15-$20), he is still subject to those fees. The problem is that the value is calculated in CANADIAN DOLLARS! it's $20 Canadian, not US! So if a US shipper puts down value of the product at $20 US, that converts to something like C$20.49 therefore is subject to customs and broker fees. It's all very confusing. I believe the only way that can be avoided is if you mark the item as "Gift" but supposedly, that's illegal.

Close. What's actually going on is that the EXACT kind of item being sent is considered, as well as the description provided on the customs declaration label, as well as if the address being sent from is known for marking retail transactions as gifts or not, as well as if the items you're being sent are taxable if sold retail here, and the alignment of the moon may play a role too. 😜

The more descriptive the customs label, the less likely it'll be stopped, opened and checked over, which almost instantly ensures you'll pay for taxes and handling if it's valued over $20. The handling fee is almost always around $10, the rest are typical taxes you would pay to buy that same thing at retail. So a $40 item going to a province with both provincial and government taxes will probably get you roughly a $16 import fee at the door. If you're really unlucky though, some items can have tariffs applied, sporting goods being a great example for us Canadians, and importing such an object can get you hit with ridiculous fees. x_x;

And sometimes it's just luck of the draw. They do a random search of your package, spot an invoice, realize it's not a gift and charge you handling and taxes for it. 😜

Brokerage only comes into play if you don't go through the postal service and is damned expensive. I avoid non-postal service shipping whenever I can. 😐

Wait a minute. I thought the US and Canada were both signed on to NAFTA, meaning no import duties between the countries? Or are we in the US getting the short end of the stick where our exports are taxed but Canadian and Mexican exports aren't?

sliderider wrote:

Wait a minute. I thought the US and Canada were both signed on to NAFTA, meaning no import duties between the countries? Or are we in the US getting the short end of the stick where our exports are taxed but Canadian and Mexican exports aren't?

I think it happens both ways or all three ways technically.

I always thought the same but in reality VAT still gets applied when exporting to the Great White North.

sliderider wrote:

Wait a minute. I thought the US and Canada were both signed on to NAFTA, meaning no import duties between the countries? Or are we in the US getting the short end of the stick where our exports are taxed but Canadian and Mexican exports aren't?

It gets better. Not only does it matter what country you're importing from, it also matters where the product was originally manufactured. >_<;

I've taken a look at the document that specifically outlines the tax rates for items imported into Canada. It's over a hundred pages (I forget the exact length) of really small print text and everything you could possibly think of is covered in the list, and each such item has a large quantitity of designations indicating how taxes are applied based primarily on each country it's coming from or manufactured in. (Yes, the tax rates can change wildly depending on the point of origin and the kind of product.) Some countries are also grouped together with their own special designations, but those groupings only apply in certain ways. It's a confusing mess to the layman though I imagine the actual customs agents just punch a couple things into a computer and they automatically get told what rates to apply. :P

Of the many, many packages I've received from outside of Canada over the years, the one time I've had anything like customs fees was with a game from Play-Asia – and even then, it was only five bucks in sales tax.

Then again, I think most of those packages were well under $100 in value, if not less.

[That's another thing: what exactly is "value" ? If I buy some obscure motherboard from a scrap dealer for $2 and some obsessive collector wants to pay me $200 for it, is it really worth $200 if it's junk to the rest of the population?]

Jorpho wrote:

Of the many, many packages I've received from outside of Canada over the years, the one time I've had anything like customs fees was with a game from Play-Asia – and even then, it was only five bucks in sales tax.

Then again, I think most of those packages were well under $100 in value, if not less.

[That's another thing: what exactly is "value" ? If I buy some obscure motherboard from a scrap dealer for $2 and some obsessive collector wants to pay me $200 for it, is it really worth $200 if it's junk to the rest of the population?]

If you can supply a receipt for what you paid for it, they should only tax you based on that. It would be BS if they could arbitrarily place a value on something and make you pay, say, $200 in tax on an item you only paid $2 for. If they ever tried that with me I'd tell them to keep the item and shove it up their nethers.

sliderider wrote:

Jorpho wrote:

Of the many, many packages I've received from outside of Canada over the years, the one time I've had anything like customs fees was with a game from Play-Asia – and even then, it was only five bucks in sales tax.

Then again, I think most of those packages were well under $100 in value, if not less.

[That's another thing: what exactly is "value" ? If I buy some obscure motherboard from a scrap dealer for $2 and some obsessive collector wants to pay me $200 for it, is it really worth $200 if it's junk to the rest of the population?]

If you can supply a receipt for what you paid for it, they should only tax you based on that. It would be BS if they could arbitrarily place a value on something and make you pay, say, $200 in tax on an item you only paid $2 for. If they ever tried that with me I'd tell them to keep the item and shove it up their nethers.

I believe the value of the merchandise is just whatever the seller puts on the customs form. That's why a lot of buyers ask to lower the value on the form so they don't have to pay customs fees. Of course it's pretty obvious that if you're shipping something that looks like a guitar, the value of $15 on the form is gonna trigger some questions from the customs people and the seller may get fined for under disclosing value of the product.

The other point is that if you're shipping with insurance, it's kind of hard to make a claim for X dollars if you declared the value of the package is a tiny fraction of that.

When shipping to Canada, I think NAFTA only applies for items assembled and manufactured in the USA. If it is manufactured in the USA and assembled in China, for example, there is some partial tax for importing it into Canada. The import tax book covers this, and numerous other similar conditions. It may also cover the origin of the raw materials used for manufacturing. From personal experience, I have determined that Canadian customs completely disregards NAFTA and taxes you on whatever they feel like it.

However, you usually don't get taxed on USPS First-Class Mail packages with a claimed value of less than $100. Apparently, it isn't worth the effort. However, for packages valued at over $100, Canada Post has been contracted by Canada Customs to collect a brokerage fee now. I think I had to pay $38 in taxes/tariffs/brokerage for a $135 item.

Also, from what I recall, packages declared as gifts coming into Canada are only tax-free up to about $70. I personally think that limit is way too low; think about wedding gifts from relatives, birthday gifts for children, etc. Generally, gift packages pass through Canada Customs much faster than non-gift packages.

In reply to the original poster, I've determined that the eBay shipping calculator is not necessarily reflective of all shipping options, nor of the actual shipping costs. I do find that some sellers are still knowingly taking advantage of this, while others have no idea it was so high. Most of the time, I furnish some evidence of what the actual USPS shipping fees will cost and up it by a buck or two for packaging. For sellers who do not ship internationally, and who have not blocked international buyer messaging, I try to offer some incentives to sell to me, such as,

1) Willingness to pay them with my Paypal account balance instead of a Paypal credit card. This saves them credit card fees.

2) Willingness to accept the package as-is for shipping via USPS First-Class Mail. Lost packages, no problem, just maintain proof that you actually shipped the item to me. I have never lost a package, btw.

3) If they reply to the likings of, "USPS First-Class Mail has no tracking!" I like to mention that I have received hundreds of packages from the US to Canada and have never lost one. Shipping to countries other than Canada may have a higher package loss rate, but not to Canada, there is no sea between us!

Items 1-3 are usually successful, but some sellers can be either overly stubborn, or overly cautious. For those rare cases, it is always helpful to have a friend in the US with an eBay account. I usually pick-up the packages on an eventual trip down south. If you are absent from Canada for 1 week, you can bring back $750 in goods tax-free.

To be honest I wont ship out of the USA anymore to anyone on anything sales related. It has been a few years since I have done so in fact. The main problem is buyers would only be willing to pay for slower services that do not provide tracking or a delivery confirmation method and want me to mark stuff as gift, which is mail fraud.

Whenever I state I can only ship via a trackable/insurable method they don't want to bother with a purchase, and more often then not throw a tantrum or spam me with shitty messages claiming I'm racist (like I could even predict what race they were to begin with), etc, so I just finally eliminated the option all together for bidders outside the USA.

I do not know how it is on here really since ebay transactions are not talked about so much, but people shipping out of the USA on DP and other gaming forums seem to get ripped off by buyers a lot when they don't use trackable services, especially by buyers located in Russia, Italy, some parts of Asia, South America, etc. Just not worth the mess to me, none of it.

Thanks a lot Russia, Italy, etc. You've ruined it for the rest of us.

The biggest problem is with Paypal. Paypal nearly always sides with the buyer and everyone knows it so they start treating ebay like some kind of freebie giveaway. They buy your stuff, then later file a complaint of non-receipt and most of the time they'll get their money back and have your stuff for free. It isn't limited to US sellers, either. On an old complaint site I read about a guy from England who sold a laptop to someone in France who then filed a non-receipt complaint with ebay. He got his money back and later on sent him an email taunting him about having his laptop and the money and that there was nothing he could do about it.