Canada - Shipping Solutions

[tacsniper]

So I am trying to setup shipping portion of my bricklink store and would like to know have any Canadians figure out the best/affordable way to mail out bricks within Canada?

I can ship by USPS for all US and International shipments. If needed, I am wiling to route shipments from West to East cost Canada via USPS if that means cheaper and more predictable prices through USPS flat rate priority boxes.

[Vodium]

I only use Canada post, and use PayPal to print shipping labels since it gives you the business discount for expedient service and small packets usa/international. and I've learned how to fill a bubble mailer and stay under 2 cm thick. Haha

[seapotato]

Do you get a discount on small packets as well if you print via PayPal? 

for larger parcels, is it the same discount as Venture one? 

[tacsniper]

Do you guys always use services that provide tracking or you guys willing to take the risk and opt for less expensive service with no tracking for something like minifigures?

[massakassa]

Do you guys always use services that provide tracking or you guys willing to take the risk and opt for less expensive service with no tracking for something like minifigures?

​I have sold and shipped mini figures to countries around the world, all without using tracking and have never lost a package. You do have to double check the address sometimes especially with countries in Asia where they have long and garbled address formats and making a mistake there could cost you a lost package. Also sending Oversized Lettermail within Canada, even within the same province can sometimes take ages as i recently found out where shipping from Toronto to Barrie took almost 2 weeks and the buyer was thinking she would never get her order.

[Sandwraith]

I've mostly only ever used Canada post.

During the Canada post strike a few years back i used Fedex just to keep the customers pleased, their prices did not make me a happy camper.

Do you guys always use services that provide tracking or you guys willing to take the risk and opt for less expensive service with no tracking for something like minifigures?

​I ship minifigs and polybags via lettermail (and offer free shipping) and have not had any issues, but have learned to never send anything remotely large overseas w/o tracking as i'm pretty sure i was scammed 1 time with an item not received. This really limits my overseas selling though as Canada Post with an option other than Surface Mail (avg 3 months) costs way too much to be reasonable to even offer.

[lobo1969]

I've mostly only ever used Canada post.

During the Canada post strike a few years back i used Fedex just to keep the customers pleased, their prices did not make me a happy camper.

​I ship minifigs and polybags via lettermail (and offer free shipping) and have not had any issues, but have learned to never send anything remotely large overseas w/o tracking as i'm pretty sure i was scammed 1 time with an item not received. This really limits my overseas selling though as Canada Post with an option other than Surface Mail (avg 3 months) costs way too much to be reasonable to even offer.

​I don't think there is any lucrative way of trying to ship competitively outside of north America from Canada, just way too expensive. I suppose if you had access to a big corporate shipping account then it could be better.

I rarely ship overseas and never ship with any service without tracking for purchases over $40. If scammers are looking to strike they are more apt to hit you with a large $$$ purchase than small purchases under that $40 mark in my experience. You still take your chances with no tracking on the smaller items but the postal service still is reliable 99.5% of the time. I can say this with confidence as I've probably shipped out around 750 or more packages via Canada Post in the last 10 years.

Edited May 6, 2015 by lobo1969