I could not find another thread for a similar topic, but apologies if there is one.

I would like to start selling some of my extra sets on Ebay, but am not sure how to tackle shipping.  I'd appreciate any insight from some of the more experienced BP'ers based in Canada.

1) If my Ebay listing is Buy It Now, and I list a single shipping price, and offer shipping to Canada and Continental US, should I pick a price that basically averages the cheapest and most expensive shipping locations?

2) Do most people ship Regular Parcel, or Priority?  If Regular Parcel, I presume you would add tracking.

3) When is it worth it to include insurance?

Any other lessons learned would be greatly appreciated as well.

Looking forward to some feedback!

Canada Post needs the equivalent of First Class mail like USPS for small and light packages. In this day and age, all packages need tracking without paying an organ for it. I guess the amount of small businesses (the small potatoes) means nothing to Canada Post when all they need is a handful of mega corp. clients and millions of customers that don't know any better when they want to mail their $12 small gifts during Christmas to little Timmy across the country just to find out shipping cost more than the gift itself.

Cp does need the small businesses and family mails more than you think, the bulk quantities of small-class letter/parcel mail is essential to justify the salaries of cp employees, where else are you going to find a menial unskilled job that at even the most basic level nets you twice the minimum wage?

http://www.glassdoor.ca/Salary/Canada-Post-Salaries-E8747.htm

(or for more of the list go to google.ca & enter "average canada post letter carrier salary")

really, $50K a year for walking a few kms & dropping letters in the wrong mailboxes?

Cp does need the small businesses and family mails more than you think, the bulk quantities of small-class letter/parcel mail is essential to justify the salaries of cp employees, where else are you going to find a menial unskilled job that at even the most basic level nets you twice the minimum wage?

http://www.glassdoor.ca/Salary/Canada-Post-Salaries-E8747.htm

(or for more of the list go to google.ca & enter "average canada post letter carrier salary")

really, $50K a year for walking a few kms & dropping letters in the wrong mailboxes?

That's where the small business and regular joe consumer comes in... paying inflated price for small packages that weights less than 13oz. where USPS charges a little over $2 anywhere in the USA. Canada Post... yup $10 easy.

I guess at least some Canadians are getting a decent salary and probably a very generous pension for dropping off packages at Shoppers Drug Mart because they can come to your house to drop off the card to pick-up but cannot drop off the package itself.

Canada Post really piss me off

...I guess at least some Canadians are getting a decent salary and probably a very generous pension for dropping off packages at Shoppers Drug Mart because they can come to your house to drop off the card to pick-up but cannot drop off the package itself.

Canada Post really piss me off

That's one of my biggest bugaboos with Cp, I have video surveillance of my yard & porch & numerous times I watched (from my basement office) the postie come to the door to leave the knocker not even trying to bring the package even once all the way from the baby-truck (this is why they never actually ring the bell). & why is the door knocker tag always the "third & final attempt"?     Luckily they are doing away with home delivery all together now so packages will always just go the superbox a couple km away.

I've heard there will be a new redirection option so that all mail can be rerouted automatically from a home address to a PObox even from those few shippers that won't send to a PObox ('cause they only see your home address) should be a useful option.

I've heard there will be a new redirection option so that all mail can be rerouted automatically from a home address to a PObox even from those few shippers that won't send to a PObox ('cause they only see your home address) should be a useful option.

This isn't the same as what you're talking about, but you might be thinking of this:

https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/pages/fd/default.page

Unfortunately it's a PO Box so many retailers will still refuse to ship to it. I have used it already and my reviews are mixed. I had a very large parcel delivered to the flex delivery address and the moron that dropped it off forgot to scan it as "delivered." It sat with a weird tracking status for a week and then I called Canada Post. The helpful lady on the phone said it was sitting at a post office (the one I picked) waiting for me despite what the online tracking says.... So I went to get it and they couldn't find it. The computer system the post office workers have access to apparently isn't the same as she said it was not there. Lucky for me I recognized the parcel when she opened the door (after I asked her to go look 3 times) and voila, there it was.

I haven't heard of them offering a rerouting service... That would be better for a non PO delivery address but I think it's unlikely.

 

So low feedback buyer hits the BIN on 2 Chima Lion Chi temple sets... anybody want to hazard a guess what the CPO tracked air shipping from western Canada to MUMBAI, INDIA is for this box,lol?

I already know... buyer has yet to pay...

 

Edited August 10, 201510 yr by lobo1969

Lol I had a send a smaller set to Singapore last week and with tracking it would have been just under $70. A large set like lion chi temple? Prob over $100?? :S

I guess $110

I'll play too... 2 sets? I'll go up to $120 tracked!

Nobody is close- $360

 

Box is about 60x50x22cm and 6KG and I have a the CPO small business card so the final rate rate will be a little cheaper but $360 is the rate a get when you punch the numbers in canadapost.ca

The buyer initial 'bought' one Lion Chi Temple and shipping was still going to be close to $300 and that was when the weight was about 3KG in a slightly smaller box...

Lol I had a send a smaller set to Singapore last week and with tracking it would have been just under $70. A large set like lion chi temple? Prob over $100?? :S

What was the set if I may ask? It seems $70 is the absolute cheapest I can ship for the smallest items when I'm quoting to south east asia

Oh my goodness. I think in the future I'm going to stick to Canada, maybe US. Even shipping to the US is so expensive! It was the 2004 version of the Mos Eisley Cantina ( don't remember set number) so it is a square box, and I used a slightly larger Franken-square box. It wasn't even that heavy either. I think the set itself only weighs 470g.

ROFL... some executives gotta make their 6 figures and bonus after all...

Using greeting cards is a good idea. Do you fit a minifig in the envelope and get away with paying just 1 postage stamp? I've been using bubble envelopes which cost 1.80.

I use the appropriate value in stamps for where I am mailing to and the weight.  For a minifig in Canada it is one permanent stamp, for the US additional postage is required.  I have a stash of P stamps picked up a while ago, and pick up stamps where I can that are under face value.  I have gotten some from Ebay, picked others up at an auction where the stamps had a specific value but sold at about half face, and a number of old stock CFL stamp sets from Canada Post that were priced based on old P values.  

Looks like Fedex and ebay have some holiday deal going on where the shipping cost for basic Fedex services is crazy cheap (you have to sign up for the promotion or something).

I tested a few items; and on average the Fedex service is $10 cheaper than the cheapest Canada post option, pretty cool. Mind you i wont be using any Fedex service to the US as they will probably charge the customer brokerage fees. For example my cost to ship a Black Series Kylo Ren Saber (big ass box) out to Calgary from Ontario with Canada post Regular Parcel is $43.91. Same package with Fedex Ground 3 Day $31.42. Faster and cheaper?! yes please!

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but i will definitely be taking advantage of this.

Link: https://www.fedex.com/fcl/ALL?enrollmentid=eb16566114&country=ca&language=en

Mind you i only tried this on the bigger/heavier items. My guess is smaller items the difference will be minimal.

Edited October 14, 201510 yr by Sandwraithx157

Looks like Fedex and ebay have some holiday deal going on where the shipping cost for basic Fedex services is crazy cheap (you have to sign up for the promotion or something).

I tested a few items; and on average the Fedex service is $10 cheaper than the cheapest Canada post option, pretty cool. Mind you i wont be using any Fedex service to the US as they will probably charge the customer brokerage fees. For example my cost to ship a Black Series Kylo Ren Saber (big ass box) out to Calgary from Ontario with Canada post Regular Parcel is $43.91. Same package with Fedex Ground 3 Day $31.42. Faster and cheaper?! yes please!

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but i will definitely be taking advantage of this.

Link: https://www.fedex.com/fcl/ALL?enrollmentid=eb16566114&country=ca&language=en

Mind you i only tried this on the bigger/heavier items. My guess is smaller items the difference will be minimal.

Cool, might be worth taking a look, should I wish to try ebay again but it's been so long since I've visited there (at least 4 years) everything's probably extensively changed now.  wonder if they still offer 50 free listings?

Cool, might be worth taking a look, should I wish to try ebay again but it's been so long since I've visited there (at least 4 years) everything's probably extensively changed now.  wonder if they still offer 50 free listings?

I don't sell enough to hit the limits, but its probably in that area. Also "Buy It Now" is also included in your free listing allotment.

Cool, might be worth taking a look, should I wish to try ebay again but it's been so long since I've visited there (at least 4 years) everything's probably extensively changed now.  wonder if they still offer 50 free listings?

Thank you for the link, I've just registered

On 14/10/2015 at 8:20 AM, Sandwraithx157 said:

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but i will definitely be taking advantage of this.

Link: https://www.fedex.com/fcl/ALL?enrollmentid=eb16566114&country=ca&language=en

Mind you i only tried this on the bigger/heavier items. My guess is smaller items the difference will be minimal.

So I went ahead and registered a FedEx account and signed up with this link. Does this mean that every price I see on FedEx whenever I try and get rates are already discounted rates? Or will the discount apply only upon payment? Because right now there doesnt seem to be any differences in the prices as compared with my previous, unregistered rates.

7 hours ago, guanin2999 said:

So I went ahead and registered a FedEx account and signed up with this link. Does this mean that every price I see on FedEx whenever I try and get rates are already discounted rates? Or will the discount apply only upon payment? Because right now there doesnt seem to be any differences in the prices as compared with my previous, unregistered rates.

I believe the discount is already applied when looking at the rates, but i also think it is only one of the shipping options that gets the discount (probably the slowest/cheapest, i think it was the option on the far right if that helps). However i can't be sure as i only took advantage of it a few times this season.

Is 50-60 CAD the average for shipping to places like Texas and Florida? That's the price it is giving me, presumably discounted.

How big is the parcel? Did you add tracking? That could be a correct quote (slightly high?) If you have a tracking number.

It's 59x40x22.5 cm, and weighs around 2.6 kg (its a Technic 24 Hours Race Car, packed and ready to ship). I packed it with boxes I got from a local department store for free. Would using FedEx boxes be cheaper in this case?

Edited December 31, 201510 yr by guanin2999

6 minutes ago, guanin2999 said:

It's 59x40x22.5 cm, and weighs around 2.6 kg (its a Technic 24 Hours Race Car, packed and ready to ship). I packed it with boxes I got from a local department store for free. Would using FedEx boxes be cheaper in this case?

Well it largely depends on what you're shipping, but once you get into medium sized sets Canada Posts moves to dimensional weight and it gets rather expensive. You're shipping in a pretty big box there... What it's costing you to ship in an oversized box can (and should be) recouped by shipping in properly sized boxes. Your box roughly translates to 24x16x9 inches. If you put that set in a properly sized box (20x16x4) I bet you'd shave 10-20 bucks off the shipping cost.

What shipping method - Expedited? Don't use anything else, it's not worth it.

What part of Canada are you in? Canada Posts splits the US up into 7 zones and sets rates from each province to each zone. Unfortunately, Texas and Florida are far from all provinces. It does seem on the high end, but if you were in BC shipping to Florida would be the max rate.

18 minutes ago, gregpj said:

Well it largely depends on what you're shipping, but once you get into medium sized sets Canada Posts moves to dimensional weight and it gets rather expensive. You're shipping in a pretty big box there... What it's costing you to ship in an oversized box can (and should be) recouped by shipping in properly sized boxes. Your box roughly translates to 24x16x9 inches. If you put that set in a properly sized box (20x16x4) I bet you'd shave 10-20 bucks off the shipping cost.

What shipping method - Expedited? Don't use anything else, it's not worth it.

What part of Canada are you in? Canada Posts splits the US up into 7 zones and sets rates from each province to each zone. Unfortunately, Texas and Florida are far from all provinces. It does seem on the high end, but if you were in BC shipping to Florida would be the max rate.

I didnt want to ship the set on a fit box because I thought it might get damaged so I chose a bigger box so I could put some fillers in. In your experience, do they arrive fine even when shipped in just-fit boxes? 

The 50-60 figure was FedEx's International Ground shipping, and was the cheapest option offered by FedEx, I did not use Canada Post.

I am based in Manitoba, and so I figured I'd try to get rates from cities furthest from me if I'm going to use fixed cost shipping on Ebay as actual cost shipping doesn't have any options for FedEx... 

No matter what you do or who you use packages that size to the far flung US destinations will cost you $50 plus/minus. 

I buy all my boxes at ULine and fit them so I can bubble wrap them at least once before shoe horning them into the carton. 

That box size you are using is a major cost over run.  Don't do it Lebowski!

Well it largely depends on what you're shipping, but once you get into medium sized sets Canada Posts moves to dimensional weight and it gets rather expensive. You're shipping in a pretty big box there... What it's costing you to ship in an oversized box can (and should be) recouped by shipping in properly sized boxes. Your box roughly translates to 24x16x9 inches. If you put that set in a properly sized box (20x16x4) I bet you'd shave 10-20 bucks off the shipping cost.

What shipping method - Expedited? Don't use anything else, it's not worth it.

What part of Canada are you in? Canada Posts splits the US up into 7 zones and sets rates from each province to each zone. Unfortunately, Texas and Florida are far from all provinces. It does seem on the high end, but if you were in BC shipping to Florida would be the max rate.

I didnt want to ship the set on a fit box because I thought it might get damaged so I chose a bigger box so I could put some fillers in. In your experience, do they arrive fine even when shipped in just-fit boxes? 

The 50-60 figure was FedEx's International Ground shipping, and was the cheapest option offered by FedEx, I did not use Canada Post.

I am based in Manitoba, and so I figured I'd try to get rates from cities furthest from me if I'm going to use fixed cost shipping on Ebay as actual cost shipping doesn't have any options for FedEx... 

Canada Post Expedited shipping is cheaper than FedEx unless you have a business account that you can piggy back personal shipments.

In my experience, sets arrive just fine if you pick a proper sized box. The key is to have boxes just a wee bit taller and don't put any padding on top, just around the edges.