Shipping discussion

[amargasaurus cazaui]

not even shipping to Canada (not that I want to buy this lot, just that Canada is pretty darn close)
I don't get why sellers do that?!

well with the new ebay fees when ordering from the States, I tend to try to buy from Asia anyway

Alot of sellers ship from home, but generally if you send out of the US, to any country wether even canada next door, you have to file customs forms which generally have to be done at the post office depending on stated value and etc. That adds to the work load considerably. That being said, when I used to sell on Ebay I offered everything world wide myself and did fine with it.

[stargatedalek]

here you can't even ship from home, you have to use a post office anyway

[SBell]

not even shipping to Canada (not that I want to buy this lot, just that Canada is pretty darn close)
I don't get why sellers do that?!

well with the new ebay fees when ordering from the States, I tend to try to buy from Asia anyway

Alot of sellers ship from home, but generally if you send out of the US, to any country wether even canada next door, you have to file customs forms which generally have to be done at the post office depending on stated value and etc. That adds to the work load considerably. That being said, when I used to sell on Ebay I offered everything world wide myself and did fine with it.

The paperwork is the same for Canada to the US, more or less. You can often pre-fill the forms online, or get the necessary ones if you are a frequent seller, and fill out all but the final details (weight, cost) at the drop off. The paperwork issue is either a poor excuse or just misinformation (note: not true of wholesale shipping across borders--whole other ball of wax).

[amargasaurus cazaui]

not even shipping to Canada (not that I want to buy this lot, just that Canada is pretty darn close)
I don't get why sellers do that?!

well with the new ebay fees when ordering from the States, I tend to try to buy from Asia anyway

Alot of sellers ship from home, but generally if you send out of the US, to any country wether even canada next door, you have to file customs forms which generally have to be done at the post office depending on stated value and etc. That adds to the work load considerably. That being said, when I used to sell on Ebay I offered everything world wide myself and did fine with it.

The paperwork is the same for Canada to the US, more or less. You can often pre-fill the forms online, or get the necessary ones if you are a frequent seller, and fill out all but the final details (weight, cost) at the drop off. The paperwork issue is either a poor excuse or just misinformation (note: not true of wholesale shipping across borders--whole other ball of wax).

no you hit it on the head, the final details have to be done at the drop off, meaning at the post office, rather than just sending it all from home. That generates a trip to the post office and the necessity to stand there filling out paperwork for each transaction, versus watching the USPS truck load your packages from your table and leave....

[stargatedalek]

well, we can't ship packages that way anyway (I don't think?)
letters can be shipped from the communal mailbox designated to your street, but packages (even within borders) have to go through the post office anyway
or so I've always been told

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Here in he US if you are a volume shipper you can home weigh your packages, print the address labels and the actual postage and apply it all to the packages and call your USPS driver and he will come by your home, load it all up and off they go. You then pay the postal charges through your account that is already established. However , if you are shipping items that require customs forms, there are at least three possible forms it might require and knowing which to use can be tricky. In addition the box or package must be measured and if the total dimsensions add to a given total, other charges apply as well. So it is generally required that all items leaving the country or in other words requiring a customs form, have to be done at the post office.
  This means that instead of just letting a driver come by and load your packages, you now have to take the time to go downtown and stand in line, and once you get a clerk, then you stand and work through each of your customs forms items. If you work during business hours, lack a local post office or cannot drive that makes offering international sales a bit tricky. Even if you do alot of the paperwork at home it can be a pain.

[SBell]

Here in he US if you are a volume shipper you can home weigh your packages, print the address labels and the actual postage and apply it all to the packages and call your USPS driver and he will come by your home, load it all up and off they go. You then pay the postal charges through your account that is already established. However , if you are shipping items that require customs forms, there are at least three possible forms it might require and knowing which to use can be tricky. In addition the box or package must be measured and if the total dimsensions add to a given total, other charges apply as well. So it is generally required that all items leaving the country or in other words requiring a customs form, have to be done at the post office.
  This means that instead of just letting a driver come by and load your packages, you now have to take the time to go downtown and stand in line, and once you get a clerk, then you stand and work through each of your customs forms items. If you work during business hours, lack a local post office or cannot drive that makes offering international sales a bit tricky. Even if you do alot of the paperwork at home it can be a pain.

And yet last I heard (could be wrong) neither CanadaPost nor USPS seem capable of making profits...maybe they should all start working better. Most courier services have figured out how to incorporate customs info (value...item...?) alongside the rest and build it into their labels. So it can be done.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Agreed, I wont even attempt to argue the US postal services methods are productive or efficient. You are quite correct.

[stoneage]

Here in he US if you are a volume shipper you can home weigh your packages, print the address labels and the actual postage and apply it all to the packages and call your USPS driver and he will come by your home, load it all up and off they go. You then pay the postal charges through your account that is already established. However , if you are shipping items that require customs forms, there are at least three possible forms it might require and knowing which to use can be tricky. In addition the box or package must be measured and if the total dimsensions add to a given total, other charges apply as well. So it is generally required that all items leaving the country or in other words requiring a customs form, have to be done at the post office.
  This means that instead of just letting a driver come by and load your packages, you now have to take the time to go downtown and stand in line, and once you get a clerk, then you stand and work through each of your customs forms items. If you work during business hours, lack a local post office or cannot drive that makes offering international sales a bit tricky. Even if you do alot of the paperwork at home it can be a pain.

And yet last I heard (could be wrong) neither CanadaPost nor USPS seem capable of making profits...maybe they should all start working better. Most courier services have figured out how to incorporate customs info (value...item...?) alongside the rest and build it into their labels. So it can be done.

The primary reason the USPS is losing money is the Postal Accountability and Enforcement act of 2006.  Under this act the Post Office is required to pay 5.5 Billion Dollars each year to prefund future health care benefit payments to retirees for the next 75 years during a ten year time span.  This means that it has to put aside billions of dollars to pay health benefits for retirees who haven't even been hired yet.  No other government or private corporation is required to do this.  If this act had never been passed the Post Office would actually show a surplus of 1.5 Billion.  But because of it they have a 20 Billion deficit.  Member of congress have stock in UPS and Federal Express.  If they destroy the competition they make money. 

[Gwangi]

Of all the places to have an off topic conversation. I keep checking back here for eBay listings but it's just you guys, talking about shipping and the postal service. You guys have fooled me into checking this thread several times in the last couple days. Can this topic be split off?

[Hynerpeton]

Of all the places to have an off topic conversation. I keep checking back here for eBay listings but it's just you guys, talking about shipping and the postal service. You guys have fooled me into checking this thread several times in the last couple days. Can this topic be split off?

Or locked and a new one made? Cause all i see now is all blah blah blah! 

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Sorry for my part in derailing yet another thread, it seems a talent I have mastered well lately. I do agree with it being split off for sure. I do offer that anyone who deals much in ebay is party to the factors we are discussing and they do bear some relevance, although they are hardly "What is new on ebay " Apologies Gwangi.

[tyrantqueen]

Of all the places to have an off topic conversation. I keep checking back here for eBay listings but it's just you guys, talking about shipping and the postal service. You guys have fooled me into checking this thread several times in the last couple days. Can this topic be split off?

Or locked and a new one made? Cause all i see now is all blah blah blah! 

No, this topic is useful and should not be locked.

[SBell]

Of all the places to have an off topic conversation. I keep checking back here for eBay listings but it's just you guys, talking about shipping and the postal service. You guys have fooled me into checking this thread several times in the last couple days. Can this topic be split off?

Or locked and a new one made? Cause all i see now is all blah blah blah! 

Sorry.  It's not like postage and shipping destinations is relevant to ebay purchases

[Hynerpeton]

Of all the places to have an off topic conversation. I keep checking back here for eBay listings but it's just you guys, talking about shipping and the postal service. You guys have fooled me into checking this thread several times in the last couple days. Can this topic be split off?

Or locked and a new one made? Cause all i see now is all blah blah blah! 

No, this topic is useful and should not be locked.

So all the "junk" in this topic is useful?  not talking about the ebay links. They are.

[SBell]

Of all the places to have an off topic conversation. I keep checking back here for eBay listings but it's just you guys, talking about shipping and the postal service. You guys have fooled me into checking this thread several times in the last couple days. Can this topic be split off?

Or locked and a new one made? Cause all i see now is all blah blah blah! 

No, this topic is useful and should not be locked.

So all the "junk" in this topic is useful?  not talking about the ebay links. They are.

They're conversations. Sometimes they wander. It happens. But an active thread of 58 pages probably shouldn't get locked. An ew one would just spring up. Possibly several.

Look, another off topic conversation! We should stop this one too! Someone post a link:

Here, a set of Kaiyodo-Furuta Dinosaurs.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HUGE-LOT-OF-KABAYA-FURUTA-KAIYODO-MINI-DINOS-BARGAIN-BASEMENT-PRICE-/271563698994?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f3a753332

I have never owned a figure from this line, nor do I intend to. But some people like them, so here we are.

[tyrantqueen]

Or locked and a new one made? Cause all i see now is all blah blah blah! 

So all the "junk" in this topic is useful?  not talking about the ebay links. They are.

What else was I to assume when you said "locked and a new one made"? That would be referring to the entire thread.  You cannot lock individual thread replies, that doesn't even make sense. Only entire threads themselves can be locked.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Aside from that Predino I have seen you sit and make multiple threads to ask a single question or comment, that well could have all been served by a single thread, and noone called your comments blah blah or junk. Give the same respect you are afforded I think....we may not all value every comment made, but each person here has things to offer and give and acceptance is fair concept.

[Gwangi]

To clarify I never had any issues with the conversation itself, just where it was located. It's a relevant topic for sure, just not what I'm looking for when I go to the eBay thread.

[Hynerpeton]

I hate when you get a tracking number and still cant track the item. What is the point of tracking then?