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Is there any interest to U.S. sellers what a GSP item looks like when it goes through the system to a buyer like myself in Canada?
Next time I buy an item through GSP, I’ll take some screenshots of it, and photos to show what Pitney-Bowes does to the package to get it to me in Canada to show what the process looks like to a buyer.
Thanks for everyone’s thoughts and feedback – we think it makes sense to keep both to give us both freedom and security. Retro has a good point about the insurance – once we start our new lifestyle, if we feel we just need one car going, we can garage the second car until we need it.
Also, doing some quick investigating, our insurance will be going down significantly as we won’t be commuting daily, and the area we are moving to is a little bit safer (less thefts/accidents).
We also know everything about these cars since we’ve had them since they were practically new – so we know there is no major issues. We’ll be driving them into the ground 🙂 Parts are cheap for Hondas around here (the Civic is always the top selling car in Canada – so parts and donor cars are very easy to find).
I’ve never done anything special on small items – I’ve shipped 100’s of portable cassette and CD players over the years, and haven’t had any issues.
For larger CD players, I’m curious if anyone does anything special for carousel or multi-disc players as well. I don’t usually go into those categories (too “high tech” for my store and repair skillset).
For larger/valuable stereo components, I like to “double box” them – where I wrap the equipment in a bag, then a layer or two of bubble wrap, put it in a box, then put that box in a larger box with packing peanuts. Never had a shipping issue that way.
As someone who buys regularly through GSP (I’m in Canada) I’ve had packages of all shapes, sizes, and packing methods come through with no issues. For Canada, the items get shipped to Erlanger, KY and then truckloads are brought to a warehouse near Toronto where they are re-labelled using local shipping labels on top of the label you would use to get it to Erlanger.
All taxes/duties/etc. are charged separately to the buyer by Pitney-Bowes.
I think it is an excellent program for buyers like myself – it simplifies the international buying process for both the seller and buyer.
In my area there is two retail stores that just deal in returned, damaged, or unsold items.
The one store is basically full of stuff from Costco – bins of anything you can think of from clothing to electronics to personal care products. No huge deals, but OK for finding the odd item for personal use.
The second store I went to this weekend – it use to be all stuff from Sears (before it went bankrupt in Canada), now it seems to be stuff from Home Depot and Sears/K-Mart from the U.S. I went through one bin this weekend and it had K-Mart price tags on it, but it was all new MLB, NASCAR, NBA, and NHL shirts for $2. I bought over 40 shirts that were size 4XL to 6XL for $2 each. Being a big guy myself, I know these shirts are very hard to find outside of the team’s home city and fans of those teams/drivers would be happy to pay $20 for a shirt there size (they are usually $40 to $60 at places like DestinationXL).
The stores are very unlikely to have any good deals (they tend to almost charge close to full retail for a returned/damaged item) – I just happened upon some inventory they had difficulty moving locally that I know I can move easier online.
04/05/2019 at 9:24 am in reply to: Buyer claimed "missing parts or pieces" Return item – How should I handle it? #59800I’ve given up fighting – I just let them file a return, send a label, and let them decide if they want to send the item back.
Until they file a return, I just ignore the messages. Most of them just disappear, and then those who want to return the item rarely return it anyways – just keep your shipping label info to get a refund if they don’t use it.
I always report them – eventually with enough strikes on their accounts, eBay will remove them. I had a buyer leave me negative a few months ago, and the negative disappeared after eBay kicked them out – so it is always helpful to block and report bad buyers.
You’ll be more at peace with yourself accepting that people are annoying, and a small percentage of sales will end up in returns. It’s just the “hidden” cost of doing business on eBay.
Go really early – before the sale even starts and buy what you need. When the sale starts, come back and they will refund you the difference…
I know it’s horrible, but it always works for me.
On for $10.77 in Canada…about $8.07 US
https://flyers.smartcanucks.ca/canada/home-depot-on-flyer-april-4-to-10/single/2A few years ago I had some golf umbrellas shipped to me from a well-known Canadian business in a box that had written on the outside “BRENT – TOUCH THIS AND YOU WILL DIE!” and was taped with duct tape that wasn’t sticking and the box had screws and other weird small junk in it. I asked the company why they would ship in a box (my name isn’t Brent) with that written on it and taped improperly, and they said it was the only box they had that was the right size and ran out of shipping tape. Weird. It was from a well-known Canadian business. I’ve ordered from them before and since and it’s been professional.
I had an eBay seller once send me a sensitive electronic motherboard once in just a poly-mailer. No box, no other protection, and the board was broken when I got it. I still am confused about that one as well.
I guess you never know how things will get shipped.
I love reading “Digital Hoarder” stories…there has been a few in the news lately and find it fascinating that people are addicted to collecting useless digital files.
@T-Satt – I think your second point brings up something I should look into – some real accounting software like Quicken. I’m familiar with pre-2005 versions, but should look into some modern software for my needs. Spreadsheets are great for a small part-time business, but I rather put the time into building a system within Quicken or another software to automate the process in the future. We’re also exploring other business ideas, and should make things easier on ourselves with the right accounting tools.
The FX I can sort out in the spreadsheet – everything comes in “clean” for C$ (e.g. it shows as “$1.99”) and for other currencies it needs to be run through a formula into another field (e.g. US$ shows up as “$1.99 USD” – requiring the USD to be stripped to get it to a financial/number field but it does allow for it to be automated by a lookup).
I’ll hit you up for some help once I get some software – I’m cheap at the moment just using “Libre Office” but should start paying for something a bit better. It’s a good next step for me to take though as I grow.
PayPal downloads are pretty much useless – I find the data is off like you say, and plus in my situation with FX (currency exchange) it gets MESSY.
As I’m selling 0-10 items a day at the moment, I’m still doing things manually with the daily exchange rates and FX transfers to keep it simple. I convert everything into one currency and then do my numbers.
I also have to have a column for FX gain/loss as I may not pull or convert the money in PayPal to cash in my bank account for days or weeks, again creating a small discrepancy that I have to account for. Also, the posted FX rate, PayPal’s FX rate, and my bank’s FX rate is all slightly different…
It’s kind of weird because in Canada I’m seeing the opposite – the eBay.ca supply store had about 20 items to choose from this time, and it was only 8 items last time. They also eliminated the multi-packs of different sized boxes/envelopes together.
I find it odd that eBay doesn’t advertise as heavily in either the U.S. or Canada as it does in Australia or the UK – When I watch TV shows from Australia, you can see the buses/trams covered in eBay logos, billboards in the background, and ads during the shows. Even the odd product placement where a cool item to decorate a house was “found on eBay”. Both GumTree and eBay are mentioned and advertised on UK TV and radio often.
In the U.S., I see a lot of StubHub advertising, and in Canada it seems focused on Kijiji – not sure why they hide in these markets. Even PayPal advertises heavily in Canada – my local Post Office has several ads for Canada Post and PayPal in it, and contests.
Could it be that the term “Native” is considered offensive?
I know that in Canada, it is not politically correct to use “Native” nowadays. The terms now in use are “Indigenous” or “First Nation” or specific name like “Seneca” or “Mohawk”.
The Canadian government is doing a good job with a “Reconciliation” project as of late with Indigenous groups and educating non-Indigenous people as to what they suffered through. Things can never be made right, but at least apologies and understanding is starting to happen.
A quick search shows me that “Native” isn’t the same in the U.S. yet:
The term “native” does not denote a specific Aboriginal ethnicity (such as First Nation, Métis, or Inuit). In the United States, the term “Native American” is in common usage to describe Aboriginal peoples. In Canada, the term “Aboriginal” or “Indigenous” is generally preferred to “Native.”
For faucets, we’ve always bought Delta or Moen. When I was a teen I worked in a hardware store, and learned that both Delta and Moen will replace anything on their faucets for free.
I’m sure they hate me as I’ve basically replaced every piece I could on every faucet I’ve had – sometimes a few times – and every time they ship me the parts for free.
Amatino – your paint colors sound the same as mine – we have a light beige, dark beige, and white for doors/trim in our house. I buy recycled paint in 5 gallon buckets and it’s dirt cheap.
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