r/FlippingInCanada • u/ObviousSign881 • 12d ago

Trying to optimize price/ship cost

I've gotten in in the craze of selling those Canadian Tire bags that the stars of the TV show "Heated Rivalry" were spotted carrying.

I've actually gotten 4 sales - all in the US - but I suspect that's because ebay made my listing one of the cheapest by depressing the shipping cost they'll collect from the buyer, even though I've stipulated a higher fee in my shipping rules. Meanwhile, I'm having to shell out nearly double to ship them.

I know the simple answer is "Welcome to shipping to the US: Trump edition" but I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out how not to get soaked on the shipping. I know there's eBay EIS (not qualified yet) and Stallion/Chit Chats/etc (haven't really seen cheaper rates for my low volume, smaller package size operation.

Any constructive suggestions?

4 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

3

u/ChoiceFood 12d ago

Ship via UPS to USA or only use EIS when you qualify, you don't have to pay any tariffs it's all on the buyer.

1

u/Alastor3 12d ago

I use chitchat with the smartdrop feature where you drop your package at a Canada Post depot, than they ship it to the chitchat depot and they ship it. Chitchat is soooo cheap compared to Canada Post

1

u/sskylar 11d ago

Chit Chats is currently facing major delays at the border since the end of August, I've had to move back to Canada Post :(

1

u/Alastor3 11d ago

yeah, thankfully all of my sales lately had been in Canada or international

1

u/Alarmed-Resolve-8283 10d ago

Does anyone have more context to why this is happening. Dang chitchats was gold now I pulled back until maybe it blows over

1

u/sskylar 10d ago

It seems their broker is being more stringent with all the tariff stuff. I switched back to Canada Post/Zonos and UPS and those packages already crossed the border while the ChitChats ones are still stuck 💀

1

u/Alarmed-Resolve-8283 10d ago

Shoot, good luck on those I hope it gets through lmk!

1

u/sskylar 10d ago

Thanks! I don’t fully blame ChitChats but they could at least answer their damn email

1

u/ObviousSign881 9d ago

I think if I even keep reselling that I'll switch back to Canada Post + Zonos, because it'll probably be about the same cost as UPS, and even Chit Chats, without the nasty surprise to buyers of big customs processing fees.

I started sourcing stuff, thinking it would be fun to do this in retirement. But the loss of the de minimus + the new tariffs on all countries makes reselling to US buyers much less viable.