Shipping One Baseball Card to Ontario, Canada
 

I sold one of my 53 Bowmans to a collector that lives in Ontario, Canada. It will weigh around 10 oz, maybe slightly less, but when I checked the rates, it indicated that a First Class package would run about 21.70! It's been years since I shipped anything to Canada, this price can't be right for a small manila envelope.

Phil aka Tere1071

if you can keep the thickness to around 3/4" it should be about $5.00. Anything thicker and you get into the "package" category and the $21 sounds about right.

And if it is "rigid" - i.e in a slab, the $21 rate applies.

Crazy.

It's a slabbed PSA card, I'm afraid. Ouch!

Phil aka Tere1071

Are you sure about the 10 oz? Sounds very high for 1 graded card.

I would go directly to your local PO to get the options for shipping.

Like what has been mentioned, there has to be something available that is much cheaper?

It has been a while since I read this post but I believe there is some good info within to help U.S. sellers.

Good Luck. :)

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1428968

I probably calculating a bit high, but I'm going to double wrap it into two padded envelopes for extra protection. I reached out to the purchaser and asked him to contribute another 6.00 for the shipping and I'll cover the balance. Hopefully, he'll find this amendable. Thank you for your input.

Phil aka Tere1071

There is a very recent thread on this. Personally I would eat the $6 rather than changing an agreed upon price.https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=177613

You should be able to get it down to around 13-14 bucks if you can keep it under 8 ounces, which shouldn't be a problem for a single graded card, and still keeping it protected.

However, if it's a very valuable card, I can understand why you would want to bulk up the packaging above 8 ounces.

Thank you for your feedback. I spoke with the buyer and he agreed to throw in a little extra money towards the shipping after I explained the situation. I also changed my shipping information to state that I won't ship outside the USA.

Phil aka Tere1071

This is correct. One PSA graded card weighs 1.5 ounces. You can easily wrap it and put it in a small box and keep the total weight under 8 ounces. If you mail it at the PO it will cost you $14.25 and if you mail it through eBay it will be $13.54. Either way, you will get tracking, but not insurance. At the PO you will need to fill out a paper customs form, but through eBay the customs form is simple and easy to fill out and it will print along with the postage label.

Canada
 

Technically, all merchandise going to Canada is required to go at the package rate. The $5 rate that you are talking about is for documents and they are mailed at the "flats" rate.

I sometimes mail PWE to Canada for $2, even though it is against the rules. Even a $2 card is merchandise and should be in a package, but I haven't had any trouble with PWE's.

On My Threads/Auctions I generally offer Free Shipping in the US. For Canadian guys, I offer the same amount (usually $4) towards the Postage. The last time, about a month ago, I shipped 4 or 5 raw cards for $12 and change. The Canadian contributed the $8. Most of the guys up there accept that they have to kick in more for shipping because of the higher rates.

I used to have a customer that figured a way to get a PO Box on the US side. He would wait until Tracking confirmed delivery and scoot across the border. He bought so many cards that the bother and the cost of the PO Box were covered by the savings in Postage..............

Yeah as Canadians we know that we are going to have to eat the extra shipping and I have no problem doing so. With border closures we havent been even able to visit a PO box on the US side for a year

Canadian here. You should be able to send that via USPS First Class with tracking for around $12.

Another idea I can't recommend enough is to check out netparcel.com. They're a Canada-based company which offers great discounts on shipping via all major couriers and the postal system. Americans can use the service as well, but it only seems to be financially feasible in certain areas of your country. Look into it and see if it works for you. You can often get things to Canada via courier much faster and fairly affordably through them depending on where you're situated. You'll have a bit of learning to do if you want to make the service worth your while, but it has been incredibly valuable for me.

Although I understand the benefit to the seller to use Ebay Global Shipping, anything is better than Global Shipping for us Canadians. A $500 card usually tacks on an extra $90-$100 in fees (extra shipping/customs/duty) that we normally wouldn't have to pay otherwise (90% of the time for me).

I have no issues paying $10-20 to ship a graded card to Canada, but to add on all that extra is crazy.......and you can't combine shipping with Global Shipping last time I checked.

Thank you to everyone who does not use Global Shipping !!!!

Yes, if you wish to keep your international clientele, don't use the colossal eBay money grab that is Global Shipping. If a seller refuses to ship outside of Global Shipping, I am no longer a customer.

The ignorance of the sellers who refuse to budge from their Global Shipping stance is ridiculous. Granted, I can understand why they would wish to do it for pricier things (yet there are still many secure methods which are cheaper for the sake of your buyers--you want to keep them happy and coming back for more, don't you?). I can't tell you how many times a seller has refused to dismount the Global high horse for something of minimal value when requested. Do they really think anybody would pay over $14 to ship a $5 card? It's preposterous.

I don't use Global Shipping.

However, I understand that most sellers who do, would not even entertain the idea of shipping Internationally otherwise.

I specialize in boxing and lots of oddball stuff, so I'd be shooting myself in the foot if I didn't accept International customers.

I am continually frustrated by the constant escalating prices of International Package shipping over the last 10+ years or so.

I'm sure it's lost me lots of customers over the years, especially on anything that weighs over 8 ounces.

I'm also amazed by the number of International buyers who are still willing to pay the ridiculous postage charges, for oftentimes, very cheap items.

Just yesterday I had somebody from Overseas buy a cheap $6.95 item off my website. Not only did they pay the $15.35 shipping charge, they sent me an excited note and glowing praises that they were able to find that item on my site.

Then I went to go print the label, and realized I need to up my International Shipping costs on the site again, because that didn't even cover the full charge, which just a few weeks ago was designed to cover even further regions like Japan and Australia, that I occasionally ship to. :(

For clarification, I sold the Rizzuto to a fellow member of Net54. He was kind enough to contribute some extra money towards the shipping, but I paid the bulk of it since I didn't specify anything about shipping outside of the USA in my postings. I made that adjustment after the sale.

Phil aka Tere1071
Upgrading my 53 Bowman color set
Collecting/upgrading my 71 Topps Baseball set

Shame about the run-around you had Phil. At least it sounds like your buyer was a great guy :D

Speaking as a Canadian, I know the costs and time is more on cards crossing the border. If the card/price is right I come into the transaction expecting to pay extra for shipping. I'd rather pay the extra if it means I have a chance to buy the card. There are enough sellers who won't ship to Canada that a lot of good options simply aren't available to us. Nothing is worse than seeing a card I love but the seller won't even entertain an offer.

Shipping
 

For those of you who are wondering about shipping prices - use this link:

https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/notice123.htm

Domestic shipping on the left - International on the right.

eBay shipping uses the Commercial Plus pricing.

International pricing use Pricing Groups. The bottom link under Commercial pricing shows you the price group for each country.

Near the top of the page you will see "PE tools". The dropdown area gives you more links, and there is a link for the Zone Chart for Domestic Shipping.

Thank you Rick for the information. By the way, only 18 cards away from completing the 71 set. Your sale had much to do with that, thank you once again.

Phil