Why I don't ship to Canada

[steve B]

International shipping can be a mystery.

I'd been told - now several years ago- that for many countries the mail time depended on the envelope making the flight. Not all flights did mail, and many only carried mail once a week or even less often for odd places.

So things would usually take some time. I was buying stuff from the UK, and it was usually a week, maybe a bit longer.

Then one time I ordered, right about this time of year. Figured on two weeks since the mails were full. The next day the postman knocks. ???? I'm not expecting anything. It's the package from the UK! Not sent express or anything, made it next day. He didn't believe me until I pointed out the date on the post office label.

I had a package going to the UK take only 3 days, a big surprise as well.

On the other side, there's customs and culture.

One of the bike guys was in Holland. Every shipment he sent anyone got a month or longer delay in US customs. Apparently they really inspected the Holland shipments for drugs.

Another one was buying a bike from a guy in Italy. Deal done, paid, and I wait......Nothing. After about 6 months I see him selling a pair of special wheels for the same sort of bike through a guy in NJ who would handle stuff for him. Basically buying a crate full of stuff and the seller would include a bunch of other stuff for him to ship so there would be less shipping time. So I was a bit worried figuring he'd forgotten and parted the thing out. Asked and the response was "don't worry, that's a spare pair of wheels for the bike. He's shipping it soon, they just don't have the same sort of hurry to business we have" Week later it shows up. Packed really well, and with a couple bonus parts for the delay (Not expensive but useful)

I wonder how international Ebay deals with that? I'm led to understand it's a fairly common thing in Europe for things to be a bit relaxed.

Steve B