How do you post things on ebay?

Canada Post apparently on strike, how is that going to affect business on eBay?

• So, I buy and sell items on eBay, and unbeknownst to me, apparently Canada Post just went on strike. I ordered some things on Friday, will they still arrive on time? One item from the United States and another item from Hong Kong, if the location they're purchased from has any effect. Also, is it a good idea to sell things on eBay during this period? Will they ship slowly, or not ship at all? And lastly, how long does this strike look like it will last?

• Answer:

  Well...both the items could wind up stuck in customs or in a sorting station for awhile longer than usual. If it was me (I've been an eBay seller since 98-though not much the last year or so) I would scale back or cancel my auctions if I was in an area away from the U.S border-where I am (in New Brunswick) in a worst-case-scenario I can drive 25 minutes to the nearest U.S post office and could still get things to the U.S (and overseas) that way.The thing is rotating strikes can be just as bad as a general strike-you could drop something in the mail where you live in B.C-they could go on strike for 2 days there..then the item could move into Alberta just in time for them to go on strike for a couple days..and so on..you can only ask customers on eBay to cut you so much slack-since Paypal and eBay both have time restrictions on dispute resolution-and there are no provisions in those rules for things like postal strikes.(especially considering the US postal service isn't unionized and can't strike anyway)-so buyers can get kind of nervous(especially US buyers) -considering things can get delayed for several days in US Customs that makes it bad enough as is-without any more delays on this side of the border.What happens is you end up with some nervous buyer who's a newbie and all of a sudden they're hitting you with negative feedback;trying to explain to some guy in Arkansas there's a postal strike in Canada isn't going to cut it(since they wouldn't believe you-as I mentioned-no postal unions in the US after all !,and they wouldn't even Google it-they'd just "neg" you). I wouldn't even consider shipping things to the US via Fedex or UPS-just the brokerage charges that they insist on charging as standard policy cost more than most of what you would ever sell was actually worth.(I think the last time I checked 2 or 3 years ago the MINIMUM charge to ship anything (other than documents) to the US via courier was like 38 dollars) No one knows how long this strike will actually last-it could be awhile as neither side wants to budge much;but the fact is Canada Post is kind of a dinosaur-the world has changed a lot the last 40 years and it hasn't-they're(the union) going to have to bite the bullet sooner or later.. (and yes-any item shipped by any postal service in the world ..Hong Kong or elsewhere.. would have final delivery done by Canada Post in Canada.)