Item — HN Reader

>Trump’e arguments weren’t wrong

Just say "Trump was right". You will not be condemned by bien-pensants as a thought-criminal. At least, not immediately.

>I just wish he could get the USPS to stop seeing outbound international mail as a profit centre.

In other words, you'd like to pay less when buying from the US.

(There's nothing wrong with such a wish, but let's be clear about what you mean.)

>Plenty of Americans could be exporting a lot more internationally, but the USPS has chosen high prices and low volumes.

I know of no evidence that the USPS charges more to ship internationally than Canada Post, notorious among Canadians for high prices. On the contrary, it's sometimes cheaper for Canadians to ship to elsewhere in Canada by mailing from the US. (Discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/6rcn0v/canada_post_... )

>As a Canadian that sometimes talks Americans into selling to me on Ebay, they find it a painful and costly experience compared to US sales.

That's because it is, compared to mailing domestically. It'd be surprising otherwise, for any country.

I've sold on eBay and Amazon for years and have shipped often to Canada and elsewhere; the procedure isn't that much more cumbersome. The vast, vast, vast majority of sales are within the US, however.

It's quite possible for an American seller (whether on eBay or Amazon or with their own online sites) to make money solely from the US market. Canada is one ninth of the US and a smaller portion of potential sales for American sellers. A Canadian seller, on the other hand, knows that the American market is nine times larger than the domestic one, so has much more incentive to a) learn how to handle international orders, and b) be willing to pay the higher postage rates.

1 comments

> In other words, you'd like to pay less when buying from the US.

Naw, I want USians to have better chances of getting my money. When I buy niche things that are available from the US and Asia, Asia keeps winning out. I'm willing to pay more for faster shipping, but I have my limits.

> I've sold on eBay and Amazon for years and have shipped often to Canada and elsewhere; the procedure isn't that much more cumbersome. The vast, vast, vast majority of sales are within the US, however.

Doesn't explain why most others don't bother. Is it still too cumbersome? Or is it just cultural where the rest-of-world is thought of as a scary and dangerous place?

> It's quite possible for an American seller (whether on eBay or Amazon or with their own online sites) to make money solely from the US market. Canada is one ninth of the US and a smaller portion of potential sales for American sellers. A Canadian seller, on the other hand, knows that the American market is nine times larger than the domestic one, so has much more incentive to a) learn how to handle international orders, and b) be willing to pay the higher postage rates.

Dunno why a business would throw away an extra 11% in sales, or being able to sell their same inventory for higher prices. Depends on your product. Obviously a lot of Canadians really benefit from FBA because postal prices are high enough to discourage a lot of non-FBA online ordering.

> A Canadian seller, on the other hand, knows that the American market is nine times larger than the domestic one

My own experience was that selling to the world made me more money than just N. America, largely selling video games, DVDs and other small electronics.

Although I comment from the perspective of a Canadian, there's a whole world out there that USians could profitably benefit from selling to, IMO.

> USians

Ah yes, you're one of those who think that not calling the only country in the world with the word "America" in its name, "America", somehow strikes a mighty blow against American imperialism. You'll pardon me if I am skeptical of your claim of primarily wanting to help American businesses, as opposed to wanting to pay less (which, as I said, there is nothing wrong with wanting, in and of itself).

>Doesn't explain why most others don't bother. Is it still too cumbersome? Or is it just cultural where the rest-of-world is thought of as a scary and dangerous place?

Yes, indeed, one of those.

>Dunno why a business would throw away an extra 11% in sales

First, it's not "11% of sales"; the actual share is less because of natural friction, just as you didn't have nine times as many sales to Americans as Canadians.

Second, unless the item is very small, international shipping by USPS requires a larger-than-usual mailing label, in triplicate, and a special plastic pouch to put the extra forms in on the box's surface. Then there are the risks of complaints by customers who have to pay duty, and the much greater difficulty of accepting returns from international customers. I was willing to ship internationally despite these factors, but I cannot criticize others who decided that the additional revenue isn't worth the trouble.

>My own experience was that selling to the world made me more money than just N. America, largely selling video games, DVDs and other small electronics.

That's a given. But, again, as a Canadian you would have left much, much, much more on the table by only selling to the domestic market than your American counterparts. I assure you that if American sellers could quintuple sales by selling to Canadians, they would do so even if the mailing process were three times as complicated. But they wouldn't, so they don't.

>My own experience was that selling to the world made me more money than just N. America, largely selling video games, DVDs and other small electronics.

Spare us the false veneer of kindly advice. You can't stand how the country next door to yours constantly has for sale items you want to buy at attractive prices but can't, at least not directly, despite sharing the same language and culture. Instead of trying to change things in your country to make it easier for such things to be sold there, you demand that the neighboring country seek to earn less money when transporting the items to you. Congratulations.

wat