Almost no one is talking about something that will have a MASSIVE and overwhelmingly negative impact for collectors and dealers in the United States who purchase sports cards and other collectibles from Canada or other countries (as well as Canadian / international small businesses such as myself who offer rare and unique items to the American market)

The US administration has signed an order ending the 'de minimis' exemption which until then allowed shipments valued under $800 to be exempt from import taxes. After August 29th, all shipments, regardless of value will need to go through formal customs clearance and be assessed duty based on the applicable tariff code.

Impacts I believe this will have in the hobby:

1) See attached notice I just received from eBay - Canada Post and other postal services around the world are not equipped to collect this duty and there is a high likelihood packages sent via these methods will be returned to sender. For small / low cost items, the postal service is the most economical method to ship - Couriers are MUCH more expensive and don't make sense for $10 cards for example.
2) For buyers, this may make international purchases much more expensive - in addition to duties, you may now see customs brokerage fees
3) This will likely significantly increase transit time - packages may take days or even weeks longer than previous to arrive
4) Much longer time for sellers to prepare packages for shipment and far greater complexity than previous.

See the article below for more details - I would encourage you to search "De Minimis" in google news or other news apps to learn more - you'll find lots of articles from a variety of sources

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-suspends-de-minimis-exception-1.7597830

NOTE: Please DO NOT turn this into a political post - I have friends on all sides of the political spectrum in the USA and Canada. I am posting for education and knowledge sharing only since almost no one I've talked to has been familiar this was happening

If any Canadian sellers have effective solutions for a large catalog of vintage items (9000+ vintage pieces sourced from around the world), please DM me as I would love to hear how others are navigating this

I won this card on an eBay auction. As you can see on the other photos it has some clear surface scratches and a print line. None of which were visible on the posting or description. Very frustrating to say the least.

Does anyone have experience with products such as Kurt’s Card Care or similar products and do you think it would help?

Good to know, if you didn’t already. I’m still learning.

https://hobbycardlife.com/pwe-shipping/

Just picked up a new Ricoh fi-8170 scanner for my card business, and the quality is absolutely unmatched. Give your buyers a true sense of truth and security when purchasing by showing a perfect view of all potential flaws. This is going to change my business forever!

BUY HERE!

For those that buy and sell on eBay, do you ever get attempts or make attempts outside of eBay? The eBay fees do hurt the sales. I have received messages indicating offers for lower than the buy it now, and without eBay taking their cut, it’s a good offer. However, I’m always very cautious of this people.

How do you guys feel about this?