New 35% tariff/duty on sports cards from Canada to US on 8/28?
BaltimoreYankee
Posts: 3,123 ✭✭✭✭✭
I saw something to this effect on a Facebook reel (take that for what it's worth).
Has anyone else seen something like this? It would mainly affect those in the US collecting OPC cards. Much of my '71 baseball set build is Canada sourced - I still need around 140 cards and paying $135 for $100 worth of cards would be a deal breaker, especially with the high shipping costs to begin with.
Daniel
0
Comments
That tariff isn't about your 100 dollar card.
It's there because foreign goods are being routed through Canada. Sometimes being rebranded then shipped in to the US.
There are or were a bunch of companies in Canada who did nothing but flipped Chinese goods to the US. Buying up supply and raising the price on the stuff we need.
The tariff makes it so now that profit goes to the US government. Instead of it going to some random Canadian company. It also creates a margin so US companies can compete in markets that were dying in this country. It remains to be seen if anybody here is going to use that margin and pick up the slack.
You could just look at it like, those card just gained a lot of value. Now they're worth 135. heh
De minimus is being eliminated, which was a carveout for low value goods. Nothing to do with goods being routed through Canada, this applies to all country imports into the US (China came first in May). This is more about Teemu, Alibabba and other large global ecom players shipping smaller consumer transactions into the US.
This basically kills US cards sales from Canada to the US - eBay won’t even generate a Canada Post label ffs. And this will definitely be inflationary (and may be the right policy, I have long payed Canadian customs on packages coming from the US).
The first thing Trump tariffed was Chinese steel. But, companies in Canada were buying Chinese steel and rebranding it as Canadian steel to avoid tariffs. The United States doesn't really have a steel industry anymore because we're getting undercut. The tariff gives US companies a margin to operate in. But, someone has to pick up the slack.
I think it's a problem when many components in the tools we use for our defense are made in the countries we may need to defend ourselves against.
True, eBay doesn't have the ability to generate postage labels for foreign governments postage systems. That's always been the case though. In my experience if you use eBays international shipping service and have a problem eBay can't give the buyer a label to use with their countries postage system to return the item.
What are you talking about, I’ve sent hundreds of Canada post packages to the US from Canada. The issue is CP does not have brokerage capabilities like the big private carriers. De minimus has nothing to do with dumping of steel, these are sub 800 dollar.
You may want to step out of this convo, you don’t seem to understand this particular piece of policy.
If you're right, why are we having the conversation? It seems like this guy is saying his sports cards are being hit by tariffs. Which is exactly what I'm talking about.
I don't know how the system works when you use eBay to print a shipping label in Canada. I just know I've had a problem with eBay sending my stuff out of the country and not being able to get it back if there's an issue. Because they don't have agreements with every countries postal service.
Well I am right, and I’m simply correcting your misunderstanding. I’d prefer to move on tbh.
This is the policy, for those interested in what is actually happening:
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/08/24/economy/de-minimis-package-delivery-small-business
There are no new tariffs on sports cards, this is not Canada only policy, and it has nothing to do with steel. The de minimus exemption on ALL goods is being eliminated.
Why is he making the post if he's not being hit by tariffs?
I've had problem like this with with a few countries.
Removing the penalty on low value items still creates a path for goods that hurt the US. If that story is even accurate.
Us Canadians may have to pay your tarriff when we ship it hasnt been determined yet. Thats what Canada Post is saying we pay up front. Dont know for sure about UPS and Fedex plans. So Canada Post will collect the USA tarriff from the seller.
We arent rebranding Chinese steel. We have a huge steel industry of our own and we employ over 25,000 steel workers. We hate Chinese goods as much as anyone for its inferior quality. I own businesses in Canada and know other business owners and you cant be serious saying that. The chinese are putting a massive tarriff on our canola and for years havent been good trading partners, we want little to do with them.
Here's details:
Starting August 29, 2025, Canada Post will also implement a new system to collect U.S. tariffs on shipments sent from Canada to the United States. This change is due to the U.S. suspending its $800 duty-free "de minimis" threshold under Executive Order 14324.
To comply, Canada Post is partnering with Zonos® to collect duties before shipments enter the U.S. network, requiring a valid Declaration ID (13-character code) for all U.S.-bound labels
Good to hear CP is making adjustments, suspect eBay will reinstate CP labels around that date. Still, a big blow to Canadian sellers and Americans that buy from Canada.
Yeah its not good either way I totally agree. Been reading on ebay forums alot of Canadian sellers will pause until we see whats totally going to happen. There needs to be a transparent way to show the addition of the tarriff in the selling price of the item. Even if the Canadian seller pays the 35% he will have to raise his price then to cover all or part of that new cost. Which then doesnt make the price maybe attractive. Continued talks between Canada and United States last week about trade. The Canadians I know really hope we come to a new trade deal and move forward in some way.
Thanks for this. I now have a better understanding. I didn't know there was an $800 threshold previously. This will definitely stall my '71 OPC set as most come from Canada. I'm way too 'thrifty' to pay an additional 35% on top of auction prices.
It makes perfect sense that collectibles would be subject to duties from tariffs right? Yes? Explain this one. Asking for a friend. Thanks.
I am in the US, and I am now seeing this statement from eBay on all eBay auctions from Canadian sellers, in between the section about shipping and the section about delivery:
"Due to US policies, import fees for this item will need to be paid to customs or the shipping carrier on delivery."
buying O-Pee-Chee (OPC) baseball
Offer less when buying the card. It works for me when I bring cards in from the U.S.
I sorta feel the same way.
Also, what if the card coming from Canada clearly indicates that it was printed in the US?
Again, this isn’t specific to Canada or collectables. This is for goods manufactured outside of the US and involves elimination of a threshold below which items were tax exempt. Link above clearly explains the discussion point.
Your point on de minimus is clear but there are other aspects.
Aspects to tariffs? Of course, it’s an absolute mess for businesses to manage to, and constantly changing.
But this subject and what the OP raised is 100% about de minimus, which I don’t expect to change as deals with trading partners continue to evolve.
As a US consumer what you need to know is those smaller transactions from offshore companies do not come with a size carveout anymore. Suspect most Americans weren’t even aware that there was one in the first place.
George - made in the US is covered under USMCA (Canadians call it CUSMA). Good made in the US shipped from Canada to the US are duty exempt.
So a Topps card from Canadian seller is duty exempt, OPC not so much.
Zero chance they get this right, consistently.
And on top of duty there are obnoxious broker fees. On a 100 card I’d expect fees to be closer to 50 bucks once Fedex takes their cut for brokering.
My American friends, welcome to what we have been dealing with in Canada forever, the fun game of “how much will my package get assessed for at the border”.
I lament the loss of de minimus as much or more than anyone. This impacts businesses that make things quite significantly.
Regarding collectibles; they used to be exempt from tariff entirely. Whether it was above the de minimus threshold or not. Here is the wording regarding the exclusion.
§ 547.314 Information or informational materials. The term information or informational materials includes publications, films, posters, phonograph records, photographs, microfilms, microfiche, tapes, compact disks, CD ROMs, artworks, and news wire feeds.
Now as the current tariffs have been produced as result of executive order, and whether you agree with that or not is one thing, but the result related to previous excepted items is unclear.
This is what I am referring to. I don’t know whether which or what affects the original poster. It would depend on the dollar amount. I agree that the de minimus is the major factor as most sales are less than the threshold.
You can smuggle your goods through Minnesota. I’ll start tunneling north.
Gotcha, appreciate that.