August 18, 2025; Section 321 De Minimis Call w/ Ali from YYZ Prep
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYHdDXGn4Bo
Tools/Software & Websites Referenced
Summary
Key Insights:
Understanding Customs and Shipping Regulations 📦 The discussion revolves around recent changes in customs regulations, particularly the revocation of Section 321 de minimis, affecting shipping to the U.S. 🛑 New systems are being implemented to flag shipments going to the same fulfillment center, heightening scrutiny on customs procedures.
Challenges with Customs Brokers 🤷♂️ There's significant confusion even among customs brokers about new regulations and proper practices, leading to inconsistent advice and responses. 📉 Many sellers are uncertain about how to approach customs and have experienced delays or responses without clear solutions.
Shipping Strategies for Amazon Sellers 🚚 There are various shipping methods including informal and formal entries. For informal entries, a single commercial invoice can consolidate multiple items but might incur additional charges for extra HTS codes. 🧾 Using a reputable customs broker is essential to navigate the complexities of shipping goods, particularly for formal entries which require more documentation.
Cost Considerations When Shipping 💰 It's crucial to estimate all associated costs, including shipping, duties, and brokerage fees. Shipping with UPS or FedEx often includes brokerage fees that can add to overall costs. 📊 When using informal shipping methods, it's crucial to keep shipments under $2500 to avoid complications.
Navigating FDA Regulations for Food Products 🍔 For food items, a Dun's number and FDA registration number are essential for formal entries. Informal entries may bypass some of these requirements, but there’s a risk of increased scrutiny. 📞 Communicating directly with suppliers to obtain necessary documentation is critical, especially for regulated products.
Maximizing Opportunities Amidst Changes 📈 Sellers are encouraged to adapt to new regulations and take advantage of the changing landscape, as some competitors may exit the market due to increased complexity. 💪 Long-term success in selling goods, especially across borders, hinges on resilience, strategic planning, and continuous learning.
Using Technology for Efficiency 🖥️ Tools powered by AI can aid in finding HTS codes and assessing duties, streamlining the shipping process. 🔗 Automated systems for generating commercial invoices and handling shipping logistics can also save time and reduce errors in the shipping process.
Actionable Advice for Sellers: ❓ Ensure you understand all regulations relevant to your products and establish good relationships with customs brokers. 📑 Keep detailed records and documentation ready for each shipment to avoid customs delays. 🛒 If selling food products, prioritize acquiring FDA registrations and stay updated with compliance requirements. 📱 Consider tools and services that can assist with the complexities of international shipping and customs management.
Final Thoughts: 🌍 As regulations change, the sellers who are willing to stay informed and adapt their strategies will find opportunities, even as others may falter. 🧗♂️ It’s essential to take proactive steps now to understand and navigate the complexities of customs and shipping to stay competitive in the market.
Timestamped Summary
[00:00-03:15] The discussion begins with a recap of shipping issues related to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations, specifically regarding the Section 321 de minimis provision. Participants discuss the confusion surrounding shipping entries to fulfillment centers, noting that new regulations have caused disruptions and confusion among standard practices.
[03:15-07:44] Details about the recent implementation of stricter shipping regulations are shared. The speakers highlight that the CBP has started flagging shipments based on the frequency and quantity sent to the same address, leading to misunderstandings among customs brokers. There’s an emphasis on the importance of correctly indicating tax IDs on shipments to prevent issues at customs.
[07:44-09:56] The conversation shifts to the broader implications of these regulations for small businesses, especially in the context of online selling platforms like Amazon. There are increasing concerns about how changes in rules may affect flexibility and the ability to manage inventory effectively.
[09:56-11:15] The hosts encourage businesses to stay informed and adapt to the changing landscape. They introduce a session led by Ali, who will provide further insights on these shifts in customs regulations, the potential revocation of Section 321, and how these changes will affect costs for businesses.
[11:15-15:20] Ali’s presentation starts, outlining options for shipping in light of new customs regulations. He discusses informal vs. formal entry and the implications for shipping costs and practices under current regulations.
[15:20-22:45] An in-depth explanation of the documentation and customs procedures for informal and formal entries follows. Ali talks about value declarations based on cost to the seller rather than retail value, and the necessity to include correct HTS codes and manufacturer information in shipping documents.
[22:45-27:14] The speakers emphasize the importance of understanding and navigating HTS codes and the risks involved in using incorrect classifications. They stress the importance of importing only products that comply with US regulations to avoid liabilities.
[27:14-31:20] The conversation moves to specifics about the costs associated with shipping to Amazon warehouses. Ali provides examples of duty rates and the costs associated with different carriers, stressing the importance of using the right methods to optimize shipping efficiency.
[31:20-35:45] Further details on packing, labeling, and the overall logistics of sending shipments across the border are discussed, including practical tips for handling returns and issues once products are at customs.
[35:45-40:12] The group discusses strategies for managing food product shipments and the necessary regulations, particularly for items subject to FDA oversight. Having the proper documentation is highlighted as essential for compliance.
[40:12-48:28] The challenges faced by sellers who rely on e-commerce platforms for sales are explored, emphasizing market fluctuations and the ability to pivot strategies successfully.
[48:28-52:00] Ali discusses using services that can simplify the shipping process for sellers, including third-party logistics options which can streamline inventory management across borders. The benefits of being proactive in this rapidly changing environment are reiterated.
[52:00-55:45] The dialogue wraps up with motivational thoughts for sellers regarding adapting to new regulations, ongoing opportunities within the market, and the importance of maintaining a growth mindset amidst challenges. The final remarks stress adaptability as a key to sustaining business growth in ecommerce.
Video Transcript
(00:00) for a pickup if we had anything left. We didn't have anything left. Um and I did see some some existing parcels with them were given to the UPS I think on the 15th. So they're they're still giving them through. They they pretty much just halted it because I believe uh two trucks got stopped and then on top of that they don't want the same issue as last time where nothing, you know, was able to clear in time and they had to bring everything back to people halfway through. Mhm. Yeah. And also I think there's a
(00:29) lot of confusions even with the uh CBP officers with regards to like if it's a single address or if it's a single recipient because everyone has their own definition of your 321 entries how much it should go because I've heard some people say that you know what it doesn't matter if it's going to like 15 different accounts to the same fulfillment center but only one shipment can go to a fulfillment center in a day and now they I think implemented a um a a system where where you you have to kind of the the entire PC manifest goes into the system. So they can like uh
(01:02) flag the shipment if uh you are sending in like multiple shipments to the same address that gets flagged into the CBP system. I believe that was rolled out last week. Yeah. So they basically what what should have happened is that they just implemented restrictions to stop people from bypassing the limit which I assume would have been there before anyways but I guess it wasn't.
(01:28) Um but that caused people to get confused because the rule and I talk about this later like the rule is uh Amazon is not the warehouse. So Amazon they have their headquarters in like Seattle. Each warehouse has their own tax ID. Every shipment is consigned to a tax ID and that tax ID has its own you know that's what the ACE manifest should be going off of.
(01:47) It's just that people sometimes they don't write the broker supposed to write the tax ID of the warehouse and or write the proper you know fulfillment center name. Sometimes people just put Amazon FBA receiving and then there's no I don't know if the broker doesn't put the the proper tax ID or something.
(02:06) It it makes it confusing for the officers and then they don't know that it's supposed to be that way. So they just use their discretion to cancel some. It's it's it's kind of a mess from my understanding. It should be it should be going through. It's just that they don't like literally I've been talking to customs brokers and shipping companies like all week long and even they don't know even they don't even know what to tell me cuz they don't want to take liability. They are literally like you ask someone else ask someone else.
(02:32) It's so weird. Yeah. I mean my broker like from from since the beginning like almost a year back he they have been of the view that uh the 321 limit of 800 per day is per address not per recipient. So if uh one shipment is going to one address no matter who the recipient is that's that's the limit that it would be counted against.
(02:57) So for that like they have had this opinion for for the longest time. So that's why you used to have stallion like three ones going through stallions because they would take like multiple shipments in array but yeah now I've heard like it's a mess. Sorry about that Jordan. Continue. Oh, no. No. Go ahead. No, I'm done. Um, welcome everybody.
(03:21) Uh, Ali is going to be the one that's, uh, front running this session that we have today. And the main purpose of this is just to discuss kind of the changes that are happening around the revocation of the section 321 deminimus and what's going to look like, assuming that it is actually going to be revoked by the end of this month.
(03:42) We know how this US administration tends to change their mind on a dime. So, it's still not set in stone that it's going to be revoked, but as it sits right now, it is set to be revoked for the end of this month. So, unless something changes and yeah, I believe Ali has some things prepared for us to discuss what that process is going to look like.
(04:02) Um, what the additional costs are going to be associated with that and those types of things. So, Ali, whenever you're ready, you can certainly take over. Perfect. Yeah. So, we'll get into it. I I threw up some some slides. If you see typos or anything, don't hate me. I I've been running around all day.
(04:20) I just wanted to have something for you guys to follow along. Um, so, let me just pull that up here. And if you are sharing your screen, you just have to like click on the voice chat and then you should have an option. Oh, looks like you're good. So, anybody that wants to view Oie's stream, just click on the voice chat and then you should see that he's live down below.
(04:40) And then you can click on that and you can view his screen. And of course, like as always, this is just a very informal conversation. This is a an informational conversation so that everybody can get their questions answered and feel more comfortable with the processes that are changing. So, if anybody has any questions along the way, always feel free to ask.
(05:04) um try not to interrupt if we're in the middle of something, but if you have a question, uh you can just pop it in the chat or you can like if nobody's talking in the meantime, just hop on the mic and ask a question accordingly. Yeah, Ali, you can take it away. Yeah. So, just for people that want to follow along, so I will be going over the type of ways for you to ship things now that it's gone. We'll go over if you're shipping food.
(05:30) We'll go over placement fees and you know the documents and fees you know that are related to that. So I do have multiple slides for some of them. If you do have questions just let me know as we go through and I'll let you know if anything's going to come up in the later slides or we'll just answer it as it is. So basically if you the the research on when section 321 is gone, it's it's pretty straightforward.
(05:51) There's not like a secret thing that people are going to end up doing because of this. Um there are some loopholes people are abusing but those are mainly for direct to consumer not for B2B. So essentially now that you don't have Stallion or DK you have to choose between informal and formal entry.
(06:13) So, what that means is you're not going to be able to use the uh partnered partnered FBA labels from Amazon like you're used to. Uh unless you, you know, have a separate service to bring it across the border and then ship it from there. And the good news is you don't have to make each box $800 retail value anymore. So, informal and formal are what you're going to choose. We'll start off with just talking about the informal, which is type 11.
(06:39) So for type 11, sorry, can you guys hear me? I can hear you. You can hear me, right? Okay. Yik's moving around. Uh, okay. So for informal, so one of the things that you'll note for informal as well as formal is that the value is now based off your cost of goods, which is how much you paid your distributor for it.
(07:02) It's not going to be based off the potential resale value on Amazon. Right? That's something I've confirmed with the shipping corers. Um, I don't know why Ship Savvy, uh, I he came to the warehouse once we spoke. He was mentioning something about it being the retail value, but I talked to a couple other brokers and I don't know why he was saying that.
(07:21) So, from the information I have so far, it's it's off cost the the cost that you pay. It includes if you pay packaging or labeling fees uh to the distributor, uh, but it does not include any sort of shipping or anything like that. No shipping, no freight. Now the way that uh I was talking with Abdul about the essentially they consider a consigne as the recipient aka a one tax ID.
(07:52) So like with section 321, when you send to multiple Amazon warehouses, you're sending to multiple tax IDs or EIN's and that's why they're classified as different recipients and they can take, you know, five locations can get one box a day to those locations per day. With informal, you can send up to 2500 USD of your value of your COGS.
(08:17) And that will be the same situation where it's per Amazon warehouse per location essentially per tax ID right so that stays the same. Now, in 99% of cases for informal, um, we're seeing that the easiest and most straightforward way is for you to use UPS or FedEx as the actual broker because the cost of associating a customs broker with it, one, you need to call up UPS or FedEx and let them know in advance not to clear it so that you can use your own broker, but the costs of your own broker are usually not that different and it adds a more time and and complexity to the shipping. So, usually you'll be ending up using
(08:57) UPS or FedEx direct shipment from Canada to the Amazon center and you'll be paying them their brokerage fees, which at a minimal I believe for UPS is around 40 USD. Uh that's their their entry uh to make the entry that's their fee. And then FedEx has something similar as well.
(09:19) They include I think up to three HTS codes, which is the different amount of line items. And on top of that, they'll charge you for duties. And if you pay duties, they'll charge you a percentage of the duty amount as a dispersement fee, which is you paying them for paying the duties in advance while they were clearing it, right? So those fees will roughly be like 50 to 80 USD for a shipment as a good estimate.
(09:51) Even if you go to shipping carriers like Freightcom, like they they don't have the easiest way of just telling you this is how you calculate your UPS brokerage fee. But if you look at the UPS um their rate schedule and then you calculate out your 2500 USD shipments, it it comes to around, you know, $50 to $80 uh USD plus your duties. If you ship with expedited or sorry, worldwide services uh for UPS or 3-day select, they will include the brokerage fees.
(10:25) FedEx also has, I believe, uh an international shipping uh method. They will include the brokerage fees in that. Usually, it'll still end up costing you more if you go with those methods. And unless you really really need your package into FBA as quick as possible, it's still more costefficient to just pay the brokerage fee to them uh without having to go through the expedited methods.
(10:45) So with informal, you're paying for the shipping direct to Amazon of that box. You're paying the duties if you have any, and regardless of whether you have duties or not on your products, you're going to pay the brokerage fees. Now, with UPS especially, they will do paperless commercial invoices, which means you don't have to add anything additional to the box.
(11:10) The shipping label from UPS is enough that the customs officers will know uh you know what's in there, all the commercial invoices and all that. Uh if you are using a different carrier, they may need a commercial invoice on it. But I would recommend if it's like at least one of the boxes for each of the clearances, you should put a commercial invoice on there. It's good practice. And it just it helps because no matter if it's paperless or not, someone at the border one day will just decide uh to pick a box and it'll be easier for them. Like if it's easier for them to look at this one, there's more chances that it's
(11:41) not going to have any issues. It's just good practice. Um, now for informal entries, if you guys are familiar with HTS codes, that's the harmonized tax code for the US products. We need to declare those uh on the customs invoice uh commercial invoice, sorry. And usually whether you're using e-hipper, freightcom, any of those providers, you'll be letting them know, you know, these are the items, this is their value, and this is the HTS code that we've gotten for them.
(12:12) and the ACS code is what determines your duty rate. So, that's something that you'll need to provide. And there's different ways of of getting that we'll get into after. But uh in addition to that, the manufacturer info, while it's not necessary in the informal entry like the actual buying the label, it's good to have it should you ever need to uh show the origin or they can like if you put it on the commercial invoice, it's best because it just like the questions the CBP can ask if they're already answered, it makes their life a lot easier and it leads to less issues with
(12:50) your parcels because One common theme that you will notice as you do shipping is that a lot of the issues with the CBP are completely just based on their discretion. And something might go through nine times and the 10th time there'll be an issue.
(13:10) And because technically they can ask for some documentation or they can ask for something, it doesn't mean they're going to ask for it every time. Even majority of the times they might not ask, but they can. And that kind of ruins the whole planning of, you know, you want to make a airtight plan of how you want to ship across the border, but let's say you don't have certain documentation.
(13:26) You can ship nine times out of 10. And then the 10th time, if they choose to, they can ask you for documents or or something that you might not have access to. And anyways, that's that's informal, right? So that is mostly what you'll be doing if you're not doing a high amount of bulk shipments.
(13:49) And then if you are doing more bulkier shipments, you will be moving to a formal entry, which is type one, right? Formal entry is what you you need your own customs broker. So you need a that's a US-based customs broker, not a Canadian-based one. Whenever you're importing to the USA, you got to find one in the US. Uh we use we use Clear USA. Uh there's tons and tons of brokers, excuse me.
(14:13) But basically, uh with a broker, you you work with them to either make your commercial invoice or you submit your commercial invoice to them. They get everything prepared in terms of what they need to submit to the border. And then when you actually ship your product, you're they're already going to like you're going to tell your shipping carrier that this is your customs broker and your customs broker will communicate with the uh with the carrier.
(14:44) They'll get the information that they need and they'll make sure that it goes smoothly. You want to make sure that your customs broker and all that information is already uh intact before you actually have the shipment picked up. If you have the shipment picked up already and then you try figuring things out with a customs broker, you can get hit with some really, really nasty storage fees and you know, brokers and especially carriers, they are relentless when it comes to storage fees.
(15:12) So, if your stuff gets stuck in a bonded warehouse or you know, it gets it just gets stuck at the border, needs to go into storage, they will charge you a ton. And you know, we've we've been through we've been through that before. It's not nice. It's we want you want to make sure everything is cleared with the customs broker before you go ahead and have the shipment picked up. Okay.
(15:29) Formal entry, by the way, is most likely going to be uh LTL or pallets. So, when you're shipping pallets, it makes more sense to do formal. Uh most most most shipping services will not uh provide you the customs brokerage.
(15:52) If you're doing LTL, they'll use UPS and FedEx to clear your SPD, but once you switch to LTL, they want you to use your own brokerage. So, all you need to do is sign on with a brokerage. They'll have you sign a power of attorney, which just lets them clear things on your behalf, and then you submit your commercial invoice. They'll give you a quote on how much it's going to cost. You pay them, they clear it through, and you know, your shipment gets past the border.
(16:10) So, the freight, you're still taken care of. you're buying your your pallet uh freight direct and you're just attaching the customs broker information to it. Now, the brokerage fee is around usually from what I've seen is around 60 to 70 USD. But with broker with a formal entry, you're going to be paying for what's called a bond. So, there's two types of bonds.
(16:33) You need them for every formal entry. One is going to be a it's a single bond, which is uh it's a onetime use. You buy it for that shipment only. And it I believe it's uh it comes out to around $75 minimum USD. And if you it's it's like $5 per $1,000 of value. So whatever is higher, they use that.
(16:56) And if you if you're shipping I think more than four times uh four times a year or you're shipping a very high value shipment, you can get a continuous bond for one year, which is an annual bond. That one it just means you can keep clearing with them. You don't have to pay for that bond every time, right? So, what I usually recommend is if you're just trying out new products with formal, you know, do the single bond, see it, see the process, get it through, and then if you're going to continuously do it, go ahead and buy an annual bond. You can switch over to an annual bond at any
(17:21) time. Just let your broker know. Um, so what you're looking at with a broker is the the the freight cost, right? That's the shipping cost that you're paying. That that's what you're going to pay your your shipping company. You're going to pay the broker their fees.
(17:38) You're going to pay the duties on top of that and then you're going to pay for the bond fee itself which also gets paid to the broker. You'll supply the custom broker with a commercial invoice or they'll help you make one. Uh usually you have to give them one even if it's like an Excel sheet.
(18:00) You have to give them the information that includes the HTS codes uh you know the recipient the recipient or consignee same thing or the importer which in most cases is you as an Amazon seller and the HTS codes manufacturer information for formals is also more necessary we always include it on every commercial invoice whether it's informal or formal um but for formal definitely you should have the manufacturer info uh Especially if you're declaring certain countries, it just it makes the process a lot more smoother.
(18:31) They're going to ask for it later on and stay one hour and probably you guys probably not usually manage your mute maybe. I don't know maybe not you but I am disconnecting you. Okay, you're good. Okay. All right, let me see where was I right. Okay, so uh back to formals. So for the commercial invoice, now a lot of times when you do Informal's, they'll generate their own version of a commercial invoice and for your customs brokerage, they might give you a template PDF. You can fill that out that'll have all the information.
(19:18) You can also just make your own. If you do make your own uh it needs to have like so on the screen you'll see the information that's what your commercial invoice should have at a minimum which is the consignee which is the receiver so that would be Amazon usually uh they'll have you write your uh your information as the importer because as a Canadian corporation you are the importer of record because Amazon does not want to take that responsibility.
(19:50) So even if you're sending it to Amazon, you are the importer. You're called a non-resident importer. So you're a Canadian company that's importing into the USA, uh you are also the shipper in this case. So you're the shipper and the importer, but the consignee or the receiver is going to be Amazon, Amazon's warehouse.
(20:09) Sometimes you'll write Amazon's warehouse care of your company name. Uh some brokers require you to do that. Some brokers will also require you to write the EIN or the tax ID. Now technically that is required for all commercial invoices. What most brokers do is they'll be able to find it themselves.
(20:27) So they just need the company name and especially for Amazon warehouses they already usually have a database of the EIN's for the tax IDs for the fulfillment centers. So they just they just need to know where it's going and then they can take care of the rest. What's that? Thank you. Okay. So, um, one second. Let me just fix this. Right. Okay. The other thing on the commercial invoice is the product description.
(20:58) That's going to be the HTS code, the actual description of the product, and the COGS that you paid. That's anything to do with the commercial invoices and brokerage fees. It's USD because we're dealing with a US uh, customs broker. Just keep that in mind. So, your COGS, if you paid in Canadian dollars, use a spot rate, convert them to USD, and the product description that you're going to use.
(21:21) It doesn't have to be the whole Amazon title. It can just be like the main words of the product. Uh, but it should not be so generic that it can't just be a brand name. It can't just be, you know, just like t-shirt, right? It should be something more specific like women's cotton t-shirt, large size, you know, that's about as specific as you need to get.
(21:45) Uh, and then when you have all those that that's the that's the main stuff that needs to be on the commercial invoice, the stuff that you should add on anyways, which is useful, is you'll put in your broker information. So, there's usually uh it's called Paps is what they require from the from the shipper. Um, it's you your your broker will have a email that they use. It's usually paps that broker.com.
(22:13) Uh that's just for the shippers to the the CB the CBP and the shippers can use that email to contact them uh easily. So you'll put in the broker information with that email, their phone number. It's also good practice to put in your shipping information which is your B or your tracking numbers and most of the broker generated ones or the UPS generated ones will also write uh duties billable to shipper.
(22:38) Right? So, that's also good to put on there because you want to make sure that you don't have anything that's billable to the receiver when you're shipping to Amazon because Amazon will, you know, refuse that. They will not pay for any duties like that. And with the commercial invoice, again, if you're you if you're using UPS for your informal, it's paperless, but it's always good practice to at least of one of the boxes for the shipment attached to the commercial invoice.
(23:04) Okay. Uh before I get to HTS codes, is there any questions for these three? [Music] Also, for anybody on the call that's specifically here not for Amazon, like for eBay or other marketplaces, that's something that we'll cover at the tail end of the session. Uh the process for eBay is going to be a lot different.
(23:28) Okay, for HTS codes now with AI, it becomes a lot easier to try to find the ones for your product. Like you can just you you can do your research a lot easier. Now, one of the things I will note is that a lot of times if you just ask AI for an HTS code, it will not be a valid one in the broker's eyes.
(23:58) So if you have a broker that has some sort of estimation tool, try to validate the HTS codes you get with them so that it doesn't become a problem later on because a lot of times whatever it gives you, it might not be an accurate combination of all the codes. The other thing with HTS codes is that just because one fits doesn't mean that's the only one possible for a product.
(24:25) So in the example I have on the right, so that's that's one of the classifications we do in the at the YYZ portal. One of those uh one of our clients, he was shipping uh I think like a like a light I think it's a lamp or what do you call those? Yeah, I think it was a lamp. Um and he was debating the HTS code. So this showed him the closest, you know, possibilities.
(24:51) And what you'll notice is that one of them is a 12.5% duty rate. The other one is a 3.5% rate. And if you look at the the difference of the actual explanation, they like we asked him to confirm obviously, but he went with the 3.5% rate because to a reasonable person that would suffice what he was sending in. So, so just by checking the duty rates of other items uh or other duty rates that are related to his item, you can save on, you know, even like 1% when you're sending in thousands of dollars of value. It makes a difference. So, you want to do some research and don't just pick the first rate that you see. Um, so
(25:37) that that's a tip right there just just to just to save some money. make sure that any HTS code that you pick obviously can still be applied to your product, but that does cover multiple different codes. So, uh that's one of the things that brokers also kind of do.
(25:55) Uh depending on your broker, how good they are and if you're paying them to classify the HCS codes, they will also try to find the the best lowest duty rate hs code for you. Uh the other one is so for manufacturer info obviously the best way to find it is to see if it's on the product itself. A lot of times you won't see that you'll see a distributed by or imported by which is not the manufacturer info.
(26:20) So you can do your I mean you can always contact the brand and ask them. Uh I don't know if people want to you know go that route take that much time and see if they can get a response. The other way is just do your research on import genius or any of these uh these import websites to see the companies that the brands is importing from and if you find something like you can either find that product or something related to that product from that brand and by doing that you'll you'll have information on the factory or the company that they're importing it from and then you can also just use uh
(26:54) if you use AI you should have have it let you know the source of where it's getting its information so it doesn't just hallucinate a random company. Um because anything that you present it should have some sort of connection to the product that you're sending in. A lot of times realistically we do have products that it's like near impossible to find out their uh man their actual like factory in China but with proper you know AI and validation searches we can come up with the best result and we haven't had any problems since but it like if it was
(27:31) obvious to find everyone will be able to find it basically. So that's what we've been doing at least for the manufacturer info for products that are not obvious. And then you have products that are made in Canada, USA, and Mexico. So that's the you've probably heard of the CUSMA agreement.
(27:54) So um basically if you provide the CUSMA certification, you can still get your zero uh duties on your products if they're made in North America. that only works if you supply that documentation. Uh it usually you can just like before you used to be able to just declare it as um at least for Informal's you can just declare it as the made in Canada and you can ship it through but a lot of times especially now the documentation is pretty much required.
(28:23) That certificate it's it's something that you need to fill out. If you fill it out with UPS they can give you a blanket certificate that will apply to all the products listed in it for I believe up to a year. Uh so that's you don't have to do it every single time.
(28:41) Uh with any other carrier you do need to provide it every time and you also need to attach it to the box. At least one of the boxes in the entry needs to have the koozma to it. This is what it looks like. This is a UPS example. Uh so in our experience, so you would be the certifier and you would be the importer. So, when you're filling out this form, the main thing that you need to do is for the producer, you're going to put in the manufacturer info that you found.
(29:08) It's best to do it. Although, you do have an option to write that's available upon request and that's what we used to do. We haven't had any problems with it in the past, but going forward, it's just kind of common knowledge that the CBP is getting a lot more stricter and everything.
(29:27) So the more information you provide them, the less red flags you give them, it's better. Uh so you're going to be putting the certifier as your information, uh you're the importer, you'll be putting the manufacturer information as a producer, and then in the descriptions of goods, you're just going to be putting in the same description and the HTS code like you did before. Uh and then you'll put in the country of origin at the end.
(29:52) So that country has to be Canada, USA, or Mexico. And then when you supply this document with your entry, you should get a zero duty rate. Now, to be clear, a zero duty rate again does not mean that there's no brokerage fees or customs fees. It just means that the duty rate that you're being charged will be zero on your products. Okay, this one is going to be a a bigger thing for Amazon sellers.
(30:20) Basically, one of the biggest issues that people will have is that you have five shipment splits and you want to do one formal because you don't want to pay five different formals and do five different LTLS. It's very expensive. So, the the solution to this that we have so far is Pattern Middle, which is a service from Pattern.
(30:45) If you don't know, Pattern is one of the biggest 3PL's uh that works with Amazon in America. They have a location in Las Vegas and they have a location in Kentucky. Uh they basically you send them all the all your shipments with a box label, an Amazon box label, and when they receive the pallets, they'll open them up, they'll scan the box label, and they will automatically put them in the trailers going to those locations cuz they have trucks going to every location all the time.
(31:10) So, they will be putting them into those trucks and they're charging you. I believe it's just a per cubic feet charge. That's it. No receiving, no packaging, nothing like that. Just per cubic feet they're charging you. It comes out to significantly less than an inbound placement fee. Uh so if anyone's doing five shipment splits, you can you can do pattern middle mile and all you do is you sign up with them, connect your Amazon account, select all the FBA IDs that they're going to receive and then they'll take it from there. I want your job is is just to send the formal entry pallet over to pattern and then they'll
(31:45) split it up. One of the things that we do so a lot of times is that we'll make a five shipment split and then we'll have leftover items that weren't able to be properly case packed for that five shipment split. So we can have separate shipment IDs for those and maybe they have to pay a very small placement fee, but it's only a couple units cuz they're extras.
(32:10) And those can go on the same pallets going to pattern because they're all going to be split up based on their FBA box label. So you can kind of put as many FBA shipments as you want on those pallets and that'll save you a lot of money and time and just a lot of headache with the you know making commercial invoices and all that kind of stuff. It'll it's one of the things that I think is it's underutilized. We're we're doing it now.
(32:31) It's a big big benefit as long as it lasts. I don't know. Uh it's a big big benefit for Amazon sellers that still want to do five shipment splits and save on placement costs, right? So that's pattern middle mile. You can Google it. It's going to be uh I think you just sign up for an account and then they just you can just log in with your connect your Amazon account. That's it. It's pretty straightforward.
(32:56) Uh when you ship to them on the formal and the commercial invoice, you put the EIN of pattern and that's the recipient. So for informals I wouldn't I wouldn't recommend going you can do small parcels to pattern as well but financially it might not make sense. Uh but for formals for sure look into pattern middle mile. Um yeah that's something that's going to be huge.
(33:20) Does anyone have a questions about middle mile right now? Are any other questions about anything else so far? Okay, moving over to food. This is something that we're actively talking to people about and finding the best ways to do it. Um, what we've So, basically, if you're shipping food to the USA with formal entry, you will need a Dun's number, which is a free uh it's a free Dun and Brad Street number that you can get um with a Canadian corporation.
(33:57) You will need the manufacturer info. So, their address, manufacturer name, and all that information. And on top of that, you will need their FDA food facility registration number. So, there's something called an FDA product data sheet. That's what your customs broker is going to give you. They're going to ask you to fill it out. And this is the information that it asks for.
(34:16) If they sell products in the USA for food, they they have that registration number. And usually, even if it's a bigger company, you can get it by contacting their compliance department and requesting it. Even if it's just for, you know, quote unquote verification purposes or something like you can you can get that information. We've had clients successfully get it from from the companies that they were shipping with.
(34:41) um it it might take a couple days, but if you have that, it makes the shipping food a lot a lot easier for you because the other way to do it is to do it with uh informal. Now, for informal entry, you can get away with just putting a prior notice on the box. However, especially recently and especially if your food is not made in North America, you might get requested to fill out an FSVP uh FVSP form, which is uh it's it's a form that you your broker will send you that basically ask you for your US agent and they need to fill it out basically saying that hey, your stuff is all
(35:24) compliant and you know your they have a they have ID that they have to provide as well. Uh the problem with this is if once they give that if you don't have a US agent it becomes an issue and US agents they're not cheap uh generally they're at least a couple hundred a year minimum and that's just to retain them.
(35:44) There's usually cost involved with them actually processing documents and they also need the documents for the food so that they can do their compliance checks. So, I haven't found a scenario where this has worked out for someone to do yet as a prep center. Uh because most of the stuff we're shipping, it's it's just going to be products that you're getting from, you know, distributors nearby and there's maybe like 10 different brands.
(36:09) So, it's it's not something that that really I've seen feasible yet. But, you'll have nine again, you'll have nine parcels with prior notice, informal. they'll pass through and then one of them will get returned or get stopped and they'll ask you for this uh form to be filled out by your US agent which if you don't have then that becomes a problem.
(36:27) Uh you might have to take the shipment back you lose on the shipping fee and yeah that's kind of where we're at with the with the food right now. If you are, if you're just getting rid of the, you know, inventory that got stuck from whatever happened with Stallion and 321, I mean, you can go ahead and make your informal with a prior notice.
(36:48) provide the prior notice to your shipper and it should still it should be okay. But there is a chance that they will ask you especially if it's manufactured outside of the United States uh or Canada and if it's not like a a very very bigname brand, they can ask you for this document and that that'll kind of put you in a corner. This is just a summary of what I was saying. So if your food's made in North America, you can try the informal.
(37:18) If it's not, find the food facility registration ID. That's not public knowledge. It's not something searchable in a database online. There is a FDA search database that's for medical devices. That's not for the food registrations. So that's something you need to contact the the company about. If you have that, it makes it a lot easier.
(37:36) You can fill out the forms and then you can ship your food over without issue uh with formal entry. I think this this is just a a just a graph for you to see the difference of you know what's happened with the type 86 and 321 are what we've been doing and now that those are gone it's going to be either informal or formal and you'll see that there's this one lines that says PGA oversight.
(38:01) So PGA are the partnered government agencies. Uh there's a couple different ones of them. The most common one that you'll know is the FDA. So if your product is overseen by the FDA, which can be cosmetics or food products, they can still ship within formal, but if they're if they require approval from the FDA to ship across, then they might need to switch to formal or they might need some documents from you, that is where the CBP discretion comes in because it's not going to be unfortunately consistent every time
(38:33) you're shipping. um you want to ship some cosmetic products. Okay, they'll go through informal entry. You know, we've been shipping informal entry for a couple months now. And for a lot of the shipments, we haven't gotten any bill. Like, they're over $800. So, it's not section 321.
(38:53) We haven't gotten any bill at all from UPS as a brokerage or anything. Right. That's not to say that we'll never get a bill, but it's been months. And again, it's just there's so much going on in the with the borders and all the stuff that things might slip through. So, it's good to have the knowledge of what it's supposed to be like so that at least you're prepared in some extent when things actually start getting applied to you.
(39:17) Okay, I think that's that's the major stuff I wanted to cover in terms of your options now that section 321 is gone. So middle mile again is one of the big things for Amazon sellers that I think will happen uh off of this. Does anyone have any questions? I have a question. Yeah.
(39:48) Um you didn't mention tariffs at all uh in your slides. I'm just wondering like let's say for a product that's made in China, what does that typically look like to to ship it over? So, let me pull up a Hold on. Let me see if I can share my screen here. Just give me one second. So, I just want to show you an example of something to look up the tariffs with.
(41:11) Okay. I can't find it. Okay, I'm just going to paste the link in here. Uh, can I share a screenshot? Sorry, guys. One second. [Music] [Music] Oh, it looks like you ended your stream, Ollie. Oh, very good. Okay, so let me just pick one here. Can you guys see this? Okay. So, for tariffs, uh, for things
(42:22) that are made in China, I believe the base, pretty much everything it's like a 10% minimum, uh, even not made in China. and the the China tariffs depending on the HTS code that they're classified with, they have like they're getting hit with multiple uh I forgot their name. Multiple additional tariffs.
(42:50) It's I'm just going to show you an example. It's easier to explain. So the the China tariffs that they're hitting with basically even if something was a 0% duty rate or like 3% duty rate, the tariffs will apply at 20% on China and then they have additional tariffs now for pretty much every country that also apply on top.
(43:15) So if you can see in this example, uh this product which I it's like some flashlight, it's getting hit with uh the base duty is 3.5%. On top of that, it's getting hit with the 20% China tariff and it's getting hit with a general global 10% tariff as well. So, the actual duty rate on this product comes to around 30%. So, when you go get a quote from your broker and you give them the HTS codes, they'll break down all the applicable duties.
(43:39) And if you go to some some broker tools or some tariff tools, they give you the base level tariffs, which is like 3.5%. But you need to make sure that they're taking into account uh China 301's which is like any additional tariffs that that we've had with China or any other country.
(43:59) They need to show those as well so that you see the real amount because these might not show on some brokerages and then you'll go in thinking it's only 3 12%. But this 3 12% becomes 30% of a duty rate in actuality when you're shipping it out just because it's China and it has a global 10% tariff regardless. Right? So, this is just part of the the duties that you're going to end up paying.
(44:21) And remember that this is on your cost of goods, not on the retail value you're going to sell it for on Amazon. Okay. Yeah. So, in the end, it's like if it's not made in North America, it's highly unlikely that it's profitable. You would you would be surprised. So far, everything we've shipped formal is not made in America yet.
(44:45) So, it it's It does depend on your margins. I would say if you go into like I think electronics or certain categories with lower duty rates and higher average selling price items with good margins, that's where you'll find more opportunities. It's it's still possible because you are paying the duties on your COGS. So your general margin needs to be good.
(45:09) But it's not like a like a lot of people get flushed out, but the people that will continue to find products that can still work through it, they will have an opportunity where, you know, they're not just giving up on the market cuz there's high duties. People are still making work. I see it every day.
(45:27) So, I'm like just letting everyone know that there are people shipping formals with distributors with their whatever they've been buying. They they are taking the hit and they're still shipping it out. So, and they're not just doing it for, you know, liquidation purposes, like they're buying more inventory even though they're taking a hit on their margin. Anyone else that was shipping that might just stop.
(45:49) So, you kind of have, you know, you can make an opportunity there, but it does depend on your product. It depends on your volume. It depends on your margin price as well. Uh, it's it is going to be harder though for sure. Yeah. to mention like because of this process being more difficult it is going to weed out a [ __ ] ton of people and we can already see like obviously with myself I don't sell in the US so I can't speak from experience but we do a lot of sourcing for the US cross border and I can see on a lot of listings margins are
(46:19) starting to increase uh because competition is falling off and like a lot of cross border specifically Canada to US regardless as it is the margins can be quite high so these additional fees that we're paying can still very much so sustain sustain these additional costs, right? And chances are a lot of the lower margin stuff that you're going to be sending cross border are probably going to be things that sell higher volume, going to be more so consumables and are probably going to be manufactured in
(46:47) North America, right? I just I just noticed the I think I was on the wrong screen, but the duties were down here. Um, so this is like as the broker cuz this one's coming direct from a broker for that HTS code, but as they update, brokers are usually the first to update, they will, you know, it's it's very difficult for a normal person to keep on top of every single code.
(47:25) Uh so usually you'll do your due diligence by finding like you know these duty rate calculators and then as you get to the actual shipping process you want to ask your broker for a full quote and that'll include anything additional that they need to do any PGA requirements uh which is might be documents that you need to provide for any partner government agency. they'll let you know that.
(47:44) And if you have that information beforehand, you don't want to be in that situation where you ship your stuff and they ask you for items after you've already had the items picked up. So, just keep that in mind if you're doing formals or even even informals.
(48:02) Um, you speak with your broker, get a broker that if they have a ticketing system, it's nice because you can kind of have that organization back and forth um on each different commercial invoice. But yeah, the the broker tariff should be the most accurate that you get. And like a side note, if you are sending a lot of stuff cross border, uh if you're doing informals, it probably be beneficial for you just until you get a hang of things and start knowing what your actual costs are going to be, probably add on for especially like Chinese specific products like an additional like 50% into your cost of goods just to make sure that you cover
(48:35) your ass and you don't get surprised. just like temporarily until you really really know your costs. So for the informal since we cannot use Amazon's uh UPS label, who do you recommend uh we use? So for informal you can you can use brokers like Freightcom and um I believe Net Parcel Guru Ship they'll all pretty much do the same thing where uh they will send the commercial invoice over to UPS.
(49:22) Uh some of them like I think maybe Guru ship if if you have you can set who's the billable person. So, if you have guru ship as the billable person, uh they'll pay it up front so it gets cleared, but then they also charge you a percentage of what they paid in addition to everything else just for that service.
(49:39) So, it depends on your broker, but yeah, usually brokers, unless you're doing a ton of volume and you have a UPS account, um using a broker is good. certain shipments, uh, if you use a a broker that shows you multiple rates, certain shipments you'll see that a FedEx shipment might do only for a couple dollars more, but that FedEx shipment might have brokerage fees included because of the type of service it is.
(49:58) So, you can look out for things like that and that will just save you the headache. Um, and then there's also certain I I I can't remember. I think maybe net parcel or something. They have uh paid plans. is I think you pay them some money a month and they give you discounted rates for all the shipments. So, if you're doing enough volume, you don't have to go off of the the face value of the rates.
(50:21) They have like significant uh cuz you're going to be sending in bigger boxes and and volume with informal. So, it's not like $ 20 $30 a box anymore. You're sending in like $3 $400 of shipping value. So, you can I've seen like$1 $120 off a shipment just from getting a $15 or $20 a month plan with some of the brokers. And also you mentioned that with the informal like you're allowed up to I think three HTS uh codes.
(50:50) So if we have like uh like a box with like let's say 15 20 items, how does that work? So with with informal you have you're you're allowed to send in as much as you want but UPS includes three to five. I believe I think it's FedEx is five, UPS is three. they include that in their brokerage fee and then they charge you uh a couple bucks per line item for anything that's more than that.
(51:19) So if you're sending in 20 different items and it doesn't even matter like if you're just sending in one box then yes if you're sending in 10 boxes and each 10 boxes have one like a different product in each box it's still one clearance. So that's 10 different lines of HTS codes. So after they pass the threshold they just charge you a couple bucks extra per code.
(51:38) So it's the overall shipment, not individual boxes, right? Yes. So it's it's based on the clearance. So if you're doing informal, your clearance value, which is the all your boxes in the clearance, they should be summed up to $2,500 or less of value. And that can be one box or that can be 10 boxes, but the total amount together. And also line items the same, right? Or is it a per box? Let's say you have like two in one, like three in one.
(52:04) It's the overall wait uh what do you mean by two in one three in one like the line item let's say you have 10 line items and they are like uh like a spider box let's say 15 boxes right so it still considered like just those 10 line items right yes yes so the that that uh the line items on the commercial invoice that's one commercial invoice covering all let's say 10 boxes you have one commercial invoice covering everything in those 10 boxes. You have one prior notice covering everything in those 10 box. Uh well, prior notice it depends if
(52:40) you're doing formal or informal. The the CUSMA for example like uh the if it's American made stuff or Canadian made stuff that also you only need on one box. It's it's always good practice you can put them on all of them in case they want to spot check.
(52:58) But any box of the clearance, any one box of the clearance should have the information on them and all the other boxes are connected to it in that same clearance in the UPS back end when when the shipper submits it to them. And for the formal if we cannot find the facility number is that like a dead end or unfortunately so far with our broker yes it is a dead end for formal entry of food that food facility number is like a requirement for the FDA product data sheet. So without that they they weren't able to clear we we had to wait for a couple days. The client was able to get
(53:36) it from the from the manufacturer and now we're going to go over and do the formal. But that was something that was blocking them. Yeah. So, do you just contact them and just like straight away ask for it or is there Yes. Uh he he just sent them an email uh requesting it. Uh I think his broker it was like an international uh product.
(54:00) So I think it was made in Italy or something and it was an international product. He spoke with the suppliers. He he told them I think he just told them straight up exactly what's going on and they needed it and they were able to supply them. For certain I I haven't had personal experience, so I don't want to say this for sure, but for certain um big companies, your custom broker might have that information on file and they might be able to use that. I haven't had experience with that yet, so I don't want to speak on it too much, but that's what I've heard.
(54:30) But you can you can request it from your customs broker because they have uh they have that information on file from previous uh just from from their like existing databases of shipments. [Music] Anybody else have any questions for Ali so far? I have a a question. And I kind of DM'd you about it earlier there, Ali.
(54:56) But, um, I basically have a bunch of boxes stuck at Cross border Pickups now cuz they're not doing anymore. Um, not taking anything else over. They sent an email today. Um, they're just like scrapping it completely for FBA shipments right now at least. Um, but they're going to like seven or eight different locations cuz I was trying to get a bunch of stuff over before all this stopped.
(55:18) So, what's like my best It was kind of like drinking from drinking from a fire hose on this uh on this like live here. I'm trying to trying to take all the information in, but what's like my best route? Cuz I have a bunch of labels that I bought from Amazon obviously that are shipping out of like Buffalo or wherever.
(55:31) Um, so what's like my best you think like course of action? So, so I kind of missed the very first part. Were your boxes uh the ones that got they're stuck and they're coming back? Like you're going to have to Yeah.
(55:50) So they so Cross border pickups kind of like stallion like they had a bunch of trucks um like I think like three or four days straight where their trucks got denied cuz I think people were shipping with Stallion and Cross border or whoever else is doing like that kind of service. So their trucks had getting denied. My stuff was fine but obviously you're on the truck with everybody else. Um so they basically sent an email.
(56:07) I don't know if it was a mass email or just to me cuz I have like a bunch of stuff at their their location. Um they're basically saying they're not taking any more uh FBA shipments and they're not even sending over like what's there. So everything right now I have it just stocked like at their warehouse. Um I had to basically go pick it all up and like figure it out.
(56:23) Um so I'm just trying to figure out like I have like seven different fulfillment centers uh or seven or eight. I forget the number. But um yeah, I'm trying to figure out like what's my best I'm sure there's other people who have this same situation. Like what's what's my best course of action for at least this shipment and then we'll kind of figure out like the rest of it after I guess.
(56:41) So, for this shipment, uh, is it is it food products or just like general goods? Uh, it's a mix. I have a little bit of food. Um, but it's a bit of a mix, but all my labels are like based out of like the US partnered labels, right? Yeah.
(56:59) So, for the US partnered labels, we had this scenario last time Stalin had uh everything kind of turned around. We unfortunately once like one of the UPS labels was scanned, they're they're not going to, you know, go through and do any refunds there. So we we can't really make use of the UPS labels cuz they still have to cross the border and whatever.
(57:23) Unless you're going to use a service to take it across the border and then give it to UPS again, but this time you cleared it. It's not really going to save you any money. it's just going to let them use the same code so that it's in that in that shipment. Uh but what we had last time was just, you know, we had to just extract everything out of the shipment, make a new shipment with it.
(57:41) It'll obviously be a discrepancy on the existing shipments and we just had to send it over. At that time we just had to re-manifest but now you would have to basically if you have food just informal that stuff over and then if you have a a bunch of other stuff you can kind of just you can put them in a formal see if anything requires uh with a customs broker you can see if anything you know might be problematic in terms of shipping formally and if it is if it's low quantity maybe you have to remove it but you can get the bulk across from there
(58:10) and then if you want to use I don't know if you if you were using your replacement fees If it was going seven seven centers, you could be able to just use pattern to then let it continue to use those replacement fees or then just bulk it all in one and and send it direct to an Amazon FC.
(58:31) Yeah, I wasn't doing uh the five split, but yeah, I'm thinking like if there's any way I can just get it across and then you said there was a service that could just take it across for you, you said or what was that about? Uh, I mean there are services. I don't have one off the top of my head.
(58:49) Like there's there's any anyone that can clear the customs on a truck can technically take it across um the border and then give it to, you know, UPS, but the the cost of doing that is not going to be much better than just sending it in a new shipment direct cuz you're still paying for it to ship across the border. you're still paying for the duties and tariffs um and the the broker wouldn't have to I'd have to eat the the US shipping fees that I already paid to Amazon and then buy more shipping for the same product. Yeah.
(59:21) So, but you're buying more shipping for the same product anyways. Even just to get it across the border, you have to buy more shipping for it. So, the Amazon fees, it's like you're making use of those Amazon fees that you already paid, but it's it's going to be harder for you to do because you have to find someone that's going to take it across the border and give it to UPS and then have UPS go send it over and it's just it might be more of a nightmare honestly like trying to manage the logistics of that.
(59:50) Yeah, cuz the cost of the Amazon partnered part like you still have to pay to get it across. The main the main concern here would be like the duties and the brokerage fees. Yeah. Also, um, real quick, I think Abdul, you said that some brokers take FDA prior notice. Is that for formals or for Informal's? For formals.
(1:00:14) Like, uh, all the shipments have done like uh on formals uh for the food items. So initially they asked me for the uh full facility registration number as you said but I just asked them to go ahead and try inputting the FDA prior notice that I submitted along with the shipment and once that was input in the system.
(1:00:34) So that kind of grayed out the field in their system to put in the full facility registration number and I have like crossed like five or six formal shipments using that method and none have been flagged yet. Okay. I'm going to talk to the broker cuz we we gave him prior notice as well. I asked them specifically that and they said that they need the FDA product data sheet filled out.
(1:00:53) So this is not this is the other problem with brokers like I don't know why they have different information. It makes no sense. Yeah. I mean the the FDA product sheet is is like I believe it's different like it you you also need to provide the FDA product code that we already built in the for the prior notice along with the manufacturer info that we are already providing in anyways. So I mean uh that that's what my broker asked.
(1:01:18) I just put it in the email, send it over and like I've been doing I have been doing uh forums with them for almost like 10 months now. So like the communication has been better uh at least for now. But yeah, initially it was a nightmare. I completely understand what you are saying because initially they were like no we cannot take that across the border.
(1:01:36) I was like, "Man, this just just simple stuff." And yeah, sometimes it just Yeah, but but it now works. Like I just provide them with the FDA prior notice. And the only shipment that got uh like manually reviewed by FDA was an item that was uh produced in UK that was a food item and like within like probably 24 to 48 hours um of the submission that also got the made proceed message.
(1:02:02) Has any of your all your other products made in North America? Yeah, almost all except for a couple that were made in UK. But for that also like uh for the first time it went through without any issues and the second time it was uh kind of u like the FDA sends you a may proceed message to the business broker. Right.
(1:02:26) So that got delayed for for a couple of days but yeah we got it finally and the shipment was able to cross. And did they ask you for more info or they just took more time? No, they just it it went into a manual review for some reason, but yeah, that they it got it through. Is your is your customs broker like a uh they're a smaller one or they're a big company? Um they are a big company but they only work with um with with like the carriers themselves because they they're pretty cheap and my career is the one who introduced me to them.
(1:02:55) So uh yeah they they don't work with individuals as uh from what I've heard from them and then like a couple of people asked me in the group as well to refer uh them to the customs broker and the trucking company but unfortunately they're like pretty much full at this time and not taking any new clients. Yeah.
(1:03:13) Okay. Makes sense. Yeah. I just wanted to check cuz Yeah. It's weird like because we spec a clear it specifically with a prior notice is telling us that we need the food facility number regardless of prior not in addition to prior notice. Yeah. And I mean uh like uh just just a suggestion like if with your volume you would want to try coal international they are pretty relax uh relaxed on the requirements and everything and they would give you a better pricing um as compared to clear.
(1:03:44) So, we have Colds International and Carson International. The problem is they don't have a good struct Sorry, we're just going like off topic. Uh, they don't have a a good structure for our clients to have PAS for us. That's that's the cuz we're not the ones that are importing it. It's for the clients.
(1:04:01) So only reason we want to clear it right now honestly is cuz they have an amazing portal for us to like submit all the information and then the clients also have access to the same portal that we're looking at so that we can both communicate on the tickets like with with all three of us together but with all the other ones it's just emails like I've worked with Carson International for a while it's good but it's just all emails back and forth.
(1:04:21) Yeah I mean you're right like they they are they are kind of using a team of virtual assistants who are mostly like offshore. Some of the people are based in North America. So a lot of things get lost in communication. I started working with them and I started want when I started with the formal entries but my experience wasn't very good like sometimes it would take time uh for them to respond. Sometimes they would just over complicate things.
(1:04:44) So yeah so that's why I was suggesting you but yeah obvious obviously you have your own structure so that might not make sense for you because I was like working as an individual with them. Yeah. No I mean even uh like last week and this week like I was saying we've been talking to the brokers and stuff. So even now we're still we're using clear right now cuz we've been clearing formals with them and their ticketing process is simple for the clients but we are looking for like a a if this is going to stick around we do need to have a proper broker going forward
(1:05:10) and food is luckily that one of our major clients that was doing the food he was able to get the registration ID but I know for a lot of the other clients that are doing smaller amounts it it's going to be harder for them and people doing informals have gotten hit with these uh foreign on supplier verification.
(1:05:28) So once that happens, it gets it gets pretty tough. I've heard two people from UPS already got hit with it this week. Yeah. I mean I mean the worst part is like with with the FDA regulations in place, you don't even need to have a registration in place for selling food items in USA. Uh that that's what the laws for FDA.
(1:05:46) But but sometimes the border would go crazy with this stuff and you you you just cannot fight them. Yeah. It's just whatever they feel like on the day of. Yeah. I know like I was selling a a bunch of dual rents. I I have like sent probably a couple of thousands in the last 6 months and the last shipment I was uh sending it over across the border it got flagged and it stayed within like the hold in tech message for like a week or so. Then I had to take out all those and kind of liquid this in the Canada. But I mean the same product was crossing the
(1:06:18) border fine for six times and the seven time they wanted to physically inspect it and when I tried calling FDA they were like we would need a lab report. I was like this company is registered in USA. The product is registered in USA. The listing number is issued by you guys. You guys know everything about this product.
(1:06:37) What what what what new information would you need from me? They were like the only thing is that the manufacturer or the registrant of the product is not the importer of the product and not the exporter of the product. So that's why we need all this verification. I was like yeah I'll just take it off from the shipment. It didn't matter the other nine times but this time we need it for that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy.
(1:06:56) It's crazy. Like every time we send you a new surprise. [Music] And so oi like obviously like this process um it's going to be very much so a learning experience for a lot of people because it's not super simplistic and straightforward. Obviously the more that you do it the easier it's going to get.
(1:07:22) Um for those people that don't want to do this as much as possible or be as handsoff as possible for you guys handling shipments uh at YZ, do you guys handle the vast majority of this process for your customers? So right now what we have set is we have a separate portal for basically on YZ you'll make an outbound of all your items you want to ship and we have a portal that they can log in.
(1:07:47) It'll load their outbound and they can put in their cogs. They can use the AI tool to automatically find the HTS code and pick it to find the manufacturing address and pick it and then that will let us automatically generate the commercial invoice for them.
(1:08:06) And it'll even show them the customs brokerage and all the breakdown of all the fees that they're going to have to pay like instantaneously as they put that information in. So that part it's still they're doing it because they we're not taking the liability of you declaring the right stuff, but it's such a simple process that it's a couple clicks and then they can pretty much get most of the information they need.
(1:08:22) And then once they once they say, "Hey, we filled out the cogs and the information." From there on, we pretty much take care of it. And then the the only next thing that they need to do is the brokerage will hit them with an invoice once the shipment is being picked up and they pay that and it clears. That that's that's it.
(1:08:40) Okay, cool. And for the AI tool that you mentioned, do you also have that available to non-prep clients as well? So, I have the the HTS classifier, I have that right now. The manufacturer finder, I don't have that one just public right now. I could probably, if it's useful to a lot of people, I could probably put that public as well.
(1:09:06) Um the ACS one right now it'll calculate your duties off of the product. It's not including like all the brokerage fees uh because those are it depends on your brokerage too. So ours is estimating off of clear it which is the one that we're using right now. Um but it would it give a good enough estimate for you know the the duty rates which is the main thing that people need. Um yeah but right now right now the public one is very simple.
(1:09:28) It's like a as a country and then cost and then it just does it off of that. So I don't know if the manufacturer is something a lot of people would use but if that is I can put that up there as well. Beautiful. And is that like is that free and open or is there a cost associated with that? No, it would be well unless there's a ton of volume because it does cost me but it doesn't cost a lot but like it does cost something if someone's spamming it. But um yeah, like I don't it would it wouldn't be really be a charge, right? Right now we don't even
(1:10:00) charge for anything uh any of these like formal related stuff. We're not charging anything different than a normal shipment just cuz we're also trying to figure out the best ways to do it. And then most likely it'll just end up being like, you know, a small fee just to do with the extra labor of the informal boxes, something like that.
(1:10:23) But and everything else, you know, we're trying to make it as easy for them and us as possible. And the little like the AI tools and stuff, they have minimal cost. So that's that I think I I don't know if I shared it here as well before. Um, but that as classifier, it is there for anyone to use right now if they need to.
(1:10:41) It does take a couple seconds for it to pull the results, but it'll let you see the tariffs, the duty rates, the uh the rough duty calculations for you to check. And then if you're thinking about buying an AS, you can just put it in there to have a rough idea on how much you're going to end up paying on it. Beautiful. Do you want to share a link to that just so we can all have it? Yeah.
(1:11:02) Yeah, I just put it in the the chat. Beautiful. So, it's in the voice chat chat for anybody that doesn't see it and it's customs.yzprep.ca. Beautiful. Um, anybody have any additional questions for Ali so far about anything to do with informal formal entries, etc.? Yeah, thanks for this call.
(1:11:26) Um, I was just uh Can you hear me? Your your mic sounds like pretty muffled. Uh, is it better now? Yeah, that's Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Um, so so, uh, yeah, thanks for the call. Um, I was just trying to pick your brain to see if you could figure out how Stallion is doing their DDP.
(1:11:49) So, right now they're charging I think a dollar a$150 or something like that for GDP and you got to use their USPS table. So, I'm assuming they're making a pretty fat margin off that. But from what I Pardon me, 100% on the on the US. Yeah, their margins are insane. Um but um but like I I'm trying to see how uh they're doing their their dollar or $2 per GDP.
(1:12:14) I assume they're doing a formal entry and consolidating multiple lines in in order to leverage like economies of scale. Um I'm assuming a type one. Um and you know I was just wondering how we could emulate that um as you know an individual um you know just spreading the for example if the 30 bucks 40 bucks per per entry cost across you know multiple lines with multiple uh numbers and stuff like that and I was HS codes and whatnot and I was wondering how you could emulate that uh you know this I guess I'm not sure if this is the time to ask about that cuz this kind of eBay so yeah sorry no continue oh no sorry yeah I was So like even for Amazon, you know, FBM for example, if you were doing uh you would need to
(1:12:50) utilize this rather than paying, you know, the 40 bonus per uh shipment. So yeah, I was just wondering if I could pick your brain regarding that cuz I'm trying to develop a strategy around it. And um yeah, for for DTOC orders, uh the one thing, as long as you and your if your freight company and your brokerage can work on time, quick enough for you to to clear it and get it across consistently.
(1:13:22) I don't know like how tight the timelines are for like including handling fees and all that because the the time crunch of getting that first UPS scan becomes more important with with DTOC orders, but even like the way Stallion's doing it, uh we can't you'll notice that there's a lot of products you can't ship them with Stallion DDP because they have PGA requirements.
(1:13:42) like even um a Crayola uh like marker. We've it it'll be Stallion won't allow that to be added to their DDP because they're taking essentially importer of record responsibility by doing the DDP with their broker. So they're only taking things that have no liability issue, no PGA. Um like when that's why they have the on when you go on Stallion, you can add the product manufacturer information.
(1:14:10) and they check the manufacturer ID if they have it in their database. They basically do all that prevetting so that they can take it over and then and not be worried about liability or things getting blocked in their entire shipment. Uh and then and then they obviously work with a broker that they've been working with for a long time to get, you know, good charges and definitely, you know, make money on that USPS.
(1:14:34) If you compare their rates, it's it's incredibly high uh on the DDP shipments. Um, but doing that like you're like even even I wanted to do for pattern middle mile for for FBA, I wanted to just compile a bunch of clients or even non-clients like a bunch of their shipments on one formal, send it over to pattern and just have them split it up and then I just split the cost with everyone.
(1:14:59) But it comes down to like well on our end it comes down to liability of like if we're the import of record, we have to make sure everything's going to be cleared through and fine. It can be done. It's it's it's a lot more process um if you're doing it for your own goods. Uh if you have someone that takes it across the border and can you know uh provide it to the USPS or UPS basically you could just like if you have a a driver with a company that that's paid. I think some people do this where they have someone that that can go and drop it off to UPS for them or USPS.
(1:15:31) If your customs broker clears in time, you can you can have all that done. You can do one full entry and a lot of companies are doing that. Even Stallion is doing that for their own Stallion Fulfillment US. They are recommending people to basically do a bulk entry, pay the duties and get get everything across at once in one entry. It lowers your cost per ent per item quite a bit.
(1:15:56) Uh doing it on a personal level, it depends on your volume. Obviously, I know you're pushing uh good FBM volume. So, as long as the timing can be worked out, I don't see it being a problem. It's just that if you you're going to have to have everything figured out with HTS codes and manufacturer information and generating those commercial invoices on the fly, especially if you're doing like daily runs for let's say FBM orders, you can you obviously use AI and automation to help with that stuff. But if if that process is down and optimized, it can I
(1:16:26) see no reason why that can't be done. Okay, cool. And it is a formal entry and it uh I assume there is no limit of how you how many HSD how many HS codes you uh you put in, right? I assume there might be extra cost with the broker, but it doesn't really matter as long as you're willing to pay for the extra codes, right? Yeah.
(1:16:51) It's just that as long as the extra codes are because every code has to you have to check if it has a PGA association and if that requires any potential like uh for food FDA, they'll say it needs prior notice required. But for a lot of other items, like tons of random items, they'll have PGA associations that may need something, but 99% of the time, like Abdul was like, they they don't they don't actually ask for it.
(1:17:13) So, if one or two things in that shipment they decide to ask for it, it might if you don't have those documents or you don't have those certifications or whatever they ask for, that's where issues might arise. And in that sense, it's for an FBM type of, you know, pallet going over, that's where it might get a little bit weird.
(1:17:33) That's why Stallion doesn't do any DDP with PGA requirement stuff because they know that this potentially could have something asked about it later on. And if that happens, it becomes an issue. If your products don't have any PGA requirements, then or even like warnings from PGA, then you know, then then you can pretty much get the all clear that you're good to go and you won't have any issues.
(1:17:52) Um, but if they do and you're mixing them on the same pallet, it'll stop the entire shipment until that's cleared. I have two follow-up questions. Um, number one, if you have a PN for any like FDA reg uh regulated goods, uh, you can have a PN mixed with other stuff on a formal entry and that should be no problem. All right.
(1:18:10) And then my question number two, um, actually, how about you answer that one? I forgot about question number two. like PN you're send like so the PN will cover anything that is like uh ingestable on that clearance. Yes. Yeah.
(1:18:31) And then other items on that clearance that's fine cuz it's only the PN will have the FDA product codes and all that for the items that are covered in it. We've sent even in normal boxes we send mixed PN sometimes. It's it's that that's fine. It only needs to cover the stuff that's actually uh part of the HTS codes for the FDA. Okay.
(1:18:50) And my second question was how do you find is there like a database to see what products like have PGA uh regulations? Like I would never guess that Crayola has PGA for example. Yeah, Crayola has PGA for CPCs um uh as a children's thing. Uh there is a so we actually yeah I just added this today um to our it's not on the public one but it's on the one of our clients use it.
(1:19:12) It shows actually it might be on the public one. It shows you the NEPGA for the ASEN that you're you're doing, but you can if you get the HTS code, you can use uh let me remember what it's you can use I believe it's duty skip. They have an API or they even just have estimate thing um and it'll let you know PGA's related to that HTS code. So you can you can see what might be uh applied.
(1:19:40) Thank you. [Music] And with by the way with duty skip I believe uh they'll even tell you like what form or something is needed and it'll say maybe required or is required and pretty much is required is what you're worried about. The may required is uh that's just something for you to know.
(1:20:08) But with major brands it's not too much of an issue. Like even Crayola like like they won't do it because of the HTS code. Stallion won't do it. But if you were to ship to Crayola, I'm fairly certain like they would not ask you for a lot of information. And even Crayola has CPC's available online if you need them.
(1:20:26) But that that's like an example of something where because Stallion is the importer of record, they're not taking that liability when they're putting everything together and shipping across the border easily, right? But if you're doing your own stuff, you know, as long as you do your own due diligence, you can ship anything even with the PGA requirements.
(1:20:40) You just need to know know the risks or at least maybe separate out the shipments to a PGA one and a nonPGA one. And uh and you can do that. But again, FBM it it time is sensitive depending on your handling time. So that that's definitely uh something to look into. Thanks, [Music] Are there any additional questions for Ali at all? A lot of the stuff like if these are things that you're not familiar with, I know like a lot of the stuff can be relatively overwhelming.
(1:21:22) Um, we're thankful to have Ali as a resource in our server. So, you can ping him and he'll get back to you uh whenever he can if you have questions. And of course, the video is going to be it's recorded as well, so you can always reference back to anything that we discussed today as well. Any other questions before we wrap up the portion for Amazon at all? Okay, sounds good. Um, okay. I'm going to take off.
(1:22:04) I'm at the office. My wife's going to kill me. Uh, it's like 10:30 here. So, I'm going to head back. Um, good luck to everyone. One thing I will say is that, you know, we're seeing obviously a lot of businesses are getting affected negatively by all the changes, but to reiterate, use that to your advantage. Know that people are not going to try as hard as you.
(1:22:29) People are going to give up when they see things like this happen. And when they do that, it creates more opportunity for you. So we I I see it happen actively and people are shipping. So you can use that as a I don't know confirmation that you know this is still working. People are ordering. People are shipping USA stuff. It's not like every product has not lost its margin forever.
(1:22:49) That's not how it is. And plus there's always the little hope that uh you know changes will happen soon and it's not going to stay like this forever. 100%. Uh Ali greatly appreciated. I really appreciate and I assume everybody else here does as well. You coming out and doing this.
(1:23:09) It helps clarify a lot of things and gives a lot of people a lot of the information that they're looking for. So, it really really much so. Thank you. Have a good night, Ollie. So, to I I want I want to cover a couple things just for general shipping uh DTOC specifically through platforms like eBay, etc. But just to again reiterate in what Ali mentioned um we will probably see a small um reduction in some margins for some products. That's kind of part for the course as people sell out panic etc.
(1:23:49) But like as with anything else when we see even like fee increases on Amazon um I suspect it's going to be the exact same thing with this for cross broder specifically that the prices that are being that products are being retailed for are going to slowly increase accordingly because all the margins are going to get passed on to the consumer. That's how it always is.
(1:24:10) Not every single product that will happen with because we we of course may have some US competition. they might be able to still have the same sourcing costs for a lot of products maybe that we cannot um but generally speaking over the coming few months typically it's anywhere between three and six month kind of delay we will see the products that are more impacted that are already not on the increase will most likely increase accordingly but of course there will always be additional opportunity just like Ali mentioned and like he said
(1:24:42) he's seen a lot of people that are shipping a lot of volume into the US uh even today. And like I mentioned earlier, we're seeing a lot of products that are having a higher and higher margin as time goes on. And I suspect that's only going to increase as competition decreases accordingly because again, this process isn't super straightforward and it is a little bit more complicated.
(1:25:04) And as soon as somebody sees some form of turbulence, a lot of people are inherently lazy or they get overwhelmed and they're just going to give up and that's going to decrease competition. uh that's why like margins for like CAS specifically are already high as it is because there are is additional barriers that already exist.
(1:25:24) This is going to create more barriers but like Ali mentioned it's going to create even more opportunity because of because of that. So if you're willing to learn the process and integrate it, it'll probably make cross border specific businesses for Amazon even more profitable than what they were. Um, a few things that I want to mention specifically when it comes to eBay.
(1:25:47) Uh, eBay has sent out very little notification information about what their process is going to look like. I'm assuming that with their shipping, it's going to be basically baked in to their labels as it is. I don't suspect like our process for eBay, for shipping, if you're buying uh labels directly through eBay, is really going to change a whole lot.
(1:26:13) What is going to change a lot is going to be buyer behavior and also if you're utilizing third party shipping companies like Stallion, Chitchats, etc. Um, one thing that I highly encourage you to do if you are selling on eBay in any capacity, make sure for any products that are manufactured in North America that on your product listings in the product details that you specifically um update the country manufacturer because chances are with eBay's shipping that's going to matter and that's going to adjust shipping costs accordingly. Uh, another thing that I'd highly highly recommend is that you include in your
(1:26:45) description some form of little little tidbits, standard template, um, about products being manufactured outside of KUSMA of how additional tariffs duties will be applied. Uh, if you're shipping directly through eBay, chances are those are tariffs that the customer is going to be responsible for.
(1:27:07) If you are shipping through third party platforms, uh you'll probably have the option of doing DDP, but of course those will increase your cost accordingly if you're doing so and you won't have to do so, but you just have to consider that if you're not doing that that your customers are going to get charged more accordingly and your sales are probably going to get impacted.
(1:27:31) Um that's going to more so affect regular everyday consumables. If you are selling products that are more limited, hard to get, uh I highly doubt it's going to have a large impact because if people want those products, they're going to buy them regardless.
(1:27:47) You just have to make sure that you're going to be more competitive on your price uh compared to those sellers that are located directly in the United States. Because even though that your price may look competitive, we have to tell ourselves and factor in that there are going to be the additional duties, tariffs, etc. that the buyer is going to incur.
(1:28:05) Some buyers may not factor that in at all and they might just be pissed when they get the product. Uh but a lot of them will be calculating that in. So you have to make sure that if you're going to make sales from Canada that you're priced accordingly. Uh another thing that I'd obviously recommend that we've been discussing a lot over these last couple months is consider doing specifically US fulfillment.
(1:28:29) So if you are buying stuff uh that is being shipped from the US or even from other countries in some cases to store them and ship them from the United States via 3PL something like dispatch like the company that we have a partnership with just to save those additional expenses especially if you're buying products specifically in the United States because then you can ship it through you can ship it directly to their warehouses.
(1:28:48) uh you don't have to worry about the duties and tariffs coming over the border. And chances are if you're selling your products primarily to US customers, uh it'll make the process smoother and even paying their additional fee, it'll probably end up saving you, it may not save you specifically money, but it'll produce uh more sales for yourself.
(1:29:11) It'll save you money if you do have to incur any duties bring it over the border, however, of course. And then another thing that I also wanted to mention is a lot of people may not be familiar but on eBay uh I believe it's a setting that is set by default but it automatically has a setting in your shipping preferences to pass on your shipping discounts to a to your customer your eBay discounted shipping rates.
(1:29:43) So, that is something that you may want to consider changing depending on what kind of seller you are. If you're somebody that's selling a lot of higher volume items, more consumables, you probably want to continue to pass on those rates. If you're selling, if you're somebody that's selling a lot of collectibles, hard to find items, you may want to consider removing those rates to account for any additional costs that you may incur.
(1:30:06) uh if let's like say you are doing DDP as an example right because then what that will do is that will actually charge the buyer the non-discounted rate uh and then you will still be uh given your discounted rates through eBay through your options and so you can access that through your shipping preferences and it's under your rates and exclusions carrier rate settings so it's this guy here and you have the option of choosing eBay discounted rates or um standard rates without discount and so that will charge your buyer accordingly. I believe by default uh eBay discounter rates is selected for buyers if I recall
(1:30:43) correctly. Um and then I'm also going to talk to Nolan for anybody that uh has a large amount of volume in Canada to see if it would make sense um potentially shipping that inventory in bulk over to dispatch. I don't know how viable that will be and what kind of costs that will incur.
(1:31:07) Uh but that could help those that have a lot of inventory inside of Canada to get it into the US. It'll just increase your sales volume obviously. Um but that's something I'm going to talk with Nolan about and see what that will kind of look like and then once I have that information then I'll share that with everybody as well.
(1:31:26) But yeah, like as it is right now, like all we mentioned, we're still kind of waiting on the changes to take effect and the platforms, eBay specifically, hasn't specifically mentioned what their process is going to look like and what kind of changes we're going to see. We know obviously if everything is revoked and I'm still kind of hopeful that things are going to be reversed as we get closer to the date because it was last time and I don't think the US has the capacity to maintain all the additional labor that they're going to need for these processes that is going to end up
(1:32:00) getting revoked. I've seen some things about um some places taking the current administration to court over these retalatory tariffs and whatnot as well. So, we don't really know for sure if these things are going to be put into place, but we should prepare accordingly like they're going to be because if they are, we want to make sure that we're ready.
(1:32:26) Um, that's the main things that I wanted to cover for eBay. I think that's all that I have for my notes here. Uh, one thing I was talking uh with Inca a little bit earlier. Um, he was mentioning that he's looking specifically to take advantage more so for products specifically being sold within Canada. And that's obviously something that we should look at as well if we have the option and we're sourcing products that um are being sold to Canadian buyers because there obviously are Canadian buyers on eBay. Uh, it's just that we have a much higher a much
(1:32:57) larger market for the US. But if I know he's looking for a way and it'd be interesting to see if anybody else finds uh good ways to because we can filter out products on eBay on sold listings to see what's actually being sold to Canadian buyers. And you can look through not a any efficient ways that I'm seeing so far, but you can look through what a lot of Canadian buyers are purchasing and then that can help you do sourcing specifically for eBay for Canadian purchases.
(1:33:31) So that's something that we can look at as well to help increase our domestic sales. Uh especially if this is something like if you're relying on eBay for a substantial part of your income or if you're trying to build an eBay business, that is something that I would highly recommend that you consider.
(1:33:46) But it all depends again what kind of business you're running on how you're going to adjust and what kind of things you're going to implement accordingly in your business. Um but yeah, that's everything that I wanted to cover specifically for eBay. Anybody have any other additional questions, comments, concerns about anything at all? Everybody's quiet today.
(1:34:19) But yeah, I do fully expect that if you are shipping from Canada and you are primarily selling to US buyers and you are primarily selling stuff that is not manufactured, you should fully expect eBay sales to take a dip because of that. Um, but then I do fully expect that in the coming months, assuming things are not revoked, as buyer behavior gets adjusted to these new norms, that sales volume will kind of most likely pick back up to what it was prior.
(1:34:51) You just may have to again consider price competitiveness much more than what you did previously. But I will probably expect US buyers specifically to be going more heavily specifically for US products if they are available and then their buying behavior to just adjust back to what it was prior once the dust settles probably about like sixish months in.
(1:35:20) That's kind of what we've seen um when eBay started implementing like that in um in Europe. uh if you had a lot of European buyers back then, that was kind of the behavior that we saw and then they kind of just adjusted and adapted and then we saw the same amount of European buyers more or less come back to the platform buying from Canadian sellers as well. So yeah, that's everything that I wanted to cover before we wrap it up.
(1:35:52) Anybody else have any questions, comments, anything? Let me know or forever hold your peace. Maybe, maybe not. Everybody silent. Cool. Well, then I am Oh, what do we got? What's up? Everybody's stressed out about this tariff thing to be honest. Oh, for sure. I mean, it's a big thing. Like, if you sell a lot in the US, it's it can be stressful because it's a it's a big it's a big change.
(1:36:34) But like a lot of people I've seen are panicking. They think that the the sky is falling. It's not if you're willing to adapt and adjust. Like it is obviously something that we have to learn. We have to adjust. uh especially if you do a lot of business in the US, but it's not something that's going to end your business if you're resilient.
(1:36:53) Yeah, especially for the big buyers, I think, because um recently there was this thing on Twitter where they were like um person doing OA um their margins if they if they have 20% margins, they're lying.
(1:37:15) And I was like, um, you guys are not checking the persons that are doing, um, well, Canada took to the US 100%. Because, yeah, margins for Canada to US tend to be quite a bit higher than that. But that's a different arbitrage opportunity that a lot of people don't have access to or they're unaware of, right? Yeah, that's true. Um, but AB got his thing down, so he's good.
(1:37:38) Yeah, I mean my main pain main pain main pain main pain main pain main pain main pain main pain main pain main pain main pain main point at that point was like I was I was buying a lot of inventory and it wasn't just getting across the border so I moved to formal entries started with like all these US Canadian uh products which were basically crossing for free but that's like it was a blessing in disguise and then by the all this thing happened I was pretty much ready for the shipments to be done in a like on formal but yeah I mean it's not
(1:38:03) it's not rocket science it's not something that's very difficult obviously It's when you start off you you you you might be a lot more hesitant about things of what you can send over and what you cannot. The brokers again they one might think that they are an expert in their field but a lot of products even like the brokers are not aware of what can be sent across the border what cannot be sent. So you just need to push through and you you you find your way out there.
(1:38:28) Obviously there are certain products that I cannot send over anymore. So I just put a lot of them. But then obviously there are as Jordan said there are a lot of other products in the market that you can obviously buy and sell like I was like when Jordan was saying about all this um the margins increasing and everything.
(1:38:46) So I just I was just going through my seller board report and I I just saw that my margins compar compared to like 6 months back my average ROI gross ROI was around 56%. Right now it's 75%. So that's that's crazy. I mean, even after paying duties and everything, I'm I'm making more money if not if if not the same, right? So, it's it's it's not the end of the world. Like, everyone is going to find their own path.
(1:39:10) Yeah, that's true. That's a nice increase, though. That's a very healthy increase. Yeah. I mean, obviously I've got like some jams that I might not be able to replen, but yeah, I I'll enjoy as much as as long as it's last. Yeah.
(1:39:39) And like as like if we look at the Amazon market specifically because like everybody's always concerned that like Amazon squeezes sellers, margins are tightening, etc., etc. And like as a whole, it may appear like that on the surface. Obviously, Amazon always gets harder over time. And I'm like I've said for years, I'm pretty sure they implement those systems by default. They intentionally make it harder by default because they're intentionally wanting to weed out the people that are not willing to take a business seriously.
(1:40:10) Uh but for those that do, like if we see fee increases year after year, that's fine. The the prices adjust accordingly. And for those as that don't and that no longer make sense, get rid of them. Find new ones. there's hundreds of thousands if not millions of new products are being added on both marketplaces every single year and there's consistently more and more opportunity.
(1:40:28) So until if and when Amazon completely eliminates third party sellers which I highly doubt that they ever will there's always going to be opportunity there and no matter what business model that you're doing. True. And also like I think there was a discussion going on like MI was saying some like almost a couple of weeks back or month back regarding the auto and getting happening in US again.
(1:40:52) It's just because Amazon just realized they cannot they cannot have everything in stock and they wanted like three P sellers to come back in stock and that's that's when they started opening up brands again like practically I believe like 90% of the applications I apply to they automatically get ungated and a lot of those brands were hardgated for me when this whole US hardgating thing started.
(1:41:12) Yeah. And like we don't know their actual reasoning behind why they did that. It could have been because they're wanting to weed out the platform of sellers. It could be because they're having internal issues. It could be because they can't handle the inventory. Whatever the case may be, unfortunately, they don't really tell us.
(1:41:29) It could be a wide variety of things. But we adapt and overcome and there's still plenty and plenty plenty of opportunity available and lots of margin to be made if you adjust. If you do the same old [ __ ] that you've been doing and you don't adapt and change, yeah, your business is going to die. But you probably shouldn't have been in business to begin with anyway if that's the kind of person that you are.
(1:41:54) It's true. Like uh I believe yeah a couple of weeks a big weeks back I was talking to early regarding like I was like man this this gings and everything are making my business go dry. So I'm thinking of shutting on my warehouse and I'll probably transfer business to you.
(1:42:12) But the last couple of weeks has been so awesome when I've been buy when I'm buying inventory like crazy. Like I've got a buy list of 20K and I don't have money to spend right now. So I was I just messaged Ali. I was like, "Man, you know what? I'm justing my plans for now." Yeah. And like with any business, we're going to go through periods of uncertainty and stress.
(1:42:31) Uh that's part for the course. like if you have a business that you don't ever have any challenges, chances are it's probably not a very profitable business. And so it's just a matter of how you adapt for it.
(1:42:48) And yeah, like I've in a lot of the businesses that I have and that I have had, I've had periods where it's like I'm stressed to the max and I'm literally like just thinking about it is making me throw up because it's like I don't know how I'm going to pay my [ __ ] bills and pay the people that I have employed. But if you sit down, think it through, and face it instead of just trying to run away from it, chances are you will come out better on on the other end.
(1:43:21) also like I've seen uh again it might be my products or something but I've seen like Canadian market expand a lot in the in the past couple of years or so like the volume that we are getting on products like even the same real plans I've been doing for the last couple of years they they have seemed to increase a lot like the sales volume on the Canadian market.
(1:43:42) Yeah, we're still nowhere near what the US market is and we probably never will be, but it's like Amazon has already been kind of a household name in Canada for a long time and it's like every I don't know what the stats are in Canada um for how many people have a Prime membership, but I guarantee you it's pretty high.
(1:44:02) And most people now in Canada, like I remember when I first used Amazon, I was in high school and there was hard to find products that were even available in Canada. Like all the products that were here were being shipped from the US. That's not the case anymore. You can find anything and everything that you want.
(1:44:20) And so, yeah, like Abdul said, we have seen volumes increase in Canada. But even if we don't, like even if stalemates at where it's at right now, you don't have to have massive volumes in Canada to make a viable business in Canada alone. Um, we do very very well.
(1:44:38) There's lots of sellers that do very very well selling just exclusively in Canada. Uh, you just have to adjust your business model accordingly. It's just different than the US. That's all. Okay, guys. I think I'll head out. I'll I'll hit the bed and I have early morning tomorrow. It was nice of you. Likewise. Have a good one night. You too. Okay. Bye. So, Jeff, you said that you're going to completely cut out cross border now.
(1:45:11) Are you starting to change your mind at all if you're still here? Maybe Jeff fell asleep. My voice is too soothing for him. What are you doing? What's that? Ron, I was asking how you doing. Who's sorry? Me. I'm good. Fran, how are you? How's everybody? I'm fine. I'm solid. Yeah, Melanie's been at MIA for a while. Little MIA, but I'm back hopefully.
(1:45:57) Have you been maintaining your Amazon business at all while you've been away? I have. Nice. I have actually, but just no real growth. But hopefully we can turn it up now. Q4 is not that far away. No decreases in the time that you've been away a little bit though. Nope. That's good.
(1:46:24) Pumping it out. Pumping it out. That's good. Are you still beating Nick? No, I think Nick's got me a Nick. You're I don't know. You're probably beating me now. I've been hovering around the same amount. My life's life's been freaking crazy the past month. Yeah, you and me both. You and me both. But it's time to turn it up. Yeah, absolutely.
(1:46:47) What have you been doing, Nick? Why has things been crazy? Uh, some personal [ __ ] family [ __ ] and just helping my mom sell her house. Been that's been a crazy journey. Just a [ __ ] ton of renovating and planning and like back and forth. Is she moving? Just a lot. Is she going to be moving in with you? No. That's good. Did he just say no way? He just said no.
(1:47:12) Is that what he said? No. Yeah, I did. Oh, where is that horse located? Moving to Jamaica with Ron. Actually, I'm announcing it here. I'm not I'm not spending one more winter here. I can accommodate you. It's no problem. Thanks, Ron. Pretty sure Ron has a wife. That's okay. Okay, you can put me in another room or in the in the guest house, whatever he's got over there. Me some beef patties and I'm fine.
(1:47:51) You never told me, Ron, I need a good beef patty in Toronto. Yeah, my bad. Still, I need to contact I need to when he comes in, I'll get the information for you and send it over. I promise. Okay. What's up? No, I was asking um where is the house located? Oh, um in the GTA like you want more specifics? Yeah, Nick, we're gonna we're gonna come find you.
(1:48:25) All right. All right. We know you're in Bmpton. Yeah. No, the house is in Bmpton. He's so like incognito. Yeah, there's like 400 gym right now. Okay. find him at his gym. And we know he hits the Popeye's after, so it's not going to be hard to find. Yeah. Pay attention. Okay. I pay attention when you guys talk. No, I haven't at Popeye's in who knows how long. Been a very long time.
(1:48:58) I actually didn't need it. The app didn't work. You know how we were trying to get those free points? It didn't work. So, I'm like, screw Popeyes. Yeah, that I remember that night. You were pissed. Melanie, you're starting to sound like Monica. Why? Tracking people down. Oh, yes. I know what you're talking about. And no, no, no, not even close.
(1:49:22) Not even close. You got to calm down. Not even close. He has a whole notebook, I think, on everybody. Oh god. On the bright side though, the uh the eBay business is starting to ramp up a little bit, which is nice. Definitely. Yeah. What kind of things have you been selling as of late? Um, so the like today for example, you know those batteries you sold me? I wasn't selling any of them and then I sold four of them today, which is crazy how that works. Batteries like the golf cart things. Yeah. Yeah.
(1:49:58) Okay, cool. Nice. How much the controllers or whatever? How much you sell them for? Uh they I had them listed at like 89 I think and they weren't selling so I dropped them a bit. They weren't selling. Now I'm selling them for 70. Nothing crazy. But was it the easy golf cart ones? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I sold a bunch of those.
(1:50:17) Yeah, they weren't selling at all and now they're just going left and right. So did you get them as a price error? Uh Jordan sold me his and the gold team. Yeah, they they often come up in the price error channel. Yeah, I got them. I I got the original ones and then I sold them for what I paid for them.
(1:50:36) Yeah. So, I've been selling a lot of those. A lot of, you know, or not a lot, like some of the controllers, some Gym Shark [ __ ] Um, a lot of the Vault stuff. Those have been those have been really nice. Judy. Yeah. And Chillin, I see that your business is still very consistent on eBay. Yep. Uh, time to bring in some US sales now.
(1:51:04) Or I mean dispatch rather. Have you utilized this batch at all yet? No, I haven't. I still have to get started on it and pro most likely use uh Stellar uh for US drops because they seem to be a little bit more competitive than the Canadian ones cuz most of the stuff I've been selling is, you know, essentially just source it from Canada and then ship to the US.
(1:51:35) And oftent times I've noticed that we're in stock in Canada compared to the States where it goes out of stock a lot quicker. So, I've been pretty much capitalizing on that. But, yeah, I definitely need to uh add in the US to increase my sales more. Are you wanting to take a a real run for it to to replace your current job? I mean, it's nowhere close right now. Uh, I'll try. I'll definitely see how far I can take it.
(1:52:07) But if it can hit, you know, make me what I make a month in my current job, then yeah, like I said, I've told you many times, bro, I'm trying to get rid of the 9 to5. You could do it easily. Get getting rid of the 9 to5 and getting out of the country both on my to-do list. Got to make a real run for it, then you can do it. Yeah. Yeah. Literally running running for it.
(1:52:30) What about Amazon? or you know really I haven't started Amazon. I have to I mean I did but it wasn't really a start. It was just like you know a quick dabble into it. It wasn't serious but I I kind of like eBay because it's so simple and easy. Yeah. I mean in certain ways I guess. Yeah. Amazon's a lot more complicated but once you get it going it's just it's nice.
(1:52:54) Amazon in general is just easier easier to scale. Like eBay, you can still scale very very very much. So Amazon's just easier to scale. But it has a lot more complications for sure. Yeah, eBay is just very simple. It takes no time, honestly. That's why kind of sticking with that for now. Yeah. Oh, you want to try Stellar? I have a key for you.
(1:53:18) Yeah. Yeah, I've been meaning to. Uh kind of busy with stuff right now, but definitely I plan on using it. It's been a minute since I've been botting. Stellar is pretty pretty straightforward. You just need some proxies, but it's pretty simple. Yeah. Yeah. I got I got I got so many emails back from the botting days, Gmail accounts and all that other good stuff. So, yeah, definitely got to start.
(1:53:49) But yeah, with the Oh, yeah. the the eBay thing is going to be interesting with uh end of August if they plan on going through with it selling from Canada like I think it's going to have some big impacts like with some of the stuff that you're selling like you mentioned if it's not stuff that's readily available if it's more collectible limited edition etc probably won't have as much of an impact you will certainly shortterm selling from Canada but if you're transition to the US and keeping in the US you probably will see very like negligible effects.
(1:54:25) Yeah. And I guess that's a sign too uh with dispatch and everything to transition sooner rather than later. Yeah. Then it makes it even it makes even less of a time investment technically because you don't have to pack uh pick and pack anything. Yeah.
(1:54:45) Yeah. That's pretty much the only like that's the majority of the time that actually takes for me on eBay. like it's very easy to you know do 10k months. The uh most of the time is literally just spent on packing. [Music] Like I only put maybe roughly I haven't really calculated exactly but I spent like maybe four hours four four or five hours on uh on buying stuff at the max not even on eBay and then the rest probably like another two two three hours actually switch that two three hours buying and then like probably four four hours packing total per week. Do you keep track of how much you're profiting off of your revenue?
(1:55:28) Yeah. So, with your standard sales because like it seems like you kind of average like around 10K a month. Yeah. Yeah. About 13ish. And so, what is your typical profit on that? Uh, average is around 40% ROI. 45. Okay. And so, what do you what do you believe you would need to consider quitting your job? per month.
(1:55:56) I mean, I would have to make I have to at least make like 10k. And so, would that be like comfortable like replacing your income or would that be like in excess of that would be replacing my income just about replacing it? So, before you do that, you'd probably want to do like probably like if you want to be safe and I believe you are kind of supporting your family, right? Yeah.
(1:56:24) Yeah. You probably want I would probably say like 2x that before you do. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I wouldn't I probably my goal was to get like one and a half just cuz I I want to get out quicker. But yeah, initially my plan was always if I once I 2x then then I'll fully like commit to dropping it. But we'll see.
(1:56:46) With how government is nowadays, they might just let me go before I have that chance. Who knows? Oh, if you move to a place that has less taxes and a lower lower cost of living, then you could even do that sooner. Yeah. Yeah. The plan is definitely, you know, out of province for sure. Uh, in the next 2, three years, ideally out of country in the next five.
(1:57:08) Do you guys own a house or you renting? We're renting. Yeah. Makes a little bit easier. Yeah. Yeah. But it's renting a full house, so Yeah, it ain't cheap. It's what? Three of you. What's that? Three of you guys. Where am I? Like it's three of you. Like it's it's you and your parents, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, even if you move, like depending on how how how fancy your parents are, maybe you don't even need that large of a space. No.
(1:57:42) Well, you know, my sisters were with us before, but then they got married and moved out, so Yep. But we kept our original rent rate, so we haven't like, you know, had to pay more. What do you guys pay for rent? Uh, right now it's about 2600. [ __ ] me. Jeez. Which is which is pretty low. Yeah. So, we kept pretty much What's that? I say that's really good. Yeah, it is. That's expensive, dude.
(1:58:13) For a house. weird. I mean, for a full house, I guess, but like Yeah. Just considering like considering how low my mortgage is, it's just [ __ ] expensive. Well, bro, mortgage. Oh, I mean, not that I would ever get a mortgage, but mortgage here is going to be like, you know, at least, you know, 35 38 minimum.
(1:58:34) So, it doesn't factor in my uh my condo fees and uh property taxes, but my my mortgage is $658 a month. That's pretty slow. Uh, who do you know in the back? Was that wrong? I I know you have a girlfriend in the bank. A girlfriend in the bank? No. No. No. No. No. Girlfriend in the bank.
(1:59:07) Did you say the bank or the bed? The bank. I I wanted I wanted to I wanted to be do be PG. So, I didn't want to say what I wanted to say. I was like, who are you effing? No, man. It's just way it's way cheaper here than a lot of other a lot of the rest of Canada. And I bought my place like 2017, so even before prices increased here.
(1:59:32) What are your main fees, Jordan? My condo fees are $350 a month, which is expensive, but it's still not. Well, do you know how much mine are? What? $273. But like relative to how much my place costs, it's expensive. Like it's [ __ ] 50% of my mortgage essentially more. But do you have any amenities in your condo? No, nothing.
(1:59:56) Oh, well that Well, that that's also why like I have a party room, I have a pool, I have a pool table room, I have a pingpong, whatever. Yeah, like we have that's what you pay for. We have like a quote unquote amenity room. Ask me if I use any of it. Exactly. And you have a a fancy concier? Yes. And I have a concier that takes all my packages. Yeah.
(2:00:16) No, we don't get none of that [ __ ] I have a big ass balcony, but that's about it. Where if something gets delivered to your house, how how do you I don't get anything. You don't have a concierge and you live in a condo. Nothing. Oh, but personal stuff. Nothing's delivered. Nothing. Oh, you it goes to your parents, right? Yeah. Or one of my PO boxes. Oh, okay.
(2:00:41) But yeah, most my stuff, like if I have personal stuff, I just send it to my parents house. They collect it. And whenever I go there once a week or so, I collect everything. Yeah. Maintenance fees in the city are crazy. Yeah. It's like a mortgage payment. It's Yeah, it's a mortgage payment. Yeah. It's one of the reasons why I'm relatively reluctant to move from here. Like I think eventually I'll probably rent this place out.
(2:01:10) Um but a lot of people ask like when are you gonna buy a house and don't you want a garage and whatever? I'm like it's so cheap here and I don't have to do any maintenance myself. You're not into the real estate business? What's that? You're not going to get into the real estate business? No. Like I actually I thought about it like a long time ago.
(2:01:31) Like it was probably when I was coming out of high school. I thought about like going into like actually like become like a real estate agent. Um I think eventually I might expand a portfolio of some properties, but I don't foresee that happening anytime soon. I don't have the time to do it. And yeah, you have rental you have management companies and [ __ ] that so that eat so much of your margin.
(2:01:57) But eventually I'll probably buy a few a few properties. Would you say that's the average price? Was that Melanie? Would you say that's the average price of a condo where you are or you just got in at a really good price at like a really good time in 2017? Well, if we're looking at like apartment style condos here, we still have like um a massive surplus and they're still building like um I don't want to tell everybody where I am, but like recently there there was like some like low-inccome housing condos that were built by me, which is kind of shitty because it's probably going to impact my property value depending on the kind of people it
(2:02:36) brings around here. Um, but for apartment style condos, um, probably like because I paid 155 grand. I don't have a big place. Um, my place is like just under 700 square feet. If you're looking at like places that are a little bit bigger. Um, and typical condos, you're probably looking like closer to like 200.
(2:03:01) If you're going fancier, like there's condos that are like down by the river that cost like500, $600,000. Um, but yeah, like they're not they're not too crazy here yet. 2017 you pay 150. That's that's amazing. Yeah. What's that, Nick? Not saying this is kind of unrelated, but has anyone here had any any success getting ungated in any brands that they are regated in? negative. In Canada, I've only had to submit a couple.
(2:03:40) Uh I got approved I've submitted I believe it was four now. I got approved for two. Got denied for one. Okay. And I just submitted one that's in review right now. Uh but if you look uh baby component, he mentioned that he's been good success. Yeah, I'm going to try that out. I saw that. So good idea. What you mean if it's that? That's why I think I asked the I think I asked the question was it difficult and he said no they just like getting an email back from the brand. So that's good news and like yeah cuz right now it's sorry go on.
(2:04:18) Oh no go ahead. No, it's just like a weird balance where it's like I want to buy more stuff, new stuff, but with all this I'm like kind of holding off a little bit, right? Because it's kind of uncertain what's going on, right? Like I know you mentioned before you think it could possibly be a glitch or them just like getting their updating their systems or something and they [ __ ] something up, but until we get a clear answer, until things go back to normal, it's hard to want to spend heavily on, you know, new
(2:04:50) brands and stuff, right? I don't know if I'm just kind of get a clear answer, dude. No, like clear answer as in Yeah, that's true. Like if we start getting ungated easily, then we're like, "Okay, they fixed whatever the hell they did, you know? Who knows how long that could be?" Grab a couple invoices of stuff that you bought in like the last month or two that you got reated on or like even like three-ish months. Try that method and see if you can get reated. Yeah, I'm going to I'm going to try that
(2:05:16) and if that works and yeah, it should be it should be easier going forward. maybe at least buying products that are easily returnable to start with just to kind of see if it continues working. But 100% kind of in the wild west right now. If you try that and have like half a dozen dozen asens that you get ungated for and you don't get reated right away, then you're probably in the clear. Yeah.
(2:05:47) or if that's um you know like a new thing that you know you have to do that for every new item you buy. I guess that's another another job you could give a VA for sure. But also like I don't see I've never heard anybody anywhere talking about that. So that will be something that a lot of people probably don't figure out for quite a while and that's going to create them less competition for sure at least in the short term.
(2:06:17) Yeah, we're all in the same same boat unfortunately. Yeah. Well, I'm just going to keep applying or like right now I keep getting hit with the message, you know, you you've already sent in this information blah blah blah like don't, you know, so we automatically closed it. Don't submit a new application unless you have new information.
(2:06:47) But then I reply to it and then it they actually I think when I reply to it and resubmit the invoice, it actually goes through some kind of appeal process because it takes a lot longer for them to respond and then I'll usually get a different answer depending on, you know, like a different bot answer, but it seems like it's actually looked at if you reply and you make some BS kind of response. like, "Oh, this is a legitimate invoice from an authorized distributor.
(2:07:14) Please recheck the invoice, approve it, you know, and then they'll actually look at it." But I still haven't gotten approved for anything. [Music] Were you regated on a large portion of your catalog or just No, no, just literally two as that. So, it's not a big deal at all. Like literally two as that I was in the middle of prepping that I didn't send in yet. Yeah, that's always annoying.
(2:07:40) There was an AS that I sent in or a couple as that I sent in that I was gated on, but since they're already in transit, they're like they went to my inventory and are selling currently, but it says I'm not allegible, so I don't think I could replen those. Yeah, I've noticed that a lot.
(2:07:59) Like they haven't they haven't been when he got reated, they haven't been restricting current inventory. That's what I don't understand about all this. Not that I'm complaining, but like a glitch. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, it's difficult. Um because I um sent there was some discontinued product and um I bought a I bought like a hundred of a different item just to get ungated. Got ungated.
(2:08:27) then bought like a half a pallet of stuff um from Luna and um then when I sent in a few got her gated in in that brand uh oh my god when I went back to Rona with with those um but it's crazy um so I have a few brands that I'm totally Um, I was gated, was ungated, then got um, reated and um, I've been trying to use the same invoices for like the past month and a half. No luck.
(2:09:10) Did I guess we all get a try? Oh, yeah. Yeah, they definitely did. Yeah, cuz everything was in perfect condition. So I was like um hey this is the wrong item and I felt okay bringing bringing them back given the um amount of volume but at the same time I could not eat that high of a cost. Right.
(2:09:45) Well that's good though cuz like some stores like they they they kind of get upset when you're trying to bring back so much stock. No, I pretty I'm pretty sure um hopefully the manager wasn't there, but I'm pretty sure the persons because it was like at least one, two, three and a half. Um the Charlie's full. That's good. Like Rona is like a a a contractor store anyway, though.
(2:10:12) So like they they get a lot of uh materials and stuff that are returned anyway. So Yeah, but I was a Yeah, I had a funny scenario happen recently. I ordered like 40 units of an item from Walmart and they got delivered and every single one of them was expired and I'm like and then when I went to go try to start the return on the Walmart website, it says it's not allegible for return. So I'm like what the hell? But I just messaged Live Chat and they helped me out.
(2:10:47) They like put the return through basically. They have a weird system. If you don't like cancel within the first 30 minutes, you got to like do it via an agent. Yeah. I mean, the live chat, they didn't even ask questions. They didn't even ask for pictures. They're like, "Oh, we requested." So, it was simple. But I've never gotten that. Like, Walmart literally sent me 40 units in like 10 different boxes.
(2:11:11) Every single one was expired by like six months. Did I ever tell you about when I had that problem with a distributor sending like the weren't expire products but they were close to expiry? No, I don't think so. This was like quite a few years ago. I uh dealt with a distributor. Uh, I only ever bought one skew off of them and I'd always contact them in advance and ask them what expire what expiration date they had on hand because it was stuff that like it didn't have like a super extended expiration date, but it was good enough.
(2:11:40) And so I'd always ask them what the dates were and if it was too close, I wouldn't buy it. I'd wait till they get got new stuff. And I messaged them like as as normal. I asked them what expiration date that they had. They told me and it was a good date. order it, stuff comes and it's not the date that they told me and it was only like I think it was like two months out, two or three months out. It wasn't wasn't good enough for for Amazon.
(2:12:05) And so I just said, you know, I contacted them. I was probably buying from them for like year, maybe two years. And I didn't do like massive volume with them, but I probably spend like probably like around 10ish thousand dollars a month with them. And um I said, you know, you guys sent me the wrong stuff. not a big deal. If you want, just like send me the label.
(2:12:25) I'll send it back to you and just let me know when you get a good expiry date. And the sales rep said something along the lines of like, oh, like if we offered you a discount, like would you just keep it? I was like, no, like unfortunately I can't. Like it's I can't use the stuff. It's not going to be worthwhile for me in any capacity.
(2:12:42) I was like, I would just like to return it. And then she said, oh, like that wouldn't be a problem. And then it was like a few days later that I didn't get a response. And then she told me like, "Oh, like they can't return it." I was like, "What do you mean you can't return it?" Like, "Uh, I did everything that I had to do and you told me that it was supposed to have a certain expiration date and it didn't." Oh, what do you mean you can't return it? And I said, "Well, like this is like we can't take it back.
(2:13:06) " I was like, "Okay, cool. Um, then I'll just open up a charge back with [ __ ] American Express." I was like, "Fuck you guys. I'll never do business with you again." And as soon as I mentioned I charge back like oh like oh oh like we'll we'll refund you um if you like we'll they they sent me a refund right away and they're like if you can like we we found another buyer can you slap on a different uh shipping label and we'll have it sent to a different customer and like a FedEx or whatever we'll come pick it up from you. I'm like you guys like just ruined like
(2:13:30) a relationship like I'm never going to buy from you guys again. Like like that's [ __ ] ridiculous. Like shouldn't have happened to begin with. I shouldn't have to threaten you with chargeback. Who is this with? Uh this was with a a distributor. I don't want to say what company. Oh, okay. Okay. Track me down because you probably probably won't buy it.
(2:13:48) You probably won't find a lot of products from them. But but yeah, like it was just it was ridiculous. Like there's absolutely no reason why they did that. And like they just assume that, you know, I'm just going to take an L for like whatever it was, eight 10 grand. Like [ __ ] off. Yeah. That's terrible. Yeah. So, haven't purchased from them since and yeah, they lost that business.
(2:14:16) Rightfully so. They're not trustworthy. Yeah, obviously not. Chill. You sell your TVs yet? I sold one. Which one? The 65. How much you sold for? I sold that for about 580. And was that the TV by itself or with the soundar? No, just the TV. Nice. Yeah. And what was your buy cost on that? like I think it was like 12 120 129 or something like that. It was it was less than 200. They came they came by twice though.
(2:14:54) It Yeah. The And the the funny thing is is the second time they came around were actually better TVs with the same price. And that's the time I had the SMS system up and you didn't use it. I didn't know. Well, I forgot it cuz that was the same day you implemented it. I was like, "Okay, I know.
(2:15:14) I know. Yeah, I didn't get that ping and I was on there. I mean, I did I did ping the server. I mean, not the server, but yeah, anyone who was uh for at eBay flips and at local flips, I did ping in members uh member flips. So, you did? Yeah, I did do that. And I think uh Inca managed to get some. What really pissed me off is I was at my computer, but I had my [ __ ] set to do not disturb, so I didn't see it.
(2:15:36) And then and then I I seen those. I was like, what the [ __ ] That was sucks. Yeah, these were these were a lot limit more limited because they would only like it showed in stock, but it wouldn't let you check out more than one at a time. And so after I checked out three, I was like, "Oh, shoot.
(2:15:54) I better just ping the server." And then I pinged and then I I managed to uh I I checked out two, sorry. Then I pinged the server and then I checked out one more and then uh I think like shortly after that it started going out. Where was it from? Best Buy or No, no, no. Amazon. Oh, Amazon.
(2:16:16) And so, how many did you get total? How many TVs total? Uh, I got five total. Nice. The biggest one was what, an 85? Yeah, 85. Dude, that thing is massive. Doesn't take up as much room as the couches. I I mean, it does uh lengthwise for sure. The thing is huge. Like I it wouldn't fit in my It wouldn't fit on my uh TV mount at all. I'd have to get a new mount for it. That's funny.
(2:16:49) My little TV that I have sitting on my wall is like a Bro, I don't even use my TV. Like my TV just gathers dust. Yeah, I have like a 42 inch Philips smart TV from like probably [ __ ] like 15 years ago and I don't remember last time. Yeah, same. I have one new TV which was like from eight years ago and the other one is still from like 2009.
(2:17:08) Yeah. I don't even know if my which I paid like like $1,200 for when it came out. I don't even know if my TV works anymore. I don't know last time I turned it on. Um, my brother, I think it was like last week, he tried to find a a listing by himself and he found a a creed cologne. A cre however you pronounce it. Oh, shoot. Yeah. Yeah, I saw that. I forgot.
(2:17:40) I I forgot to um It was on my It was on my notepad now that you're reminded me. I was going to post, but yeah. Well, the one that he found wasn't like it didn't have that much of a difference. Was it the Milim Imperial? I believe so. What What uh what as did you find? Cuz the one that he found um what was it here? I think it might have been the 1.7 ounce one. Yeah, I think that was the one.
(2:18:05) Well, that one like it was like technically supposed to be 48 grams and on Amazon it says it was 50. No. Okay, that wasn't the one then. But it was the same size. Maybe the listing is gone now. Maybe.
(2:18:25) That's the one that he he found and he tried to just get it himself because he wanted a a Korean cologne and uh yeah, Amazon. I was like when he told me that it was on the way I was like are you sure like that's good? Cuz like he just [ __ ] spent 500 bucks on a cologne and he's like well [ __ ] I I hope I can get my money back. And then uh when he contacted support they actually asked for him to return it.
(2:18:43) [Laughter] That's crazy. I I didn't I haven't really touched it cuz since I've been getting so many warnings. The first one was like, "Oh, if you do it again, we're going to suspend your account." Um, and then the second time I was just getting some warnings on reviews or something. I think I posted in the gen chat.
(2:19:01) Has that got sorted? Yeah, so far I've been able to do some reviews, but I I do occasionally get that, you know, you can't review this item. Um, so I don't know what the heck that's about, but yeah. And like then afterwards it just won't let you do a review at all. It's I guess it depends on the item. I I have never used to get it before, but now like some of the freebie stuff that I I think like two two of the recent ones I actually got it from that like you can't review it so I have to return it. I don't know. Which kind of sucks because now they're
(2:19:33) going to be like, "Oh, you're still returning more [ __ ] now." So yeah, but I don't know if that's you. That might be like that might be like the actual people getting like busted for attempting to buy reviews, right? Uh, could be, but it just said your account, this account is not eligible for reviews.
(2:19:50) I think that's what the message was for this item. Are all the reviews that you're doing like how long do you wait after you get the product delivered before you leave? Yeah, it's like 5 days. And do you do like all AI generated reviews? No, no, I actually write them. Interesting. Yeah, like my brother's been going uh pretty on those free products.
(2:20:16) He's a [ __ ] ton of stuff and uh yeah, he hasn't had any of those issues yet. He had one issue where I think it's because of the they kind of flagged my account already. So yeah, scooter was pretty cool. Yeah, it goes pretty quick. I mean, I did get a [ __ ] ton of cologne, so No, easy, calm, easy go. But uh yeah, quite quite surprised on like how solid that scooter was just being a Chinese product like it's pretty solid.
(2:20:51) And my brother said like he had like some electric scooters that were made from like Segway like a couple years ago. He's like, "Yeah, this one's even better than those." Damn, that's nice. I've been wanting to get one of those. I see them sometimes pop up in the states. Uh the US one and I was like thinking about just getting it shipped to the US mailbox and pick it up. Get a bunch of those but with the tariffs and everything.
(2:21:15) I don't know. Plus the situation with border crossing cuz I had a friend actually I think I mentioned this before. He actually had his device searched. Oh yeah. at the border like his phone. Yeah. Oh yeah, they're doing that now. They're going on all your social media and if you're Yeah, they check his social media.
(2:21:37) He's not letting you in the country. Not about Trump. It's more the people he supports. Oh yeah, I heard. Israel. Yeah. If you had a bad Yeah, cuz that's that's what they're I mean they're saying it's anti-semitism reasons. So they're barring people entry or dnaturalizing people for that.
(2:22:03) But like yeah, it's it's he you know, they they went through his social media accounts and they're like they detained him for like four
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