eBay purchase held by U.S. customs
 

I have a card that I purchased on eBay last month and which was shipped from Canada to my U.S. address on April 14. Tracking shows it as being held by U.S. customs since April 15. My question, for anyone else who has experienced this or otherwise knows the answer, what is the average amount of time and the maximum amount one can reasonably expect to wait for a card (specifically from Canada) to be released by U.S. customs to the USPS? It's worth about $500 if that matters.

That's far too long. It's too bad it wasn't shipped with a courier, then you could simply call them and they could get the broker to look into it immediately. Not really sure how to proceed since it's USPS, but I'm sure the process would be much more convoluted.

I have experience with this... very, very painful experience.

My Cracker Jack Branch Rickey card, that I bought for $1500, shipped from Canada and got held up in customs... the card was never found, and I haven't been able to find a deal even half as good as I had on that card!

Canadian brick and mortar stores have a habit of putting their company name on the packaging, which is a giant neon sign for thieves. When I buy from any store now I instruct them NOT to use their company name.

I noticed that Greg Morris has also stopped using their company name on all deliveries too, probably for that reason.

Awful.

I once had a postal worker in Canada tell me that US customs agents can destroy packages that don't have an invoice (either attached or inside). Now, I don't even know if that's true cause' it never happened to me. From my experience, if any agent opens the package and sees that the importer is trying to avoid paying taxes (by putting a low value on the package), then the agent will just put the proper value down and have it shipped to you. There is no reason to hold it up. Now, there are exceptions here. For example, if the agent finds a diamond Rolex in there, then yes, he will likely phone up the importer and demand an explanation.

Also, I've never heard of customs agents stealing things before. Postal workers? Yes.

FWIW, years ago a few rare boxing cards I bought from the UK ended up disappearing in customs in NY. Happened more than once.

Another flag is shipping insurance. I stopped using that once I started using Collect Insure.
I lost a package once shipping to Beckett that was insured for $5k. No doubt the thieves saw that in a small box and thought.......

Registered Mail is the only logical option if insuring for high value.

An update: It has now been held in customs for 52 days with no additional steps in the USPS tracking. Does anyone know if, at some point, eBay would issue a refund to the buyer without taking it from the seller? That is, does eBay have insurance to cover the cost of packages that were properly shipped but not received? And if so, how long they would wait before doing that? Is there essentially no chance they would ever consider a package lost or stolen if it was last shown to be in the possession of U.S. Customs? Or is my refund dependent on the USPS deciding in favor of a Canadian seller who insured a package that was, shall I say, disappeared by the U.S.?

I would have filed item not delivered long ago. You did your part as a buyer when you made payment. Let ebay and the seller figure out the rest. In a case such as this I would have used a CC to create an extra layer of protection.

I filed the report with eBay. They determined that it's on its way and, as the USPS tracking indicates, "being processed by United States Customs" [as it has been for the past 65 days now]. I paid by credit card, but unless I'm missing something I don't know what good that does me. I can't very well ask the credit card company to reverse the charges at the expense of the seller who sent me the card.

Maybe you can work something out with the seller? I had a similar situation a few years ago (albeit for a less expensive card). After a suitably long wait I told the seller that it still hadn't arrived and seemed to be lost in the mail and they were happy to share the loss with me - they suggested it even.

Whether it works depends on how much the seller cares about keeping customers happy. And if you don't feel comfortable asking for money back you could just message them, tell them it hasn't arrived, and leave the ball in their court.

As a preface, I'll state that this sounds like an unfortunate situation for both parties.

I'm not 100% certain of this; however, you *might* be able to get your credit card company involved. You paid for something. It still hasn't been delivered.

Credit card companies typically have a time limit for those sorts of things. You may want to call them, explain what's happening, and ask what your options are.

I don't know if their policies are still the same as they were 5-6 years ago, but I'd certainly continue to be a noisy gong in eBay's ear. They at least used to be quite the champion for their buyers, and in the past have gone to lengths for me in that regard that I found surprising - such as taking the hit for me on a card that was marked delivered by the USPS when it actually wasn't.

As the broker of the deal and especially with the item being under the "eBay Guarantee," then IMO they have an obligation to make it right. 60+ days even if Customs ostensibly still has it is not acceptable.

You didn't pay the seller; you paid eBay. All payments go through their managed system. Just because the credit card company decides to ding eBay doesn't mean eBay is going to ding the seller without a review process. I would go ahead and dispute it on the CC, that may be your only option at this point if eBay doesn't want to go ahead and refund you.

That might could work if nothing else does, but the guarantees are part of why people pay fees and jump through hoops to have the umbrella of eBay and their protection over them. I'd certainly exhaust all avenues trying to put eBay on the hook for it before going back directly to the seller.

Get your money back while you can. If the package eventually arrives you can pay for it again.

I would definitely pursue a refund. If it shows up, great, but I wouldn’t hold my breath at this point.

Presumably, there are no tariffs for vintage baseball cards and no other legal impediments stopping your card from clearing customs, so one can only assume it is Washington's new policy to harass Canadians and their customers because Ottawa didn't want to become the 51st state.