eBay

maxwar82 · ‎03-26-2016

I am appalled by the decision to force selling in CAD. I think it will hurt my business as my main market ( vintage video game ) is rather strongly indexed to the USD. Listing in CAD makes no sense to me. I would be forced to manually adjust my prices all the time.

I would just move to ebay.com but I have a problem. I use the shipping calculator for everything. I just tried listing on ebay.com and it only gives me USPS option.

Please someone tell me there is still a way I can use the calculator for Canada post and sell in USD.

Ebay if you read this WHY do you always change things for the worse?

pocomocomputing · ‎03-26-2016

No you cannot use the eBay.ca Canada Post shipping calculator on eBay.com.

What you have to do is use Flat Rate shipping option on ebay.com with eBay Generic shipping options.

For Canada Post shipping options with a fixed cost like Lettermail/Letter-post, Light Packet and Small Packet, and Tracked Packet, you can set up nicely on ebay.com. For CP shipping options Like Expedited Parcel and Xpresspost which has cost that vary with location, you have to charge something in the middle of what it will cost you for you closet and furthest destination.

Set up like this on eBay.com.

Domestic shipping (This is actually your Canada to USA shipping on ebay.ca)

Select Flat Rate shipping.

Choose one of the ebay generic "shipping from outside the US" options based on estimated delivery days that matches the Canada Post service you would be using. This is usually "Standard shipping from outside the USA" or "Economy shipping from outside the US"

Enter in the shipping cost in US $ converted from the actual Canada Post shipping option cost.

Remember the USA domestic shipping option is your Canada to USA shipping option.

International shipping

Select Flat Rate shipping again.

You need to set up two international shipping options, one for Canada only (which is really your domestic shipping within Canada) and one for the rest of the world.

Change the option from Worldwide to Choose Custom Location. Check off Canada only. Select eBay Generic shipping option Standard Int'l shipping. Put in a shipping cost in US$ that will cover the cost of shipping within Canada to most locations. Make sure it covers the shipping cost to most of your buyers (Quebec, Ontario have 60% of the population, the rest is scattered around with 25% in BC and Alberta which is far away from your location in Quebec City, Quebec). The extra profit on close locations with low shipping cost makes up for the loss on farther locations.

Click on add additional service to add another shipping option.

Select worldwide. Select eBay Generic shipping option Standard Int'l shipping. Again choose a shipping cost in US$ that covers the shipping cost of the CP shipping service you will be using.

Use Exclude shipping locations in the site setting to block all other countries you do not want to ship to. Or use in the listing form to block countries.

FVF shipping fees are based on the lower of your first USA domestic shipping cost or actual shipping cost. So if you offer free shipping on USA, no shipping FVF on the Canada and Worldwide options.

The above model works very well except for shipping within Canada with parcel services that change based on distance.

Try setting up a test listing like what I describe (choose an item going Lettermail/Light Packet since it is easier to do because it is flat rate cost with no distance rates).

Make sure you test it with different countries to make sure it works correctly. If you schedule the listing 2-3 weeks in the future, then you can test the shipping. When it looks okay, list it. Post back the listing number and we will check it out for you.

PS remove all shipping costs in the description. No need for this and it makes it harder to change when postal rates change.

PS I hope I wrote the above correctly. I did it all from memory. Long post. Please correct mistakes if anyone is reading this.

cooltoycars · ‎03-26-2016

This is just another example of Ebay screwing over their sellers. First no negative ratings for terrible buyers then final value fees on shipping and now this! If it's not broke then don't fix it! Of course there is probably a cost savings to the ever greedy ebay in this stupid change!

maxwar82 · ‎03-26-2016

Thank you for the post pocomo. I know how to list with fixed prices. My main concern is staying competitive geographically and charge as little shipping as possible. I also do not like getting screwed up by freak postal costs.

For example about a year ago somebody in the Nunavut ( basically the North pole ) ordered me an Item that I listed for 40$ free shipping across Canada. I expected shipping to range from 10$ to 20$. But to the Nunavut Shipping alone was 45$!! Because there was no road leading to the place and a small plane has to go there for the parcels.

Now I only use the calculator for all my parcels and like it a lot better, no bad surprises, and also It makes me more competitive for regional customers since they only pay the true cost, not the average.

pocomocomputing · ‎03-26-2016

@maxwar82 wrote:
Thank you for the post pocomo. I know how to list with fixed prices. My main concern is staying competitive geographically and charge as little shipping as possible. I also do not like getting screwed up by freak postal costs.

For example about a year ago somebody in the Nunavut ( basically the North pole ) ordered me an Item that I listed for 40$ free shipping across Canada. I expected shipping to range from 10$ to 20$. But to the Nunavut Shipping alone was 45$!! Because there was no road leading to the place and a small plane has to go there for the parcels.

Now I only use the calculator for all my parcels and like it a lot better, no bad surprises, and also It makes me more competitive for regional customers since they only pay the true cost, not the average.

My apologies. I did not understand your post. Perhaps the post will help someone else and act as a refresher for others.

But let us continue the discussion on what to possibly do about the issue of parcel items on ebay.ca having a range of shipping costs. The possible options I see are:

1) Stay on ebay.ca Canada. Leave parcel items on ebay.ca Canada in Can $ and use calculated shipping options. Trust that sales will not be affected and actually go up the 5 to 15% stated in the eBay.ca Canada study. Have International shipping options to the USA and World as you normally would.

2) Exclude Canada option. List the item on eBay.com USA in US $ using flat rate shipping options, exclude Canada from shipping, have International shipping to other countries.

3) Two listing option. List on eBay.ca Canada as in option 1 but only ship to Canada with no International shipping and countries blocked. List on ebay.com USA as in option 2. Since no country will see the two listings because of the blocks, this is not a duplicate listing (confirmed in recent discussions with ebay.ca Canada). If it is a single item, you run the possibility of selling the item twice so you need to cancel the listing on the other site immediately when it sells. Too much work monitoring a single item. If you have quantity of the item, this would work better as it minimizes selling the items twice with no stock left.

4) List on ebay.com with Canada as described above take a hit in $$$ if it sells to a remote region as well as overcharge for locals and undercharge for farther locations. As you described in your example.

The only practical option is option 1. Exact shipping costs, no monitoring of the listings, no extra work, items should sell as before according to the eBay.ca Canada study.

maxwar82 · ‎03-26-2016

Option 3 is too crazy.

I am thinking about going for a mix of 1 and 4. My new worry about ebay.com however is about my Global top rated seller status. Not sure if the listings on .com would be excluded from the 20% final value reduction since I cannot meet the US top rated requirements.

I think I will start a new thread on the subject since this is a different topic.

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-26-2016

@maxwar82 wrote:
Option 3 is too crazy.

I am thinking about going for a mix of 1 and 4. My new worry about ebay.com however is about my Global top rated seller status. Not sure if the listings on .com would be excluded from the 20% final value reduction since I cannot meet the US top rated requirements.

I think I will start a new thread on the subject since this is a different topic.

Listing on .com would not affect your globat TRS status. You would still get your 20% discount.

pocomocomputing · ‎03-26-2016

@maxwar82 wrote:
Option 3 is too crazy.

I am thinking about going for a mix of 1 and 4. My new worry about ebay.com however is about my Global top rated seller status. Not sure if the listings on .com would be excluded from the 20% final value reduction since I cannot meet the US top rated requirements.

I think I will start a new thread on the subject since this is a different topic.

As mentioned by pj, sales from listings listed on .com still count towards your eBay.ca Global TRS counts which is used for the 20% TRS discount.

Obtaining the ebay.com USA TRS Plus status has some requirements that are hard for a Canadian Seller to meet.Tracking is the hard one since Canadian seller shipping options from Canada Post do not have affordable tracking. For example, Lettermail, Letter-post, Light Packet, Small Packet have no tracking as you know already.

The benefits of TRS Plus is just better search placement on ebay.com basically so not too much is missed not having TRS Plus.