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@cumos55 wrote:The craziest listing I saw was
A Canadian seller.... located in Ontario....
Listing on eBay.com
With shipping to domestic only... with a price for shipping to Canada
and blocking all international shipping
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When a Canadian seller lists on eBay.com they must understand the unique aspects of doing so....
and... how to use them effectively
eBay.ca
@ypdc_dennis wrote:The reason to use eBay.CA is for the calculated shipping (and cheaper listing fees, eBay.ca are in CA$, so about 20-25% less than the listing fee on eBay.com).
You make a good point. I'd overlooked this factor in my attempt to decipher what eBay's true reasons are for forcing $CDN listings only on .ca. I think you're right that if eBay creates a mass migration of Canadian sellers to .com, those who don't have a store may find they're paying more in listing fees. Of course eBay has hiked up store fees too.
EBay has tried very hard to convince sellers to go with a store subscription, both by propagandizing and more subtle techniques, such as restrictions in free listings for non-store owners and very changeable hit-and-miss promos. I've always maintained that their reason was to establish a completely reliable, subscriber-based cash flow, rather than relying as they had for years on free sellers whose listing activity (and hence fee payment to eBay) was unpredictable.
My position is (and has been, ever since eBay first began to "test the waters" by defaulting the SYI form to $CDN on .ca), that eBay is desperately looking everywhere it can for more cash flow. This whole switch to $CDN-only listings on .ca has nothing to do with better sales for Canadian sellers. It has everything to do with more quick and reliable income for eBay. What is means is higher store fees, higher upgrade fees (did anyone even notice the new upgrade fee structure they sneaked in?), and clearly, more Canadian sellers fleeing to .com where they will pay more to list, as well as more in FVFs.
Why higher FVFs? Because for Canadian sellers like me, whose customer base is primarily in the U.S., I've saved a lot -- and I mean a lot -- of money on shipping FVFs by offering free or greatly reduced domestic shipping on my .ca listings. I am going to be forced to list on exclusively on .com soon (because it's the only rational option for me), which means I will pay more in FVFs on shipping because I simply can't afford to offer free or next-to-nothing shipping to the U.S. (which obviously is the "domestic" shipping on .com).
Chasing a large number of Canadian sellers over to .com will also mean that there will be less complaining about the checkout system not working properly between .ca and .com, and so virtually no need for eBay to address the problem. No wonder they dragged their heels about the "cart disconnect" for over 2 years -- why fix something if you know you're planning to make the problem irrelevant soon because so many Canadian sellers will have little choice but to move to .com?
In my case, moving to .com -- which I must do -- not only destroys my cost savings strategy, but will cost me extra money. So in effect, eBay is actually saving twice on sellers like me -- once by no longer collecting shipping FVFs from me on .ca (or giving me a discount), and again by charging me FVFs on shipping which I hadn't been paying on .ca! That must surely add up to quite a tidy new cash flow.
I list exclusively in $US, but my listings are divided between .com and .ca. I was just about to expand my store to take full advantage of the double listing capacity I had available (both on .ca and .com), but I'm now faced with having to "live" exclusively on .com, which means back to the basic store listing allotment (plus whatever occasional promos come up). The extra 50 listings per month we now get with a basic store are practically meaningless, considering our store fees are rising by 25%.
What this move definitely is not, in my view, is a means of helping Canadian sellers do better. We already had that, with two options in listing currency. How can less choice be more beneficial than more choice? The answer is: because it makes eBay more cash. With sales dropping, fees for services are the one cash cow eBay has left to increase its revenue.
Now eBay can turn to its shareholders and tell them, yes, we have a confirmed new, solid, reliable cash flow increase of 25% or more from our millions of U.S. and Canadian sellers who have stores, plus we'll have millions of new dollars every year coming from shipping FVFs through Canadian sellers who migrate to .com, and we'll even catch the Canadian sellers without stores who would otherwise slip through the cash net, by charging them more if they list on .com.
I can imagine the boardroom accolades and clapping hands...brilliant!! 
I started out an eBay optimist years ago, then was forced to become a realist. Now I'm a cynic. I really hardly believe a word they tell us anymore.
"I'd overlooked this factor in my attempt to decipher what eBay's true reasons are for forcing $CDN listings only on .ca. I think you're right that if eBay creates a mass migration of Canadian sellers to .com, those who don't have a store may find they're paying more in listing fees. Of course eBay has hiked up store fees too. "
I realize you are now a "cynic" to use your word.
However, numbers are numbers. Please take a few minutes to read and understand your statement. How exactly is eBay Inc make more money by converting eBay.ca into a single currency site like all other eBay sites and encouraging sellers to list in Cdn$ on eBay.ca?
Store fee increase has nothing to do with the change of currency on the site.
@rose-dee wrote:
@ypdc_dennis wrote:The reason to use eBay.CA is for the calculated shipping (and cheaper listing fees, eBay.ca are in CA$, so about 20-25% less than the listing fee on eBay.com).You make a good point. I'd overlooked this factor in my attempt to decipher what eBay's true reasons are for forcing $CDN listings only on .ca. I think you're right that if eBay creates a mass migration of Canadian sellers to .com, those who don't have a store may find they're paying more in listing fees.
Actually, you missed the point completely.
If you continue selling in US$ you will still be paying the same listing fees. US$ listings on eBay.ca are already charged in US$ -- moving them to eBay.com will just mean the cost stays the same.
Converting US$ listings to CA$ on eBay.ca means you would pay less for the insertion fees.
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As for true reasons, I recommend reading Dilbert by Scott Adam, for a true look at how big companies really work... 
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