Why do Canadians have to pay in American dollars when buying from other Canadians.

[jlm-345]

Why do Canadians have to pay in US dollars when buying from other Canadians. Other countries such as the UK uses the UK Pound, others in Europe use the Euro.  

[pierrelebel]

Canadian sellers have the choice to list in Cdn$, US$, € or £.  Most list in US$ since there is a much larger market in US$ and Cdn$.

The payment through PayPal is automatically made using the currency of the listing (generally US$).

However, a Canadian buyer purchasing from a Canadian seller in US$ should contact the seller and ask if it is possible to remit in Cdn$.  It will be a manual transaction where the seller will have to calculate the converted value of the transaction, send a PayPal invoice (manually) to the buyer and link the payment (manually) to the eBay transaction when received.

Similarly, the buyer will not see "paid" in eBay.  A manual adjustment will be required.

Most Canadian buyers will be willing to convert and receive payment in Cdn$.  Some may not - whatever the reason - and that is their choice.

[pocomocomputing]

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@pierrelebel wrote:

Canadian sellers have the choice to list in Cdn$, US$, € or £.  Most list in US$ since there is a much larger market in US$ and Cdn$.

The payment through PayPal is automatically made using the currency of the listing (generally US$).

However, a Canadian buyer purchasing from a Canadian seller in US$ should contact the seller and ask if it is possible to remit in Cdn$.  It will be a manual transaction where the seller will have to calculate the converted value of the transaction, send a PayPal invoice (manually) to the buyer and link the payment (manually) to the eBay transaction when received.

Similarly, the buyer will not see "paid" in eBay.  A manual adjustment will be required.

Most Canadian buyers will be willing to convert and receive payment in Cdn$.  Some may not - whatever the reason - and that is their choice.

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How to list in all those currencies for a Canadian seller? I find the comment misleading. It sounds like you can do it on eBay.ca.

On eBay.ca you can list in CDN$, US$. On eBay.com, in just US$.

As far as I know, to list in € (Euros) or £ (UK pounds), you have to list on those eBay sites that support those currencies.

PS I had to go to eBay.ca and start a listing and check the currencies available thinking I had missed a Euro or pounds currency option for the past 6+ years selling on eBay. LOL.

[pierrelebel]

"misleading."

????

"It sounds like you can do it on eBay.ca."

????

As stated, a Canadian seller can list in whatever currency one feels appropriate for the item on whatever site a seller wants to use.  If the seller shows shipping to Canada, and the buyer is Canadian, the transaction will be in the currency selected on the site where listed.

I do not see anything misleading in that. That information is factual.

And what does that have to do with the question from the original poster?

[maximus7001]

The Canadian market is very small. We list worldwide with some obvious exceptions. About 85% of our sales are to USA. Many americans are unaware that there is such a thing as another currency in the world besides the US dollar. So if we were to list in CDN $ only then we would loose a large % of our sales.

[treasure.hunter.d]

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@pierrelebel wrote:

 However, a Canadian buyer purchasing from a Canadian seller in US$ should contact the seller and ask if it is possible to remit in Cdn$.  It will be a manual transaction where the seller will have to calculate the converted value of the transaction, send a PayPal invoice (manually) to the buyer and link the payment (manually) to the eBay transaction when received.

Most Canadian buyers will be willing to convert and receive payment in Cdn$.  Some may not - whatever the reason - and that is their choice.

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Why on earth would you bother a seller to go through all of that trouble?

Firstly, PayPal handles all of the conversion so there is 0 effort for the buyer. Secondly, it makes 0 difference what currency the item is listed in as the price is the price. A $100 US item becomes a $120 CDN item (amounts used for example and are not based on the current exchange) so all you have done is create a bunch of work for the seller to no real end. There is no end difference in the price being paid.

The only times I have ever had someone contact me about currency like this it was because they figured I would sell my $100 USD item for $100 CDN thus in actual fact they were in a sneaky way trying to offer me less than my asking price.

Everyone generally knows what the state of the US vs CDN dollar is so seeing a listing in US funds should not be a surprise to any one and if someone uses the fact that a listing is in US dollars as a determining factor for not purchasing I would really have to wonder about the thought process involved.

Cheers,

thD

[pierrelebel]

"Why on earth would you bother a seller to go through all of that trouble?"

Why, do you ask?

On a US$100.00 transaction (appx Cdn$ 126.00), PayPal charges the buyer and seller a total of about Cdn$ 6.00 in conversion fee.

"all that trouble"? 

It only takes a few minutes.  How much is your time worth?

Why give PayPal $6.00 in additional fees when both seller and buyer can save in the process?

[pierrelebel]

For those who do not fully understand how converting currency with PayPal works, please allow me to give you an example using the conversion rates available at PayPal this morning (February 6th)

Starting with Cdn$ 100.00

we will convert to US$ and PayPal will give us US$ 78.18

Now we take the same value (US$ 78.18) and convert it back into Cdn$

PayPal will give us Cdn$ 94.88

Basically, for every Cdn$ 100.00 converted, the total fee collected by PayPal is $5.12 or 5.12%

You can do the same conversion starting with US$100.00 and get the same results: PayPal collects 5.12% conversion fee.

This fee is basically paid more or less equally by buyer and seller (2.56% each).

It can be avoided by Canadian buyers and sellers by making the transaction in Cdn$.