Confused about Amazon vs EBay

[smkim23-3]

I notice people say they will exclusively use Amazon to purchase items from now on instead of using EBay. Are these people who only buy new products from actual companies? Are there many used items you can find on Amazon? To me, they are two different beasts in many respects. Is there something about Amazon, that I don’t know about.

[momcqueen]

No. It's a threat that rings hollow in most cases where I've read it used. I think Amazon allows some third-party merchants to sell Used items in some categories.... but the fees to sell there are generally higher than on ebay in the end so any dead stock or used item you might be looking for will be less costly on ebay nine times out of ten in the categories that I seek. 

[smkim23-3]

Thanks. Yeah that’s the impression I got too. I’m a collector and look for vintage items. I assumed Amazon would not be the place for that and now you’ve confirmed my assumption. Thanks.

[momcqueen]

Vintage is really not the forte of that site. To my mind (and pocketbook) it's more about moving mass quantities of market-ready merchandise whereas ebay is the place to look for the perfect something different for a discerning taste. Of course, there are other sites that sell vintage and collectibles, but ebay is where hang my hat. 

[femmefan1946]

And you are competing with AZ itself.

Which does not happen with eBay or Ruby Lane.  Etsy doesn't really do vintage, more crafts and art, although they have a very few categories (patterns and books) for vintage.

And then there are the hobby sites, which vary in eyeballs.

[smkim23-3]

I’m a little confused on how these two differ. I know .ca is for Canadians and .com for Americans, but I hear on YouTube Canadians say they sell on .com cause they will make more. Do the sites have different listings? Do you require two separate accounts if you want to sell on .com?

I need a dummies guide on how to sell on EBay for Canadians. Everything on YouTube is for Americans. USPS this GPS that, expedited shipping vs standard shipping. My goodness! Simple in theory but a lot of intricacies if you want to be successful as a seller it would seem.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@smkim23-3wrote:
I’m a little confused on how these two differ. I know .ca is for Canadians and .com for Americans, but I hear on YouTube Canadians say they sell on .com cause they will make more. Do the sites have different listings? Do you require two separate accounts if you want to sell on .com?
I need a dummies guide on how to sell on EBay for Canadians. Everything on YouTube is for Americans. USPS this GPS that, expedited shipping vs standard shipping. My goodness!

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You can list on most eBay sites and for the next couple of years get paid in the currency of that site via PayPal. US$ for .com, CA$ for .ca

Two separate accounts not required. At the current time a non-store account will let you have 50 free listings per month on both .CA and on .COM  -- so you can try out both.

Listings (as long as you ship to that country) can be seen worldwide.

...

.CA has the advantage for parcels of calculated shipping for Canada Post (enter weight of package and dimensions, type of service) and eBay will display the cost to ship to the buyer's location. On .COM if shipping from Canada you have to use a flat rate and guess what shipping will be (easy for stuff up to 2cm thick and up to 500g, over that gets complex).

...

Some Canadian sellers have relatively easy access to the USA (or can use a cross-border shipper like ChitChatsExpress) and can take advantage of cheap USPS domestic shipping. Which makes them more competitive for the USA market.

...

GSP can be completely ignored unless you are a seller based in either the USA or the UK.

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If just starting out I'd recommend .CA to get your selling feet wet.

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I list on both sites. I don't think one site sells better than the other.

-..-

[smkim23-3]

Thanks for the explanation and advice Dennis. Helps out a lot.

[femmefan1946]

I'd recommend staying away from YouTube.

A discussion Board like this will give you a variety of opinions, some better spelled than others, which allows you to decide what is the best course for you.

The reasons for listing on dotCOM to my mind is that Americans find it difficult to understand that there are currencies other than the US dollar. Meanwhile all the rest of the world understands US currency.

The reason for listing on dotCA is that if your products require Parcel Rate shipping.

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1

here you can use Calculated Shipping, while on dotCOM you are forced to use Flat Rate from an International Location.

[margarewoo9]

There are a lot of scammers on Amazon and there is no way to get your money back. So far I have beenlucky with EBay. Amazon is too big. I also found some of the sellers prices rediculas. I am now blocked from commenting or reviewing from Amazon for saying so. But they still want me to buy on Amazon.I was scammed twice but not for large amounts and Amazon did nothing.

[reallynicestamps]

I agree on AZ scams.
I bought a book there for $24 last January and got no book and no refund.

I sell there to (AZdotCA) and prices are definitely higher. A customer just paid $18.98 there for a book I had listed here for $13.27 including shipping.

And I won't get paid for a month.

This was I think my fourth or fifth AZ sale this year.

Mostly I go there to remove my eBay sales from my listings there.

[zee-chan]

There are also some AZ sellers who list items they found elsewhere, like on eBay and what not, at a premium price, so people who say they ONLY buy from AZ and didn't check out eBay prices would get ripped off. Those AZ sellers then supply those buyers by having the eBay seller directly ship to their AZ buyer.

And this happens on AZ Japan too. I remember looking for an item and checked both AZ Japan and Yahoo Auction Japan (YAJ), the AZ Japan price was more than double but it used the same photos etc as the YAJ seller. I bought from the YAJ seller and the next day the AZ Japan listing became out-of-stock. We all know what happened there... even though the YAJ seller wrote "please don't steal my listing onto AZ" but we know that doesn't really do anything lol.

[kh-leslie]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.