eBay

apkesh · ‎07-22-2016

Hi, I travel between US and Canada on a weekly basis for my employer. I would like purchase small electronics like smart phones, smart watches, and whatever else that I can carry in my hand and sell it on ebay.ca. I am hoping my fellow Canucks can help this brother out in making some extra cash to pay off the kids summer camp fees . Can someone tell me how do I go about finding what customers are looking for in the Canadian market? For example, if I buy a Huawei or an Nexus Phone, what is the demand for it on ebay.ca? Any help will be much appreciated.

pierrelebel · ‎07-22-2016

Your feedback pages shows:

Member since: 19-Apr-03 in United States

Are you based in the USA? or Canada?

On eBay it does not really matter where you live. You can list on eBay.com and your items will also show on eBay.ca if you indicate that you are shipping to Canada (in addition to USA), a carrier (shipping method) and a shipping charge to Canada.

mr.elmwood · ‎07-22-2016

@apkesh wrote:
Hi, I travel between US and Canada on a weekly basis for my employer. I would like purchase small electronics like smart phones, smart watches, and whatever else that I can carry in my hand and sell it on ebay.ca. I am hoping my fellow Canucks can help this brother out in making some extra cash to pay off the kids summer camp fees . Can someone tell me how do I go about finding what customers are looking for in the Canadian market? For example, if I buy a Huawei or an Nexus Phone, what is the demand for it on ebay.ca? Any help will be much appreciated.

Search in sold.

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dutchman48 · ‎07-22-2016

As a new seller, you will be entering the highest scam area on Ebay!

reallynicestamps · ‎07-23-2016

and whatever else that I can carry in my hand and sell it on ebay.ca.

It may well be cheaper to ship from the USA.

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

https://ircalc.usps.com/

Don't forget that USPS gives you certain free shipping supplies.

SELL WHAT YOU KNOW; KNOW WHAT YOU SELL.

Does your employer have any end of line, deadstock, or oversupply of whatever your business is?

Do you have good relations with his suppliers who might have any end of line, deadstock, or oversupply of whatever?

LIke many Canadian sellers, I have listings on both dotCA and dotCOM. The big difference, besides currency, is being able to use Calculated Shipping for bulky items.

And just to be clear, you're not thinking of smuggling your products across the border are you? If you are doing this for resale, you need certain permits and there will be both duty and taxes to be paid.

Which is why Canadians love buying from sellers in the States who ship USPS. CBSA often ignores applicable duty and tax.

marnotom! · ‎07-23-2016

@apkesh wrote:

For example, if I buy a Huawei or an Nexus Phone, what is the demand for it on ebay.ca? Any help will be much appreciated.

I've purchased three unlocked phones on eBay, one of them a Windows Phone (don't laugh), and the other two were Androids. I don't get the sense that the average Canadian is aware of the alternatives to Samsung when it comes to Android phones as I bought a pretty nice budget Android in an eBay auction from a Canadian seller and the competition was pretty light.

apkesh · ‎07-23-2016

Lol. No, I am not thinking of smuggling things. As a visitor who stayed over 48 hrs outside of Canada, I am allowed to bring in 800 cad worth of items tax free into canada. I was thinking there may be some benefits if I buy items that are on sale (I monitor a lot of deal sites daily of not hourly), and bring them over to Canada, and sell them here. Hence I was asking how do I find the most searched items on ebay from Canadian customers? And ideas?

pierrelebel · ‎07-23-2016

Do you understand that the $800 limit is for personal goods for your personal use, NOT for resale. From the Government of Canada website:

"In general, the goods you include in your personal exemption must be for your personal or household use. Such goods include souvenirs that you purchased, gifts that you received from friends or relatives living outside Canada or prizes that you won.

Goods you bring in for commercial use or for another person do not qualify for the exemption and are subject to applicable duty and taxes. In all cases, goods you include in your 24-hour exemption (CAN$200) or 48-hour exemption (CAN$800) have to be with you upon your arrival in Canada."

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/pub/bsf5056-eng.html#s2x9

mr.elmwood · ‎07-23-2016

@pierrelebel wrote:
Do you understand that the $800 limit is for personal goods for your personal use, NOT for resale. From the Government of Canada website:

"In general, the goods you include in your personal exemption must be for your personal or household use. Such goods include souvenirs that you purchased, gifts that you received from friends or relatives living outside Canada or prizes that you won.

Goods you bring in for commercial use or for another person do not qualify for the exemption and are subject to applicable duty and taxes. In all cases, goods you include in your 24-hour exemption (CAN$200) or 48-hour exemption (CAN$800) have to be with you upon your arrival in Canada."

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/pub/bsf5056-eng.html#s2x9

"So, ahem, sir, what are those 37 cell phones for?"

"Personal use"

All ya gotta do is get the secondary examination, once.

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pierrelebel · ‎07-23-2016

"get the secondary examination"

???

Is that what the doctor does every two years or so?

reallynicestamps · ‎07-23-2016

There should be a nice dinner-- with candles.

tobyshitzu · ‎07-23-2016

There is demand for ANY stuff like that on ebay, at the right price. The hard part is getting it cheap enough so that after selling it below retail here, and accounting for shipping, fees, and some loss, that there is enough left to make it worth it. For sure at times there are deals available in the USA on stuff like that that aren't available here, that could be brought back and sold for enough, especially phones

It has become much much harder to do what you want to do the past couple of years with the number of stores that have closed, stores keeping a much leaner inventory on hand, and stores selling their clearance themselves on ebay or elsewhere instead of heavy discounting locally

Of the many that have started threads like this here, most never sold anything and most of the rest didn't last long. You have to know what you are doign to not get stuck with a bunch of stuff you can't even break even on