How many IDs to have in the MP world....

[ricarmic]

I was going to reply to the US$ discussion but this probably warrants its own thread.

Well, I could be wrong, but I really do not want to have 2 ids one for each of .CA and .COM.

I have a lot of long time regular customers, a number that have been with me more than a decade. 

I'm reaching about half and half .COM vs .CA items running and folks are regularly buying from both for a given purchase (they have to pay separately though of course).

I only started listing on .CA a couple of years ago because of the relative costs of shipping to the US vs the "home - Canadian buyers" - I was making stuff more likely to sell to Canadians overly expensive because it had built in US shipping costs which were much higher than the Canadian ones.

I especially like the "promoted listing" sale followed by several not promoted sales across sites from some of the buyers.

I also think my "tricks" I use to bring folks would be diminished if I had two IDs, I'd have to do the same thing on both of them and have enough critical mass to make it work. (some of the things working require my 1000s of running items to work). 

I do watch some "competitors" that have multiple ids (ie one on .CA and one on .COM) and what is working for me is not working for them, this helps convince me I'm overall better off with only 1 large ID.

I'm also continuing to run as an anchor store at least until I survive MP conversion as the anchor CSRs are a world better, with virtually no wait time. I'm paying a significant amount to maintain their support, (as opposed to downgrading the store which I could do). Hopefully it will prove worthwhile.

I'm also continuing to run as a US$ store for another year, again until the MP stuff is survived ok, at least that's the plan at the moment. (My concern here is the 1000s of grandfathered items that are missing required item specifics, these are slowly declining in number as folks buy the "old stuff").

I suspect eventually something will become available like we had in PAYPAL days whereby we can maintain balances and/or have multiple deposit accounts of different funding types, but that won't come until someday down the road, and who knows how long, perhaps never.

So for now, I'm going to stick with the one main ID, I'll continue to evaluate as time goes by, I expect a year from now or so things will be much clearer.

[lady.stark]

I also don't want to open another ID just to be able to get US$. It's too much work. For the moment, I prefer keeping my low priced US$ "as is" and pay the conversion rate. As for the most expensive items, I'm thinking about transfering them on .ca (although they are still up for now).

[reallynicestamps]

Can Canadian sellers still register on dotCOM?

If the seller has an American bank account?

[ricarmic]

I don't know, but if one is a snowbird, and/or one has a physical US address.....that probably is what makes it doable for them.

One can still have:

ID1 Canadian account selling only on .CA and being paid in $C

ID2 Canadian account selling only on .COM and being paid in US$

[kawartha-ephemera]

My thinking on dual accounts is similar, to sacrifice half of a currently successful account solely because of currency seems an unnecessary risk to take. For me, the only circumstances that would change that thinking would be if either; I already have two equally successful accounts or my expenses are by necessity paid in USD.

There's already plenty of uncertainty around the direction ebay's headed without unnecessarily adding to it ourselves by launching new accounts. If ebay executive management is to be believed the selling landscape will soon be shifting once again with the introduction of yet another advertising scheme.  The most likely outcome is that they'll come out with some form of the Etsy model quite soon. 

[recped]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

Can Canadian sellers still register on dotCOM?

If the seller has an American bank account?

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You would need a US Address (the easy part)

You would need an SSN or ITN/EIN (not so easy part)

[recped]

I forgot to mention, if you had a .com selling account you probably won't ever get the 10% TRS discount because you must have 1 day handling time, 30 day returns and tracking on everything with a scan within your handling time to qualify for the TRS Plus discount.

You will also be paying a FVF of 12.55% instead of 12.35% AND you will have a much higher "International" fee for any sales to buyers outside the USA.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

Can Canadian sellers still register on dotCOM?

If the seller has an American bank account?

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In other recent wonderful news from the Spring announcement on dot com FVF's went up in some categories. Something to consider. They haven't hit dot ca.....Yet!!!

-Lotz

[femmefan1946]

One can still have:

ID1 Canadian account selling only on .CA and being paid in $C

ID2 Canadian account selling only on .COM and being paid in US$

At the moment I have four selling IDs-- which would become eight.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@recped wrote:
....You will also be paying a FVF of 12.55% instead of 12.35% AND you will have a much higher "International" fee for any sales to buyers outside the USA.

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Media category (books, cds, dvds/blu-ray) is even higher at 14.55% versus ebay.ca's 12.35%

International fee is based on the Seller's ebay "home".

If your ID home base is Canada, then ebay.CA rates apply. Even if you list on a different site (like .COM).

Sell to a buyer with a USA location then the International fee is 0.4%

Anywhere else outside of Canada/USA is 1.0% extra.

If your home base for your ID is in the USA, then the ebay.com rate applies. 1.65% for International (Canada included).

-..-