Is it possible to Distinctively sell on eBay.com and eBay.ca (two accounts?)

[falinabay]

I will appreciate some suggestions from experts here.

1)  Can a person (dual citizen) have two separate seller accounts, each on eBay.com and eBay.ca ?

if (1) is possible then

(2)  can Fulfillment be done by having your stock at one place e,g. in US only or Canada only? (Assuming all shipping issues have been considered)

3)  If the above scenario in (1) is not possible, then what is the go around ? 

Thanks in advance!

[ypdc_dennis]

You do not need to be a Canadian to sell on ebay.ca

You do not need to be an American to sell on ebay.com

Currently you can have more than one selling ID for ebay.

Not sure what rules Managed Payments has in place for multiple IDs.

Where you ship from does not matter -- just as long as the ship from location is properly shown when listing.

-..-

[reallynicestamps]

New and occasional sellers are not being invited/forced into Managed Payments.

Yet.

Two of my (dotCA) accounts have been told to join MP, but those are in abeyance while eBay tries to work out how to handle non-Americans with American bank accounts.

DotCOM sellers who are in Managed Payments must have American bank accounts, apparently. But at the moment an occasional seller like the OP does not seem likely to be pushed into the program.

[falinabay]

Thank you for your helpful comments.

As I understand eBay and Paypal so far....I see the following setup to run two seller accounts.  Please chip in if you think it has any negative consequences or operating difficulties.  My plan is to opt for a eBay store in both dotCa and dotCom sites.

1)  currently long time ebay account on dotCom connected to Paypal US and linked to US bank account

2)  open a new account on eBay dotCa as well as Paypal dotCa and link it to a CA bank account

So operate as two people from their respective countries.

Fulfillment can be done from both places or just from CA through chitchat/StallionExpress, etc...

Opinions?

Thanks a lot!

[reallynicestamps]

You don't need two Paypal accounts.

Paypal will allow you to connect multiple bank accounts and those accounts can be in different countries.

Since you are established in the USA, I assume you have an American bank account with an American bank. This is not the same as a Canadian bank account in US dollars* .

However, if you want to run the Canadian and US accounts as separate entities I can see no problem with your plan.

Personally, I like having all my payments coming into one account, whatever the currency. Paypal allows multiple banks but....

Managed Payments.

This is coming up, and will eventually be required by all sellers. It is already well underway in the USA.

Basically, eBay was forced to sell off Paypal and now that their contract is coming to an end, eBay has set up a new payment processor call Managed Payments using a Netherlands company called Ayden. There are threads. Mostly complaints.

However, new sellers and small sellers are not yet being pushed into Managed Payments, which pretends to be in beta test mode but seems from all those complaints to barely be in alpha.

*This is mostly added because this thread will be read by other new sellers and many have difficulty with that point.

[reallynicestamps]

Hmm- the biggest problems I have run into with having multiple venues is inventory control.

And then there is the cost of getting paid.

If you have some of your inventory in the USA and sell on a dotCOM account, you might want to have that account refuse Canadian sales.

And likewise, you may want your dotCA account to refuse US sales.

Either or both could accept overseas sales.

The reason is the cost of accepting payments.

PP charges 2.9% for domestic sales on domestic PP accounts.

But PP Canada charges 3.7% on sales paid from US -based PP accounts.

And PP USA charges 4.4% on sales paid from non-US based PP accounts.

[reallynicestamps]

BTW-- if you are only planning this as a hobby business, you are overthinking it.

If you are extending an existing business, perhaps a B&M into online selling, you should also be talking to your accountant about registering to collect US state sales taxes if you have not already done so. And of course GST/HST/PST in Canada.

The usual minimum for registration is $30, 000 annual Gross Income.

[falinabay]

I am planning to start a serious online business across multiple platforms...so not a hobby!

I have the option to keep inventory in US for sales there, however what I know so far is that inventory in Canada can be used to fulfill US orders on ebay dotcom through Canadian shippers ChitChat or Stallion Express (which uses USPS tracking).  However this adds an additional cost to USPS shipping cost...

I am registered for GST in Canada however, I am not sure if there is sales tax for online sales in USA...it used to be free of that headache..may be not anymore but I will check...thanks!

[falinabay]

So what I understand from your paypal scheme of things...

I have an existing USD bank account with US bank, and  

I can add an other bank account in CAD opened with a Canadian bank to the same US paypal account...

Now if above is true....

I should be able to link the newly added CAD bank account on ebay dotCA profile....(so that my Canadian sales stay in CAD)

My currently linked USD bank account stays linked to my ebay dotCom profile ...(to keep funds in USD)...

Managed Payments:    I am not sure how this will affect me down the road when offered...

[pjcdn2005]

I 'm not 100% certain but I don't think that you can add a US bank account to a Canadian Paypal account. 

Is this a posting ID or are you starting to sell on ebay?  If you are just starting out then it is going to take a while to be able to list enough to make a store worthwhile so there is no reason to get a store yet.  You will still receive free listings  each month on both sites without a store and assuming that your listings on .ca ship to the US and listings on .com ship to Canada..they will be visible on both sites.

Why do you want to run do separate ID's and pay for 2 stores...what do you see as the benefit?

If you are actually shipping your items listed on .com from the US and .ca listings from Canada, then you could use calculated shipping on both sites but other than that, I'm not sure how it would benefit you.

[reallynicestamps]

@pjcdn2005 

My older Canadian PP account has both an American and a Canadian bank account attached. So it was possible.

I opened a Canadian PP account for a different business recently, but have not attempted to add my American account to it, since I don't expect many US $ sales on it.

@falinabay 

Yes, the primary benefit of having separate accounts is being able to use Calculated shipping instead of Flat Rate.

OTOH- the benefit of having one account is earlier qualification for the minimal TRS perks.

Come to think of it Canadian sellers qualify for Global TRS which is easier to get  than the US version.

And there may be something about the dotCA vs the dotCOM payment processing rates-- it's itching at me.....

[ypdc_dennis]

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@falinabay wrote:
... I am registered for GST in Canada however, I am not sure if there is sales tax for online sales in USA... it used to be free of that headache..

---

Internet sales tax now exists for most USA states.  EBay collects the sales tax (based on destination) for your sales and pays the money to the state governments. Other large marketplaces are also required to do the same. If selling on marketplace that do not collect & pay the sales tax, then you will have to check the state (where your inventory is located) to see what tax rules you need to follow.

The USA internet sales tax is collected for American destination sales made by all eBay sellers, not just sellers who list on ebay.com

-..-

[reallynicestamps]

And since your entire payment is processed by Paypal, you will pay their fee (2.9% for domestic /US sales and 3.7% for dotCA to US customer sales) on the sales tax as well.

No one is particularly happy about this.