eBay

elle-tuxedo-cat · ‎06-02-2021

Not sure which to use. Most of my listings are in US dollars but I've started to use my .ca account now too. Sales are probably split now 65% US and 35% Cdn. I'm not really worried about losing a percentage or two here and there. How does MP's US conversion to Cdn work? Is more fair than paypal's exchange rate? What's less hassle to use really is what I'm asking and what gives a seller more bang for their buck. Thanks for any help anyone can provide. PS Is it true that one has to use ebay shipping on MPs or can I still use other shipping services?

marnotom! · ‎06-02-2021

Given how new Managed Payments is and that the USD deposit option for Canadians is even newer, I don't think you're going to get much in the way of answers here.

All I can really offer you is my experiences as an eBay oldtimer, when my wife and I sold in the late 1990s to mid 2000s. When we started out, there was no eBay.ca, no listing in Canadian dollars and no electronic payment methods available to Canadian sellers. When Billpoint, eBay's credit card facilitator system at the time, did become available to Canadian sellers, all sales were converted to Canadian dollars before being deposited in the Canadian dollar chequing account of the seller's choice.

I don't recall a drastic difference between Billpoint's exchange rate and the exchange rate offered by our credit union. If there was a difference, I'd hazard a guess that Billpoint's wasn't quite as good because Billpoint, unlike PayPal, didn't have a charge for deposits and the costs incurred in making those deposits was probably folded into the exchange rate.

If I were in your shoes now, I'd probably be asking what my objectives were in keeping my funds in US or converting them to Canadian dollars. If you had a US dollar account, what would you do with the funds sitting in it? Would you have the luxury of hanging onto them until exchange rates become more favourable for sellers? Would you have some way of using them to make US dollar payments yourself? (I don't think you can use Canadian-based US dollar accounts as funding sources with PayPal.) What about the fees associated with this account (or a Canadian dollar account, for that matter)? Would there be any monthly or transaction fees that could negate any gains you'd make by keeping your US dollar sales in US dollars?

Also keep in mind that you can only choose one currency in which to have your payouts deposited, so if you continued to list on eBay.ca and you chose to have US dollar payouts, your .ca sales would have to be converted to US dollar payouts.

As far as label-making services go, my understanding is that you still have a choice of services, but you may need to do more tweaking with some of them (e.g. copying and pasting) than under the PayPal-based system.

I'm not sure I was any help, but I hope that I brought up some useful things to consider.

elle-tuxedo-cat · ‎06-02-2021

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. You said:

"If I were in your shoes now, I'd probably be asking what my objectives were in keeping my funds in US or converting them to Canadian dollars. If you had a US dollar account, what would you do with the funds sitting in it? Would you have the luxury of hanging onto them until exchange rates become more favourable for sellers? Would you have some way of using them to make US dollar payments yourself? (I don't think you can use Canadian-based US dollar accounts as funding sources with PayPal.) What about the fees associated with this account (or a Canadian dollar account, for that matter)? Would there be any monthly or transaction fees that could negate any gains you'd make by keeping your US dollar sales in US dollars?"

No transaction fees whatsoever on either US or Cdn accounts. The US funds I might use in future but I already have a US account I haven't touched for 5 years. So I do have the luxury of waiting for the rates to go up. Paypal is already tied to a regular Cdn savings acct. Next question is if I have a US (Cdn based) acct. the fees will be US dollars naturally, so there's a conversion there - omg, it just so confusing...

thanks again!

ypdc_dennis · ‎06-02-2021

@elle-tuxedo-cat wrote:
... Is it true that one has to use ebay shipping on MPs or can I still use other shipping services?

ebay labels can take the money from any balance that MP has available (I recommend weekly MP payment rather than daily if you want to take advantage of that).

But you can still use other mailing services. Most will still work as usual.

For paypal mailing use paypal.com/shipnow

-;-

ricarmic · ‎06-02-2021

I, like you currenly sell more US$ than $C, however a combination of things are causing me to migrate a larger portion of sales to $C.

If one is selling in both currencies, a portion of it will be getting "ebay converted" no matter what we do as long as we're only allowed one currency.

Opinions vary but the ebay/Paypal/bank conversion rates are usually around 3%ish. I've noted elsewhere, but if you continue to need to convert US$ to $C, on a decent scale, check out XE trade. Their cost is about .7 of one percent saving somewhere in the range of 2-2.3%, they've saved me $1000s. They can convert from a US based US$ account to a Canadian $C account as well as a Canadian based US$ account to at $C Canadian based bank account (even the same bank). They do NOT convert from PAYPAL it has to be a bank account. I have both the above set up and they work great, however it usually takes about a week from the time you initiate the process until the $$$ arrive in your account. Note that setting up with them is a challenge, something like what it seems MP is like, however once it is working it is awesome.

So that was a long preamble to the fact I'll be going with $C when I get MP'd - I actually got the email today....no eBay message yet but it has begun.....

elle-tuxedo-cat · ‎06-05-2021

thanks for the thoughtful reply. I was going to go with $C - I figured the same as you, one currency or another would end up being converted - so it amounted pretty to the same bottom line. But it used to be when the US dollar was 30% above Cdn I would just hike up the Cdn listings 30%+ now I can only add 20% at the going rate so I'm thinking maybe the US dollar account is better than I can wait till it's back up into the 30% range. Just hold on to it for the time being. I do that on paypal anyway with US$ - last year I got 40%+ exchange by waiting. thanks for XE info - I'll look into that.