eBay

pierrelebel · ‎04-22-2015

In the "good old days" eBay.ca has always recommended listing in US$ instead of Cdn$ on the basis that Canadian sellers would have more chance of success listing in US$.

Times are changing.

Today, during the Weekly Board Hour, eBay.ca advises:

"In a nutshell, according to our analysis, all Canadian sellers would either see a positive or neutral impact on their sales if they start listing in CAD. Essentially, our old data that suggested better sales for USD listings has been disproved. The SYI will be modified shortly to reflect this reality, and we've made the changes to the quick listing tool last week.

Additionally, we've started engaging with large Canadian merchants to recommend that they also list in CAD if possible."

ariesofthenorth · ‎03-26-2016

i actually changed all my listings to CDN last August when ebay initially told us it would be 'better'.

hesitant at first, September was really slow, so made the changes during the down time, i changed every single listing to CDN dollar.

i had alot of questions from US buyers - 'it says $10 US, why are you charging me $13"

and i had to explain over and over again that it converting to CDN dollars and it really is $10 US
(this is just random numbers for example purposes)

i also starting realizing that i was underpricing BUT had the best sales in ebay in 4 years during the months of October & November 2015. i ended up increasing prices by Dec.

I havent figured out the right price in CDN, especially since this year started off with the Canadian dollar at 0.70 cents - now i think its up to 0.79 cents.

i still get questions about the price/exchange rate from US buyers, but not as many as last year.I know there are some who didnt buy because of it being Canadian dollars.

its all a trial & error right now.

73rhc · ‎03-26-2016

"I wouldn't talk there.. 45rpm single shipping to the US $10 !?. Easily can be done securely with light packet.. so you're padding your shipping dude."

I'm not padding anything. How much does it cost to mail a 45 to US smarta$$. Everyone I've ever shipped was in the $9.50 range. So I'm padding for fifty cents?!?

ypdc_dennis · ‎03-26-2016

@ariesofthenorth wrote:

... I havent figured out the right price in CDN, ...

One trick is to use "Add note" feature in My eBay -- it allows you to add a note to each item you sell (details only seen by you).

When you list your item, add a note indicating what exchange rate you based your prices on when you listed the item. That way you can tell at a glance if the $ value has wandered too far away from price the listing is using.

I only adjust my prices when I relist (I don't use GTC).

davey-dumpling · ‎03-26-2016

Here's my concern ..... I have never had a problem with the shipping calculator - it has always converted from US to CDN and is always within a couple cents. My concern is that lets say a customer enters Titleist Golf Ball in the search browser - it comes up with many listings ......... a lot of people will quickly scan the first few pages - looking at the quantity for sale and the price for that quantity. If John Doe in the US has 4 dozen for sale for $48.00 ( USD ), then the customer see's $48.00 and maybe thinks " not bad " . Now they come across my listing - in CDN dollars - for $60.00. Even though my cost is around $6.00 less, they will skip over it because it looks like a lot more. I'm not saying everyone will be like that, but I'll bet quite a few will - hence loss of business on my part ! Anyone else have the same concerns ?

maggiebvintage2010 · ‎03-26-2016

It doesn't matter what currency the listing is in, if people are searching on ebay.com and scanning the listings, they will see all prices in US dollars. Only when they open the listing for a closer look, will they see the Canadian dollar price with the US dollar equivalent in smaller type underneath. Just exactly the same as when you search ebay.ca, you see all prices in Canadian dollars, then the pounds, euros, or US dollars only when you open the listing for details.

davey-dumpling · ‎03-26-2016

Well - if they see " apples to apples" then that's ok then - I didn't know if the automatic conversion would happen as they scrolled through the listings ........... thanks for clarifying !

andyandted · ‎03-26-2016

@73rhc wrote:
The sellers here (most, not all) really take the cake. GREED, GREED GREED. As a buyer, I refuse to buy from a Canadian seller who lists in US. I would love to see these wall light up, if Walmart ( or any other retailer ) started selling in US dollars in Canada. How many of you would be then?!?

Get over it, people!

So you believe that people should be forced to your way of thinking? Greed? Where on earth does that come from. The reason I sell in US dollars is because when I have listed in Canadian dollars my sales declined, that's not greed just simple common sense.

andyandted · ‎03-26-2016

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
All I can do is speak for myself. Whenever I have attempted to list my items in Canadian dollars my sales have suffered a 28% decrease,

When you have listed them in Canadian, how long did you let the listings run and how many listings?
When you figured out the decrease, was it based on sales from the previous week, month, same time previous year.....??

This is just for my own info. I'm not convinced that Canadian dollar listings are better but I'm also not convinced that Canadian dollar listings are a bad thing so when someone says that they've tried it...I am curious if they tried it once for a few days or a month or...?

I did my test for a 2 month period, I ran ads both in CDN and USD. My sales indicated that my USD listing were selling at the usual rate, however my CDN listings went down some 28%. I even had prospective buyers ask me to change my listing to USD as that was what they were familiar with and wanted. This has nothing to do with greed, patriotism or bias. Its common sense to me that when I see items listed in Canadian dollars are not selling then I change the most obvious draw back, The CDN dollar!

cekbc · ‎04-07-2016

When we began selling on eBay.ca , selling in Canadian dollars our sales where low. When we switched to US dollars our sales increased. Either way the Paypal and eBay fees take a chunk of the profit without protecting sellers when there is a problem with a buyer. Having high shipping rates through Canada Post doesn't help either. We will be selling on eBay.com when the change takes affect as 80% of our sales are to US customers.Have any other Canadian sellers found this to be true or false?

preownedbarcode · ‎05-26-2016

Could we fire the Weekly Board Hour? This change makes no sense whatsoever and it was not handled well. We cannot change any of our listings. Thought we had until June 1st! When we edit a record and try and save it complains about shipping or payment policy. Seems to be a random complaint each time. Given the extra work, I don't see how it is worth listing on .ca. Can they simply pay US dollars on the .com site?

cooltoycars · ‎05-27-2016

To me, shipping is NOT just postage. I include the paypal and FVF's in my shipping charge.

pierrelebel · ‎05-27-2016

"shipping is NOT just postage"

That is absolutely correct.

The real question however is: once you know your costs, how much do you want to charge your buyers, in different countries, to purchase these items from you?

Before answering that question, it is important to understand your market. What do your competitors do?

Do they absorb all their shipping costs and offer "free shipping"?(most Americans do in most categories)

Do they absorb part of their shipping costs in their selling price to offer what seems to be a low shipping charge?

How will your marketing decision to charge shipping to your buyers fit against your domestic competitors? American competitors?

Good Luck

thecoinhunterca · ‎05-27-2016

@cekbc wrote:
When we began selling on eBay.ca , selling in Canadian dollars our sales where low. When we switched to US dollars our sales increased. Either way the Paypal and eBay fees take a chunk of the profit without protecting sellers when there is a problem with a buyer. Having high shipping rates through Canada Post doesn't help either. We will be selling on eBay.com when the change takes affect as 80% of our sales are to US customers.Have any other Canadian sellers found this to be true or false?

Absolutely!!! I have no idea where Ebay Canada gets their sales statistics data from (and they won't make it public) but I've always done better selling in USD for products that are more likely US bound. I've done many experiments with both currencies including side by side auctions and there is no question that USD listed products do better. It could be the buyer mind set, search results or something else but it's clear that the Ebay data is false.

nationalmoparts · ‎05-27-2016

Lets face it, the US dollar is the standard currency quoted for many hobbies...especially the old car/ hot rod market.It makes no sense to me to sell in Canuk bucks. I don't even convert my US $$$ in paypal over to Canadian...I just pay my US suppliers with all the money from my e bay sales. It saves tons of $$ this way. Instead of going to the bank ;purchasing a money order and losing a cut to the bank or paying with credit card etc. There is even a company in Ottawa that sells old car restoration parts for 10 plus years now only in USD. All their parts are made in China and the Chinese will only accept payment in US dollars.

2010t0rrentpirat3 · ‎06-16-2016

So, I think this is quite possibly the stupidest thing eBay has done since canceling eBay Bucks for Canada. We just keep getting the end of the stick here.

I buy old laptops, fix them, and sell them, all of my parts come out of the US so all of my accounting for them is in USD, so now when I list them, I list them for auction at a price where I will break even and anything more is profit, it's mostly just a hobby to keep me busy, but with the Canadian dollar being so bad and fluctuating so much, I might end up losing money because if I have something listed to $100 USD, but I need to list in CAD, I enter the current conversion price, but by the time the auction ends in a week, it might sell for way less then what $100 USD was when I had to buy everything actually making me lose money because of this.

Second issue with this, what about the old **bleep** I find around my house and just want to see what I can get for it, list it for a buck and see where it goes, now I'm going to be making a lot less on every sale because of how much less our Canadian dollar is in comparison to USD, even with conversion fees, I recently sold a laptop for $199 USD, but I made $255 CAD after fees and everything because of how bad our dollar is that I ended up making quite a bit more, plus the laptop sold in the US as does most of my sales.

Is there any way to petition to have this removed or changed back? This is the stupidest thing and now I don't want to rely on eBay as a second source of income because I can't trust the Canadian exchange rate for keeping a break even price on my weekend projects. I could start losing money because of this.

bigdaddy234567 · ‎06-18-2016

Just a quick thought but what crossed my mind is that when selling on .CA in USD you still pay final value fees in CAD.

My guess is that eBay dosent like this fact and also wants to benefit from the exchange therefore force canadain sellers to go to .com and in the end they will make more money, perhaps a lot more.

Just more typical eBay behavior taking more from the sellers and putting it in there pockets.

I bet the only research they have done is the research that tells them there going to make more money.

ypdc_dennis · ‎06-19-2016

@bigdaddy234567 wrote:
Just a quick thought but what crossed my mind is that when selling on .CA in USD you still pay final value fees in CAD.

My guess is that eBay dosent like this fact and also wants to benefit from the exchange therefore force canadain sellers to go to .com and in the end they will make more money, perhaps a lot more.

Just more typical eBay behavior taking more from the sellers and putting it in there pockets.

I bet the only research they have done is the research that tells them there going to make more money.

You are off the mark:

Lots of sellers who listed on eBay.CA in US$ also paid their fees in US$ (it's a selectable choice on eBay.CA).

And those paying fees in C$ for US$ sales -- eBay already collects a conversion fee.

This change will NOT make eBay more money because of exchange rate differences.

-..-

What will increase eBay profits is eliminating a separately maintained, dual-currency software system.

eBay.CA has the only dual-currency system that eBay has on it's network of sites. Every other eBay site is single currency. This means Canada is the last to get upgrades and new features and also the last to get problems fixed.

The current changes won't stop in August after everything is listed in C$ on .ca -- the next big change will be a replacement of the old software with the single currency software. Hopefully that will be relatively smooth, but this is eBay plus it involves computer upgrading, so I'm expecting more bumpiness for sellers.

-..-

tch_ca · ‎06-19-2016

@ypdc_dennis wrote:
@bigdaddy234567 wrote:
Just a quick thought but what crossed my mind is that when selling on .CA in USD you still pay final value fees in CAD.

My guess is that eBay dosent like this fact and also wants to benefit from the exchange therefore force canadain sellers to go to .com and in the end they will make more money, perhaps a lot more.

Just more typical eBay behavior taking more from the sellers and putting it in there pockets.

I bet the only research they have done is the research that tells them there going to make more money.
You are off the mark:

Lots of sellers who listed on eBay.CA in US$ also paid their fees in US$ (it's a selectable choice on eBay.CA).

And those paying fees in C$ for US$ sales -- eBay already collects a conversion fee.

This change will NOT make eBay more money because of exchange rate differences.

-..-

What will increase eBay profits is eliminating a separately maintained, dual-currency software system.

eBay.CA has the only dual-currency system that eBay has on it's network of sites. Every other eBay site is single currency. This means Canada is the last to get upgrades and new features and also the last to get problems fixed.

The current changes won't stop in August after everything is listed in C$ on .ca -- the next big change will be a replacement of the old software with the single currency software. Hopefully that will be relatively smooth, but this is eBay plus it involves computer upgrading, so I'm expecting more bumpiness for sellers.

-..-

There is no way this change will bring more revenue to Ebay Canada...It's a gamble Stairs decided to take and unless she has a profit sharing arrangement with Ebay.com, she looses. And although Ebay Canada will continue to make it more difficult to operate on .com (or easier on .ca) for Canadian sellers (whichever you prefer), the US marketplace still rules in terms of buyers and products. Lastly, many people who operate on Ebay in a buying and selling capacity, will want USD at their disposal without converting it.

pierrelebel · ‎06-19-2016

"There is no way this change will bring more revenue to Ebay Canada.."

eBay-Canada is owned 100% by eBay Inc. Changes made in any of the twenty eBay international sites have one goal: make more money eventually for eBay Inc.

This change may eventually result in more profits for eBay Inc as expenses to run the Canadian site (eBay.ca) are cut down when operating as a single currency site like all other eBay sites worldwide.

'...she has a profit sharing arrangement with Ebay.com, "

??? Like all other eBay-Canada employees, Ms Stairs is an employee, paid a salary. Her job is to bring more Canadians to trade (buy or sell) on eBay. It does not matter to her and her co-workers if Canadians buy or sell on eBay.ca, eBay.com, eBay.uk or other eBay sites. Their responsibilities and goals are simply that Canadians trade on eBay instead of other platforms.

"Lastly, many people who operate on Ebay in a buying and selling capacity, will want USD at their disposal without converting it."

That is correct and Canadian sellers maintain the availability to list and sell in whatever currency they want. They can determine the "billing currency" and payment method (credit card, PayPal, etc...) that fit their needs. That ability has not really changed with the new policy making eBay-Canada a single currency site like all other eBay sites.

Canadians will adapt to the change, they always do. The sky is not falling.

mr.elmwood · ‎06-19-2016

@pierrelebel wrote:
"There is no way this change will bring more revenue to Ebay Canada.."

eBay-Canada is owned 100% by eBay Inc. Changes made in any of the twenty eBay international sites have one goal: make more money eventually for eBay Inc.

This change may eventually result in more profits for eBay Inc as expenses to run the Canadian site (eBay.ca) are cut down when operating as a single currency site like all other eBay sites worldwide.

'...she has a profit sharing arrangement with Ebay.com, "

??? Like all other eBay-Canada employees, Ms Stairs is an employee, paid a salary. Her job is to bring more Canadians to trade (buy or sell) on eBay. It does not matter to her and her co-workers if Canadians buy or sell on eBay.ca, eBay.com, eBay.uk or other eBay sites. Their responsibilities and goals are simply that Canadians trade on eBay instead of other platforms.

"Lastly, many people who operate on Ebay in a buying and selling capacity, will want USD at their disposal without converting it."

That is correct and Canadian sellers maintain the availability to list and sell in whatever currency they want. They can determine the "billing currency" and payment method (credit card, PayPal, etc...) that fit their needs. That ability has not really changed with the new policy making eBay-Canada a single currency site like all other eBay sites.

Canadians will adapt to the change, they always do. The sky is not falling.