eBay

wmlkelley · ‎02-01-2016

Well it seems other countries outside the US (UK for certain) now have the global options. **bleep**?!?! Canada already has stupid pricing for shipping, this would help Canadian sellers out tremendously. I am completely sick and tired of bidders telling me that it is supposed to be cheaper to ship stuff and then they quote US pricing.

Seriously, when are WE getting this? It would not only make it easier to sell, it would end the idiotic pricing debates I get with nearly every auction.

mr.elmwood · ‎02-01-2016

With a made in Canada GSP, costs to customers would go up. Extra steps, extra handling, etc. Not seeing how that is a benefit.

With the decline of the Loonie VS the Greenback, my shipping costs have gone down 25% in the last three years. I do all my work in Greenbacks. Three years ago, Small Packet, under 250 grams, was costing me $8+ US to mail. A few weeks ago, that was as low as $5.93 US.

The last "complaint" I heard about shipping costs was from someone in Vancouver, about five years ago.

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pierrelebel · ‎02-01-2016

"Seriously, when are WE getting this?"

It is not coming. Simply no market to justify that system from Canada.

The cost to set up a distribution centre somewhere in Canada, the costs of shipping from all over Canada to that distribution centre and then again to the customer outside Canada present absolutely no advantage whatsoever to both the Canadian seller or the foreign buyer.

The reason the current GSP from the USA exists is to facilitate exports from the USA for sellers not willing to ship outside their border. This has never been in problem for most Canadian sellers.

tobyshitzu · ‎02-01-2016

Ebay canada wont even fix things they know are broken so I wouldn't hold my breath. They are expanding it, launched it for UK sellers last year, so maybe some day. Clearly there would be advantages, and more so from Canada then it is to Canada with our outrageous CP rates. If chitchat would receive and remail parcels one at a time there would be money to be saved with his overseas rates. Surely ebay would get rates at least as good as he does. Then add the GSP 's built in fee being lower then the brokerage many countries can get hit with from sellers who don't mark the value low.

Amazon is working away at creating its own global courier, ebay is going to be slaughtered on shipping cost even more then they are now. http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/29/is-logistics-about-to-get-amazoned/. They just bought a courier in France http://tamebay.com/2016/01/amazon-acquiring-french-courier-colis-prive.html. Ebay will be trying to figure out how to do something themself.

femmefan1946 · ‎02-01-2016

Canada already has stupid pricing for shipping, this would help Canadian sellers out tremendously.

Umm, how?

US & UK sellers have quite low prices for tracked domestic shipping.

US/UK sellers ship to a central domestic plant where items are processed for forwarding.

Canadian domestic tracked shipping would be a lot more expensive . For example, it costs me $12 to ship a 3cm thick paperback to Fort MacMurray because it is too thick for LetterPost and must go Regular Parcel, which happens to be tracked.

But basically, eBay introduced the GSP because US and UK sellers were reluctant to ship overseas and eBay wanted to increase overseas sales.

It has some advantages for sellers, their responsibility for shipping ends at the GSP plant, but few for buyers, except on very expensive items.

i.am.vivian · ‎02-01-2016

@wmlkelley wrote:
Well it seems other countries outside the US (UK for certain) now have the global options. **bleep**?!?! Canada already has stupid pricing for shipping, this would help Canadian sellers out tremendously. I am completely sick and tired of bidders telling me that it is supposed to be cheaper to ship stuff and then they quote US pricing.

Politely tell them the item location is Canada and send them the link to Canada Post prices website.

tobyshitzu · ‎02-01-2016

Easy to see how. Just look at the international rates chitchat has vs what CP charges for anything over small packet

"Chit Chats Express international shipping rates will save you an average of 80% compared to Canada Post parcel international rates."

When CP is charging $100+ a parcel there is lots and lots of room for the domestic leg and a fee for it to still be much cheaper for the sender. That CP retail rates are much worse here then other countries make the potential savings of a GSP better, not worse.

hlmacdon · ‎02-02-2016

@toby**bleep**zu wrote:
Easy to see how. Just look at the international rates chitchat has vs what CP charges for anything over small packet

"Chit Chats Express international shipping rates will save you an average of 80% compared to Canada Post parcel international rates."

When CP is charging $100+ a parcel there is lots and lots of room for the domestic leg and a fee for it to still be much cheaper for the sender. That CP retail rates are much worse here then other countries make the potential savings of a GSP better, not worse.

Trying to forward through a highly regionalized service like Chit Chats likely wouldn't be feasible on the sort of scale you would need for a GSP to be a viable exercise. The programs work in the UK and the US due to the previously mentioned low domestic rates and the large market size. Having those low domestic rates makes it fairly easy to aggregate packages on a national scale in a cost competitive manner.

A GSP-like system would stand a better chance if they were to aggregate packages in Canada, then forward to the US where there are numerous postal/logistics operators in the US that deal with export at rates below where USPS is at. I believe PB already partners with some of these operators with ecommerce programs targeting the US. I don't know if we would see sufficient demand to justify the setup cost of multiple regional DC's, which is probably what they are looking at. When you factor in the higher cost of many consumer goods in Canada coupled with the market size and high cost of domestic logistics there isn't a very compelling business case.

For the average small seller in Canada, light packet and small packet with TPI are at least available alternatives. When I used to ship that way internationally my loss/claim rate was sub 1%, having filtered out the countries where longer deliveries were common or there were widespread issues with customs. The changes with the late defects does however make that more challenging. Where Ebay could play a role is lobbying Canada Post for acceptance scans on those packages.

widgetc · ‎02-02-2016

"... but few for buyers, except on very expensive items."

Actually one of the biggest savings is for heavy inexpensive items. I have saved a lot of money that way receiving 50+ lb boxes that cost only about $70 for the contents. The forwarding shipping is much less than USPS costs to Canada for such items.

wmlkelley · ‎02-03-2016

Small market or not, we buy alot of goods online here in this country, it's tiring getting ripped off by Paypal's bogus exchange rate and companies not willing to give us the same perks as other countries.

pierrelebel · ‎02-03-2016

"Paypal's bogus exchange rate"

Bogus?

How is it any different than the exchange rate charged by your bank or credit card issuer?

wmlkelley · ‎02-09-2016

Say I buy something listed in US dollars. Final price at auction is say $80 after exchange. When you get to the Paypal page, all of the sudden the same auction is now $85. Paypal uses a different rate than Ebay, Ebay's rate is cheaper to entice you to buy. Yeah, that's fair......

pierrelebel · ‎02-09-2016

"Paypal uses a different rate than Ebay,"

That is correct.

eBay uses the inter-bank (wholesale) rate determined every morning. Buyers and sellers see exactly the same amount.

When a buyer pays or a seller receives money, the amount will be different by about 2.5% each (plus or minus any fluctuation that may have happened since the eBay rate was determined)

That 2.5% "spread" represents the conversion fee charged by PayPal whenever a currency has to be converted into another. This is the same 2.5% conversion fee generally charged by most Canadian banks and credit card issuers.

On a typical day when the currencies do not move much, if you see $80.00 on eBay, you will see about $82.00 on PayPal if you are the buyer or $78.00 if you are the seller. The difference is the conversion fee.

mr.elmwood · ‎02-09-2016

@pierrelebel wrote:
"Paypal uses a different rate than Ebay,"

That is correct.

eBay uses the inter-bank (wholesale) rate determined every morning. Buyers and sellers see exactly the same amount.

When a buyer pays or a seller receives money, the amount will be different by about 2.5% each (plus or minus any fluctuation that may have happened since the eBay rate was determined)

That 2.5% "spread" represents the conversion fee charged by PayPal whenever a currency has to be converted into another. This is the same 2.5% conversion fee generally charged by most Canadian banks and credit card issuers.

On a typical day when the currencies do not move much, if you see $80.00 on eBay, you will see about $82.00 on PayPal if you are the buyer or $78.00 if you are the seller. The difference is the conversion fee.