curiouse about the big change in listing currency

[aubreyclay56]

Why is it so imperative that ebay changes the listing currency to can dollars when everything was fine in us dollars??? I do not get it why cause all this problems for everyone???? If i was listing something at 10 dollars us when it changes over soon i will need to raise my price to 13 dollars same as shipping im really not getting it like is ebay .ca throwin in the towel,shuttin down kicked to the curb,seems like they have pretty much made hundreds of thousands of people unhappy,they are doing all this for what reason????

[reallynicestamps]

Their explanation was that we are the only site that was allowed to list in both currencies.

I'm not clear on the timelines, but at least one of eBay's founders was Canadian, and it may have been his suggestion that we be allowed to use either currency.

There probably are some bookkeeping problems that don't occur with other single currency sites.  And I guess we should also look at the German/French/Spanish/Italian sites which all use the Euro although they operate under slightly different rules (based in part on different national laws.)

For the Canadian seller, I really don't see a problem.

If I can ship something Flat Rate within Canada, which basically means anything I can ship Letter Rate/Light Packet, then it goes on dotCOM where I believe it will get better viewership. Not just from Americans, but also from Canadians and worldwide.

DotCOM is the mothership.

If I need to use parcel shipping, which depends not only on weight and dimensions, but also destination, then I want to use Canada Post's Calculated Shipping.

And those listings go on dotCA.

Along with items of primary interest to Canadians, like postage lots and some Canadiana.

But at the moment, with most of my listings still in USD (on both sites) the percentages have not changed. I still sell twice as much to the US as I do to Canada, regardless of currency. My sales overseas are about the same in either currency.

The outlier oddly is that I sell a slightly higher percentage of  items to Canadians in US dollars than in loonies.

[aubreyclay56]

ok i like your explanation,but it is still crazy upset the apple cart and check for bruised apples,you sir have been on here long time before me,but my self i do think this is silly to go through all these changes,like who profits from it it?i wont ,customers wont ,cant see ebay making money  doing this actually i can see ebay loosing thousands of dollars if not more doing this,pay pal might make thousands turning us dollars into can dollars,i wonder if in the near future lets say the can dollar goes up to 1.10 like in 1986 are we going to do this all over again,,or is this something that is standerized like it was a year ago.?this has to be profittable to someone

[ricarmic]

In my opinion the "profit" is likely "less expensive", as femme suggests I expect a dual currency site is much more complicated to manage "systems wise" than a single currency site.

It could even go as far as being the reason behind some of the .CA site problems like cart issues or other glitches etc. In my experience systems wise, something being "different" in now it is architected increases the risk of glitches as things change over time.

We will never really know....

[cumos55]

Why the change from US to Canadian dollars?

Because...

Canadian dollars only on eBay Canada....

[melissasminis]

Why is China allowed to list in any currency they want? I also seen someone from the US selling a cat scratch post in Canadian dollars. Doesn't make any sense..

[pierrelebel]

"I also seen someone from the US selling a cat scratch post in Canadian dollars. Doesn't make any sense.."

It is possible the American seller wanted to take advantage of a listing promotion available on eBay.ca. 

eBay-Canada was the only site offering listing in two currencies.  Now, all eBay sites will be offering listings in local currency only.

Sellers anywhere in the world who wish to list in US$ have always been able to do so on eBay.com since 1997.  No change there.  Canada was the exception and that exception is going away. 

eBay.com will remain available to Canadians as it has always been to all international sellers.  They all had to deal with the same "shipping charge" problem as no "calculated shipping" is available on eBay.com for sellers shipping from anywhere but the USA.

"Why is China allowed to list in any currency they want?"

???

ALL eBay registered sellers are allowed to list and sell in whatever domestic currency on whatever eBay site.  Canadians often list on eBay.uk in Sterling or eBay.fr in euro or eBay.au in Australian dollars etc...  American and Chinese sellers are all welcome to do the same.

When you look at the big picture: sellers determine what is best for them: listing on the local eBay site in domestic currency or listing on a foreign site in a foreign currency.

[maggiebvintage2010]

There is no eBay China any more, not since the end of 2006.  Those Chinese sellers listing in USD list on ebay.com.  They also list on ebay.uk in £, on other EU sites in Euros, etc.  Anyone can do the same, and many do.

[femmefan1946]

I also seen someone from the US selling a cat scratch post in Canadian dollars.

And many Canadian sellers list on dotCOM in US dollars. You can too.

The disadvantage is that you can only use Flat Price shipping, which is a problem if your products require parcel rates.

Parcel rates vary with dimensions and weight, like Letter /Light Packet, but also with DESTINATION.

So shipping a Letter/Light Packet to Alberta or Nunavut? Same price. To Florida or Alaska? Same price.

But a parcel  to those destinations could have four different prices for the equivalent service.

That's where selling on your home site, with Calculated Shipping becomes useful.

And it is always useful to note:

The buyer sees her own home currency in Search.

You may list in loonies, but an American on dotCOM sees US dollars as the asking price. A German on dotDE sees euros. An Indian sees rupees.

[hlmacdon]

From all of my reading the underlying issue seems to be about a) reverting to a single currency to fix cart implementation issues moving forward and b) eBay's dev team provides little support with respect to the implementation of new features that have launched on other country sites as the dual currency situation in Canada made things "complicated". To be sure there are also internal politics at play as  to which currency holds more appeal for Canadian buyers as well.

As you can see from all of the basic, fundamental errors with the migration tool, coding is not exactly a core competency at ebay so perhaps this move is for the best as it does simplify things.

If your shipping options are suited to .com, I would make the change to USD listings on .com as femme suggests. Other than the bunk migration tool, my experiences have been far better since the move and it has removed an enormous headache in assisting customers with cart issues.

[ricarmic]

When I had two jobs, eBay and my real job, my "real job" for over 20 years was systems development and support both programming and infrastructure.

Based I what I know from the "olden days" of that, and how complex things are now,  I'm shocked at how few big problems there are and how rarely the site is down. In the olden days nobody had to worry nearly as much about being hacked or defending oneself against zillions of bot sent transactions intended to bring a site to a standstill.

They aren't going to say anything about it but I suspect a great deal of resources are dedicated to the "defense" of the site.

From my recollection, whenever a system is the "only" system that works a certain way (ie dual currency), it tends to be the most expensive to maintain and update, which means it often gets left behind. 

I mentioned it in other threads but the prioritization process will start with mission critical flaws/opportunities and will work its way down to lower level opportunities to reduce cost or increase profit (by adding new features kind of stuff). One of the jobs of the Raphael's of the world is to get word to the decision making process about how urgent a problem and or opportunity is. It is very unlikely that the process Raphael is involved in will generate mission critical priority stuff but I'm sure they have a "maintenance" budget for small fixes that are typo/annoying glitch type stuff. Based on his responses, I very much believe that is how the process works for them.

Hopefully the change to single currency will allow them to more quickly and accurately introduce new features like promotion/advertising stuff that I'm quite enjoying on the .COM site....

Time will tell... 

[femmefan1946]

As you can see from all of the basic, fundamental errors with the migration tool, coding is not exactly a core competency at ebay so perhaps this move is for the best as it does simplify things.