eBay

katlover1952 · ‎11-15-2015

As I received the invite to list 2K items free in CDN funds & as eBay has been telling us it is better for us I decided to give it a whirl & experiment with it. To be honest I am not convinced it is best for us & for me who lives near the US border & has a US Paypal bank acct I will have to deal with the cost of exchange. I listed around 200 items in CDN funds some for 10 days some for 30. ( I had listed about 50 via auction in CDN funds initially for 5 days & had no sales but thought perhaps should give it a longer period. )

I am just wondering if anyone else has tried or is trying this and wondering how it is going. Am interested in hearing about it from anyone who is trying this. I think if I decide to go CDN on a lot of items I might want to get another ID & CDN Paypal acct so as not to have to worry about the exchange.

Would like to hear others thoughts on this.

pjcdn2005 · ‎11-17-2015

If a seller has a primarily U.S. buyer base, lists in $US, has the money deposited to their $US Paypal account, and buys primarily with $US, there is virtually no exchange fee issue, unless you want for some reason to withdraw the funds to a Canadian bank account.

I'm sure that that there are some eBayers that buy and sell just enough to keep a balance in their Paypal account but I would think that the majority of sellers DO withdraw the funds to a Canadian bank account. Unless it's a hobby and it's for fun, why sell if you aren't going to take out some of the profit and use it to pay yourself a salary and for other business expenses that have to paid in Canadian dollars.

I'm not saying that listing in Canadian dollars is best for everyone but I do think that in some cases, sellers are making the decision based on emotions and assumptions, not because they have actually sat down and figured it out using numbers and facts.

sylviebee · ‎11-17-2015

When shopping on line or selling, I never even see Canadian dollars.

Everything is conducted in $US.

When I see my items listed in Canadian money I'm always a little shocked.

I think it depends on what you're buying and selling, but I've learned to think in $US and anything else throws me off and not in a good way.

Many collectors are the same.

73rhc · ‎11-17-2015

"When shopping on line or selling, I never even see Canadian dollars."

Most ridiculous statement so far!

Really? Everything that I buy online is in Canadian dollars.

katlover1952 · ‎11-17-2015

In my case I have a US bank account in the states so like Rose I never worried about the exchange except on my Paypal shipping labels.

So far since listing some items in CDN dollars I have not had any sales on those items from either US or CDN buyers. However I feel that it is too soon to say whether it is bad or good.

I will report back what my findings are in about a month. Others who have tried this also I would really love to know how it worked for you. This is ongoing for me.

sylviebee · ‎11-17-2015

@73rhc wrote:

Everything that I buy online is in Canadian dollars.

Thank You for sharing.

pocomocomputing · ‎11-17-2015

I list on eBay.com in US $ (of course) and on eBay.ca in Can $ (no US$). I found that ebay.com listings had more USA buyers (75%+) with some Canadian buyer and some International buyers. ebay.ca had more Canadian buyers and International buyers with some USA buyers (still 50%+).

I thought listing in Can $ got more Canadian buyers because Canadian buyers did not like paying the exchange fees. International buyers probably were higher because of the GSP that many USA sellers used.

On eBay.com, I also thought USA buyers preferred listing that had no Can $.

No proof of the above though. Just my observations and conclusions from the past. I used to list 100 items a month but now down to 20 so my observations of current sales are not a good base for any conclusions.

I did find one thing interesting. After listing an item for 5-6 months on eBay.ca or on eBay.com, I would switch it to the other site. It would always result in a few sales on items that were slow or dead on the other site. I never use GTC so stale GTC is not a factor. I would relist with auction (5 or 7 days, and 3 when it was no extra fee) or Fixed Price with 30 days or less. I have no idea if the site switch was a factor or not but it seemed to. Or if currency was a factor but maybe it was.

You might want to switch stale items between sites to see if it jump starts a few sales.