Selling in CDN dollars as opposed to USD

[katlover1952]

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.

[pierrelebel]

" has a US Paypal bank acct "  "I will have to deal with the cost of exchange"

???

With PayPal, you can (in fact you should) maintain balances in both the Cdn$ and US$.

When the time comes to withdraw money, you can withdraw your Canadian funds to your Canadian bank account.  No currency conversion takes place. No fees involved.

And you can continue to withdraw your US$ to a bank located in the USA where, once again, no conversion takes place.

[pierrelebel]

I should add that ever since PayPal has been available to Canadians in November 2000, I have maintained both bank accounts in Canada and in the USA (that one was closed as I am retiring and no longer have the sales volume I once had)

In PayPal, I have always maintained balances in Cdn$, US$, £ and euro.

There is no cost in maintaining balances in all currencies.  It is all about providing better customer service.

[katlover1952]

Thanks Pierre I did not know you could tie 2 bank accts to your Paypal acct. I thought I'd need a second ID with a CDN dollar acct. I will have to set that up right away in case I sell one of my CDN $ items.

[lady.stark]

I did give it a try too. About 15 items or so. None of them sold so far. Although I did have 2 Canadian buyers (which I RARELY get), but they bought items listed in US $.

I think this "research" done by eBay was positive just because they did it during the time the CAD $ dropped. The listings looked much more appealing, because the prices continually dropped as the $ dropped. If the same research would have been done during the time the CAD $ was on par with the US $, I am pretty sure the results would have been VERY different. Just my 2 cents...

[rose-dee]

I completely agree with you that it is very likely there were factors which skewed the study results. The one you mention was probably the most obvious.  

Another may have been the effect of the ongoing ".com cart disconnect", which would have impacted items in categories that might expect to have multiple-order sales to .com shoppers (whether Canadian or American).  Together, these two factors could easily have created the differential in sales that eBay claims they found in many categories. 

Of course, without being able to see and parse the data behind eBay's study, we sellers have absolutely no way of knowing whether the conclusions are correct.  Which is why I am going to continue doing what I've determined works best for my ca. 95% U.S. buyer base - list in $US, to keep my prices displayed in a stable manner, not subject to fluctuations in the $Cdn.  

[skylarstuff]

90% of all of my sales are from the USA so listing in CDN funds does not make any sense to me.  It would be interesting to see this survey and see the metrics used.  Some times organizations have their surveys and research papers skewed to their desired outcome.  Not always.......but sometimes.

[maximus7001]

We tried it with about 70 listings mostly relists but about 10 new items, about half of our total listings. Sales have ground to a halt. I think it was a really bad idea.

One item in peticular that we sell monthly with a 7 day auction is diabetic test strips. We always listed them in US $ before and it is the type of item that always sells with many bids pretty much guaranteed. This time in CDN $ it ended with no bids at all.

[mmmcross]

I am in the same boat as you. This promotion serves as a test run for me. Most of my buyers are from the U.S. so it always made more sense to me to list in U.S. currency on the .com site. I was apprehensive about the push towards Canadian currency for all the reasons others sellers on this forum have mentioned. 

So far I'm relieved to see an average level of activity on my .ca listings from U.S. buyers. The main downside I see so far is that most of my U.S. buyers are not going to think to adjust their Best Offers to reflect the exchange rate, and I'm not willing to dicker over what amounts to a few cents per transaction in my case. But this issue may be more particular to my individual case as a seller. I have yet to notice or feel the differences on Paypal with regards to exchange rate and fees and stuff like that, but maybe that is still to come.

[pierrelebel]

" I have yet to notice or feel the differences on Paypal with regards to exchange rate "

????

If you list in Cdn$ and the seller pays you in Cdn$ - there is NO currency conversion fee whatsoever.

Then you withdraw to your Cdn$ account and again there is no conversion fee whatsoever.

That is one of the advantages for Canadian sellers of listing and getting paid in Cdn$ = no currency conversion fee.

[cumos55]

Listings in Canadian dollars on eBay Canada....

A US Buyer has to convert Canadian dollars  to US dollars when a payment is made on Paypal...  or with a credit card

How many US buyers will understand this new reality?

[mmmcross]

OK good to know, Pierre. I just meant that my first attempt at selling on the Canadian site has barely begun, so I haven't had a chance yet to notice other differences and nuances between U.S. and Canadian selling that you and other experienced sellers are more aware of.

[pierrelebel]

"notice other differences and nuances between U.S. and Canadian selling"

That is the whole point.  I have not notice any differences.  You are still selling to the same market, nothing has changed but the currency of payment.

[cumos55]

If there is no conversion of US to Canadian dollars..... a seller saves

How much?   2.5 %  is the cost to go from US to Canadian dollars.

On $1000   that is $25 dollars US.....that is $33.35 Canadian dollars

ON $10,000  US it is $333.50   mainly because of today's exchange rate

When the Canadian dollar was equal to the US dollar  $1,000 US became $975 Canadian...

When  one sells in Canadian dollars on eBay Canada...  Paypal  only charges a transaction fee

[tobyshitzu]

Saving currency conversion is worth more the the trs discount.   Everyone would have a fit to lose the trs from defects, but voluntarily pays more then that in conversions

[pierrelebel]

"Saving currency conversion is worth more the the trs discount."

That is correct. Thank you Toby for pointing it out.

For example, on sales of $1,000, sellers pay eBay from 6% to 10% FVFs (depending if they have a store and the item category)

That works out to fees of $60 to $100

The 20% rebate works out to savings of $12.00 to $20.00 on sales of $1,000

There is no 20% rebate on the shipping charge

Now, with $1,000 sales, eBay sellers pay PayPal 2.5% conversion fee ($25.00)

And sellers also pay the 2.5% conversion fee on the shipping charge (not offset by any TRS 20% rebate)

[rose-dee]

---

@pierrelebel wrote:

"Saving currency conversion is worth more the the trs discount."

That is correct. Thank you Toby for pointing it out.

---

Yes, except that one can't apply this principle for every seller.  It's simply not true that the savings on currency conversion is always worth more than the TRS discount.  In any event, we also have to take into account the fluctuating value of the $Cdn against the $US, which can more than make up for any losses through conversion.  The current low value of the $Cdn (if a seller is selling in $US exclusively) will more than offset currency conversion charges as compared to even a year ago. 

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 one such seller.  I rarely pay conversion fees because I purchase most of my supplies from the U.S. in $US from my Paypal account. The odd times I do pay to convert involve much smaller amounts than the whole of my sales earnings anyway, so I'm not paying to convert my entire income.  The other factor is that I sell quite a number of higher-priced items, on which the TRS discount is substantial.  That discount outweighs by a long shot anything I've ever paid in conversion fees. 

In any case, the lower the $Cdn falls, the more I am actually making, and the less such things as Canadian postage/shipping are costing me.  Any conversion fees I do pay occasionally are virtually irrelevant.  

I do recognize that this would not be the case were I to list in $Cdn, or want to withdraw the whole of my earnings every month, nor would it necessarily work for sellers with a mix of currency listings.  However, anyone who has been listing in $US over the past year has saved (gained) a lot of money elsewhere which more than makes up for conversion fees, especially on shipping costs.  This is an important factor that has helped me hold the line on raising my shipping quotes for my buyers.  It's been nothing but a bonus.  

With my situation, and my customer base, I'd be shooting myself in the foot to list in $Cdn.  I'm sure there are many other sellers in the same boat, who should not blindly follow eBay.ca's recommendation to list in $Cdn, especially since we know nothing about the details of the "study" they conducted. 

[73rhc]

Do you use Payplal shipping labels? If so, are you not paying PayPal a conversion fee to pay CP?

As for saying that listing in Canadian funds would be shooting yourself in the foot. How could you possibly know!

Canadian buyer MIGHT be staying away because of the amount in US funds. (I know that I shy away from Canadian sellers listing in US )

US buyers might buy within the US if they aren't getting a deal from conversion rate. 

I list in Canadian. And when our dollar goes down, my US sales go up. This, obviously, doesn't apply to every eBay category. 

[pierrelebel]

rose-dee, rose-dee, rose-dee,  what can I say?

We all know how you feel on the subject. But that is not a reason to defy the laws of mathematics.

" It's simply not true that the savings on currency conversion is always worth more than the TRS discount. "

It is always true, always, always, that saving 2.5% is better than saving less than or up to 2.0%.  There is no mathematical equation that could possibly show a different result.  The fluctuation of the dollar has nothing to do with the conversion fee charged by PayPal.

[tobyshitzu]

The relative value of the dollar has little relevance, sellers should price at what the market will bare regardless of currency.  Its true people who have held on to their US$ speculating have been winners lately.  But that can evaporate very quickly.  Look at what happened when it turned around in 2009 or 2007.   Easy to see, after the fact, when one should have converted.  At the time most would have lost the entire gain before it was clear the trend had changed.  In 09 it was less then 2.5 months to go from .78 low to .91