How come items are listed in Canadian dollars then when a Canadian bids on them it switches to USD?

[timetraveller1793]

I purchased something I assumed was a Canadian selling an item as it was listed for Canadian dollars. Then, when I bitd on it and the final total came it was twice as much as I had anticipated on purchasing the item and it was then listed on the same Ebay page as being sold for the amount in US dollars! I do not want to bid on things that switch to American money and I have to pay double. This never happened before even when the sellers were American. When they listed items in Canadian money the deal was done in Canadian money!

[timetraveller1793]

Incidentally, when I recieved the item in the mail the seller was Canadian and I had to pay the exchange for the American conversion!!@! Not happy.

[femmefan1946]

Yes. That's because the actual price was in US dollars. When you are buying on an international site like eBay, it is important to note in what currency the original post was made.

I am registered on dotCA, but sell mostly on dotCOM.

Today all my sales were from the dotCOM site. Two of those, priced in US dollars, were paid by the buyers in other currencies (one euros, one pounds sterling).

All my other sales went to American buyers.

And our southern neighbours are vague on concepts like "sovereign nation", "foreign exchange", "borders", etc., so we make allowances for the "poorly educated".

Elbows UP!

[msau4301 · Accepted solution]

If the seller lists on .com it will be in US dollars, if listed on .ca it will be Canadian. The listing will always show both the US and Canadian amounts when you are buying or bidding. When you are just scrolling/looking, the site knows you are in Canada so it is showing you the Canadian amount, but when you click on the item it should show you both.

Canadian sellers can choose to sell on .com and therefore they are paid in US funds, even if they live here. The auction/listing should have shown you both. Your purchase history should show the amount you agreed to with both currencies and the exchange at the time you bought.

[timetraveller1793 · Accepted solution]

The item was originally listed from a seller located in Sacramento, California, United States for $33.95 (which said Approximately C $47.81) with shipping US $15.78 (approx C $22.22) eBay International Shipping, but the amount of the actual transaction was $83.69 CAD to eBay Commerce... Now a request has come in saying I have to pay customs for a $47.78 CAD item qhich is an additional 14.89 CAD. So basically this $33.95 item is now about $98.58 Canadian...Their listing profile did not say they were located in the US and all of their items show up as being in Canadian dollars... So how will I know if an item is actually from Canada or the US?

[timetraveller1793 · Accepted solution]

...I found out from the shipping / customs slip that this seller was in Sacramento California, otherwise I wouldn't have bought the item if I had known at the time I checked their listings and profile.

[femmefan1946]

The item was originally listed from a seller located in Sacramento, California, United States for $33.95 (which said Approximately C $47.81) with shipping US $15.78 (approx C $22.22) eBay International Shipping, but the amount of the actual transaction was $83.69 CAD to eBay Commerce... Now a request has come in saying I have to pay customs for a $47.78 CAD item qhich is an additional 14.89 CAD.

Customs? Or duty PLUS sales taxes?

Which province are you in? HST is 15% of value in some provinces.

That would be $7.17 of your "customs" fee.

And with shipping that's $29.39.

Meaning the actual DUTY would be $18.39 on a purchase of $47.89 - a very high rate.

I suspect that part of the $47.78 is a "customs brokerage fee" from the shipper.

UPS and FedEx are notorious for charging a minimum of $25 for brokerage. (Canada Post charges $9.95)

Too many numbers for my dysnumeric brain, but if the seller used a courier instead of the postal system that could be the difference.

It might help to ignore all the USD amounts and look only at the Cdn$ amounts, which I think is what eBay would be showing you on dotCA.

[femmefan1946]

If you stick to Cdn $ you paid nearly $80 Cdn for purchase + shipping.

Then you paid about $14.00 for import fees. (duty +sales tax)

Making about $95.00 total

In Canadian dollars.

Yes. I think the problem is that you are focussing on the $33USD, and confusing it with the 30% difference in the two currencies.


Sorry about the rounding. Dysnumeric means numbers just slide right out of my brain.

[marnotom!]

I just almost placed a bid on an item from one of your recent sellers and did so on both my Windows laptop on the eBay.ca website and on my iPhone with the iOS app.  In both cases, there was a "US" before the dollar sign in the location where I had to enter my bid amount.

Are you saying that there was no indication when you bid that the auction currency was US dollars?