If I'm selling only to USA, should I switch to ebay.com, is it easy?

[peter32123]

Going to try and ship from CAN to US with UPS, exclude Canada, I have a canadian ebay and paypal paid in cdn, I have an american.com for buying but haven't listed anything there. I don't think I'm set up to sell.

I think it would be easier to list everything  on .com and receive everything in usd in paypal, for the buyers, and for me, is this easy to do?

I don't know how the seo works and all that, but from what experience I've had as a buyer, buying from canadians, the same items, the canadian auctions get less action and are bid on by Canadians (was better for me), so this might indicate some Americans stay away from Canadian listings.

[fatdane]

When I started at Ebay, sometime back in the Stone Ages, there was only the US site. I have been selling on it and the Canadian site as well ever since. I don't know what you are selling but in my area, stamps for collectors, many US collectors are more comfortable with listings in US funds despite Ebay showing the price in a buyers local currency.
Both TD Canada Trust & Royal Bank can set up a US$ account for you at a US subsidiary to transfer your USD to or you can have PayPal convert USD to CAD and then take it out. How the currencies will be handled with managed payments is anybody's guess.

[peter32123]

Yeah I don't want to generalize but I think a lot they see canadian dollar and get turned off, they think it will be long shipping or complex etc, but alot of my old customers were american and they got their things just as fast as the canadians.

I think I'll just let paypal convert, i have received usd funds before I used to have both at one time in my paypal, although I don't know how accurate their rates are.

[reallynicestamps]

although I don't know how accurate their rates are.

They are very accurate- in that the arithmetic works perfectly.

They may not be as cheap for you, as their client, as you might be able to arrange.

With an American* bank account, your U$ payments are held in U$ with no surcharges.

Without that, PP moves your U$ to a Canadian account and charges exchange. If you then move those loonies to a Canadian U$ account, your bank will charge more fees.

Our RBCBank allows us to be paid in U$, then move that money to our Royal Bank U$ account with no exchange. TDNorth has, I understand, the same privilege.

If we then want loonies, we will be charged exchange, but overall just the one charge.

I opened an RBCBank account a couple of decades ago, but for my tiny business, the other fees were too high. Our main business which often got six figures deposits  found it very profitable.

*NOT a Canadian bank account in US dollars. An account with an American bank like CitiBank or as mentioned TDNorth/RBCBank.

[reallynicestamps]

Are you going to stick with purses as your product line?

Because those are bulky, you will be shipping them with Parcel rates.

And those are based on weight and dimensions but also destination.

Which may be why it is best to stick with eBayCanada.

If you are selling on dotCOM, you are dealing in U$, which has obvious benefits.

But in Search, your buyer sees her own currency first on the Search results even when you are listing on dotCA, and the Cdn$ value along with her own currency on the actual listing.

You must put the location of the item as Your Town, Canada, so if that is going to turn off the buyer, that's going to do it, currency or no.

OTOH, Buyers Don't Read.

If you list on dotCA, you can use Calculated Shipping, which tells the buyer exactly how much shipping will be.

If you list on dotCOM, you will be massaging a Flat Rate* to overcharge nearby buyers, and shortcharge those further away. 

If you can use a forwarder like chitchatexpress or Stallion (?), you can list on dotCOM with USPS Calculated Shipping.

These companies carry your parcels across the border and ship using the lower USPS domestic rates. They have a reasonable service charge and those who use them seem to be pleased.

*Flat Rate includes Free Shipping. DON'T PANIC! This just means you have included your costs for packaging and shipping in the asking price of the item.

Which is cheaper the better buy?  A $100 purse with $25 shipping or a $125 purse with Free Shipping?

[intimewithmusic]

---

@peter32123 wrote:

Going to try and ship from CAN to US with UPS, exclude Canada, I have a canadian ebay and paypal paid in cdn, I have an american.com for buying but haven't listed anything there. I don't think I'm set up to sell.

I think it would be easier to list everything  on .com and receive everything in usd in paypal, for the buyers, and for me, is this easy to do?

I don't know how the seo works and all that, but from what experience I've had as a buyer, buying from canadians, the same items, the canadian auctions get less action and are bid on by Canadians (was better for me), so this might indicate some Americans stay away from Canadian listings.

---

Hi. Did you actually mean "Going to try and ship from CAN to US with UPS" and not actually mean "ship from Can to US with USPS"  It appears you sell stamps with free shipping.  UPS would normally be the go to for items over 66 lbs. That's a lot of stamps!

[peter32123]

reallynicestamps

"With an American* bank account, your U$ payments are held in U$ with no surcharges.

Without that, PP moves your U$ to a Canadian account and charges exchange. If you then move those loonies to a Canadian U$ account, your bank will charge more fees.

Our RBCBank allows us to be paid in U$, then move that money to our Royal Bank U$ account with no exchange. TDNorth has, I understand, the same privilege.

If we then want loonies, we will be charged exchange, but overall just the one charge."

Can't I convert in PP once to Canadian funds and move the loonies to my canadian bank account?

I don't have RBC or TD, just a smaller bank.

About the flat rate, yeah I'm going to have to probably average and discount, or pick farthest from me, new york, and discount them the difference (explained beforehand in the listing)

even when I was using CP the calculator was off so I was doing it myself based on experience with parcel size and location and getting it close and losing a few bucks here and there sometimes but it was ok, so I'm not too big on calculators.

I tried free shipping but found people didn't appreciate it, I was getting the exact same offers while providing free shipping, people think you're like amazon or one of these chinese sellers that could somehow ship their item free, they don't understand what I charge is exactly what they charge me for labels, so I'm just going to charge shipping.

The only reason I'm doing UPS is because their rates (to US only) are equal or less than CP (USPS), and I got gun shy about INRs from a few cases, especially one where one woman said she never got an expensive bag, I showed her signature and whoops found it, no more INR.

I'm doing some purses and some electronics, UPS is not officially doing signature but I spoke to their email and a rep told me "Yes, due to covid our driver's are not doing physical signature, but for signature required parcels, our driver just need to see the customer's ID but they won't touch it before releasing the parcel."

So there is confirmation of delivery which is good enough for me. Canada post drops it at porch and bye bye, and USPS seems to do signature but claim will be with Canada post so it will get messy.

Towards the end before I took a break from selling my sales were stale and I had good items, so maybe .com will be better, even if it's coming from a canadian address, having it all in usd might help, not sure until I try.

[ypdc_dennis]

---

@peter32123 wrote:

Going to try and ship from CAN to US with UPS, exclude Canada, I have a canadian ebay and paypal paid in cdn, I have an american.com for buying but haven't listed anything there. I don't think I'm set up to sell.

I think it would be easier to list everything  on .com and receive everything in usd in paypal, for the buyers, and for me, is this easy to do?

---

You can use your current account to list on both ebay.CA and ebay.COM -- it's not a one or the other choice.  I list on both .ca and .com -- the trick is getting shipping properly set up for ebay.com

PayPal is a deposit choice that will disappear in the future as Managed Payments takes over. eBay has not figured out how to handle sellers using both sites with MP (but they do say eventually).

[peter32123]

---

@reallynicestamps wrote:

If you list on dotCA, you can use Calculated Shipping, which tells the buyer exactly how much shipping will be.

If you list on dotCOM, you will be massaging a Flat Rate* to overcharge nearby buyers, and shortcharge those further away. 

---

thanks for the explanation of some issues.

can't I convert in PP once and just transfer the loonies to my canadian bank? I don't have TD or RBC, smaller bank.

About flat rate I'll figure per item UPS rate out and do an average or ship to farthest point from me, and then discount if I overcharge (explained beforehand in listing), I tried free shipping and got same offers as when I charged shipping, so it wasn't helpful in seo or better offers.

UPS drivers check ID but no signature but that's better than CP, (not sure about USPS), and their rates to US are as good or cheaper than CP, and US is huge so I lose some Canadian customers but get verification in case of INR (I'm gunshy/distrustful about that).

Before I took a break my sales were stale, my seo was in the back pages and I had pretty good stock, so, I want to try .com to see if it will be better, even if they see a dreaded canadian address 😃

[peter32123]

---

@intimewithmusic wrote:

---

@peter32123 wrote:

Going to try and ship from CAN to US with UPS, exclude Canada, I have a canadian ebay and paypal paid in cdn, I have an american.com for buying but haven't listed anything there. I don't think I'm set up to sell.

I think it would be easier to list everything  on .com and receive everything in usd in paypal, for the buyers, and for me, is this easy to do?

I don't know how the seo works and all that, but from what experience I've had as a buyer, buying from canadians, the same items, the canadian auctions get less action and are bid on by Canadians (was better for me), so this might indicate some Americans stay away from Canadian listings.

---

Hi. Did you actually mean "Going to try and ship from CAN to US with UPS" and not actually mean "ship from Can to US with USPS"  It appears you sell stamps with free shipping.  UPS would normally be the go to for items over 66 lbs. That's a lot of stamps!

---

I think reallynicestamps sells stamps, I don't sell stamps, I would if I knew how lol

[peter32123]

ok good to know, didn't even know about this MP thing, I guess that will be big in 2021.

[reallynicestamps]

and discount them the difference (explained beforehand in the listing)

Don't.

The customer doesn't care about anything but the bottom line. If it gets too complicated they will move on.

Having said that, no one is ever angry about an unexpected rebate. "Thank you for your purchase. I found I could ship your purse for a lower cost and still provide tracking and air mail, so I am refunding the difference to show my appreciation for your business."

The higher Flat Rate shipping also allows you room to consider Best Offers, although the advertised shipping rate is firm in Best Offers.  You would be discounting on the selling price not the shipping price.

A lot of this is headgames and smoke and mirrors and giving the customer the pink fuzzies about her purchase.

can't I convert in PP once and just transfer the loonies to my canadian bank?

No.

PP has to convert U$ into Canadian dollars before sending the money out of the country. This is US law.

If you keep your payments all in loonies, there is no problem, but some sellers want to have U$ handy for other purchases.

At the moment, PP allows us to have a U$ balance and a loonie balance in our accounts, and to attach multiple banks.

When Managed Payments comes in, that may not be true. At the moment MP demands only one bank in the currency of the eBay site.

Perhaps in  a year or so, they will be able to be more flexible. The actual processor is Ayden which is in the Netherlands, so you'd think they would be able to function in multiple currencies, including euros and U$ to say nothing of pounds, Swiss francs and Norwegian kroner.

[pjcdn2005]

Make sure that your PayPal account is set up to hold both US and Canadian dollars.  When you list on .com you will be paid in US$ and it will be deposited to your account in US currency.  When you transfer the money to your bank, that is when you will be charged a currency exchange.

[cumos55]

If you plan to have a store on eBay

Go to eBay Canada and search for ..... Store fees.

Then.. Go to eBay.com and also search for .....  Store Fees

The price appears to be the same on both sites.

Except for the fact... The price on eBay Canada is in Canadian dollars while the price on eBay.com is in US dollars

[peter32123]

Ebay US has starter store option though, which is good for me.

[pjcdn2005]

Do you really need a store at this point? Without one you can list 200 listings on .com AND 200 on .ca.  Plus, if you haven’t  sold recently you will likely have selling limits do you wouldn’t be able to use all listings in a store anyway.

Keep in mind that you can open your store on .ca and still list exclusively on .com but you will save money because your fees will be in Canadian dollars.  

[peter32123]

I don't really need one, but for 7 bucks usd starter store I think it would be worth a try to see the features like promotion manager and it might help the mysterious seo, since ebay likes to be paid, although most would probably say it has no effect on that, and just to compare the store vs. not store experience, not a bad idea to look more official, it's not worth 25 bucks cad a month though, I'm too small for that.