Mary was looking to buy AN ASTRONAUT'S GUIDE TO LIFE ON EARTH by CHRIS HADFIELD , the Canadian astronaut, for our fourteen year old grandson.
Taking a look at eBay, she found over twelve new copies BUT all of them came from sellers in the USA, Australia, United Kingdom. NOT one was offered by a Canadian seller.
Why can't a Canadian book about a Canadian astronaut not be offered by a Canadian seller on eBay-Canada?
Competition, that is why!
Not easy to sell on eBay when you compete with the largest Canadian bookseller, selling in store and online, for Cdn$ 20.00 (free shipping for online purchase).
How can a Canadian seller compete after paying eBay and PayPal fees and absorbing the shipping cost (typically $12 within Canada)?
Thank you for your suggestions.
Actually, that was the point of my post. We purchased the book today at Chapters. It is available at the store or online with free shipping for $20.
There is simply no way a Canadian eBay seller can compete in this specific situation which explains why no Canadian seller is offering the book on eBay..
And, as noted by many posters, this problem applies to much more than books.
Not easy to sell on eBay.... for a variety of reasons.
@dutchman48 wrote:As most people should know, Canadians are severely handicapped with most on line sales
What's it got to do with Canada? If you were in the USA and trying to sell new products that are dominated by the real big sellers you would have exactly the same problem.
Try selling new books on eBay in the US, you are up against Amazon, B&N and any of the other major booksellers.
For books specifically even the biggest traditional book sellers can't compete and that's why most of them have either gone bust or are on the way there.
Now forget eBay and forget online for a moment, any small start-up that tries to go head to head with the big established players is doomed. Only via specializing in a niche market can a little guy make a go of it and even at that they need to be nimble because those big boys are always looking for products they overlooked. If they see small retailer doing well with a specific type of item they will swoop in ad that small sellers niche is now gone.
I have a real problem with this whole smaller seller is stepped upon. What is considered a "small seller"? In my mind at least 90% of the sellers on eBay are small. Certainly any merchant doing less than a Million a month is a small seller by general business standards.
"If you were in the USA and trying to sell new products that are dominated by the real big sellers you would have exactly the same problem."
I do not see it that way.
To me, it is not a matter of "large" seller vs "small" seller. It is a question of much higher shipping charge within Canada for the individual seller who does not get the benefit of volume discount.
Thanks ricarmic .... so easy 
. There they are. I was looking under Detailed Seller Ratings reports.
