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I only ship using Canada Post.
When you list an item, you can input the dimensions and weight on the listing so the postage is calculated based on the buyer’s location in Canada.
For U.S. shipping, you have to input the price for each item if you want it accurate. For the U.S., Canada Post provides a rate chart based on size and weight – use that chart for U.S. shipping costs. I have created shipping rules that use from the pulldown based on size and weight.
For international items, most shipping is similar to Europe – again, make a shipping rule based on weight and size. For other countries, add the rules to make your pulldowns in the listing easy to manage.
For example, my pulldowns look like:
CANADA-Calculated; U.S.-<1kg, Medium Size; INTL-<1kg, Medium Size
CANADA-Calculated; U.S.1-2kg, Large Size; INTL-NONE
etc. etc.It will take a lot of time to build, but once you build it, you just have to correct the U.S. and International rates if they change.
As for services like Chit-Chat that bring Canadian parcels to the U.S. – unless you get a savings, it’s not worth it. You still have to get it to the international re-mailer, pay duty up-front, and pay a fee for their customs work. Plus, if something happens, who is responsible? I would suggest doing your research before using a 3rd party to mail your items – Canada Post will come directly to your door to pick-up. Chit-Chat needs you to go elsewhere and fill out paperwork.
My mix is about 49.5% ebay.com, 49.5% ebay.ca (to get the maximum out of the free listings) and the other few (Formula 1 racing items) I will list on ebay.co.uk
When I sell an item on an international site, it all appears in my sold section on whatever ebay site I am on – so if I am on the U.S. .com website, it will show the item, the original currency (if not U.S.) and the current conversion to US$. On ebay.ca it is the same, but it converts everything to CAD$ and shows the original sales currency.
In Paypal, it breaks down the currencies – so my account when I login will have a “Total” at the top, which is a total of all the currencies converted to CAD$, then it breaks down the currencies by type below it. When I do a withdrawal, I have to take out each currency as a separate transaction – I cannot take out the full lump sum in one go – I have to take out the CAD$, then withdraw the US$, then any other currency.
ebay.ca up until last year had a choice of the currency you wanted to list in (U.S. or Canadian $) – now it forces CAD$
You can only list items with GSP on the U.S. ebay.com website. You can’t list them on international sites.
GSP items are visible on all international sites (I only have used .ca and .co.uk – but assume it shows up everywhere).
When I look up items on eBay.ca – items from the U.S. with GSP show up in the search results. I can toggle those items on/off on the left hand side under search options if I chose to.
I assume it is the same for all eBay sites – GSP or not – if you choose to list on their websites as part of your settings.
These keep generating sales for me.
Keep getting requests to modify my listings though – people want me to move the shipping cost on top of the item price and change the shipping to free so they save the 15% on shipping as well. Not sure if eBay is “cool” with this practice, but I have been doing it to generate sales.
It’s a little complicated.
When I sell on eBay.com, everything is in US$ – so even a Canadian buying from my ebay.com listing pays in US$. Opposite is if an American buys from an eBay.ca listing showing up on ebay.com – they pay in Canadian $.
PayPal handles the exchange, and eBay will show the price on International Sites in local currency – for example, if I have an item on eBay.ca, it will show up on eBay.co.uk with a converted price in GBP, but the buyer would pay in Canadian dollars in PayPal to me.
When I buy something or withdrawal from my PayPal account, it will convert all funds I take out to the exchange rate PayPal has for Canadian $ when I pull it out for my Canadian Bank Account. If I spend money, for example, $100 USD and I have $80 USD, $30 CAD, and 4 GBP in my account, it will convert what I have in Paypal to cover the $100 USD for the purchase out of the other currencies.
I personally go a step further and have a USD account with my bank – to avoid the various currency exchange fees on PayPal. It also allows me to spend my USD when I come to the U.S. without additional fees.
Half my inventory is on ebay.ca, and I have some items that I listed through ebay.co.uk
You can’t use GSP on those sites. Only ebay.com
The reason why I use international sites is that I can get free listings – the negative is that you have to sell in the currency of that website. So my PayPal account is stocked with GBP, US$, and CA$.
However, if you have something that is targeted more towards a different country, it will have a better chance of selling on an international site.
I’m in Canada so my healthcare expense is $0, but noticed several things are going up at a crazy rate:
INTERNET – I feel my internet is the same speed as it was 10 years ago, but in my rural location, it has almost tripled in price.
CABLE TV – I kept cutting it down as it kept going up, eventually I was paying $25/month for the same channels I get with an antenna. Cancelled it years ago and just use the antenna and online content.
CELL PHONE DATA – use to be “included” – but now the phone companies have different plans for data. Had to cut them out and just use WIFI. My cell phone bill tripled over the last 10 years.
UTILITIES – Electricity, Gas, and Water bills seem way up to me. I feel they have gone up 4x over the last 10 years.
However, I noticed some things are coming down:
FOOD – coming down in price. Milk, bread, sugar, and fruits seem real cheap to what they use to cost. Meat seems stable except pork has gone down. My grocery bills are a lot less then they use to be.
CLOTHING – fast fashion has made everything cheap. Just look at an old Sears catalogue from the 70’s, and the clothes then were more then they are now – and that isn’t counting inflation.
MUSIC – seems to be free now – just build playlists through YouTube. Haven’t paid for music since the 90s.
Too me, things seem about equal. Also, things like car insurance and mortgage payments are coming down as I age and interest rates stay low.
I’ve gone back and forth on clothing over the years – however, I just focused on printed t-shirts and sports jerseys.
Where I found the challenge was the time that inventory sat – at least 50% sat over a year and didn’t sell. When I started doing the math, essentially I was doubling my purchase price, doubling my photo time, and doubling my item listings (and fees) for every shirt that I sold.
The money was good on an item by item that sold basis, but overall, I was putting in a lot of work to sell $1 to $3 shirts for $10.
However, if you can get efficient in your purchasing price, and the time it takes to photograph and list items, then you have a good system. For me, getting a mannequin saved lots of time, and having a good photo area for it saved plenty of time as well.
I think clothing is a tough, long-haul sale. Lately, I’ve been focusing on higher profit items that sell very quickly. It frees up inventory, cash flow, and space.
Taxes and Duties in some countries are different based on the country of manufacture.
It’s all to do with international trade agreements, import tariffs, etc.
For example, in Canada where I am as a consumer I would pay less duty/taxes on items from the U.S. and Mexico because of NAFTA.
However, I’m never sure how it works when I buy something form a U.S. seller made in another country – it’s coming from the U.S., but originally from elsewhere, it gets real confusing. Then it gets even crazier for items made of components from one country, shipped to another for manufacture, shipped to another for sale, then bought by someone in another country…
I’m GenX, where the term “lit” meant the opposite of what “lit” means to Millenials…just had some kid in the warehouse tell me at lunch that team was really “lit up” this morning…I assumed the worst – especially after a weekend – but I guess “lit up” means good things now…
Soon I’ll know what it is like to be my parents with all this young-people talk!
At least I know what all the good stereo equipment is to re-sell to these Millenials and there love of vinyl and cassettes…
I’m not an X-Box expert (but I am for older and Playstation consoles) but the value varies based on serial numbers, release dates, and anything unique it would come with.
Some consoles may look identical, but collectors are looking for different variations – some are rarer then others, and some really rare. They are also interested in special editions, launch (original version out) editions, etc.
Check out the serial number / model number and it will give you more information if it is a common console, or a rarer one.
03/21/2018 at 4:29 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 352: Scavenging is The Alternative Early Retirement #35789Makes me wonder how much money keeps getting re-spent in the eBay system. Personally, my wife and I spend about 30-50% of what we make a month on eBay back on eBay.
We also buy a lot of items (books, clothing, shoes, movies, games) that eventually we try to re-sell on eBay after we are done with them.
Thinking of it, most of my clothes, electronics, and small items around my house are from eBay – the only categories we don’t buy are food, pets, cleaning supplies, cars, and furniture.
03/21/2018 at 10:59 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 352: Scavenging is The Alternative Early Retirement #35760The plastic parts start to crack or break with “rough” use – bumping on the stairs, into walls, etc. We have lots of pets so we vacuum a couple times a week, and the fur does eventually jam up around the brushes and other components and for us it is easier to part it out and get a new one then trying to cut out a couple years of fur wrapped around the brushes, rollers, and other moving parts.
Some parts Dyson will replace with the warranty, others they aren’t so forthcoming with.
However, for the performance, I would not go back to other vacuums. I’ve had Bissells, Dirt Devils, Kenmores, and even a Kirby – the Dyson is almost magic in how great it works for our house and pet fur.
03/21/2018 at 9:37 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 352: Scavenging is The Alternative Early Retirement #35736We’ve had a couple Dyson vacuums – the good thing is that when they start to wear out or you just want a new model, you can sell the parts off the old one and make more money then the new one costs. If you buy one with a big accessory package, you can sell the accessories you don’t want and people will pay good money for new/unused parts.
We’re on our third that we’ve had for a couple years now…debating parting it out now for the newest version…maybe one with a bunch of attachments we don’t need that can sell…
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