• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

eBay.com vs eBay.ca

Started by Loki,

20 posts in this topic

Loki

Loki

Posted
Posted

Somehow I accidently logged into eBay.com this evening instead of eBay.ca and started doing my usual searches. Cue the WTF moment when I saw a bunch of auctions near completion that I hadn't seen on the .ca version when I checked yesterday, including some slabs I've been looking for for a LONG time. When I logged back into eBay.ca and did the same search, the auctions didn't turn up. :mad:

 

Has this always been the case? If so, why does eBay even bother having international sites if you can't access all the auctions? Not to mention some sellers would probably be PO-ed to learn that their items aren't getting world-wide exposure.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Subliminal

Subliminal

Posted
Posted
Somehow I accidently logged into eBay.com this evening instead of eBay.ca and started doing my usual searches. Cue the WTF moment when I saw a bunch of auctions near completion that I hadn't seen on the .ca version when I checked yesterday, including some slabs I've been looking for for a LONG time. When I logged back into eBay.ca and did the same search, the auctions didn't turn up. :mad:

 

Has this always been the case? If so, why does eBay even bother having international sites if you can't access all the auctions? Not to mention some sellers would probably be PO-ed to learn that their items aren't getting world-wide exposure.

 

 

I would imagine its because sellers set whether they want to expose their auctions to international eyes.

Having some guy in Italy bidding on your stuff is not always a good thing if you didn't expect that.

You've honestly never noticed when you search for something that you don't get a plethora of foreign hits before?

 

There are also some things only seen on the Canadian site ( and the Brit site, French site, Italian site etc) and not visible on the US site.

You might want to keep that in mind when your searching for something that is in a particular language.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
letsgrumble

letsgrumble

Posted
Posted

That's right, if an eBay.com seller does not mark Canada as one of their shipping destinations then their listings will not appear in eBay.ca search results. So, if you live in Canada and see an item that you might want to bid on from eBay.com, then you'll have to contact the seller to see if they'll actually ship it over the border. I find that 9/10 will, but there are some sellers that just don't want to bother with us foreigners.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ares

Ares

Posted
Posted
That's right, if an eBay.com seller does not mark Canada as one of their shipping destinations then their listings will not appear in eBay.ca search results. So, if you live in Canada and see an item that you might want to bid on from eBay.com, then you'll have to contact the seller to see if they'll actually ship it over the border. I find that 9/10 will, but there are some sellers that just don't want to bother with us foreigners.

 

they are the foreigners

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Subliminal

Subliminal

Posted
Posted
I always search the US site. If you spot something you want it can't hurt to e-mail them and ask if they will ship to Canada. I always assumed that anything that shipped to Canada would be visable on Ebay.ca. Hmmm.

 

You'd be surprised .Some people don't know how to set up their auction right.

 

After scanning an auction for any specified anti-international rhetoric I ask "Do you ship to Canada??" and I ask this at least 60 times a year and 90% of the time it is a yes or a qualified yes.

The other 10% I usually throw out a high bid and tell them this is what they are missing out :devil:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
letsgrumble

letsgrumble

Posted
Posted
That's right, if an eBay.com seller does not mark Canada as one of their shipping destinations then their listings will not appear in eBay.ca search results. So, if you live in Canada and see an item that you might want to bid on from eBay.com, then you'll have to contact the seller to see if they'll actually ship it over the border. I find that 9/10 will, but there are some sellers that just don't want to bother with us foreigners.

 

they are the foreigners

 

Anyone not American is a "foreigner"

 

;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Loki

Loki

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I've bought items from and sold items to people in Europe, Asia and Australia before. Plus most of my searches usually have a half-dozen or so hits in the "international sellers" section.

 

I just assumed that if a seller shipped internationally it would show up at the .ca site. I was pretty surprised to see otherwise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Subliminal

Subliminal

Posted
Posted
woah that really sucks! :o

 

But then again, I'm in the states and I always get internationally buyers on ebay.. hm

 

But not all international sellers/buyers. The US sire probably gets the widest audience and is more likely to be chosen by sellers to appear on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
General Zod

General Zod

Posted
Posted
That's right, if an eBay.com seller does not mark Canada as one of their shipping destinations then their listings will not appear in eBay.ca search results. So, if you live in Canada and see an item that you might want to bid on from eBay.com, then you'll have to contact the seller to see if they'll actually ship it over the border. I find that 9/10 will, but there are some sellers that just don't want to bother with us foreigners.

 

they are the foreigners

 

Well, to us, you are the red-headed step child 51st state... :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
He11blazer

He11blazer

Posted
Posted
That's right, if an eBay.com seller does not mark Canada as one of their shipping destinations then their listings will not appear in eBay.ca search results. So, if you live in Canada and see an item that you might want to bid on from eBay.com, then you'll have to contact the seller to see if they'll actually ship it over the border. I find that 9/10 will, but there are some sellers that just don't want to bother with us foreigners.

 

they are the foreigners

 

Well, to us, you are the red-headed step child 51st state... :)

 

Population of USA: 304,000,000

Population of world: 6,700,000,000

 

Percentage of world population that consider US citizens to be foreigners: 95.5%

 

Therefore by democratic vote, US citizens are declared foreigners :grin:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
joe_collector

joe_collector

Posted
Posted
Were they shipping outside USA?

 

Yep. The two listings I was interested in both said they would ship internationally.

 

But they probably didn't select Canada specifically when they listed. That happens a lot, especially when using auto-loaders.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
gaz973

gaz973

Posted
Posted

It's the same with the co.uk site. If I want to look at US auctions, I go to .com though obviously if you bid on .com it shows up in the bidding page of co.uk.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Loki

Loki

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Were they shipping outside USA?

 

Yep. The two listings I was interested in both said they would ship internationally.

 

But they probably didn't select Canada specifically when they listed. That happens a lot, especially when using auto-loaders.

 

Yeah, I guess that's the case. I learned something new and I'll be checking the US version of the site regularly from now on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rabidcamel

Rabidcamel

Posted
Posted
I always search the US site. If you spot something you want it can't hurt to e-mail them and ask if they will ship to Canada. I always assumed that anything that shipped to Canada would be visable on Ebay.ca. Hmmm.

 

Same here as I always use ebay.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tay666

tay666

Posted
Posted

I just assumed that if a seller shipped internationally it would show up at the .ca site. I was pretty surprised to see otherwise.

 

Used to be like that.

Isn't anymore.

It's one of the changes they made last year.

Just didn't get as much bad press as some of their other even worse changes.

 

Now, if you want your auctions to be seen on other ebay sites, you have to pay for it.

Yeah, some of your stuff will still turn up occasionally on other ebay sites, depending on how many other search reslults are returned, but in order to ensure that you are seen, you have to pay more for it.

And if I understand it correctly, you have to pay for each site you want to be seen on.

 

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/international-site.html

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Loki

Loki

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Extra fees would go a long way to explaining why some international books don't show up at the .ca site.

 

Oh well... Now that I know, I've had a productive weekend and acquired two long sought after books from .com that weren't showing up on .ca. One of which I picked up for 60% of the asking price I'd listed in a WTB posting a few months back. :)

 

The big surprise for me was finding out that Showcase New England won't do business with Canadians through eBay anymore. I just figured they were between lots, but it seems Europe, Asia, Mexico and the UK are still on their shipping list and Canada has been dropped. I e-mailed them about it and they will only do business with Canadians directly through their website rather than eBay and won't accept PayPal from Canadians anymore. I'm sure there's an interesting story behind that...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing