Currency Valuations

[ft88]

Anyone notice that Canadians and Europeans (mostly Brits) are buying and bidding more on ebay. This of course makes sense as last years $100 comic which was 113 Euros in 2002 is now 78 Euros with similar #s for Canadian dollars and British Pounds. In their own currency the price has fallen 30% over the last two years.

 

What portion of price in collectibles is based on currency, I have no idea; but there has to be some. Bottom line is that if you close off your ebay auctions to foreign bidders, you may be doing yourself a dis service. Here is an example of one of my auctions that I thought the price was too high bought from a Brit.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2215625637&category=32739

 

Just noticed I took the scan down but it was a VG/F. Thoughts?

 

 

[OldGuy]

As long as the buyer doesn't cry about the shipping costs then I'm happy to sell to anyone. I usually put something like this in my auctions: "Foreign bidders please inquire for shipping rates."

[aardvark88]

UK & Aussie bidders are aggressively pursuing gold & silver age comics. Quite a few of my auctions wind up over the pond.

[Mushroom]

18 months ago the aussie dollar was .54 US it is now .78 US. That gives me a lot more bang for my my buck. When I record sales I always show US amount paid and the aussie dollar equivalent at that time. In this way, if I ever sell, I can determine the the relative up or down side.

 

Buying for any period of time is like a hedging strategy.

[Kevin Boyd]

Certainly with a stronger Canadian dollar/weaker US dollar I'm more inclined to spend my money on items priced in US dollars as there is less of a difference in the two currencies than there has been in the last 20 years. Right now a US $1 is worth about $1.27 Canadian, so my money goes further than it did before when I'm in the US or buying from a US seller.

 

However, as a Canadian seller who sells mostly to the US it sucks, as I'm making less money in Canadian dollars than I was when a US $1 = CAN$1.60. When we are talking about hundreds of dollars then I'm less inclined to sell.

 

When I buy my new releases each week, I'd still rather pay in US$ than Canadian as the cover price spreads indicated by the publishers (DC & Marvel) is still at about $1=$1.35 or $1=$1.60 or even $1.70 in the case of Archives and Masterworks. Better to just put the price in US dollars and let the Canadian sellers work out the exchange as some companies (like Image) have already done.

 

On another side of things, I know quite a few people who left Canada to work in the US because of the wide gap between the two currencies. Now that the gap is narrowing, I'm starting to notice a lot of those same people returning to Canada or at least considering it or expressing regret. If you can make the same salary here in Canada as you can in the US, why move?

 

Kev