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Canadian Dollar Higher = Better Exchange Rate On Comics????

Started by 12c_Comic,

18 posts in this topic

Kevin Boyd

Kevin Boyd

Posted
Posted

You mean will the publishers lower the Canadian price on their books? I hope so, it's outrageous that the markup on hardcovers and tpbs by Marvel and DC is based on a 60 cent Canadian dollar. The exchange on comics is closer to a 70 cent Canadian dollar. Better to remove the Canadian dollar price altogether and let us pay according to the daily exchange rate (which is what image did).

 

As for buying from dealers and on eBay, it means that Canadians have more money to spend on American product - and those who won't sell to us are missing out big time.

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lou_fine

lou_fine

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Somebody let PayPal know. makepoint.giftonofbricks.gif

Why?

 

Because their exchange rates are brutal? They charged me 1.277 to pay for an invoice which seems a little high?

 

Surfer;

 

This actually sounds like a pretty good rate since this is probably what the banks would be charging you also. For example, if the dollar is at $0.80, this works out to an exchange of 1.25 which the bank then usually adds a couple of points on for their margin.

 

The ones who are overcharging are the publishers like DC who charges $6.00 CDN for a $3.95 US copy of Identity Crisis on the newsstand. Guess what, this works out to an exchange rate of 1.5219. Superman Batman at $4.50 CDN vs. $2.95 US for a rate of 1.525. Marvel seems a little nicer at $4.25 CDN for Daredevil vs. $2.99 US for a rate of only 1.421 and then Avengers #500 at $5.00 CDN vs. $3.50 US for a rate of 1.428. The independents are similar to DC since their exchange rates works out to approx. 1.53. Well, I guess they must be charging higher prices to Canadians in order to subsidize lower prices for the Americans. 27_laughing.gif

 

For Canadian buyers, the only place where this exchange rate helps is in the purchase of back issues. On the other hand, the other way of looking at it is that your comic book holdings have dropped by 31% over the last two years since the CDN dollar is now at $0.81 versus $0.62 back at the beginning of 2003. 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

 

Bottom-line: Foreigners are most likely losing money on their comic book holdings since this drop probably more than offsets any gains in the back issue market over the past two years. tonofbricks.gif

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Silver Surfer

Silver Surfer

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Posted

Its nice for a change to buy something for $300 US and still see the final bill come under $400 CAD. I'm not even doing the exchange in my head nowadays, where previously it was a major factor in completing a purchase or not. Donut, do you have an idea of what percentage of your total buyers are Canadian?

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FlyingDonut

FlyingDonut

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Its nice for a change to buy something for $300 US and still see the final bill come under $400 CAD. I'm not even doing the exchange in my head nowadays, where previously it was a major factor in completing a purchase or not. Donut, do you have an idea of what percentage of your total buyers are Canadian?

 

Maybe 10-15%, up from 5-10% over in the summer.

 

Breakdown is like this:

 

US: 80%

Canada 15%

United Kingdom 4%

rest of the world 1%

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Kevin Boyd

Kevin Boyd

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The pricing on hardcovers is outrageous:

 

Sandman Archives

Cover price US$49.99/CAN$76.95 = $1/$1.54

 

Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Marvel Comics Vol. 1

Cover price US.49.99/CAN$80.00 = $1/$1.60

 

The Ultimates Vol. 1 Hardcover

Cover price US$29.99/CAN$48.00 = $1/$1.60

 

Now they used to get away with this by claiming that the hardcovers were ordered months in advance, but the exchange rates haven't been remotely near those rates in close to two years. More than enough lead time for them to make the proper pricing adjustments.

 

But ultimately, the blame falls on two groups 1) the stores in Canada who buy from the distributors based on US$ prices (with discounts factored in). So they are buying low and selling even higher and 2) Canadian buyers for not saying squat about it to their sellers.

 

I try to avoid this price gauging by buying my weekly product in US$ from my paypal account. At least that way I know I'm paying a more accurate reflection of the exchange rate.

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12c_Comic

12c_Comic

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The pricing on hardcovers is outrageous:

 

Sandman Archives

Cover price US$49.99/CAN$76.95 = $1/$1.54

 

Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Marvel Comics Vol. 1

Cover price US.49.99/CAN$80.00 = $1/$1.60

 

The Ultimates Vol. 1 Hardcover

Cover price US$29.99/CAN$48.00 = $1/$1.60

 

Now they used to get away with this by claiming that the hardcovers were ordered months in advance, but the exchange rates haven't been remotely near those rates in close to two years. More than enough lead time for them to make the proper pricing adjustments.

 

But ultimately, the blame falls on two groups 1) the stores in Canada who buy from the distributors based on US$ prices (with discounts factored in). So they are buying low and selling even higher and 2) Canadian buyers for not saying squat about it to their sellers.

 

I try to avoid this price gauging by buying my weekly product in US$ from my paypal account. At least that way I know I'm paying a more accurate reflection of the exchange rate.

 

Wow what a big different in pricing,but it should hopefully be closer to the current exchange rate in the next few months 893crossfingers-thumb.gif.Would you say it's better to buy online states side then at your local comic shop. 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

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goldust40

goldust40

Posted
Posted
The pricing on hardcovers is outrageous:

 

Sandman Archives

Cover price US$49.99/CAN$76.95 = $1/$1.54

 

Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Marvel Comics Vol. 1

Cover price US.49.99/CAN$80.00 = $1/$1.60

 

The Ultimates Vol. 1 Hardcover

Cover price US$29.99/CAN$48.00 = $1/$1.60

 

Now they used to get away with this by claiming that the hardcovers were ordered months in advance, but the exchange rates haven't been remotely near those rates in close to two years. More than enough lead time for them to make the proper pricing adjustments.

 

But ultimately, the blame falls on two groups 1) the stores in Canada who buy from the distributors based on US$ prices (with discounts factored in). So they are buying low and selling even higher and 2) Canadian buyers for not saying squat about it to their sellers.

 

I try to avoid this price gauging by buying my weekly product in US$ from my paypal account. At least that way I know I'm paying a more accurate reflection of the exchange rate.

 

For the record, Diamond U.K.'s RRP on a $49.99 book is £33. It was £37.95 not too long ago. That means if you buy retail, you're paying a rate of £1 = $1.515. The actual sterling / dollar rate is £1 = $1.76 (or thereabouts), which means that the retail should be £28 rather than £33.

 

There may be higher shipping costs due to transatlantic distance. Nevertheless I'm surprised there aren't more U.K. buyers doing what the Canadians are doing.

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Kevin Boyd

Kevin Boyd

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Wow what a big different in pricing,but it should hopefully be closer to the current exchange rate in the next few months .Would you say it's better to buy online states side then at your local comic shop.

 

I haven't heard any announcements about adjusting the Canadian price, so I don't expect them to change it.

 

I still think that the best thing they could do would be to drop the Canadian price altogether and just have the US$ price. Let the store owner convert the price based on the exchange rate at the counter. For example, a US$2.99 comic would cost you approx. CAN$3.80 at the register before applicable taxes. I suppose that there would be chaos though as the sheep who don't understand currency conversion would be lost and think the US$ price WAS the price.

 

Of course, we don't exactly know where this is all going. Certainly the upcoming election will have some effect on the US$ exchange rate, but a lot of experts are predicting that the Canadian dollar will close out the year at US$0.85 or higher.

 

I would still rather support a local seller but I'm not crazy about paying more for product than I should be, so I only buy from the ones that offer some kind of discount to adjust for the price discrepancy.

 

Shipping costs can make eBay slightly prohibitive if the buyer just wants to save some $.

 

The best deals can be found at US conventions, where you can get a lot of new books, especially trade paperbacks and hardcovers at 25-50% off cover. Usually I can get those $50 Archives/Masterworks at $35 (about CAN$45). That makes a big difference is the amount of product I'm willing to buy. Last weekend at the Motor City Convention I spent US$80 on 15 tpbs. (average price was $5 or less), that ends up being 60% or more off the Canadian price.

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