Does anyone sell on amazon.ca here? Is it just me or does the lego prices on the Canadian site vs the American site seems ridiculously over priced? Is there a reason for the outrageous pricing (unless it is sold by Amazon directly)?

 

For example - .com vs .ca

 

Pet Shop $224.98 vs C$396.23 

Family House $94.99 vs C169.99

 

I am sure we can go on with the list. I understand the exchange rate... but the premium on .CA is well over the exchange rate.

 

I am just curious if sellers actually move any inventory on the Canadian site.

Many of those sets are sold by third party sellers, and not Amazon itself (pointing out the obvious just to get it out of the way). So prices can be whatever the seller wants them to be.

 

I personally do not sell on Amazon, but the reason for this difference is most likely just due to the fact that the US has more stock and more people investing/reselling. In Canada there are less of us, so supply is a bit more scarce, which allows us to jack prices up a bit more. Sometimes you can't even find a set on ebay under "Canada Only" which then allows me to list at whatever price i'd like.

 

The Tumbler was a good example. During it's first wave at one point i was the only seller on ebay under "Canada Only" selling. Whereas the states was overflowing with them online everywhere. Managed to sell 2 of my 3 at a premium because of this.

 

Anyways i'm sure an actual Amazon seller would have more insight then i can provide, i'm mostly guessing

I believe Canadians selling to Canadians take advantage of a couple of basic market conditions, there's a much smaller pool of resellers to compete with & there's still a significant stigma or apprehensiveness about buying across borders mostly due to shipping insurances, customs confusions, brokerage and shipping extra cost concerns. Also there's a inverse impression (ie: wrong) that shipping from the US takes much longer to receive your items than shipping within the snowglobe...

I've noticed this many times. I often think that I'd like to start selling on amazon.ca only because the premium you might be able to charge would be worth the higher fees and possible hassles. I didn't really have enough inventory to make it worth my time/effort to get started last year, but I'm considering it for this summer/fall. We moved into a new house and those projects are eating into my time to list/package/sell Lego. It hasn't eaten into my buying, though...so much easier to just point and click and have boxes show up at my house. Are there any Canadian BPers would regularly sell on amazon?

 Amazon.ca is a very, very, very bad place for resellers...do not go there (jk).

 Amazon.ca is a very, very, very bad place for resellers...do not go there (jk).

Haha, was waiting to see if you'd chime in

I am not a big reseller by any means...but currently I'm the sole seller (maybe not for long) in Canada for a few sets on Amazon.ca, even if my prices are the same or a bit higher...most Canadians would rather buy locally than from sellers in US, England, Japan etc. 

 

Generally, I also think Canadians feel 'safer' buying from Amazon vs ebay resellers anyway whether the seller is from US or CAN.  Yes, as a seller the higher fees is off set by the higher prices you can list and eventually sell.  Check out the 'what did you sell recently' topic, most folks are surprised by what CAN sellers can unload their sets for and majority of the time it's on Amazon.ca.   

 

Knock on wood, no crazy buyers yet too...I only sell in CAN.  Too much hassle shipping to US with Ebay and dealing with paypal etc.  But currently the interest rate works out great for Canadians getting US funds back from American buyers.     

Do you send you sets in to amazon.ca or do you ship them yourself. I have considered selling some sets on amazon because of the higher prices but I still prefer buying in US dollars (where on sale means a REAL sale) and that is where PayPal wins and US eBay. I can sell a set in US funds and use it to buy US products without worrying about exchange rates.

The 80cent dollar does have one big advantage and that is picking up scraps that are unofficially retired and sell for 360% of the buy in. Or more.

Ex astris, scientia.

I ship sets out myself...have a room in my basement for my packing needs (boxes, shipping supplies etc.).  I've looked into sending my bulk sets to Amazon (FBA), but the fees are even higher...there's some advantages and disadvantages.  As a small time seller, getting notification and than shipping out sets to Amazon.ca buyers in Canada only works out well for me. 

 

Amazon takes their nice cut, than credits the rest into my bank account every week or two.  I don't have to deal with moving funds in and out of paypal etc.  Just one less step for me in this Lego hobby. 

Retail prices for Lego are a lot higher in Canada too though. And major discounts and clearance are rare.

I just tried to set up selling on Amazon.ca and it doesn't give me an option for toys at all. 

I told Amazon.ca to block any 'Jeff' or lose my account lol.

Weird. I know once you create a seller account...you can go to 'inventory' and add products, there you can search for existing sets to copy or just classify a new set as toy. Hope this works. Maybe other CAN sellers on Amazon.ca can assist.

Probably just a sign that you shouldn't be selling on the site and stick to eBay, kjijiji and Craigslist ;-)

I wouldn't call myself an "Amazon seller" by any stretch but I was able to make a killing on the few RIs I sold on there when it was a hot commodity. I think everybody touched on good points.

Pro Amazon .ca

-consumers who are not ebayers would have to make an ebay account and a paypal account (laziness)

-I'm sure Amazon feels safer to most consumers and they are using CC's instead of a PayPal account (ease of use)

-lack of selection and lack of options on .ca means less competitive pricing

Con Amazon .ca

-huge discounts/sales the U.S. resellers seem to get lets them sell cheaper and still get the same or even higher ROI which in turn must take away from .ca buyers

-Amazon fees make it really hard to sell the smaller sets at competitive prices. Amz takes 15%, $1.50/listing fee (individual seller) then if you ship coast to coast you only get $7 towards it on a small item.

I'm sure there are more pros and cons but I think these are some major points.

If I'm shipping a $12 set plus 7%+5% tax from BC to the east coast, it'll be approx. $15+ shipping with Canada post. After fees and such, to break even I can't price it any lower than $28. So I think when selling on amz.ca, being selective is key.

I told Amazon.ca to block any 'Jeff' or lose my account lol.

Weird. I know once you create a seller account...you can go to 'inventory' and add products, there you can search for existing sets to copy or just classify a new set as toy. Hope this works. Maybe other CAN sellers on Amazon.ca can assist.

Probably just a sign that you shouldn't be selling on the site and stick to eBay, kjijiji and Craigslist ;-)

That's what I do, go to inventory then punch in the UPC code and VOIL

Isn't it 16% and $1.50 charge? Anyway their cut is HUGE. Also really sucks you can't edit shipping prices. I thought someone said you can in newer accounts though.

Isn't it 16% and $1.50 charge? Anyway their cut is HUGE. Also really sucks you can't edit shipping prices. I thought someone said you can in newer accounts though.

It could be, I'm ball parking it.

It's still not working. The drop down menu only has 5 categories (all media) and when i enter a lego UPC number I just get an error. I have an Amazon.com account but can't seem to get anything listed there to show up on the Canadian site.

The problem seemed to be confusion because I had an old US Amazon profile and it wouldn't let me use my usual info to create a Canadian account. Their phone support was useless. I figured out a work around.

Back in the early 2000's I'd occasionally get a decent deal on Amazon.ca and they'd ship to the US free then.  I'm not sure why they changed that, but I haven't bought anything from them since 2002.

Back in the early 2000's I'd occasionally get a decent deal on Amazon.ca and they'd ship to the US free then.  I'm not sure why they changed that, but I haven't bought anything from them since 2002.

Because shipping back then was much cheaper and offering FREE shipping between Canada and US nowadays is almost always a money losing proposition?

Canada Post rates for international packets and parcels are getting ridiculous.

Domestic shipments too. I just raised my shipping rates again and FedEx set up dimensional rates here as well so we are all screwed.

Ex astris, scientia.

It almost seems pointless to sell outside of Canada. I'm sure a lot of my buyers are wondering why I'm charge almost the same amount for shipping as the item haha.

It almost seems pointless to sell outside of Canada.

Unless my item can fit in the "Tracked Packet" option, i almost never sell anything to the U.S. (other than lettermail of course).

 

Expedited is crazy expensive, tracked packet is too, but justifiable to some Americans.

The international Small Packet rates are reasonable, even though some countries get them even cheaper.

 

Of course, you then get no tracking whatsoever. That may work fine on BrickOwl/BrickLink, but it's useless to sell sets on other marketplaces.

Unless my item can fit in the "Tracked Packet" option, i almost never sell anything to the U.S. (other than lettermail of course).

 

Expedited is crazy expensive, tracked packet is too, but justifiable to some Americans.

 

No kidding expedited is expensive. I can ship medium large sets almost anywhere in Canada for 1/2 as much to my neighboring states. The really big ones are almost 3x more. If it wasn't for the great exchange rate, I'd be dropping the US from all my listings just because of how bad the shipping rates must appear to US searchers.