No, many have the “Buy It Now” feature.
Not every item, no. There are Buy It Now (click one button and the item is yours - after you pay for it, of course) and Best Offer (sort of a hybrid - never actually tried it myself). You can tell eBay to just list Buy It Now items if you want.
First, don’t spend more than you can afford to lose, if things do go badly. At least, until you’ve developed a sense of when postings are legit or not. Pay attention to the seller’s feedback: make sure they have a good track record (at least 98% positive, and lots of sales). Of course, this means you’re limited to buying from folks who use ebay commercially rather than someone’s auntie who wants to pick up a few quid by selling her Lalique vase or Liffany lamp.
Second, in the US we have credit card protection. If it’s the same in Canada, if things don’t work out, you can contact your CC company and deny the transaction. It’s a hassle, but it works. You may end up $50 out of pocket, but I’ve never had to pay a portion of a transaction that I claimed was fraudulent. (It’s only happened to me twice, IIRC – ignoring the time our son used our CC to register for porn, which was a different story!)
Third, use a CC with Paypal, and ignore their pleas to attach a bank account.
If you use a bank account, you don’t get the automatic legal CC protection, and if you want to dispute the claim, it’s up to PayPal/Ebay to decide. They have your money; you have little or no recourse. PayPall will keep badgering you, saying that using a bank account increases security. It increases THEIR security; it does nothing for YOURS. Other than this bit of legerdemain, I find PayPal to be completely trustworthy. It’s way more secure to use PayPal than to give your CC to a number of other parties, for future purchases on the web.
You may find some information here useful, Leaffan. It deals with Canadians buying goods on eBay from foreign sources. Note that while it assumes you’ll be buying from the US, some concepts will apply to any foreign purchases. From the link:
Hope this helps.
Well, I just ordered it before seeing your message Spoons. And thanks for that.
So, my $24.88 CDN order may be subject to HST, which comes in at $28.11.
Next we have a $5 handling charge bringing the total to $33.11.
And finally a brokerage fee of anywhere between $10 and $16.
So, my final cost will be $43 to $49 on a $25 item.
Is it any wonder I don’t shop on-line?
Still, my son is thrilled I ordered it and right now that’s pretty good for all of us.
Not totally true. After 10+ years on Ebay & having spent $10K (yep, I was knocked out by that), they told me that I had to going forward use their Paypal credit card. No big deal to me, I just pay it off monthly, and it does come with rewards. Tied to a separate bank account I set up.
This sounds like an IRS tracking vehicle. Perhaps?
I don’t know what you were buying, but when you say it was a “$25 item” what do you mean? Could you buy it somewhere else for $25? If so, why were you buying it on line? If not, in what sense was it a $25 item?
How do you not know what I’m buying since it was referenced in post #7 and repeated maybe 4 or 5 times thereafter?
ETA: Jesus fucking Christ.
Wow.
Sorry, missed that but even if I hadn’t you don’t provide information sufficient for me to do my own searches on what the price should be since Yu-Gi-Oh cards could mean anything AFAIK. Anyway, my questions stand.
OK. In retrospect I came across as a bit of a douche there. Sorry.
Anyway, it doesn’t matter much. The price is almost insignificant ($25 - $50) and I guess my point is that I may end up paying double the asking price after all the shipping and taxes are worked out in Canada.
There’s an underlying rumbling in bookstores, and clothing stores, and on-line shopping establishments that Canada is getting shafted in prices compared to the US.
We accepted this shit when the dollar was at 65%, but it’s hard to swallow now that there’s essential parity. I’m piggybacking my emotions upon that movement.
Doubling the price in tax and shipping is unusual though. I don’t know what the heck that “brokerage” thing is that you are talking about. Maybe it’s a Canadian thing.
As to the rest, suffice to say that there is currently a government enquiry as to why international retailers charge Australians more, even for electronic downloads of precisely the same game/book/movie. I feel for you. However, in spite of all that, it’s still massively cheaper to get stuff on line here than locally, much of the time, even after you take add-ons into account. The more so if you consider that the cost of shipping is a trade off against your time in going to pick something up from a store.
Yeah. I’ve read about your price issues. You’re an island country half way around the world though, not that that should matter about electronic downloads however.
I’m 60 miles from the fucking US boarder, and so is much of the population of Canada. Our dollar is at parity, but (in the Canadian vernacular) we’re getting hosed.
ETA: I don’t think on-line shopping in Canada is cheaper, or more convenient. I would much rather go to a bricks and mortar store and buy something. Delivery through Canada Post or UPS or whomever is not like it is in the States. We don’t have mail boxes at our houses, for the most part. It’s a community mailbox a mile down the road and only very small packages can fit. Otherwise you get a notice and have to drive to the post office for pick-up.
We’re closer to the place most manufactured goods are made than you are, and commercial shipping costs are trivial, on a per item basis. Transport costs aren’t the issue.
Point taken.
Online shopping will typically either allow you to find common items cheaper than a physical retail store, or provide greater success in actually finding uncommon items, but not usually both.
There are exceptions, of course, where you snap up some rare gem in the sweetest of online auctions - but by and large you just benefit from being able to look at a wider market than is accessible on foot.
And oldies like me. You know, ‘surfing the bay?’ Others call it ‘flea bay.’