JoeCanuck

General Section => Off Topic => Topic started by: Pete The Greek on January 16, 2016, 12:18:16 PM

Title: Canadian dollar and your impact
Post by: Pete The Greek on January 16, 2016, 12:18:16 PM
It shouldn't be news to most but the Canadian dollar continues to drop as our economy is tied to the oil sands.  Sigh.   

So has your online buying from the States slowed down?  It has for me.  I don't even bother with ebay anymore, mostly due to the paypal currency conversion and that stupid global shipping offered by some sellers.  So it's kind of a good thing that GI JOE has slowed down. 

I don't think I will be having vacation in Florida in 2016 either, not with those exchange rates. 
Title: Re: Canadian dollar and your impact
Post by: Crimson Canuck on January 16, 2016, 03:36:32 PM
Yes, buying from the States has slowed considerably, been searching for more Canadian etailers though.

The low dollar does help our exports though (lumber and grain in my region), but yeah, no trips to the States any time soon.
Title: Re: Canadian dollar and your impact
Post by: 80m8 on January 17, 2016, 10:42:32 PM
I still look on ebay but I don't buy. the shipping price is exaggerated I cant understand why it so expensive and in the same time China can send stuff over the sea for nothing!
Title: Re: Canadian dollar and your impact
Post by: morgardee on January 18, 2016, 07:33:18 PM
I'm on the fence about renewing my membership. $66 USD = $95 for 1 Pythona figure. I don't care about the new letter at all. I never read them.

I made the comment on their forums tonight suggesting offering a $50 a year membership with digital news letter would be a welcome addition to memberships. The US membership is $44, yet the Canadian is $66. They have said in the past it's due to shipping costs. Fine, keep the news letter and mail me the one toy (which btw they sell for $25).

I doubt they will listen, but maybe if a few of us got behind the digital news letter they might come around.

And no, I haven't looked on eBay for a while now. The USD is killing us right now.
Title: Re: Canadian dollar and your impact
Post by: Crimson Canuck on January 18, 2016, 11:39:42 PM
I'm on the fence about renewing my membership. $66 USD = $95 for 1 Pythona figure. I don't care about the new letter at all. I never read them.

I made the comment on their forums tonight suggesting offering a $50 a year membership with digital news letter would be a welcome addition to memberships. The US membership is $44, yet the Canadian is $66. They have said in the past it's due to shipping costs. Fine, keep the news letter and mail me the one toy (which btw they sell for $25).

I doubt they will listen, but maybe if a few of us got behind the digital news letter they might come around.

And no, I haven't looked on eBay for a while now. The USD is killing us right now.

Morgardee, I read your post on the club and commented on it, then saw this one and found this one a little clearer so I amended my post there, but I still have some questions and comments.

The $50 membership with digital format, do you see that as a Canadian or International membership?

The international membership is $92US and if you compare Australia's dollar, which is on par to ours, they pay $133AUS.
So if you're suggesting a $50US international membership we'll actually be paying $72.50CA. The same price as the Australian collectors. To me that doesn't make sense if you take in account the shipping distance. They'd be getting one hell of a deal compared to us.
But if you're suggesting just a Canadian $50 digital subscription, well the club would have to look into seperate US and international versions. Which would lower the US to something like $30 and the international to $80.

On some of the US joe forums I've noticed quite a few US club members use the $67 US membership in order to get their figures faster, which, when on par with the CA$ they were paying more than us.

As for the club mag; I actually like it and wish it had more content, I actually bought the back issues I missed a couple of years ago.

My membership was due in Sept and luckily the exchange rate wasn't as bad, but come this Sept, If the club doesn't shut it's doors, I don't think I'll renew my membership if the dollar stays this low or drops some more.

But that's how collecting goes. Stay frugal when the dollar ain't on your side. Or if you see your collection as an investment and you bought when US & CAN $ was on par then now might be the time to liquidate or down size.
Title: Re: Canadian dollar and your impact
Post by: Sundance on January 19, 2016, 01:37:14 AM
yeah, rumour has it the club's going bye-bye at the end of the year, so you won't have to worry about renewing. If you renew, you're only getting membership to the end of December. If you renew after about March, I think that's a rip-off, personally. Same price for 9 months or less membership? Jog on.
Title: Re: Canadian dollar and your impact
Post by: Zenith27 on January 21, 2016, 05:32:05 AM
Dollar has pretty much killed my interest in buying Joes since I used to cherry pick nice stuff off ebay for my collection and most of that was in the US. I've noticed a huge drop off in local CL ads with Joes as well. Don't know the correlation though.

I've also pretty much slashed any discretionary spending since food has gotten insane expensive. Video games, vacations, eating out. At least Fallout and Witcher take a long time to finish...
Title: Re: Canadian dollar and your impact
Post by: morgardee on January 21, 2016, 07:21:10 PM
I'm on the fence about renewing my membership. $66 USD = $95 for 1 Pythona figure. I don't care about the new letter at all. I never read them.

I made the comment on their forums tonight suggesting offering a $50 a year membership with digital news letter would be a welcome addition to memberships. The US membership is $44, yet the Canadian is $66. They have said in the past it's due to shipping costs. Fine, keep the news letter and mail me the one toy (which btw they sell for $25).

I doubt they will listen, but maybe if a few of us got behind the digital news letter they might come around.

And no, I haven't looked on eBay for a while now. The USD is killing us right now.

Morgardee, I read your post on the club and commented on it, then saw this one and found this one a little clearer so I amended my post there, but I still have some questions and comments.

The $50 membership with digital format, do you see that as a Canadian or International membership?

The international membership is $92US and if you compare Australia's dollar, which is on par to ours, they pay $133AUS.
So if you're suggesting a $50US international membership we'll actually be paying $72.50CA. The same price as the Australian collectors. To me that doesn't make sense if you take in account the shipping distance. They'd be getting one hell of a deal compared to us.
But if you're suggesting just a Canadian $50 digital subscription, well the club would have to look into seperate US and international versions. Which would lower the US to something like $30 and the international to $80.

On some of the US joe forums I've noticed quite a few US club members use the $67 US membership in order to get their figures faster, which, when on par with the CA$ they were paying more than us.

As for the club mag; I actually like it and wish it had more content, I actually bought the back issues I missed a couple of years ago.

My membership was due in Sept and luckily the exchange rate wasn't as bad, but come this Sept, If the club doesn't shut it's doors, I don't think I'll renew my membership if the dollar stays this low or drops some more.

But that's how collecting goes. Stay frugal when the dollar ain't on your side. Or if you see your collection as an investment and you bought when US & CAN $ was on par then now might be the time to liquidate or down size.

I was speaking about the Canadian Membership only. I haven't looked into international shipping charges beyond Canada.

The magazine I don't read. They don't have any new information I can't find online.
Title: Re: Canadian dollar and your impact
Post by: Crimson Canuck on January 21, 2016, 09:53:23 PM
I'm on the fence about renewing my membership. $66 USD = $95 for 1 Pythona figure. I don't care about the new letter at all. I never read them.

I made the comment on their forums tonight suggesting offering a $50 a year membership with digital news letter would be a welcome addition to memberships. The US membership is $44, yet the Canadian is $66. They have said in the past it's due to shipping costs. Fine, keep the news letter and mail me the one toy (which btw they sell for $25).

I doubt they will listen, but maybe if a few of us got behind the digital news letter they might come around.

And no, I haven't looked on eBay for a while now. The USD is killing us right now.

Morgardee, I read your post on the club and commented on it, then saw this one and found this one a little clearer so I amended my post there, but I still have some questions and comments.

The $50 membership with digital format, do you see that as a Canadian or International membership?

The international membership is $92US and if you compare Australia's dollar, which is on par to ours, they pay $133AUS.
So if you're suggesting a $50US international membership we'll actually be paying $72.50CA. The same price as the Australian collectors. To me that doesn't make sense if you take in account the shipping distance. They'd be getting one hell of a deal compared to us.
But if you're suggesting just a Canadian $50 digital subscription, well the club would have to look into seperate US and international versions. Which would lower the US to something like $30 and the international to $80.

On some of the US joe forums I've noticed quite a few US club members use the $67 US membership in order to get their figures faster, which, when on par with the CA$ they were paying more than us.

As for the club mag; I actually like it and wish it had more content, I actually bought the back issues I missed a couple of years ago.

My membership was due in Sept and luckily the exchange rate wasn't as bad, but come this Sept, If the club doesn't shut it's doors, I don't think I'll renew my membership if the dollar stays this low or drops some more.

But that's how collecting goes. Stay frugal when the dollar ain't on your side. Or if you see your collection as an investment and you bought when US & CAN $ was on par then now might be the time to liquidate or down size.

I was speaking about the Canadian Membership only. I haven't looked into international shipping charges beyond Canada.

The magazine I don't read. They don't have any new information I can't find online.

Ok, thanks for clarifying.
Title: Re: Canadian dollar and your impact
Post by: Crimson Canuck on January 21, 2016, 10:02:03 PM
Dollar has pretty much killed my interest in buying Joes since I used to cherry pick nice stuff off ebay for my collection and most of that was in the US. I've noticed a huge drop off in local CL ads with Joes as well. Don't know the correlation though.

I've also pretty much slashed any discretionary spending since food has gotten insane expensive. Video games, vacations, eating out. At least Fallout and Witcher take a long time to finish...

That makes sense with CL. It would be more profitable now to sell in US$ on Ebay.

Yup, been repeating some of my old favourites on PS3. (Not getting a PS4 for quite a while)
Title: Re: Canadian dollar and your impact
Post by: Pete The Greek on January 21, 2016, 10:45:07 PM
I still look on ebay but I don't buy. the shipping price is exaggerated I cant understand why it so expensive and in the same time China can send stuff over the sea for nothing!

Just saw this article on my facebook, which would explain this (at least in the USA)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/09/12/the-postal-service-is-losing-millions-a-year-to-help-you-buy-cheap-stuff-from-china/

Title: Re: Canadian dollar and your impact
Post by: pdaat on January 29, 2016, 01:16:13 AM
Yeah he dollar and the extra eBay shipping fees have all but killed eBay for me.
Title: Re: Canadian dollar and your impact
Post by: Zenith27 on January 29, 2016, 09:43:50 AM
Yeah he dollar and the extra eBay shipping fees have all but killed eBay for me.

Not to mention that Paypal just jacked up it's conversion fees.
Title: Re: Canadian dollar and your impact
Post by: latinjoe22 on February 14, 2016, 11:55:28 AM
I mainly sell to US buyers who are more willing to buy now. And I tend to buy more domestically. Plus, as others mentionned it, Paypal really is making it harder and harder for both Canadian and US buyers to buy from each other. I Wonder why.... it is senseless because it's like commercial suicide for Paypal.

Oh, and I'm sure this is pretty much related to our dollar drop: there are more people at shows buying their stuff there now. More than before. Local shows seem to have drawn in more attendance as well.