How is the falling $CDN affecting the hobby?

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oilerfan71

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I'm not sure if this question has been asked before, but I've been thinking about the increasing disparity between the $CDN/$USD over the past few months. For me personally, I've had to pass up on acquiring some cards, as the added burden the falling $CDN has made these cards simply out of reach. When I try to sell cards online, I can't seem to move anything due to the difference. Has anyone else hesitated on making a deal, or lost sales due to this? What can be done to make deals work in spite of the new hardship? Thoughts?
 
I've for the most part stopped buying singles online, the $CDN just makes things look too expensive. I'm going to try to buy more at shows, started getting in on more group breaks as well to fill my sets as well.
 
Quite a bit, I'd say. Since most eBay transactions are done in USD, I'm seeing a lot of people limiting their bids quite a bit. A $30US sale isn't the same today as it was a couple months ago, that's for sure. LOL
 
I am selling as many higher-end items as I can to American buyers, since they aren't affected. I have dumped a lot of nice football and basketball stuff, too.
 
Great buying opportunity for Americans as Canadian sellers can take 25% off and still be whole. Terrible time to buy, I am only adding small pieces to my HOF set.

Tempted to sell some of my higher end pieces to take advantage of the exchange and then buy them back when the dollar recovers but who knows how long that will be!
 
The one good thing about being a US based hockey collector :D

But, yeah, hard time selling to Canadians and unfortunately the seller of a set I want to buy is US based too.
 
Wax, singles, and Gbs online have definitely slowed down for me. On the bright side I visit my LCS more frequently for his Box of goodies.

Though with the weak dollar I have been able to trade a lot more than I usually do. Not sure if it's correlated with the dollar trading is always fun!
 
Right now it is a great opportunity to sell any non-essential collection items at a 35% premium. But I'm not looking forward to paying that 35% premium for Connor McDavid next season.
 
I've sold a lot the past 6-8 months. The only stuff I've bought for my PC have come from US dollars in my PayPal. Outside of that its been night and day cracking wax. Not worth my time ........ plus the weak rookie class doesn't help sales either.

As for selling on eBay, I find most items need to be relisted several times before a buyer will finally bite.
 
Also tough for us swedes who have to paying 30-35% more now compared with less than 1year ago....that's just brutal and of course I haven't been able to picking up some certain cards because of that $-rate....

$100 cards suddenly got into a $130-$140 cards this year if comparing with 2014 and 2015, I also haven't imported any games/BD-movies from USA this year...I bought +15 games/movies at last year just from USA but it's impossible now because of that $-rate plus mostly sellers charges +$20 in shipping for a frickin SD-card while I easily can ship same game for just $4-$5 from sweden to USA so long it weights below 100grams then!!!
MADNESS!!!
 
I've noticed that auction prices have dipped lower as well. I have been picking up a lot of ITGU on ebay and am astounded at how low the prices are on some of the cards I'm buying. Oh, to have unlimited USD!

The next questions is, where do we go from here? Us (slightly) older folks remember the 65 cent $CAD that existed a while back. That made it nearly impossible to buy cards on ebay without getting skinned. Sadly, I feel there's a bigger chance will move closer to that in the near future. The US economy is doing better and the Fed is considering raising rates (maybe not next month anymore thanks to recent market weakness, but, prob in the following meeting). Canada on the other hand has a faltering economy due to the crash in commodity prices with no prospects of raising rates. This all points to a further fall to $CAD. So, it might still make sense to be buying cards at this exchange rate...we shall see.
 
Chillychow said:
I've noticed that auction prices have dipped lower as well. I have been picking up a lot of ITGU on ebay and am astounded at how low the prices are on some of the cards I'm buying. Oh, to have unlimited USD!

The next questions is, where do we go from here? Us (slightly) older folks remember the 65 cent $CAD that existed a while back. That made it nearly impossible to buy cards on ebay without getting skinned. Sadly, I feel there's a bigger chance will move closer to that in the near future. The US economy is doing better and the Fed is considering raising rates (maybe not next month anymore thanks to recent market weakness, but, prob in the following meeting). Canada on the other hand has a faltering economy due to the crash in commodity prices with no prospects of raising rates. This all points to a further fall to $CAD. So, it might still make sense to be buying cards at this exchange rate...we shall see.
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If the canadian dollar is going lower, it will be time to work harder on trades!
 
Chillychow said:
I've noticed that auction prices have dipped lower as well. I have been picking up a lot of ITGU on ebay and am astounded at how low the prices are on some of the cards I'm buying.
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I think this will somewhat offset what is happening with the US Dollar. The Canadian buyers will factor the exchange rate into many of their purchases, and bid accordingly. That will in turn, hurt the final selling prices of many singles a bit in US Dollars. Though with the exchange it's probably not all that different in CDN. US Buyers will certainly have an advantage.
 
I for one only use ebay.ca now when buying. have to see what the amount is.
I still search ebay.com but won't put a bid down tell I see it through ebay.ca to see what the actual cost is going to be.
I've been trying to sell off whatever I don't need, can't use, or fringe items.
Its caused me to virtually stop picking up projects as I've had to sell them off to keep my Henrique PC going. Luckly he hasn't been in much recently.
I've been very very picky with anything that falls out side my pc, and usually just watch them go by the wayside if I don't get it on my original bid.
 
It's fine if you're selling, however it's pretty much crippled my buying. The high shipping costs don't help either, and neither does that damn Global Shipping program that more and more American sellers seem to be opting into. A decently priced card can get ruined in a heartbeat when I see $20 shipping PLUS another $15 or whatever in "import fees", all in USD.

I can only afford to buy lower end stuff from within Canada. I can't see myself buying from the U.S. for a while.
 
FrozenInferno said:
It's fine if you're selling, however it's pretty much crippled my buying. The high shipping costs don't help either, and neither does that damn Global Shipping program that more and more American sellers seem to be opting into. A decently priced card can get ruined in a heartbeat when I see $20 shipping PLUS another $15 or whatever in "import fees", all in USD.

I can only afford to buy lower end stuff from within Canada. I can't see myself buying from the U.S. for a while.
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Yeah usually selling isn't a problem because there are still some Canadian's who have lots of USD from selling their cards. So whenever I sell it's still 50/50 on being from Canada or US.

The Global shipping problem seemed like a big problem for us Canadian's but all you have to do is contact the seller and most of the time they don't realize it's on their listing. Even if they know it is they have no problem working around it. So if you do plan on buying the card just ask what they charge for shipping. If you win what you do to take the Global shipping program off is request total within the listing (takes a bit to find if it's your first time) and the seller will give you the updated shipping and you don't have to pay the high priced shipping or "import fees".

However, the one thing that is ruining this exchange rate for me is that two times in a row now I've gotten charged at the door for import fee's (taxes). I've never once got charged any fees at the door when buying from US. So to pay taxes on high end cards plus have them exchange it from USD to CAD is expensive. I also had to pay the Postal service a 10$ charge each time for them to do my customs.

If they make this a regular thing now for all hockey cards crossing the border I'm probably not going to be buying from US anytime soon with the current exchange rate.
 
I won't buy in USD at this point unless it is a very rare card. I have been going to local shows and card stores. Been trading as well and sending in to COMC so I can use the sale money to buy cards I need for the PC.

While the exchange rate is strong to sell in USD and convert to Canadian, I usually regret when I sell my better stuff off, so I try to avoid that!
 
FrozenInferno said:
It's fine if you're selling, however it's pretty much crippled my buying.
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Not buying pretty much cripples selling. So that sucks.

On that note, I am an eBay seller. While I feel for Canadian buyers having to compete with US buyers I am loving the exchange I am getting for the US dollars I bring in. It has been slow the last 3-4 months because of the time of year. I have noticed a definite uptick in buying over the past few weeks which I'm sure will carry forward to the start of the season. The thing I am not looking forward to (which will not affect me) will be the crazy high price of wax in Canada next year. Will Canadians pay $90 - $100 CDN for a box of UD 1 even with the McDavid hype?
 

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