Buying in USD/Paying in CAD

You'll have noted that many of the items prices on the site are priced in USD, whereas we are located in Canada. Items that this apply to are all items we pay in US Dollars for.

When you purchase an item from eBay, Paypal, or a US based seller, chances are you are paying with your Canadian credit card or Paypal account. When you do so, you will typically pay them a surcharge of 3.5-4.5% on top of the 'mid market rate' (that's the exchange rate you see when you use Google for example) to buy those US Dollars from them.

We have to buy a lot of US Dollars to pay all of our suppliers. Because of that, we buy them at a wholesale rate. That allows us to pass a lower exchange rate (of 2% above mid market for that day) along to our clients. We calculate the final price by doing a subtotal of the US priced items, and adding the rate. Local fees such as shipping or labour are charged after the subtotal in CAD.

What that translates to in the real world is a savings of approximately $10.00 for every $500.00 spent. Factor in the additional costs of higher shipping costs from a foreign country, brokerage, customs duties, and delayed delivery times, and the advantages of concluding the transaction domestically become obvious.