*Disclaimer* – this article is more focused for those located in Canada as we all know buying Supreme shipped from the US to Canada is not just the high price we have to pay in CAD equivalent, but rather the HIGH tax/duty and shipping bill that comes with it. Our US counterparts won’t understand as buying Supreme for them means just paying the ticket price along with shipping and maybe tax if you’re located in California or New York. Every where else other than these 2 states, you only have to pay the shipping cost. No doubt, even till today once 11 AM hits, almost 95% of the Supreme items are sold out, which I’m sure atleast 75% of the people on there are buying to re-sell. But as a consumer/re-seller located in Canada, is it really worth buying on the Supreme website to flip in Canada? I think I got the clear answer for you.
I did a quick breakdown for you in the below chart.
I’ll use the Supreme TNF Tent that just released this week as an example. The ticket price on the Supreme website was $328 and for most people that were able to cop on the site paid about $348 shipped (could even be slightly more due to larger item). This tent already has a few sold listing on eBay for as low as $449 USD. Assuming as a buyer you cover for shipping of $20, you could get the tent for about $469 USD.
On the flip side, had I purchased the tent on the Supreme site, I would be paying for tax and duty of close to $100, which means my total cost would end up being approximately $446 USD. As you can see, the difference in cost is minuscule, but the amount of work put into trying to cop on Supreme is MUCH MORE! Think about it, you’re sitting at your desktop at 10:59 AM stressed to cop at 11 AM and hoping you can secure 1 item. For some, you might have to pay for a bot to secure the item, which means your actual cost of securing the item on the Supreme website probably ends up being more than you buying on eBay afterwards.
Why the eBay method works better? Most of the time, we have a lot of kids/sellers looking to just make a few bucks and for many even a $50-$100 margin is a good margin. As I mentioned before, there will always be someone out there willing to make 1 less dollar than you to make a living. As a reseller or buyer, you want to buy from these people because they’re not looking to rape you in price, they just want to make a meal or 2. Why I love to buy from eBay is the fact a lot of times, you can negotiate on the price. As we all know the general rule of thumb…sellers are willing to do PayPal invoice to save that hefty 10% fee eBay charges it’s sellers. However, the most important reason why I buy on eBay is I can specify to sellers to lower the price on the declared value on the shipment. Often times to avoid custom fees (btw, its technically not right/legal to do it, but 99% of the time it works) I ask the seller to declare at $50 and ship with tracking. Never had a problem and works like a charm.
So what is essentially happening in this transaction? So instead of paying the government the $100, you are transferring that tax to another individual. To me, I rather support a hustler on eBay then give my money to the government. Moreover, most of us have a full time 9-5 job and often times we DON’T have time to sit at our computer at 11 AM to click on the supreme website. Shopping of eBay gives me the flexibility to shop whenever I have time and also the ability to bargain for the best possible price. What does this mean for re-selling in Supreme in Canada? It means consumers of Supreme merchandise in Canada is literally paying 20-30% more than what everyone in the US is paying. Imagine re-sellers are also trying to make their 10-20% margin on top of the inflated price already, it makes re-selling Supreme outside of the US extremely difficult.
blog.netmagnetism.com 