Buying on eBay
Check this out:
Your current bid: US $49.00 (Approximately C $47.40)
Not only is buying on eBay generally a better value for most items than buying them new at retail, because items tend to sell for what they're worth as determined by the marketplace (and an item that's been used even for 10 minutes seems to be worth generally only about 70% what it's worth new), but now that the dollar is better than par, in Canada we have two extra incentives:
The obvious one is we get a break on the dollar. $49 turns into $47.40. Not a big savings but it's better than $49 turning into $75 or more as was the case a few years ago.
And the other one is that buying an item from eBay lets you get it from the states, where you're paying a delta from the American price, instead of a delta from the Canadian price.
If an item loses 30% off it's value after a week of use, and that 30% is off of a price that's already 30% less.. you're looking at a pretty significant difference between Canadian retail and eBay prices. Even after you add shipping.
(You can buy new on eBay as well - usually the eBay price for something new is still a bit less than retail because of lower overhead, and also some price pressure from people selling items they got new and don't need for whatever reason).
Internet based commerce would take over the world, were it not for shipping charges.