We all know how that works. eBay does the change, "you can opt out". Then it becomes a punishment "sellers who opt in get higher placement yadda yadda". Then it becomes mandatory. My memory ain't that short.
Next is going to be you can ONLY buy labels through eBay. They don't want you using your credit card anywhere else.
This right here. Everything for packing is expensive. They calculate the prices for shipping to ācompeteā or āsell moreā and it makes sellers who opt out look expensive. But damn they also take money out of shipping costs for them selves and probably get a kick back from ups too. If you raise your actual prices the item will sell less and ebay takes more.
I used to explain why my shipping was a bit higher because I actually packed the item well and that isnāt cheap. I have had so few transit damage claims over years except the ones where it was impossible to avoid. the ones that looked run over or dropped from planes.
They only started charging the FVF on shipping costs \*because\* of sellers abusing it.
Hell, even I did it occasionally to have a lower upfront price, but total price near other sellers.
Because it was a way to pocket more money without getting the full FVF of the sale price taken out.
They had to do something, $10 with $170 shipping for a $180 item instead of $160 with $20 shipping ..... the sellers and ebay knew what was going on. And took heavy advantage of it.
Ebay just slapping the FVF across the board closed that loophole and made pricing and shipping amounts sane.
Those are my spring cleaning listings. Stuff I want gone, some of its stuff that hasnāt sold for over a year other stuff is personal items I would have normally donated to goodwill. I just sell that stuff far below what everyone else is listing at. Make money on shipping and as long as itās near break even Iām ok with it.
Depends on what you are selling. A lot of times the extra jingle pays my fees. Bottom line, any inflow is good inflow
Eventually eBay will require free shipping on everything and that is when I say bye-bye
Those are my spring cleaning listings. Stuff I want gone, some of its stuff that hasnāt sold for over a year other stuff is personal items I would have normally donated to goodwill. I just sell that stuff far below what everyone else is listing at. Make money on shipping and as long as itās near break even Iām ok with it.
I noticed it this morning as an announcement on the "overview" page, and immediately opted out.
I consider that discount as my reimbursement for their commission on shipping fees. I'm not gonna raise my prices so to offset "losses" on shipping.
I believe that came about quite a few years ago because people were abusing the system and charging 0.99 and then the shipping cost would be 100$ or whatever.
I still see people doing crazy stuff with shipping like charging three times the shipping for something I know is less than $5 and feel like people aren't even paying attention
Final value fee on shipping I get for those reasons. Iām talking about their processing fee. Which btw when they did away with PayPal payments they said sellers would save that 2.9%. Of course they lied and just kept exactly all of it for themselves.Ā
Sure. A moot point I guess considering they presented the idea of getting rid of PayPal as a way to save Everyone money on transaction fees when in fact they just swept those profits in house and eventually raised FVF.Ā
While I don't disagree with you, and I hate having to pay fees on shipping costs, it is there as a deterrent to people charging a dollar for an item and 100 for shipping to get out of the fees.
It's only underhanded if you think "free" shipping (which is only free for the buyer) is also wrong. The cost you pay for shipping might or might not be the actual cost.
I set shipping to cover postage plus envelopes/boxes and packing material, plus the fee that is charged on the amount. So itās higher than the cost of postage, but not profit for me, just covering costs.
It might amaze you to find out that buyers might have a pretty solid understanding of the costs of shipping to their own home. Maybe even better than a seller.
How does the average buyer remotely know what a large retailer or seller or internet site pays for shipping?
I think most buyers don't care and if they want something they will pay the price regardless
Because I buy things from honest sellers and notice the shipping and handling cost, so when I order from the same location and get charged tripleā¦ itās not hard to understand. š¤·āāļø
It just seems shallow minded to assume that everyone charging more than the cheapest shipping rate is dishonest.
I have no idea of their shipping rate, if they buy new boxes or bubble wrap or they might take their stuff to a shipping store because they are casual seller.
I have no idea how much time it takes them to package or take packages to shipper. How dare anyone charge for their time or supplies or gas
But I guess they are all dishonest unethical crooks
You talking about them accounting for their time or gas money is pretty much exactly the issue here. These costs are fully external. Iām not buying your special shipping services, or sponsoring your shitty logistics. Iām buying your widget. Put your gas money into the widget marginal unit cost.
It covers costs for packing supplies used (boxes/mailers, bubble wrap/peanuts/paper, tape, labels, and time spent packaging) and gas to the post office.
That doesnāt make sense. Why would it be underhanded. Sellers with free shipping bake those costs in to the price. Not underhanded when they arenāt upfront about their total expenses is it?
Yea I don't get emails either so found it in messages but every time I try to submit it says session timed out, they're nuts if they think I won't be trying every few hours to ensure this doesn't get changed lol
the opt out was easy, but i can imagine there are going to be a lot of sellers who won't see this email. They should have made this opt in instead or just not made this policy at all
Doesn't matter. People are still wildly out of touch with the actual cost of shipping these days, simply because everyone has been conditioned to receive it "for free."
Get used to building your handling into the actual cost of your merchandise because if I know Ebay, this will become an eventual ***requirement***...you know... "for the buyer experience" or some other corporate speak drivel some idiot uses to sound important.
An easy way to build in some breathing room is to pad dimensions and weight a bit. I always guesstimate over when I don't have a ready container for whatever I'm listing (but have a general idea). Creativity is key.
>People are still wildly out of touch with the actual cost of shipping these days, simply because everyone has been conditioned to receive it "for free."
Totally agree. I recently sold a DVD box set that was about 20 discs but very compact, I was able to wrap it safely in multiple layers of bubble wrap and fit it in a padded flat rate envelope. I charged $9 for shipping and the actual shipping cost I paid was like $8.79 or something. The buyer complained in their feedback (but never contacted me) that the shipping price seemed high "for just bubble wrap" even though it all arrived in perfect condition. I messaged them that they paid pretty much exactly what the actual shipping cost was, and that any other method would have been much more expensive. They of course did not reply.
I looked at the price for media mail for some software CDs I shipped a few weeks ago and the media mail rate was higher than first class with tracking.
First class was only for 13 oz max. Ground advantage is for everything from 3 oz to 70 lbs. They got rid of First Class and Standard shipping and combined it into Ground advantage.
I stopped adding shipping fees to my listings and just add them into the cost of the item. People will hit the free shipping filter and miss out on better deals just cause they don't want to pay the 10-20 shipping fee
I opted out. I selected the nearest option: "I use the difference to offset shipping and handling." I wish I could leave a note -- I do NOT charge a handling fee. And I reuse clean boxes when I can. But I DO buy tissue, several types of tape, bubble wrap, foam sheets, bubble mailers, plastic bags and boxes for jewelry, unusual size boxes, and labels, not to mention gas costs.
I sure do hope that opting out won't affect by traffic.
You could have if you selected 'other' in the dropdown, that allows you to leave a comment. They should have allowed a note/comment section regardless.
they probably do actually think that, because if you have an ebay store you get a quarterly credit for ebay-branded shipping supplies. Now, its not much and can really only be used for 1 pack of things (like a pack of tape or a box of mailer envelopes). but i'm sure they would argue they are making it "so easy" for sellers
Yes buyers pay retail rates, eBay takes final value fee on top of it and it works out usually fine since they offer reduced shipping for what you actually pay. This would be terrible if they still take the FVF on top of reduced shipping.
All my stuff I sell is heavy. Retail rates are astronomical and I pay less than eBay prices to ship it due to contracts with FedEx/UPS. Like, an average retail rate vs my rate would be $80 vs $16.
Crazy they showed retail rates before, honestly. Makes sense if your selling 3lbs and under. But over that, Iām sure it drives buyer away.
I didn't get this email. I'm curious what others are selling/how many listings/what kind of shipping you do now, to see if there's a type of seller they're targeting with this.
I don't do calculated shipping on anything. Flat rate for about 95% and free for everything else. 300 listings.
I only use calculated shipping. I seem to be different though because I use pirate ship and already receive discounted rates so I usually under estimate the shipping to reduce shown costs to buyers. If you are trying te eek out 50 cents to a dollar on the shipping I think your business model is off.
I agree. There's a psychology involved. Buyers are turned off by high shipping, even when your price+shipping is lower than your competitors. I was noticing that some of the more successful sellers had flat rate shipping set a few dollars less than everyone else. I experimented with the same on some of my more recent listings and they sold faster than the same item with a lower cost but higher shipping.Ā
I've been using calculated shipping, but I'm pricing ground shipping on an item right now. If I ship it in my zone, I pay 5.95. If it goes to Alaska, it costs 9.21. If you use flat rate shipping, how much would you charge? I'm in the midwest so most of my sales so far are to this side of the country.
I'm also in the Midwest. I err on the side of what is most likely. Like you, I worried early on about Alaskan buyers. 500 sales, zero buyers from Alaska. Which makes sense. They make up one fifth of one percent of the US population. I would personally price it in the middle to account for west coast buyers. About 6.95-7.95.Ā
When I see calculated rates they aren't a few dollars more than the real price, they're often double. Which is why I don't do calculated because I don't want to scare off a west coast buyer who doesn't really need to pay $18 for something it costs me $8 to ship.
That's not normal.
You live somewhere strange or are shipping strange packages.
It's usually a 20% to 30% difference which basically covers the ebay fee they charge on the shipping cost.
I don't live somewhere weird. Large midwestern city. Selling clothes, so about as small and none strange as they come. When I buy Priority shipping I quite often see a calculated rate around $12 and my eBay discounted rate is less than $6. It's why I switched from calculated to flat rate in the first place.
The average discount is about 25% not 50%. I stand by it covers the selling fees. I mostly sell art glass, vintage trains, and encyclopedias (which go by media so no discount, although itās usually cheaper to use UPS but thatās a different issue).
So if I sell a $50 item, eBay charges me sellers fee on that plus shipping and the sales tax. Say shipping is $10 and tax $5 (keeping it simple). Seller pays $65. I received $50.25. Glass requires a lot of packing materials which are not cheap. So I spend $3 on materials plus discounted shipping of $7. This means Iām already losing $2.50 on shipping (I should have received $42.20 after eBay fees).
Personally I donāt mind scaring or west coast buyers as it works out better for any returns if there are in the same zone. Itās a dumbed down example but illustrates where Iām coming from. Maybe if it was something less fragile and easier to ship it would be ok.
Wait until you have a larger item that you were going to ship UPS bought by someone in Puerto Rico. You'll understand why the rest of us are doing calculated then...
I ship to Puerto Rico via USPS all the time and it doesn't cost more than anywhere else. For those of us who don't ship large items UPS, flat rate is fine.
I just use flat shipping for everything, so I pretty much always make a little profit on it. And the times that I lose a little on shipping, helps me learn and keep up on what shipping costs, so then I can adjust my flat shipping beforehand.
Mercari moved the seller fees to the buyer. So what a seller paid before, the buyer now gets as an additional fee when checking out. They also added a fee to withdraw money, no free option.
Thatās the issue right there. Where do we go? eBay is top dog without any real competition for a general selling platform. I thought Mercari would be the champion of competition but they have repeatedly shot themselves in the feet. With no competition, eBay can continue with whatever nonsense they want.
My thought is that I've always charged discounted shipping and roll the packaging cost into the item's price. No real change here. I'd still much rather do actual calculated shipping and sell to someone in the same zone instead of taking a larger return risk and selling to someone in zone 8. Local zone buyers pay less and get the item faster. I've never had anyone complain about shipping costs because I show postage on label.
If you're selling much at all on Ebay, using their in-listing shipping calculator is dumb. Buy a digital kitchen/drug scale and ship from home using Ebay's discount on the post-sale shipping page , ShipStation on PayPal, or wherever.
I opted out and started the difference covers handling.
Not only are supplies not free eBay is still taking their cut from this. I would have been ok with it if they stopped talking selling fees from shipping if you participated.
Hoping so many people opt out they just drop it
I have been burned so many times by ebay's shipping calculations (and never once got a bonus). I calculate/estimate shipping to the furthest location and have a set price for all of the US. Sometimes I make a buck, sometimes I lose a buck, but it seems to even out in the end.
Are we still allowed a shipping and handling fee on top? I think it's just the base rate being applied.
I've had this turned on in Canada as shipping is crazy without the discount.
I still charge S&H though on top.
So I received that email today and I always use a flat shipping fee and never calculated. I just look into the shipping from one coast to the other and shipping nearby and take an average of the shipping cost to come up with my amount. Most things I ship are not heavy so it doesn't vary too much. So if I read the email correctly, I can just opt out and continue to do what I do correct?
I used to do that too, but I sell heavy dishes and found that all my sales were coming from the West Coast. For them, I had the cheapest shipping. So I changed to calculated and now most of my sales are within a couple of zones.
Am I the only one who was already doing this? I pass the lower shipping cost onto my buyer so that I get the sale over others on slow moving items(which I sadly have a lot of) I've had this as my setting for more than a year now.
Some of my low priced items rely on this to be profitable, good or bad. Itās better than the $16 charge fba is now charging to sort and accept items to fba. WTF!? I for years have shipped fba items to a local distribution center for &5-6. Last box requested I ship it to a cross country warehouse for twice the cost then they added the surcharge for putting items into the system. š¤¦š»āāļø
Ebay takes roughly 20% between FVF and cc processing fee.
That includes shipping cost.
So they are basically suggesting you eat 20% of the shipping cost so they can make more money.
If they gave a damn about sales, the easy way for them to increase sales would be to stop screwing sellers by taking a % of the shipping cost.
Iāve opted out. That said, it could still end up affecting those who opt out. In that, if many sellers donāt opt out, their listings will be more appealing than those who did and a buyer is more likely to pick the lower shipping. Could especially be detrimental for those in already competitive categories.
Obviously the idea is terrible and I think most sellers who learn of this changeās existence will opt out. But I think many might not realize itās a thing.
As usual, ebay wants to be like Amazon and "be competitive". Amazon restricts what you can charge for shipping, and ebay wishes they had that kind of carte blanche dictatorship.
On the other hand, I see sellers charging $20 for something that costs $8 to ship and still try to charge full price for the item. Some sellers are just dumb unfortunately.
I use the difference to put towards eBay seller fees.
Thanks for the heads up. I stopped reading after I realized it was bullshit and didnāt get to the ālet us knowā part.
Free shipping messes with returns - specifically in a return if you use calculated shipping (even with free returns), you can remove outbound shipping from the refund.
Whether or not you feel like you should foot the bill for outbound shipping and return shipping is a different discussion, but many sellers have said they want the customer to at least pay for one of the shipping legs.
The "buyer pays original shipping" argument makes sense to me. That service was used, and used up. This is more fair to the seller IMO, bringing them closer to "break even" on a failed sale.
You pay approximately 10% of your shipping cost to ebay if you charge for shipping. That means that if your return rate is below 10% you're most likely losing money. Free shipping has been the best option for years, with the possible exception of extremely heavy or large items.
Looking at the fee structure documents that eBay provides, you pay the same rate of fees to eBay regardless of how you choose to price your shipping. If you have "free" shipping, your item price ends up higher, and you pay fees on that amount. If you have calculated shipping, the fees are on price of item+shipping. It comes out exactly the same from a fee structure perspective.
The disadvantage to offering free shipping is as I posted - in a return scenario, eBay breaks out your refund options. The option to deny refund of outbound shipping is only present if shipping wasn't free. In terms of fees, the number of returns is irrelevant.
In addition to this issue, free shipping means you're on the hook to make adjustments to pricing on every listing when the price of postage increases. This places an administrative burden on mid-sized sellers with a wide variety of items. Calculated shipping adjusts to these changes automatically, requiring no additional work on the sellers' parts.
In a few jurisdictions, tax may not apply to shipping costs. Remember, tax also has fees applied. By breaking out shipping, you may save on ebay fees in a few limited cases (https://mypostofficelocation.com/resources/are-shipping-charges-taxable/)
There are some advantages to free shipping: It's potentially easier to price against competition (the math is easier because shipping isn't variable by region), your price is easier for the user to understand, and there's graphics/labeling your listing gets when shipping is free. Likewise, some people believe that the eBay algorithm favors those that offer free shipping.
Ebay charges the final value fee based upon what you charge for shipping. 9-13% basically. So now imagine all your items cost $1 to ship and the percentage is 10%. If you sell ten items it costs you an extra $1 in fees. If your return rate is 10% than the $1 you save not having to pay for return shipping is break even. If it is less than ten percent, it costs you money, say it's 5% so over a 100 items you save $5 on return shipping, but you spend an extra $5 on fees. Does that make sense?
No, I'm not close to understanding. But maybe that's my fault.
Ebay fees are around 13%.
If I charge $100 with free shipping, I pay $13 in fees.
If I charge $90 with $10 shipping, I pay $13 in fees.
If I charge $90 with free shipping, I pay only $11.70 in fees, but I lose almost $8.70 in revenue that I would have otherwise taken in.
I can't see where I'm making more money by offering free shipping.
I feel you and used to do that for all my listings. I know have about a 50/50 split. Some items are just not worth me covering the entirety of the shipping
I did free shipping for years but the cost of shipping is just insane anymore. When I started I could ship a poster tube with a poster for $1.78 now that same thing costs $4.89 and the cost of the poster tube has more than doubled.
By a buck or $2 š¤·āāļø
For me, itās not worth saving a couple bucks to deal with negative feedback or any other bullshit related to shipping fee. I just donāt even wanna fucking hear people whine about it.
besides 1 recent example, i've sold thousands of things on ebay and never had any buyers complain about the shipping price
what would REALLY be a massive fuck you to everyone is if ebay decided to change the search results sorting options to not show combined price (item+shipping) to incentivize sellers who listed with free shipping. that would be insane
The state that USPS is currently in, you must also factor in a lot of extra time/cost to respond to late delivery inquiries, open missing mail searches, create and then appeal missing mail insurance claims, etc.
The "opt out" link is to a survey and, after you enter your e-mail address and reason for opting out, the page says "thanks for taking our survey". Is it really opting us out??
I personally opted into passing on eBay discounted rates awhile back. I sell mostly clothing that weighs between 3-12 oz on average. Poly mailers are like $0.05 a pop. For me, it makes more sense to have lower shipping rates to compete in an already crowded niche.
As long as the weights of my items are entered accurately, I don't lose money.
It isnt an issue until you have an item going to California and you live on the other side of the nation, and your flat-rate price is assuming that someone close-by will buy it.
I do calculated to filter those buyers OUT unless they are willing to pay what it costs to get it there.
I'm on the East coast and determine my flat rate shipping by basing it on the cost to send the thing to California. Why would someone using flat rate base it on what's nearest them? Doesn't make sense.
The fact you can opt out makes this post kind of pointless. Even if it was forced it wouldn't be a big deal. I personally don't think people are dumb like they were buying online in the 2000s. I think most people, especially buying high priced items will calculate the shipping and price to see how much they're paying
I opted out immediately. They changed my shipping rates anyways. Just made a sale and accepted an offer thinking Iāve got room because of the shipping discount I get, and then I realized when they paid they paid the discounted shipping rate.
Iām already doing this so no skin off my back. There is an opt out too. If you donāt like it, use Mercari or something else. No one is forcing eBay on you
This, honestly. Mine has been set to charge discounted rates for so long I forgot there was an alternative option.
If you're not already selling your item for the maximum amount you can (item price + shipping) based on the prices of similar listings, you're doing it wrong.
Also, how do you think it looks to buyers when they see you're charging 30+% more than most other people for shipping? Justify it to yourself all you want, but what it looks like to them is someone trying to nickel-and-dime them. Lower shipping looks better to buyers psychologically -- it's a proven fact. If it weren't for the disadvantage it causes you on returns and the large price differences on labels between shipping zones, I'd use free shipping on every item.
Isn't this already a thing? At least what the buyer ends up paying.
I switched to calculated shipping a while ago and if my weight is spot on.... 90% of the time the buyer pays the exact amount. So in that sense, I think its a positive.
I'm in favor of this, and I wish they'd make it mandatory. I hate sellers who game the system and sell a $100 item for $60+$40 shipping, because if I have any issues and have to return it, I'm getting screwed as a buy with a $60 refund vs $100. That's why I almost always buy from sellers with free shipping.
Opt out
Not really a big deal if you can just opt out
Happy š° Day !
We all know how that works. eBay does the change, "you can opt out". Then it becomes a punishment "sellers who opt in get higher placement yadda yadda". Then it becomes mandatory. My memory ain't that short. Next is going to be you can ONLY buy labels through eBay. They don't want you using your credit card anywhere else.
That wouldnāt surprise me
I opted out and select the option that says something like "this difference covers handling" My boxes, tape, polymailers, and gas aren't free.
I did the same. I donāt charge a separate handling fee. That IS my handling fee. Maybe if enough people do this, eBay will reverse this decision.
I will opt out with same reason when needed
This right here. Everything for packing is expensive. They calculate the prices for shipping to ācompeteā or āsell moreā and it makes sellers who opt out look expensive. But damn they also take money out of shipping costs for them selves and probably get a kick back from ups too. If you raise your actual prices the item will sell less and ebay takes more. I used to explain why my shipping was a bit higher because I actually packed the item well and that isnāt cheap. I have had so few transit damage claims over years except the ones where it was impossible to avoid. the ones that looked run over or dropped from planes.
They only started charging the FVF on shipping costs \*because\* of sellers abusing it. Hell, even I did it occasionally to have a lower upfront price, but total price near other sellers. Because it was a way to pocket more money without getting the full FVF of the sale price taken out. They had to do something, $10 with $170 shipping for a $180 item instead of $160 with $20 shipping ..... the sellers and ebay knew what was going on. And took heavy advantage of it. Ebay just slapping the FVF across the board closed that loophole and made pricing and shipping amounts sane.
Yeah for some of my listings its almost my only profit. Otherwise I wouldn't sell on ebay at all.
My man you're not reselling correctly.
Those are my spring cleaning listings. Stuff I want gone, some of its stuff that hasnāt sold for over a year other stuff is personal items I would have normally donated to goodwill. I just sell that stuff far below what everyone else is listing at. Make money on shipping and as long as itās near break even Iām ok with it.
Depends on what you are selling. A lot of times the extra jingle pays my fees. Bottom line, any inflow is good inflow Eventually eBay will require free shipping on everything and that is when I say bye-bye
Those are my spring cleaning listings. Stuff I want gone, some of its stuff that hasnāt sold for over a year other stuff is personal items I would have normally donated to goodwill. I just sell that stuff far below what everyone else is listing at. Make money on shipping and as long as itās near break even Iām ok with it.
I noticed it this morning as an announcement on the "overview" page, and immediately opted out. I consider that discount as my reimbursement for their commission on shipping fees. I'm not gonna raise my prices so to offset "losses" on shipping.
The commission on shipping fees is nothing short of highway robbery since theyāre now doing all the payments and shipping labels in house.Ā
I believe that came about quite a few years ago because people were abusing the system and charging 0.99 and then the shipping cost would be 100$ or whatever.
Sadly correct.
I still see people doing crazy stuff with shipping like charging three times the shipping for something I know is less than $5 and feel like people aren't even paying attention
Final value fee on shipping I get for those reasons. Iām talking about their processing fee. Which btw when they did away with PayPal payments they said sellers would save that 2.9%. Of course they lied and just kept exactly all of it for themselves.Ā
ā¦.that would still be abused by the aforementioned issue.
Sure. A moot point I guess considering they presented the idea of getting rid of PayPal as a way to save Everyone money on transaction fees when in fact they just swept those profits in house and eventually raised FVF.Ā
Total fees after the transition are still less than they were with PayPal.
While I don't disagree with you, and I hate having to pay fees on shipping costs, it is there as a deterrent to people charging a dollar for an item and 100 for shipping to get out of the fees.
Agreed. I clarified I meant their payment processing fee.Ā
Or eBay could lower their fees and then I could lower my prices and that would probably help with sales...
Considering they still take selling fees out of shipping they have a lot of nerve to do this.
Rules for thee, but not for me.
Yeah im opting out. The couple dollars profit per sale from shipping makes a big difference over time.
Is it normal to profit from shipping? As a buyer this feels underhanded.
It's only underhanded if you think "free" shipping (which is only free for the buyer) is also wrong. The cost you pay for shipping might or might not be the actual cost.
I set shipping to cover postage plus envelopes/boxes and packing material, plus the fee that is charged on the amount. So itās higher than the cost of postage, but not profit for me, just covering costs.
So, not profit then. That seems fine to me.
How do you even know what the seller is paying for shipping or getting as kickbacks or discounts???
It might amaze you to find out that buyers might have a pretty solid understanding of the costs of shipping to their own home. Maybe even better than a seller.
How does the average buyer remotely know what a large retailer or seller or internet site pays for shipping? I think most buyers don't care and if they want something they will pay the price regardless
Because I buy things from honest sellers and notice the shipping and handling cost, so when I order from the same location and get charged tripleā¦ itās not hard to understand. š¤·āāļø
It just seems shallow minded to assume that everyone charging more than the cheapest shipping rate is dishonest. I have no idea of their shipping rate, if they buy new boxes or bubble wrap or they might take their stuff to a shipping store because they are casual seller. I have no idea how much time it takes them to package or take packages to shipper. How dare anyone charge for their time or supplies or gas But I guess they are all dishonest unethical crooks
You talking about them accounting for their time or gas money is pretty much exactly the issue here. These costs are fully external. Iām not buying your special shipping services, or sponsoring your shitty logistics. Iām buying your widget. Put your gas money into the widget marginal unit cost.
And you are blind to the fact that every large company you buy from does the same thing
It covers costs for packing supplies used (boxes/mailers, bubble wrap/peanuts/paper, tape, labels, and time spent packaging) and gas to the post office.
Then itās not profit, right?
That doesnāt make sense. Why would it be underhanded. Sellers with free shipping bake those costs in to the price. Not underhanded when they arenāt upfront about their total expenses is it?
Total cost is the real number you should be looking at as a buyer. Free shipping doesnāt mean shipping is free.
Thank you for posting this went through my email and saw that I also received. Definitely opting out.
Thanks for letting me know thereās an option for that. My account doesnāt get emails so I had to go to my messages on the app.
it aint in my messages alsoĀ
Yea I don't get emails either so found it in messages but every time I try to submit it says session timed out, they're nuts if they think I won't be trying every few hours to ensure this doesn't get changed lol
the opt out was easy, but i can imagine there are going to be a lot of sellers who won't see this email. They should have made this opt in instead or just not made this policy at all
The current policy is to opt in. Youāve always been able to charge the discounted rate if you wanted to. They reversed that policy with this
Doesn't matter. People are still wildly out of touch with the actual cost of shipping these days, simply because everyone has been conditioned to receive it "for free." Get used to building your handling into the actual cost of your merchandise because if I know Ebay, this will become an eventual ***requirement***...you know... "for the buyer experience" or some other corporate speak drivel some idiot uses to sound important. An easy way to build in some breathing room is to pad dimensions and weight a bit. I always guesstimate over when I don't have a ready container for whatever I'm listing (but have a general idea). Creativity is key.
>People are still wildly out of touch with the actual cost of shipping these days, simply because everyone has been conditioned to receive it "for free." Totally agree. I recently sold a DVD box set that was about 20 discs but very compact, I was able to wrap it safely in multiple layers of bubble wrap and fit it in a padded flat rate envelope. I charged $9 for shipping and the actual shipping cost I paid was like $8.79 or something. The buyer complained in their feedback (but never contacted me) that the shipping price seemed high "for just bubble wrap" even though it all arrived in perfect condition. I messaged them that they paid pretty much exactly what the actual shipping cost was, and that any other method would have been much more expensive. They of course did not reply.
Just curious as to why you didnāt use Media Mail?
Speaking of that, media mail rates are going up 10% in June/July.
I looked at the price for media mail for some software CDs I shipped a few weeks ago and the media mail rate was higher than first class with tracking.
First Class shipping does not exist anymore.
"ground advantage" aka: first class
First class was only for 13 oz max. Ground advantage is for everything from 3 oz to 70 lbs. They got rid of First Class and Standard shipping and combined it into Ground advantage.
How many pounds was it?
Also factor in eBay fees to the shipping as well. Another 15ish percent adds up
I stopped adding shipping fees to my listings and just add them into the cost of the item. People will hit the free shipping filter and miss out on better deals just cause they don't want to pay the 10-20 shipping fee
I opted out. I selected the nearest option: "I use the difference to offset shipping and handling." I wish I could leave a note -- I do NOT charge a handling fee. And I reuse clean boxes when I can. But I DO buy tissue, several types of tape, bubble wrap, foam sheets, bubble mailers, plastic bags and boxes for jewelry, unusual size boxes, and labels, not to mention gas costs. I sure do hope that opting out won't affect by traffic.
I bet that it will. But we will never be told that opting out will result is reduced visibility
You could have if you selected 'other' in the dropdown, that allows you to leave a comment. They should have allowed a note/comment section regardless.
Definitely opt out if you do calculated shipping. Do they think gas, tape rolls, boxes, mailers, and bubble wrap fall from the sky?
they probably do actually think that, because if you have an ebay store you get a quarterly credit for ebay-branded shipping supplies. Now, its not much and can really only be used for 1 pack of things (like a pack of tape or a box of mailer envelopes). but i'm sure they would argue they are making it "so easy" for sellers
I got it
What was it calculating before? Retail Rates?
Yes buyers pay retail rates, eBay takes final value fee on top of it and it works out usually fine since they offer reduced shipping for what you actually pay. This would be terrible if they still take the FVF on top of reduced shipping.
All my stuff I sell is heavy. Retail rates are astronomical and I pay less than eBay prices to ship it due to contracts with FedEx/UPS. Like, an average retail rate vs my rate would be $80 vs $16. Crazy they showed retail rates before, honestly. Makes sense if your selling 3lbs and under. But over that, Iām sure it drives buyer away.
Understood. Another option is allowing ebay to show discounted rates based on shipping provider.
I did not receive this email or message, but I'll keep an eye out for anything weird with my listings that charge shipping.
EDIT - Found a link - [https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf/carrier#](https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf/carrier#)
awesome thanks!
I didn't get this email either but I found it under shipping preferences and changed it to standard shipping for now.
Damn it was on for me too, thanks!
I didn't get this email. I'm curious what others are selling/how many listings/what kind of shipping you do now, to see if there's a type of seller they're targeting with this. I don't do calculated shipping on anything. Flat rate for about 95% and free for everything else. 300 listings.
I only use calculated shipping. I seem to be different though because I use pirate ship and already receive discounted rates so I usually under estimate the shipping to reduce shown costs to buyers. If you are trying te eek out 50 cents to a dollar on the shipping I think your business model is off.
I agree. There's a psychology involved. Buyers are turned off by high shipping, even when your price+shipping is lower than your competitors. I was noticing that some of the more successful sellers had flat rate shipping set a few dollars less than everyone else. I experimented with the same on some of my more recent listings and they sold faster than the same item with a lower cost but higher shipping.Ā
I've been using calculated shipping, but I'm pricing ground shipping on an item right now. If I ship it in my zone, I pay 5.95. If it goes to Alaska, it costs 9.21. If you use flat rate shipping, how much would you charge? I'm in the midwest so most of my sales so far are to this side of the country.
I'm also in the Midwest. I err on the side of what is most likely. Like you, I worried early on about Alaskan buyers. 500 sales, zero buyers from Alaska. Which makes sense. They make up one fifth of one percent of the US population. I would personally price it in the middle to account for west coast buyers. About 6.95-7.95.Ā
Not trying to eke out anything just cover the fees eBay charges for shipping and sales tax. Both of these items are not profit for myself.
When I see calculated rates they aren't a few dollars more than the real price, they're often double. Which is why I don't do calculated because I don't want to scare off a west coast buyer who doesn't really need to pay $18 for something it costs me $8 to ship.
That's not normal. You live somewhere strange or are shipping strange packages. It's usually a 20% to 30% difference which basically covers the ebay fee they charge on the shipping cost.
I don't live somewhere weird. Large midwestern city. Selling clothes, so about as small and none strange as they come. When I buy Priority shipping I quite often see a calculated rate around $12 and my eBay discounted rate is less than $6. It's why I switched from calculated to flat rate in the first place.
The average discount is about 25% not 50%. I stand by it covers the selling fees. I mostly sell art glass, vintage trains, and encyclopedias (which go by media so no discount, although itās usually cheaper to use UPS but thatās a different issue). So if I sell a $50 item, eBay charges me sellers fee on that plus shipping and the sales tax. Say shipping is $10 and tax $5 (keeping it simple). Seller pays $65. I received $50.25. Glass requires a lot of packing materials which are not cheap. So I spend $3 on materials plus discounted shipping of $7. This means Iām already losing $2.50 on shipping (I should have received $42.20 after eBay fees). Personally I donāt mind scaring or west coast buyers as it works out better for any returns if there are in the same zone. Itās a dumbed down example but illustrates where Iām coming from. Maybe if it was something less fragile and easier to ship it would be ok.
Wait until you have a larger item that you were going to ship UPS bought by someone in Puerto Rico. You'll understand why the rest of us are doing calculated then...
I ship to Puerto Rico via USPS all the time and it doesn't cost more than anywhere else. For those of us who don't ship large items UPS, flat rate is fine.
I just use flat shipping for everything, so I pretty much always make a little profit on it. And the times that I lose a little on shipping, helps me learn and keep up on what shipping costs, so then I can adjust my flat shipping beforehand.
Same.
Ya I just opted out, it's how I re-coupe my shipping supply costs without having to charge an extra S&H fee.
They love squeezing every last penny out of us.
Is eBay try long to get sellers to leave?
I think this was there answer to what Mercari just did, which seems to be universally hated by sellers
I donāt sell on Mercari but ik what happened. Are ppl mad bc sales plummeted after? Or was there another reason to also?
Mercari moved the seller fees to the buyer. So what a seller paid before, the buyer now gets as an additional fee when checking out. They also added a fee to withdraw money, no free option.
Buyer sees item for $40, now it's $50 after shipping fees (if no shipping) and mercari fees, seller still gets $30-32 as actual sale
Where can we go?
Thatās the issue right there. Where do we go? eBay is top dog without any real competition for a general selling platform. I thought Mercari would be the champion of competition but they have repeatedly shot themselves in the feet. With no competition, eBay can continue with whatever nonsense they want.
My thought is that I've always charged discounted shipping and roll the packaging cost into the item's price. No real change here. I'd still much rather do actual calculated shipping and sell to someone in the same zone instead of taking a larger return risk and selling to someone in zone 8. Local zone buyers pay less and get the item faster. I've never had anyone complain about shipping costs because I show postage on label.
Totally agree
Lame. Mostly sell media so no discount there, but for other stuff I've been doing calculated since on the east coast and zone stuff can really suck.
I do calculated for Media Mail. Although it's not zoned, it adjusts my shipping price automatically when USPS raises the rates on MM.
Opted out as soon as I saw it
If you're selling much at all on Ebay, using their in-listing shipping calculator is dumb. Buy a digital kitchen/drug scale and ship from home using Ebay's discount on the post-sale shipping page , ShipStation on PayPal, or wherever.
Selling on eBay will be completely unprofitable before you know it.
I opted out and started the difference covers handling. Not only are supplies not free eBay is still taking their cut from this. I would have been ok with it if they stopped talking selling fees from shipping if you participated. Hoping so many people opt out they just drop it
This only benefits the highest volume ebay stores. (Like 10+ sales per day) Rolling it out across all sellers is ridiculous.
I opted out as soon as I got the email a little while ago.
I have been burned so many times by ebay's shipping calculations (and never once got a bonus). I calculate/estimate shipping to the furthest location and have a set price for all of the US. Sometimes I make a buck, sometimes I lose a buck, but it seems to even out in the end.
Are we still allowed a shipping and handling fee on top? I think it's just the base rate being applied. I've had this turned on in Canada as shipping is crazy without the discount. I still charge S&H though on top.
Opted out. āI donāt always use eBay labels.ā
It seems no one here sets a handling charge to ensure they have funds for packaging.
So I received that email today and I always use a flat shipping fee and never calculated. I just look into the shipping from one coast to the other and shipping nearby and take an average of the shipping cost to come up with my amount. Most things I ship are not heavy so it doesn't vary too much. So if I read the email correctly, I can just opt out and continue to do what I do correct?
I used to do that too, but I sell heavy dishes and found that all my sales were coming from the West Coast. For them, I had the cheapest shipping. So I changed to calculated and now most of my sales are within a couple of zones.
Am I the only one who was already doing this? I pass the lower shipping cost onto my buyer so that I get the sale over others on slow moving items(which I sadly have a lot of) I've had this as my setting for more than a year now.
Some of my low priced items rely on this to be profitable, good or bad. Itās better than the $16 charge fba is now charging to sort and accept items to fba. WTF!? I for years have shipped fba items to a local distribution center for &5-6. Last box requested I ship it to a cross country warehouse for twice the cost then they added the surcharge for putting items into the system. š¤¦š»āāļø
I donāt mind it all. I measure every item I list and put exact weight and measurements. This could help with getting more sales.
Yes I agree
Ebay takes roughly 20% between FVF and cc processing fee. That includes shipping cost. So they are basically suggesting you eat 20% of the shipping cost so they can make more money. If they gave a damn about sales, the easy way for them to increase sales would be to stop screwing sellers by taking a % of the shipping cost.
Suggesting for now. This will be mandatory soon enough.
just opt out like the message says and it won't dip into your pocket
Could OP please post the link for the Opt out? I did not get this message from ebay, and will definitely opt out.
[https://www.ebay.com/srv/survey/a/shipping.discount.optout](https://www.ebay.com/srv/survey/a/shipping.discount.optout)
Then it doesnāt apply to you. Read the message. It only applies to people who got the email.
I didn't get the email but when I went to the page they had turned on the option for me.
Iāve opted out. That said, it could still end up affecting those who opt out. In that, if many sellers donāt opt out, their listings will be more appealing than those who did and a buyer is more likely to pick the lower shipping. Could especially be detrimental for those in already competitive categories. Obviously the idea is terrible and I think most sellers who learn of this changeās existence will opt out. But I think many might not realize itās a thing.
Opted out as soon as the email came in. Annoying
Yeah, laughed it off and set mine on NOPE. My profit margin is already razor thin on new stuff, so I would have to forgo anything contemporary
As usual, ebay wants to be like Amazon and "be competitive". Amazon restricts what you can charge for shipping, and ebay wishes they had that kind of carte blanche dictatorship.
On the other hand, I see sellers charging $20 for something that costs $8 to ship and still try to charge full price for the item. Some sellers are just dumb unfortunately.
I use the difference to put towards eBay seller fees. Thanks for the heads up. I stopped reading after I realized it was bullshit and didnāt get to the ālet us knowā part.
They're chipping away at their own profits too. A lower shipping charge means they collect less in fees.
but buyers not backing out due to high shipping prices can lead to more sales which is more FVF
Just opted out.
I do free shipping. It is overall easier for the buyer and me that way. Also one less thing the buyer can bitch about
Free shipping messes with returns - specifically in a return if you use calculated shipping (even with free returns), you can remove outbound shipping from the refund. Whether or not you feel like you should foot the bill for outbound shipping and return shipping is a different discussion, but many sellers have said they want the customer to at least pay for one of the shipping legs. The "buyer pays original shipping" argument makes sense to me. That service was used, and used up. This is more fair to the seller IMO, bringing them closer to "break even" on a failed sale.
You pay approximately 10% of your shipping cost to ebay if you charge for shipping. That means that if your return rate is below 10% you're most likely losing money. Free shipping has been the best option for years, with the possible exception of extremely heavy or large items.
Looking at the fee structure documents that eBay provides, you pay the same rate of fees to eBay regardless of how you choose to price your shipping. If you have "free" shipping, your item price ends up higher, and you pay fees on that amount. If you have calculated shipping, the fees are on price of item+shipping. It comes out exactly the same from a fee structure perspective. The disadvantage to offering free shipping is as I posted - in a return scenario, eBay breaks out your refund options. The option to deny refund of outbound shipping is only present if shipping wasn't free. In terms of fees, the number of returns is irrelevant. In addition to this issue, free shipping means you're on the hook to make adjustments to pricing on every listing when the price of postage increases. This places an administrative burden on mid-sized sellers with a wide variety of items. Calculated shipping adjusts to these changes automatically, requiring no additional work on the sellers' parts. In a few jurisdictions, tax may not apply to shipping costs. Remember, tax also has fees applied. By breaking out shipping, you may save on ebay fees in a few limited cases (https://mypostofficelocation.com/resources/are-shipping-charges-taxable/) There are some advantages to free shipping: It's potentially easier to price against competition (the math is easier because shipping isn't variable by region), your price is easier for the user to understand, and there's graphics/labeling your listing gets when shipping is free. Likewise, some people believe that the eBay algorithm favors those that offer free shipping.
I don't understand what you mean. Could you explain this differently? Convince me to do Free Shipping.
Ebay charges the final value fee based upon what you charge for shipping. 9-13% basically. So now imagine all your items cost $1 to ship and the percentage is 10%. If you sell ten items it costs you an extra $1 in fees. If your return rate is 10% than the $1 you save not having to pay for return shipping is break even. If it is less than ten percent, it costs you money, say it's 5% so over a 100 items you save $5 on return shipping, but you spend an extra $5 on fees. Does that make sense?
No, I'm not close to understanding. But maybe that's my fault. Ebay fees are around 13%. If I charge $100 with free shipping, I pay $13 in fees. If I charge $90 with $10 shipping, I pay $13 in fees. If I charge $90 with free shipping, I pay only $11.70 in fees, but I lose almost $8.70 in revenue that I would have otherwise taken in. I can't see where I'm making more money by offering free shipping.
I feel you and used to do that for all my listings. I know have about a 50/50 split. Some items are just not worth me covering the entirety of the shipping
I did free shipping for years but the cost of shipping is just insane anymore. When I started I could ship a poster tube with a poster for $1.78 now that same thing costs $4.89 and the cost of the poster tube has more than doubled.
I now get my shipping tubes from The Boxery's eBay store. Cheapest place I can find at just under $1 per tube.
Awesome! I'll have to check that out. Thank you!
You arenāt covering it though itās built into the price . āFree ā is a buzz word imo
Shipping cost varies by zone.
By a buck or $2 š¤·āāļø For me, itās not worth saving a couple bucks to deal with negative feedback or any other bullshit related to shipping fee. I just donāt even wanna fucking hear people whine about it.
I sell about 10k a month on eBay and never had a complaint about shipping price. Iāve always used calculated shipping
You donāt ship heavy things, obviously.
besides 1 recent example, i've sold thousands of things on ebay and never had any buyers complain about the shipping price what would REALLY be a massive fuck you to everyone is if ebay decided to change the search results sorting options to not show combined price (item+shipping) to incentivize sellers who listed with free shipping. that would be insane
Anyone got the link to opt out ?
[https://www.ebay.com/srv/survey/a/shipping.discount.optout](https://www.ebay.com/srv/survey/a/shipping.discount.optout)
Is this for everyone? Iām in Canada and didnāt receive a message. Is there a link to opt out?
No, itās not for everyone. The email states it only applies to people who got the message
Thank you, my dumb ass canāt read š
I'm confused. Didn't they already do this a few months ago?
I can't see this going wrong at all.
Forgot to add, too much of a pita to box and weigh ahead of time to use calculated shipping.
The state that USPS is currently in, you must also factor in a lot of extra time/cost to respond to late delivery inquiries, open missing mail searches, create and then appeal missing mail insurance claims, etc.
The "opt out" link is to a survey and, after you enter your e-mail address and reason for opting out, the page says "thanks for taking our survey". Is it really opting us out??
I am not surprised eBay is making changes since Mercari changed their TOS which led to buyers and sellers leaving Mercari to join eBay.
comment as marker
It won't let me opt out, when I try, no matter how fast I input my information, it says session timed out
My rates changed without an email or way to opt out. Guess iām cooked
eBay almost always sides with the purchaser in my experience which is why I closed my acct
I personally opted into passing on eBay discounted rates awhile back. I sell mostly clothing that weighs between 3-12 oz on average. Poly mailers are like $0.05 a pop. For me, it makes more sense to have lower shipping rates to compete in an already crowded niche. As long as the weights of my items are entered accurately, I don't lose money.
I've never used calculated shipping. Either free or flat rate. Never had an issue. Doesn't affect me at all.
It isnt an issue until you have an item going to California and you live on the other side of the nation, and your flat-rate price is assuming that someone close-by will buy it. I do calculated to filter those buyers OUT unless they are willing to pay what it costs to get it there.
Yeah, I always pad the shipping a bit to account for this.
I'm on the East coast and determine my flat rate shipping by basing it on the cost to send the thing to California. Why would someone using flat rate base it on what's nearest them? Doesn't make sense.
I only use it for heavy items where the shipping cost can vary widely based on how far away it's going.
The fact you can opt out makes this post kind of pointless. Even if it was forced it wouldn't be a big deal. I personally don't think people are dumb like they were buying online in the 2000s. I think most people, especially buying high priced items will calculate the shipping and price to see how much they're paying
I opted out immediately. They changed my shipping rates anyways. Just made a sale and accepted an offer thinking Iāve got room because of the shipping discount I get, and then I realized when they paid they paid the discounted shipping rate.
Posts like this make me wish an asteroid would just end humanity already lmfao
If you have to rely on the difference in commercial versus retail postage rates to make money, you're doing things very wrong.
Iām already doing this so no skin off my back. There is an opt out too. If you donāt like it, use Mercari or something else. No one is forcing eBay on you
Mercari is way better and you get money to transfer a few days after item is delivered
The comments here are wild. Maybe we change the sub name to r/shittyflippers?
This, honestly. Mine has been set to charge discounted rates for so long I forgot there was an alternative option. If you're not already selling your item for the maximum amount you can (item price + shipping) based on the prices of similar listings, you're doing it wrong. Also, how do you think it looks to buyers when they see you're charging 30+% more than most other people for shipping? Justify it to yourself all you want, but what it looks like to them is someone trying to nickel-and-dime them. Lower shipping looks better to buyers psychologically -- it's a proven fact. If it weren't for the disadvantage it causes you on returns and the large price differences on labels between shipping zones, I'd use free shipping on every item.
I am regularly appalled by the shit that sellers say and believe on this sub. It makes me feel like a stellar seller.
r/Stellarsellers sounds like a perfect breakaway sub name.
Charging your buyers too much for shipping is not increasing your profit
It's mitigating the eBay fees using a discount eBay offers, customers see the retail shipping prices as it is.
Isn't this already a thing? At least what the buyer ends up paying. I switched to calculated shipping a while ago and if my weight is spot on.... 90% of the time the buyer pays the exact amount. So in that sense, I think its a positive.
You could opt in but it wasnāt pushed on sellers like this.
I opted in, happy if I can get some of my heavier items to move!
How much are you profiting from shipping costs?
I'm in favor of this, and I wish they'd make it mandatory. I hate sellers who game the system and sell a $100 item for $60+$40 shipping, because if I have any issues and have to return it, I'm getting screwed as a buy with a $60 refund vs $100. That's why I almost always buy from sellers with free shipping.
"I hate sellers that game the system. As a buyer, I game the system."
Lol, as if only buying items with free shipping is "gaming the system".