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@femmefan1946 wrote:Zee-Chan has posted a list of 2014 Canada Post letter/light packet prices with a note that over 200gr and shipping internationally a better service might be Small Packet Air.
The post is called 2014 new Canada Post postage chart.
Would offering Free Domestic Shipping help? With your unique patterns (the antique reproductions) raising the cost by $3 to $5 might not make a difference to the customer. Or it might.
Then you can reduce shipping cost to the USA to $2 to $5 (from the actual $5.15 to $10.33) and international to between $5 and $14.12.
Plus you pay no shipping FVF on the US and International shipping. And get that helpful 5 star DSR for shipping cost.
Yes, I did see 'zee-chan's' chart, but unfortunately the difference between lettermail and Lt Pkt int'l is only about $1.00, and both are around $20, which is a stratospheric shipping price to put on a ca. $15-25 item.
I do run regular 'free shipping' promos to Canada on my patterns (primarily to get the FVF reductions on my US sales, since I sell very little to Canada). I've already got the usual domestic lettermail shipping on those down well below current rates (same with my US rates -- I've left most as they were in 2012 or 2011, frozen in time).
Since 95% of my buyers are in the US, I try to appeal primarily to them. I generally give anyone who buys more than one pattern free shipping on the 2nd item. I offer free shipping in Canada and the US on a purchase of 5 items or more. I regularly provide additional discounts or free upgrades on my buyers' shipping costs (you're Ms. Cookie Jar Insurance; I'm Ms. Surprise Shipping Upgrade 
).
The bottom line is that I've scraped just about everything I can down to the bone to make shipping work. My only other option is to try offering free shipping to the US and hope that volume offsets the shipping losses.
Raising prices to absorb shipping costs is risky in my area -- I have very few competitors in my antique pattern category, but they're all in the US. I'm sure we all keep track of each other, so I have to keep up with that pack. And holding the lid on prices also gets me a lot of repeat business.
My antique patterns aren't the regular Vogue-style tissue patterns in a paper envelope. Because they must be printed on 24lb bond paper (for technical reasons too boring to go into here), many of them are large and heavy. I have always insisted on providing top quality packaging in my antique patterns, so each one goes out in a lovely reusable and expandable plastic pouch, i.e. a permanent storage envelope that's wear-and-tear proof. My buyers love them, but they are large and heavy. Some of them I just barely squeeze into a #5 envelope and through my 2.0cm slot (in fact my husband has standing instructions to press the thicker ones flat before he hands them over the P.O. counter!). As you can imagine, these have become expensive to ship to Europe, and, with Canada Post's most recent 26% rate hike internationally, whether by lettermail or Lt/Small Packet makes very little difference.
Digital downloads would be the ideal solution for Europe, but of course eBay has restricted those to the point where they're useless. I'm tackling the problem in another way though - by making things smaller. I've decided to launch a line of my antique patterns on CD this year that should be at least somewhat affordable to ship outside Canada and the US. This of course is in the naïve and vain hope that Canada Post won't price me out of that market too! Doesn't eBay have some sort of shipping ceiling on CDs?
As for "regular", modern patterns, you're right that Simplicity/McCalls/Butterick are hard to sell, unless you have really older vintage. Vogue/Burda are much better, but eBay has been swamped with vintage sewing patterns and none of them sell the way they used to.
Yes, a crystal ball -- can I get one on eBay do you think???
OK, I'm going to try again today: 
@brandeentertainment wrote:
I offer Free Canadian shipping which avoids fees on US shipping then I deduct the $2.95 Canadian shipping I have worked into the buy now price from the US rates Making it appear that my US buyers are only Paying anywhere from $1.30-$2.77 for shipping when in fact they are paying the full pop just part is in the pricing ..
Thanks so much for all your input, 'brande'. This is my first try at selling items in CD format, so I really appreciate the advice.
The point you make above is precisely what I was considering too -- offering free shipping on all CDs to Canada (because most of my buyers are in the US). That will eliminate the shipping FVFs on all my sales, and -- who knows -- may help to increase my Canadian sales too. On the other point, I've never been fully comfortable with the idea of rolling shipping into item prices. I may try rolling a portion of it in, and see how that goes.
Since I have a somewhat limited buyer market (in comparison to movie CDs!) and mostly U.S. competitors, I have to be very careful about pricing. I'm probably in the "volume-over-higher-price" camp -- I think I'd rather have 10 sales at $10 each than have all but a couple of buyers turn away at a $15 or $20 price. At any rate, I'm going to experiment a little and see what happens. Since I hold copyright to the content, my input costs for my CD patterns will be virtually $0 (only the cost of the CD itself and of printing the CD label), so I'm planning to offer these patterns at a discount from the paper versions anyway.
One question, if you don't mind me picking your brains a little further! I'm planning to use slim jewel cases and ship in CD bubble mailers. Have you had any trouble with jewel cases cracking or breaking in transit, or the CDs being damaged as a result? I'm wondering how well they generally make it through the mail in bubble envelopes, and whether I should expect any issues from buyers in that regard. So far I've never had to be concerned about damage or breakage (with paper sewing patterns).
Thanks in advance!
"offering free shipping on all CDs to Canada (because most of my buyers are in the US). That will eliminate the shipping FVFs on all my sales,"
This will work for you as long as you list on eBay.ca
It would not work when listing on eBay.com because USA becomes "domestic" by default (that cannot be changed). To save FVF charged on shipping, the first "domestic" shipping charge must be "free".
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