eBay

believemary2014 · ‎03-30-2014

Hi everyone, I 'm interested in becoming an ebay seller but I don't know how much to charge for shipping without knowing where I'll be shipping.

Please help.....and Thanking you in advance for your valuable advice.

femmefan1946 · ‎03-30-2014

You need three pieces of equipment.

A digital metric scale (try Starfrit, under $20 at Canadian Tire)

A tape measure. (Free at IKEA) again use the metric one.

A computer bookmark for canadapost.ca > business rates> parcels.

Weigh and measure your item. Don't forget packaging is neither weightless or bulky. Make allowances.

Go to Canada Post and enter the required information.

They ask for postal codes. K1A 0A6 is the House of Commons for Ottawa. Find codes for similar landmarks in Joe Batts Arm, NF , Iqaluit NU and Victoria BC.

For other countries at most they ask for the US state.

And on the next page you get the costs for various services.

Only ship by Air Mail overseas. Any potential saving in shipping Surface will be eaten up by your first Item Not Recieved claim. Air Mail.

Or.

On the Sell Your Item form choose Calculated Shipping. Choose service. Enter dimensions and weight.

You will have to use the Options link to change to metric measures.

The prices you see on Canada Post do not allow for the 5-18% discount you will get for using Paypal shipping labels.

believemary2014 · ‎03-31-2014

Thank you for your quick response. Today I went online & looked at the Canada post site & tried various cities across Canada to see the rates. Now I understand how much to ask for an item & how much to charge for shipping.

I'm thinking of including the shipping on the price & claim it as free shipping....what do you think?

I also checked the shipping rates for the States & it's way too expensive. Therefore, I'll state I only ship within Canada.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a bunch!

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-31-2014

You could go the free shipping route but I find that works better with smaller items that are less expensive to ship. I do think that it is good for a new seller to use calculated shipping in Canada as there is such a difference in prices across the country. If you use a flat rate you could end up not charging enough for far away customers and too much for closer buyers.

I also suggest that you do ship to the U.S. Small and light packet are actually less expensive to the U.S. than mailing an item within Canada. The U.S. is a huge market and can be a large percentage of most seller's sales. Also, if you don't show shipping to the U.S. in your listings, your listings won't be seen on .com so any Canadian using .com to shop won't see your listings.

Assuming that this is your selling id, it is a good idea to buy some items first to see how things work and to build up a little feedback.

femmefan1946 · ‎03-31-2014

I also checked the shipping rates for the States & it's way too expensive.

But you don't pay the shipping. The buyer does. Offer your items at a fair price with accurate shipping and let the buyer decide if the total is reasonable or not.

And do keep in mind that Free Shipping is advertising speak for "the shipping is included in the price."

Which is cheapest?

A $5 item with $10 shipping

A $10 item with $5 shipping

A $15 item with Free Shipping.

If you go for Free Shipping within Canada,you can charge shipping to your US customers and still not pay the Fees on shipping. (You know about those,right? And about the Paypal 21 Day Hold on payments to new sellers?)

The trick for Free Domestic Shipping and Discounted US shipping is to use Flat Rate for USA, then reduce the actual cost of shipping by the domestic shipping rate which is already in the asking price.

You may often find, as PJ suggests, that the US shipping is lower than domestic. Certainly I can ship a paperback to the USA cheaper than I can to Alberta.

Anonymous · ‎04-02-2014

Please check out PayPal Shipping as it is much cheaper than Canada Post website. With PayPal Shipping you get discounts on Expedited, Tracked Packet and XpressPost, cheaper than Canada Post (even in person at any post office).

I wouldn't rely on Canada Post website, not even VentureOne for any discounts, PayPal shipping is far more better than those two.

worrly · ‎04-02-2014

Isn't Venture One 8% less than at the outlet but you're using Paypal to pay for your postage? Or is there a further discount if you use Paypal The only reason I don't bother with the online shipping tools is the hassle of printer issues. I have a MAC so I don't know how much worse it is but I know CP is not set up to deal with MAC issues.

femmefan1946 · ‎04-05-2014

but I know CP is not set up to deal with MAC issues.

I met a young woman once who had setting up CPOs website on her resume. Told her that if any potential employers had ever used the site, they would not be considering her.

I use a Mac -- in fact even our B&M business uses Macs almost exclusively.

The only problem with eBay and Macs is that Turbo Lister will not work with Mac. But since no one has ever given me a good reason* to use Turbo Lister, it seems irrelevant.

As for printing shipping labels, I've had fewer problems than many who seem to be using PCs with various browsers. I've occasionally used CP labels and for a long time used PP labels. The technical problem seems to be size, but it never affected my iMacs.

In terms of cost, GIGO.

If you give the wrong information, you will get the wrong label. Use metric because Canada Post went metric in 1974 and everything else will be inaccurate. And keep in mind the known disconnect between domestic and USPS parcel sizes for similar services.

If you find eBay is not showing the US shipping price but telling your customer to contact you, increase one dimension of the size you give on the SYI form. This usually brings the dimensions into agreement with the USPS sizing and, more importantly, does NOT impact the shipping price.

* If you want to set up a particular start time for an auction, TL does this free and the eBay Sell Your Item form charges 10 cents. Again, not useful to me since I mostly do Fixed Price.

cumos55 · ‎06-12-2014

For an item valued at $30 and weighing between 0.75 and 1.0 kg the cost for shipping within Canada is about $12.00, and shipping to the US is about $20.00..

With free shipping within Canada,

Item price would be $42.00

zero charge for shipping within Canada.

and a shipping cost of $8.00 to the US

($20.00 minus $12.00)..

subtracting the cost of shipping within Canada from the cost of shipping to the US

maggiebvintage2010 · ‎06-13-2014

I'm a MAC user, I have printed hundreds of eBay labels using PayPal to pay. I have never had a printer issue, as so many others have reported. Here are the discounts:

up to 18% for Expedited Parcel to Canada and USA

up to 14% on Tracked Packet to USA and International

8% on Expresspost & Regular Parcel in Canada

9% on Expresspost to USA and International

There are no discounts for Small Packet or Light Packet service, but Venture One doesn't have discounts for these either, and it beats standing in line at the PO. Although I tend to use discount postage plus the CN22 form for Small and Light Packet.

Another plus to eBay/PayPal postage is that the new requirement for HS codes is built into all their label forms. Even though this is not presently required for Small and Light Packet, that will probably be coming into effect in the near future. This also is a real time saver, otherwise you have to go to the CP website, complete the form, print off the barcode or send it to your mobile device, and stand in line at the PO to have it scanned. You can also opt not to do that, but then you pay the Post Office to do it for you.