eBay

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎10-25-2022

Not sure if this is road worthy or not but does anyone else believe that would help if eBay could do a small bit to educating buyers and what is involved with shipping cost & the reasons behind certain services being offered? Sellers have limited control when it comes to the actual shipping cost based on what they are selling. From size of the item, services available (from the post office or couriers when they are available), where it's going, is extra insurance necessary, buyers expectations, service issues and customs when it comes to international shipping. It's not like everyone has access to out of this world discounts like large sellers or the competion websites. Concerns sellers have limited control over. Blaming a seller for expensive shipping to my mind doesn't seem fair. That leads to filing the low ratings for shipping cost, slowness & INR's when something may be there a day or 5 later. Adding tracking (again) does not make a parcel move any faster. Doing something like this (by eBay) might go a long way to helping BUYERS understand what is going on. The number of times I've explained to buyers and their shocked realization of this info has gone a long way for me. They start to understand their next purchase a little differently.

-Lotz

femmefan1946 · ‎10-26-2022

You are right of course, but Buyers Don't Read ™

Which is why I think it is a mistake for sellers to offer more than one shipping service. If a buyer wants a faster or cheaper service, they can certainly ask, but that gives the seller a chance to accept or refuse and to change* the shipping cost if they wish.

* Actually, we can't change the shipping cost anyway, but we can adjust the item price which makes for the same result.

zee-chan · ‎10-26-2022

eBay could provide the information but then of course, as femme said, Buyers Don't Read. I have just been leaving shipping for every listing as $5 ($10 for international but I rarely get international sales) and then incorporate the rest of the shipping cost into the item's listed price.

I'd rather eBay just stop breaking things that worked perfectly okay before (seller hub *cough*) than to waste money on "educating" buyer. I'm sure interested buyers can google for information themselves, just like how I used to educate myself on the various forwarders / middlemen / Japan Post for my Japan shopping. I'd even go to Japan Post Office in person to mail things back to Canada when I run out of luggage space in Japan a few years back and just Google Translate my way there... lol

ericsells75 · ‎10-26-2022

I get asked if I can do better on shipping more times then per week then I make sales. Feels like shipping is becoming a tipping point so anything to get info out there would help, even a little bit, I guess…

byto253 · ‎10-26-2022

I don't think it will help. As well as them not reading, folks are being educated by Amazon that shipping is magical and free.

brettjet38 · ‎10-26-2022

Until eBay stops implying that "Shipping should be free" nothing will change and of course BDR

femmefan1946 · ‎10-26-2022

@brettjet38

Consumers love "free" shipping.

The real problem is that many (new?) sellers don't realize they have to incorporate shipping costs into their asking prices, to keep both customers and their accountant happy.

I know I keep posting it but:

Which is cheapest? A $10 item with $5 shipping? A $15 item with FreeShipping?

Or does it make business sense to sell that $15 item at $14.99 or at $15.99?

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎10-26-2022

@femmefan1946 wrote:
@brettjet38
Consumers love "free" shipping.
The real problem is that many (new?) sellers don't realize they have to incorporate shipping costs into their asking prices, to keep both customers and their accountant happy.
I know I keep posting it but:
Which is cheapest? A $10 item with $5 shipping? A $15 item with FreeShipping?
Or does it make business sense to sell that $15 item at $14.99 or at $15.99?

@femmefan1946

That works awesome where there are KNOWN actual costs for shipping. For sellers selling items like patterns, sports cards, single coins and the like. Shipping varies based on final package size, destination and services available. As for discounts they vary per service. Throw in extras like signature and insurance which there is no way to actually predict (final selling price with auctions) all you can do is guesstimate and hope for the best. For my sales this month sales to shipping this month to date have been 55%/45%. I've had months where shipping has been 60% and more. I would much rather i offer valid actual services that let a customer choose based on their requirements than throwing something up in the air and hoping it sticks.

And what about price increases and the labour involved to change 100's of flat rate shipping amounts? (Flat rate.) I'm sooo not looking forward to January and having to "fix" shipping on 300 plus/minus items.

-Lotz

femmefan1946 · ‎10-26-2022

Absolutely. I made the decision early on not to sell anything that can't travel by letter mail (and rarely track those, which is another story).

But I do use Calculated Shipping for stuff that I know is going to travel parcel rate.

Throw in extras like signature and insurance which there is no way to actually predict

Well.... maybe. Signature is a fixed price ($1.50? $1.75?) and so can be included.

I'm not a huge fan of postal insurance. What are they insuring against? Most problems come from late delivery, which the PO does not pay out on, or damage in shipping, most of which I would argue is a result of poor packaging. Actual damage or loss in transit is very rare, and could be covered by the Cookie Jar Insurance.

I'm sooo not looking forward to January and having to "fix" shipping on 300 plus/minus items.

With any luck the loonie will drop enough to cover the postal increase.

I'm loving buying in loonies and selling in USD with the 68c loonie. I remember the heady days of the 62c loonie.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎10-26-2022

@femmefan1946 wrote:
Absolutely. I made the decision early on not to sell anything that can't travel by letter mail (and rarely track those, which is another story).
But I do use Calculated Shipping for stuff that I know is going to travel parcel rate.
Throw in extras like signature and insurance which there is no way to actually predict
Well.... maybe. Signature is a fixed price ($1.50? $1.75?) and so can be included.
I'm not a huge fan of postal insurance. What are they insuring against? Most problems come from late delivery, which the PO does not pay out on, or damage in shipping, most of which I would argue is a result of poor packaging. Actual damage or loss in transit is very rare, and could be covered by the Cookie Jar Insurance.

I'm sooo not looking forward to January and having to "fix" shipping on 300 plus/minus items.
With any luck the loonie will drop enough to cover the postal increase.
I'm loving buying in loonies and selling in USD with the 68c loonie. I remember the heady days of the 62c loonie.

If you were to add signature on expensive items that would be another amount depending on method you use for creating your postage. eBay Labels - 1.75. Shippo - 2.00. CP - 2.00. Insurance with eBay labels is based on final selling price. (Option does not display until you reach 100.oo). Shippo - 1.00 with ship insurance and CP 2.50 per 100 over 100. So that would mean bumping up your shipping to customer via handling or selling price. Because many items use best offer...it becomes a game of include with 1 hand remove with another. (Neither Shippo or Ebay labels have the handling charge option for mailing tubes built in. Still!!!)

Sellers who have no choice but to use Calculated shipping are unable to list on dot com so they don't have access to the perks of the exchange rate fluntuations. (when they are to a Canadian sellers.

Insurance is more for loss protection. Damage has too many ifs ands or butts to get paid off on. The late shipment guarantee (Canada - Expedited/Xpresspost/Priority) are back in force. Not for international until further notice.

From a sellers perspective they just want to be able to cover themselves when you include factors like FVF's on shipping/tax collected by eBay. Limited real ways to do that accurately with what we have to work with currently.

-Lotz

dinomitesales · ‎10-26-2022

With regard to shipping costs increasing in January: Good news for Lettermail shippers - stamp rates will not be increasing.

vtwinparts2015 · ‎10-26-2022

if any body ask for a different shipping servive out of your rhelm block the buyer right away he will probley scam you if you act on his wihes. and trust me Ebay will not help you. remember you are a seller and ebay only cares about the buyer and they will take you funds and give it back to them

flipistics · ‎10-26-2022

@femmefan1946 wrote:
Most problems come from late delivery, which the PO does not pay out on, or damage in shipping, most of which I would argue is a result of poor packaging. Actual damage or loss in transit is very rare, and could be covered by the Cookie Jar Insurance.

I've had an item delivered late before, and the PO absolutely refunded the shipping cost. They don't refund the item cost though.

byto253 · ‎10-27-2022

At the end of the day, even if people read info on shipping costs they don't care, and why should they? They are buying something and the shipping and tax is part of the amount they pay.

reallynicestamps · ‎10-27-2022

if any body ask for a different shipping servive out of your rhelm block the buyer right away

I basically agree.

If the request is for an upgrade (Priority instead of Lettermail for example) and the buyer is willing to pay the added cost, we are allowed to agree and charge.

The concern would be speed of delivery. Priority Post is pretty good about on time delivery , but cannot be perfect. Frankly if the customer needs it yesterday, he should have been shopping locally last week.

The scammers go for reduced cost, which often involves the shipment being untracked.

55-yard-line-sportscards · ‎11-02-2022

"From a sellers perspective they just want to be able to cover themselves when you include factors like FVF's on shipping/tax collected by eBay."

From a seller's perspective, eBay shouldn't be charging sellers FVFs on taxes, because that money has nothing to do with the seller and everything to do with the government they are collecting it for. From a buyr's perspective, eBay is also collecting taxes on items that are not supposed to be taxed. I was recently charged the provincial portion of the HST on books. Ontario does not charge HST on books. So what is eBay doing with that money.

I agree with almost everything said about buyers and shipping fees, though. They complain that I have had to increase fees to almost five bucks for a single sportscard, but that is mainly because everytime someone at eBay sneezes, they tack FVFs onto something else or increase the ones they're charging. They are making their own platform untenable for small sellers and are driving away buyers in the process, hurting everyone.

flipistics · ‎11-02-2022

@55-yard-line-sportscards wrote:
I was recently charged the provincial portion of the HST on books. Ontario does not charge HST on books. So what is eBay doing with that money.

This isn't entirely true. MOST books are exempt, but not all. I don't know what the book was, so I can't comment on whether that was one of the exempt ones or not. By law, if you overcollect on tax you have to remit the full amount you collect, not just the correct amount (or refund the buyer the extra).

ilikehockeyjerseys · ‎11-03-2022

Package as many items as you can to go lettermail. For items that cannot go lettermail, package them in a way so that they fit in a flat rate box. That way you can charge a ceiling of $18.99 (or a bit more of you want to include other shipping related expenses in the price).

For US shipping, if you use Canada Post's small business account they give roughly 40-60 percent off Tracked Packet USA. This depends on your savings level. You have to spend about $6000 every 12 months on shipping to get the top saving level. Chit Chats charges $7-$10 for a small bubble mailer below about 450g. After 450g (might not be the exact number), it goes priority which is about $20.

The price of shipping should be irrelevant so long as it is shown before hand. That is how I feel as someone who is also a buyer. Knowing what I know about the cost of shipping because I ship a lot of stuff, even if I feel a seller has put an overpriced shipping quote, I don't care. I only are about the total cost. I can see the shipping and the total cost ahead of time, and choose whether to buy the item. The only time I would be annoyed is if you win an auction for multiple items and receive an inflated combined quote. In a situation where shipping is not agreed on ahead of time, I think the seller should provide an accurate quote.

I guess there is an argument that if you want the option to return something, you don't want shipping to be inflated, because in a buyer elected return it won't be refunded. I don't think I have ever made a single return so that isn't relevant to me.

Ultimately, what you choose to charge the buyer for shipping on the invoice is a marketing choice. Even the other site, whose name I am not sure I am allowed to mention here, where the orders are fulfilled by a warehouse, the buyers STILL pay for shipping. The difference is, they do not see it on the invoice. Similar to when a seller on eBay advertises "free shipping", the shipping price is baked into the total price. The seller sees what they charged for shipping as a fulfillment fee on their item.

Keep in mind, I am talking about used, collectible, or out of print items, that don't follow a suggested retail price and are sold for what the market dictates they are worth. The type of stuff people on this forum seem to sell on eBay. On brand new items that are sold directly by said website (which I assume I cannot name), there is an element of "free shipping", since they are usually sold at their suggested retail price. For example, a brand new book will be a similar price to Chapters or Walmart, but you get it shipped to your door.

If you do not offer returns, and if buyers aren't usually encouraged to buy multiples of the same type of item due to combined shipping, your solution might be to bake shipping into your price. Because Canada Post has Flat Rate Boxes, you have a ceiling to what shipping will cost you. If your item fits in a small or medium box, you know in a worst case scenario, you will have to pay 18.99 or 23.99 for shipping. If you have an item worth $100, and you sell it for $100 w/ free shipping instead of $80 with $20 shipping, you know in a worst case scenario you can throw it in a flat rate box for $20 so you won't get destroyed on the shipping if the buyer is cross country.

The other alternative is to only use Flat Rate Boxes to fulfill your shipping, and explicitly advertise it in the auction. If you charge $18.99/$23.99/$29.99 for shipping an item in a Flat Rate Box, the buyer can easily verify that is what the shipping cost.

eBay's goal shouldn't be to educate the customer. It should be to leverage their volume of Canadian sales to try and find an efficient way to move packages and get their sellers lower rates. One solution might be to work with a service like Chit Chats or Stallion and see if there are ways to make those services more accessible to your average eBay seller. Both eBay and Canada Post could make a killing with a flat rate size 0 bubble mailer that has the most basic tracking possible (it would only need acceptance+delivery). Even if it was a card for pickup type service. Most sellers are paranoid about INRs (even know they aren't common). Buyers also like tracking. It would lift hundreds of thousands of $2 lettermail transactions up to whatever they charge for a flat rate envelope. Maybe it isn't viable with Canada Post, but I could see there being a huge demand for that sort of service. I personally would stick with lettermail for most things, but I think most sellers would prefer to pay $5 for a service with delivery confirmation vs $2 for a service without it.

reallynicestamps · ‎11-03-2022

For US shipping, if you use Canada Post's small business account they give roughly 40-60 percent off Tracked Packet USA.

I agree with you about bottom line price- rather than breaking out line by line.

But I think the Tracked Packet discount is closer to 5% than to 40%. I don't ship by TP often so I'm not sure.

mailer that has the most basic tracking possible (it would only need acceptance+delivery).

Most tracking is Confirmation of Delivery. That we see many scans along the way is often because it is cheaper/less work to scan 'em all than to sort out the ones that don't require scanned tracking.

Buyers also like tracking.

Especially Americans. I think it is a cultural thing. They are taught from a young age to distrust everything, especially government.

pjcdn2005 · ‎11-04-2022

@reallynicestamps

The tracked packet discount is better than it used to be. Currently the counter price for a 90 gram package to the US is $16.53. The level one small business cost for tracked packet US is $10.28. That is an online rate only.