Testing GSP Listings (.COM)

[retroman_studios]

As the title suggests, on .COM I signed up for GSP to be added on my listings. I'm adding a few items and will report the aprox. weights that I do or don't report to eBay.

I've noticed that as I start my drafts on eBay Mobile, some items automatically had GSP added, but others shipping was blank. This leads me to the conclusion that certain categories may have an averaged shipping cost. I'll post details below.

2oz, Casio SF-4300, GSP automatically added in eBay Mobile. (PDA)

11lbs, 13oz, Omega Vintage Electric Iron, GSP not auto enabled in mobile (Collectibles/Kitchen)

2oz, Hot Wheels Impavideo, GSP auto added in mobile (Toys)

5.8oz, Windmere Clothing Shaver, GSP not auto added (Home & Garden, Lint Remover)

1.2oz, Corona Extra Lanyard, GSP auto enabled on mobile, (ollectibles, breweriana)

12.8oz, Sony Walkman, GSP not auto added on mobile, (consumer electronics)

4.6oz, Havana Club Coasters, GSP not auto added on mobile (collectibles, barware)

.5oz, Havana Club Lanyard, gsp auto added in mobile, (breweriana)

4.1oz, Beranger Bros. Wine Coasters, GSP auto added (ebay had selected wine/wine kits as initial category, but changed after to collectibles)

Now, with my initial eBay mobile drafts complete, I am finishing my listings on the laptop.

I don't see any options for GSP in the shipping area of the listing, but editing my Business Policy, I see GSP listed plus an option to include alternate shipping in case GSP is not available. Interesting. 

In the first listing (Casio) I did not enter any specifics about how heavy my item is. I assume the system will attempt to calculate a base value. Item #132930599304 - Oddly enough, it says "Does not ship to canada" despite GSP being added. Update: So I looked into this....apparently when I edited my Business Policy, I added shipping to Canada but it didn't update properly. The only item that has GSP to Canada is the Iron. Gonna try and fix this. Ok, really stupid on my part. Apparently Canada was on my exclusions list. I don't recall doing that, but I know exclusions are having issues. And, as it would be, I can remove Canada from my exclusions but it also removes Mexico. Figures. Well, fixed it. tyler@ebay  Just a heads up even on .COM there are issues with exclusions as well. I unchecked Canada and Mexico and a bunch of other countries in North America were unchecked with it. Somethin's not right with the code.

Of note is that if you specify shipping to Canada it overrides GSP. I'm going to remove that shipping option to enable GSP for this experiment. Done!

For the Windmere Lint Remover, I added the weight to the listing. It's located after the shipping policy under "Package Weight & Dimension". On some items eBay tries to auto fill this, but can be hilariously wrong. Once I had an item that was only a few ounces and eBay listed it as being several pounds.  Item #132930603591

Corona Lanyard, eBay guessed correctly, 2oz Item #132930605117

Hot Wheels, eBay guessed wrong, 8oz compared to actual 1.2oz, I left eBay's guess active in the listing. Item #132930608786

I did another Hot Wheels and eBay guessed they were 1+2 pounds. On this one I left eBay's guess as I want to see how the two would be different. Item #132930618942

On the third HotWheels, eBay couldn't guess anything and left all values blank. I was going to correct this one but left it as is, because I want to see how this affects the listings. The three hotwheels are all loose and weight aprox 1.2-2oz. Item #132930619629

The Havana lanyard is .5oz, eBay guessed it as 3oz. I corrected it to .5oz. Item #132930620896

Sony Walkman, eBay couldn't fill in details. I added proper weight and aprox package size. Item #132930622844

Havana Coasters, no data on weight. I added the correct weights.  Item #132930625050

Beringer Bros Coasters. eBay guessed 8oz, vs 4.6oz, actual weight. Corrected. Item #132930628590

For the vintage iron, I chose calculated shipping.  Item #132930630376

So I had a look as this post was being created, it's interesting. I definitely see a preference to CAD $18+. It seems even if the weight is wrong the system is able to compensate for the high cost of other items. Of course, because they are buying postage from CPC it costs them more. 

Anyways I will leave these live with GSP for a week then add my normal Canadian shipping option back.  Please don't buy them unless you really want them. Or else just wait until I disable GSP in a week. 😉

Please excuse the long winded and non formatted nature of the post, I couldn't  be bothered to fix it. 🙂 

Also learned when you start a post it does time out. Thankfully, I've learned to copy my post before I post!

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Thanks for testing this. Very interesting.

With your test for lanyard did you check the USPS rates for shipping direct or would you still be able to ship somehow from your Canadian address to another Canadian address? Just curious. When I check for shipping to Calgary it's showing the delightful shipping amount of 25.00 CAD with no customs fees for a 6.56 item in 10 to 22 business days. Also, once you have opted in will it let you over-ride shipping to manual or does every future listing end up in the GSP nitemare?

-Lotz

PS. I've emailed 3 US sellers in the past week to ask if they could bypass using GSP. 0 for 3 with getting a response. I know skipping GSP I could receive quicker and substantially cheaper.

[retroman_studios]

It really depends on how they setup shipping. I use mostly flat rate for the US, and for that I use Business Policies. So if I want to allow a customer to buy something using a certain shipping option, it's a quick edit to my Business Policies and all my listings have it.

If they use calculated like eBay recommended, no, there is no easy way to bypass.

Now for my small items like Lanyard, I would charge US 6.50 flat rate for Canada, as I want tracking and insurance, and that covers it for most packages. That equals roughly $9 CDN, tracking and insurance. Much better than $20+ with GSP.

If I shipped directly from Canada using say, letter mail, it will be a nightmare as the customer will still be charged duty etc.

They give you the option to add your own shipping method if you use Business Policies, but that disabled GSP.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Are you just doing this as a general test to see how the system reacts? Knowing what most Canadian sellers know regarding how unpopular it is would it really be worth it to have it in place?

From the US sellers that have responded to my questions, they didn't totally understand how it even worked or the grief it caused for Intl. buyers

-Lotz

[retroman_studios]

Yeah this is a test only. I'll remove it after a week once the regular members who hang out here have a chance to see the results.

It's a test that allows us to see closer on how the charges are prepared or change based on extra info or lack of info.

What I see as an Achilles Heel is that GSP buys postage from CPC, but then it has to do that to avoid customers being charged tax duty etc. If say an item was repacked and sent USPS, CBS would collect.