FEE UPDATE TO ENCOURAGE LOW-COST SHIPPING

[gifts_of_elegance]

Can someone explain this to me? How will this work? The way I see it is that as sellers we will now have to pay FVF on shipping charges, which will cut into our ever shrinking profits even more, forcing us to RAISE our shipping charges to off-set this new expense, not lower it. Or is there something eBay knows that they have not told us yet? Did they work out a deal with Canada Post to cut our shipping rates or will they tell us which Post Office ships for FREE? (Haven't they been encouraging us to use FREE shipping?)

[axe_n_gear_music]

"The way I see it is that as sellers we will now have to pay FVF on shipping charges, which will cut into our ever shrinking profits even more, forcing us to RAISE our shipping charges to off-set this new expense, not lower it. "

You are correct. And eBay doesnt care about its sellers or how much profit the sellers make- they only care about their own profit, which is why they are luring and cheating everybody into having to sell with free shipping. Its a win win for ebay, and a lose lose for the seller. (oh yeah, if you offer free shipping, they will give you a five DSR rating for shipping cost- BUT WHO CARES ABOUT DSRS ANYMORE ANYWAY!!! THEY ALREADY TOOK AWAY THE 10% DISCOUNT, AND NOW THEY ARE TAKING AWAY THE 5% DISCOUNT AND MAKING THE 20% VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO REACH ANYWAY!!!
DSRS MEAN NOTHING NOW.

[westernstargifts]

Can someone explain this to me? How will this work? The way I see it is that as sellers we will now have to pay FVF on shipping charges, which will cut into our ever shrinking profits even more, forcing us to RAISE our shipping charges to off-set this new expense, not lower it. Or is there something eBay knows that they have not told us yet? Did they work out a deal with Canada Post to cut our shipping rates or will they tell us which Post Office ships for FREE? (Haven't they been encouraging us to use FREE shipping?)

There were a lot of posters on the U.S. board saying the same thing. The new FVF on S/H will cause them to raise their shipping prices, not lower them. Some that sold in the $40 to $50 range said they would experience a decrease in their rates but in the lower prices ranges like mine...mostly $10 to $20....it would increase our cost, not lower it. Those that sell dollar items will not be able to make enough profit anymore unless they raise their prices. Those that sell bulky and large items with high shipping costs will pay more because they cannot afford to ship the merchandise free.

Many of the posters were upset because eBay has once again tried to pass an increase off as a decrease and has insulted the intelligence of its sellers. It seems that eBay is punishing everyone for those who still abuse the system and make all or most of their profit on S/H to avoid fees.

There is one good point. If you ship small items and can offer free shipping within Canada (for those who list on .ca only), then the FVF on S/H to international will be nil. On the other hand, if you are a TRS, you will only receive the 20% discount on the purchase price, not the S/H, unless you offer free shipping.

I still have to spend some time doing the math to figure out what will be best for me. There is no way I can raise the prices of most of my items to include the shipping because people would just not buy them. Shipping free without raising prices would be foolish...I want to make more profit, not less.

As for those who sell for 1 cent and make their money on S/H, they could just start their listings at 99 cents to make up for the extra fees and still overcharge for S/H. (Although I haven't taken time to see if that would actually work).

[dipmicro]

Well, eBay does not want to be "bargainland" anymore and thats good. Buyers have been aggravated with those $0.99 items with $20 shipping, which came in bubble mailer for $2. The problem was wide-spread.

Canadian problem is not with eBay but with CanadaPost, so channel your frustration to proper place. Perhaps if enough angry voices message CanadaPost CEO, ombidsan and any CanadaPost staff with any bit of authority, it may help THEM to restructure their business so we can finally use them for ours.

I understand that eBay has some special rule for Canada - the FVF will only be charged on domestic shipping even if item sells internationally. You can cheat a little - if you have mostly non-Canadian sales, subsidize shipping to Canada and your final fees on ALL sales will be lower.

Also it seems the shipping FVF will not be subject to TRS discount. We have many combined orders, so I think I will move the shipping into item price PARTIALLY.

Completely free shipping is stoopid, because buyer ends up paying it anyway and if they combine multiple items, they are actually PUNISHED instead of rewarded by buying more. I disagree.

Instead, I plan to move the "weight" component of shipping into item and leave the base shipping cost with free additional item. The weight component for CanadaPost domestic Lettermail is about $2.50/kg so 10g item will be surcharged by 2.5c, 0.1kg item by 25c etc.

I think this new rule will weed out the cheating sellers and level-up the play-field. If you are looking for alternate shipping methods, perhaps I can help if there is enough of you.

[moltencore]

The problem is not with Canada Post. It is with an American based company which appears to be basing WORLDWIDE policy on USPS shipping rates.

In my category (MEDIA) on .com sellers can only charge a MAXIMUM of $4.00 USD for shipping say 1x LP. The actual cost for USPS media mail postage is LESS than that.

In Canada, the cheapest method I can ship 1x LP by is Expedited Parcel (5% discount on posted rates with my VentureOne card!) and it costs anywhere from just under $7.00 CAD to $14.00 CAD to ship this item within Canada.

To ship to the USA my CHEAPEST option (Light packet) has a postage cost of $7.91 CAD (more than DOUBLE the U.S. rate).

So... are the execs at eBay's headquarters in the U.S. who came up with this genius policy uninformed as to actual International shipping costs or... is it a protectionist business policy benefiting U.S. based sellers to the expense of everyone else?