EBAY.COM SHIPPING CAP INCREASED FOR BOOKS, VIDEO GAMES, DVDS ETC

[momcqueen]

If you list on ebay.com and sell from Canada, this is for you:

BOOKS, MUSIC, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAME SELLERS: WE’VE INCREASED THE MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE SHIPPING COSTS ON...

For many years now, sellers of books, music, movies and video games have been subject to maximum permitted shipping costs when listing on eBay.com.

Based on US shipping rates, these limits have been historically challenging for Canadian sellers, who typically face much higher shipping costs on media items.

To make it easier for Canadians and other non-US sellers to list in these eBay.com categories, the maximum allowable shipping costs in the Books, Music, Movies and Video Games categories have been increased significantly.

Books, Music, Movies and Video Games are the only eBay.com categories that are subject to shipping cost limits. There are no shipping cost limits in place on eBay.ca.

With these changes in mind, we encourage all sellers to remain competitive with their shipping costs. Offering buyers a low shipping cost – or even free shipping – is a great strategy for attracting more potential buyers and generating more sales.

Learn more about maximum shipping costs.

For more information: http://announcements.ebay.ca/2017/02/23/7947/

also http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y17/m02/i24/s01

[ypdc_dennis]

Just a response to the competition.

Ties in with the A-river making shipping something sellers can set for those categories (effective March for .com and May for .ca). The A-river goes from flat fixed rate to adjustable shipping rate for sellers in the media categories with an increase in base fees and 15% of the adjustable shipping rate. Lots of moaning and groaning in the A-river forums over the significant fee increase and delight at the thought of being able to set shipping.

eBay should just kill the shipping cap completely and treat media just like any other category.

-..-

[ypdc_dennis]

At least the eBay.ca announcement had someone proofreading when listing the new caps.

The help page on eBay.com the other hand has the cap for Music cassettes set at 252 dollars...

[momcqueen]

$252. Snicker.

[recped]

I'm not sure what anyone is grumbling about....this is fantastic news for anyone selling in the affected categories.

[momcqueen]

Grumbling? I posted the announcement to ensure more people SEE the good news, and then I snickered about a typo. I don't think anyone is grumbling. At least not here, I can't speak for the dotcom board, or ecomm blog. 

[cumos55]

The next step could be ...   USPS removes Media Mail as an option.

Could this adjustment by eBay.com be an indicator of things to come

[recped]

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@cumos55 wrote:

The next step could be ...   USPS removes Media Mail as an option.

Could this adjustment by eBay.com be an indicator of things to come

---

Removing Media  Mail would require Congressional action. For more than a decade USPS tried to end Bound Publication mail (similar to MM but for magazines etc.) the best they could do was to remove it as a retail service and increase the minimum volume requirements and require mailers to apply for a permit to use the service.

At some point in time Media Mail will go away just like the Book Rate ended in Canada but it's a very long and slow process of which I've heard very little from USPS in any of their extensive "path to the future" statements. USPS would also have to overrcome the extensive lobbying from the RIAA, MPAA, AAP or IPBA.

USPS can barely get Congress to allow them to close a few rural post offices so I wouldn't be too worried that MM is going away next week, next month or, next year.

[femmefan1946]

Poor dotCA.

This makes it worthwhile listing my  heavier, thicker books on dotCOM worthwhile.

I moved lighter books to dotCOM last year and was able to move to Free Shipping thanks to the drop in the loonie.

Up to $20 for shipping! Quite a change from $4!

[femmefan1946]

eBay should just kill the shipping cap completely and treat media just like any other category.

Do many eBay booksellers actually ship by Media Mail? I've seen a lot of criticism of the service for being slow and for the confusion over shipping vintage magazines and catalogues, which do not qualify because of their advertising component.

[cumos55]

On eBay.com it is $20.00 US... which becomes  a bit more than $26.00 Canadian dollars.with today's exchange rate

Listing in Canadian dollars on eBay Canada is working well for me...

However, there may be a few books that will do well when listed in US dollars on eBay.com.

Then with this cap of $20 on eBay.com, will Canadian sellers that use Canada Post be competitive with sellers on eBay.com that choose to ship  at prices higher than $4.00 US  and  up to $20.00 US.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@cumos55 wrote:

The next step could be ...   USPS removes Media Mail as an option.

Could this adjustment by eBay.com be an indicator of things to come

---

As I speculated above, this is an eBay response to the changes the A-river is making in the next few months -- and has nothing to do with USPS.

-..-

[recped]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

eBay should just kill the shipping cap completely and treat media just like any other category.

Do many eBay booksellers actually ship by Media Mail? I've seen a lot of criticism of the service for being slow and for the confusion over shipping vintage magazines and catalogues, which do not qualify because of their advertising component.

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I use it for records, shipping out of Niagara Falls.

Average delivery time to the East coast is 4 or 5 days, West coast is 6 or 7 days, the Pacific NorthWest is a slow spot, add an extra 2 days as are Alaska & Hawaii which take at least 9 days.

I have never had a Media Mail package take more than 9 days to the lower 48, the majority are delivered within 7 Calendar days, obviously faster if they are close.

Some sellers may see slower delivery if the first sort facility does not handle a lot of Media or Parcel Select and stuff sits for an extra day or two for a full container but in general most of the ranting from sellers about speed comes from sellers who had one bad experience or even no experience with MM and are just repeating the party line about it being terrible. Sort of like "all foreigners are scammers" or "low-ball offers mean trouble", "eBay want to get rid of small sellers" and all the other garbage that is repeated ad nauseam around here )here mostly being in the USA).

Bottom line, it's slow compared to Priority but what would anyone expect for a service that is a quarter the price for a cross country trip.

[amcdc79]

Does this mean we will get better search results now that we are under the maximum?

In the past, I recall ebay saying, that if you were over their maximum, your item was further down, than if your shipping for it was under the maximum. Not really anything regarding the issue, in the announcement.

[recped]

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@amcdc79 wrote:

Does this mean we will get better search results now that we are under the maximum?

In the past, I recall ebay saying, that if you were over their maximum, your item was further down, than if your shipping for it was under the maximum. Not really anything regarding the issue, in the announcement.

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NO! This has nothing to do with search.

Before this change you could not list a Media item unless your shipping charge was at or below the max. Well it was possible if you used calculated shipping which is near useless for Canadian sellers listing on .com

[reallynicestamps]

Well it was possible if you used calculated shipping which is near useless for Canadian sellers listing on .com

And when I stop and think, I use Calculated Shipping on large and heavy books so that I can manage Regional and National rates domestically.

International shipping doesn't really come into consideration.

So the big ones will stay on dotCA.

Looking through my book sales, on that ID, there is no real difference in number of books sold in USD and in loonies. If there is any dropoff in US buyers it has been made up in overseas buyers.

[Anonymous]

Finally eBay got wiser!  I don't list those items on eBay.com but if I do, I will NOT ship them without tracking numbers.

I have been shipping my items with tracking numbers to Canada, USA, International countries for almost 3 years now, to protect myself.  Never mind the shipping costs, the buyers can choose not to buy my items if they don't like my shipping costs but since this announcement, the buyers will have to accept them, no more whining from them!! LOL!!

[momcqueen]

Here's something of a curiosity for me. This book was listed on ebay.ca and I use Calculated Shipping with no handling fees always. Why do I keep getting this orange flag on Bulk Edit?

[ricarmic]

Does it do anything if you click on the + beside the orange flag? One would expect it to explain why via an expansion? Or does it just say costs are capped?

[momcqueen]

Yes, you'd think it might but, no, it doesn't. Expanding the text only repeats the same error message.