eBay

hjc0 · ‎02-24-2013

I may be missing something here, but I am trying to sell an item and want to ship it in a Canada Post "Flat Rate Box". But there does NOT seem to be any way to choose this option in the shipping section of the listing!

I tried selecting the "Flat" option, then "Expedited" and then it forces me to enter a shipping cost. I thought the "Flat Rate Box" cost was already set by Canada Post, so I would not have to enter a value. As well, how can I enter a number since the actual shipping cost for the "Flat Rate Box" is different depending on "regional, national, or international" ??

This is very confusing, and I am not a newbie either. I hope ebay can make clarify this. Now in addition to this frustrating problem, I wanted to send ebay a question by email, but I noticed there is now no way to send a question by email anymore!

brandeentertainment · ‎02-24-2013

it is gone ..does not exist anymore..it was usually not cost effective in most cases either ...

pocomocomputing · ‎02-24-2013

You can no longer select the eBay/Canada Post Flat Rate box option in eBay.ca Canada shipping options. The flat rate box has been discontinued since last year.

PayPal shipping labels still has Flat Rate Box as a package type when you select Expedited Parcel (EP). However, it gives an error message saying PayPal shipping is not available. It did work for a few months after the dropping from eBay so that sellers could use up old boxes. The PayPal site needs to be revised to remove the Flat Rate Box option.

I have a few boxes left (5). When it was available, it was almost always cheaper to ship by EP with my own box and the 25% PayPal discount. Only if it was up to maximum weight of 5 kg and far away was it cheaper than EP with the discount.

What to do with the old boxes? It might be an issue with Canada Post to use as is with an EP label. The boxes state that they can only be used with the Flat Rate Box label. It might be returned to sender if you use a regular EP label. So I would suggest turning the boxes inside out (break the seam and glue/tape) and use a regular brown box. Since we had to pay for these boxes ($1 or $2 each), best to use them at least as a shipping box rather than tossing them out and losing all money spent on the boxes.