Zombie thread but:
How do people sell things with shipping fees of only six dollars, eight dollars, when the post office is telling me it's going to cost me $12 or more to ship the same thing? I don't get it.
- They may be using Calculated Shipping, which gives the correct rate from their zipcode to your zipcode. Parcel rates are based on dimensions, weight and destination. You were looking at Flat Rate costs to a single zipcode.
- They are buying Paypal shipping labels. I don't know about the USPS/Paypal pricing agreement, but here in Canada we get between 5% and 17% off PO counter rates by buying and printing our parcels at home.
- They may (but this is rare) be buying mint postage stamps at a discount from a local or eBay stamp dealer. I don't have much supply at the moment, but my normal price on postage is 20% off PO counter rates including taxes and shipping.
If they are using Flat Rate or Free Shipping, the shipping cost is included in the asking price. Look at the total the customer pays, not how it is made up.
Which is cheapest?
A $5 item with $10 shipping?
A $10 item with $5 shipping?
A $15 item with Free Shipping?
There are a lot of things offered on eBay that are just not suitable for mail order.
Very cheap items that sell one* at a time like 99cent sportscards or very bulky or fragile items like lead crystal vases for example.
American sellers also may be able to use Media Mail, which is slow and restrictive, but cheap.
There is also the entire "you don't need tracking if you use Cookie Jar Insurance' argument but that's for another late night. Over cocoa.
*Scrapbooking supplies sell cheap, but sellers seem usually to make multiple sales, reducing costs.
