Ebay shipping question

[talulabelle]

SO I haven't sold on ebay in a while, and I am trying to list something with a flat rate shipping fee and it is telling me the max for flat rate shipping is $4. I have always charged a flat rate, because I am good at estimating based on the size and weight what the shipping will be ( I also research what others are charging for shipping for the same item to make sure I'm in the right ballpark) I always make sure to cover my shipping cost, and what I charge is usually a little bit over, but I figure that covers the packing materials. I have always estimated and charged flat rate because it is way quicker for me, I just don't have time to weigh and measure and try to be exact, and I have been burned before on losing money on shipping.

When did this change? and is there anyway around it? I'm listing with my Iphone app and it is forcing me to go to a screen where I enter weight and measurements and calulate shipping if I want to charge more that $4.00 flat rate.

 

[AngieMouse86]

I think it might be the app preventing you. I just started pricing out a listing on eBay.com and it let me enter much higher than $4 for Flat-Rate Shipping. I even played around with different services at higher prices, always let it go through.

 

[3boymthr]

It may be the app or it may be the category. To prevent overcharging (and having people sell their items really cheap with the profit built into the shipping) in certain categories, such as video games, books and movies, E-bay has a restriction on the amount you can use to flat rate ship because you can use media mail and it's very cheap to ship that method (a hard cover book costs about $3.50 to ship). If you want to ship a "lot" or oversized item and not lose money on the postage then you have to enter the weight and dimensions. In these categories you are also restricted in the amount of handling which you can charge (I think it's limited to like $1), which is really annoying because you can end up losing money if you have to buy packing materials. What's really really annoying is that e-bay set this $4 flat rate restriction for these categories four or five years ago and since then mailing rates for media mail have gone up several times (some one at e-bay needs to pay attention to the news ) .

ETA - the categories above are not the only categories with the restriction, there are others I just can't remember them all right now.

 

[LocalTourist]

I've lost money with the shipping prices they set before too, it is sad.

 

[talulabelle]

Thanks that answered my question...It is a book I,m shipping. When they make it that difficult to list something I will probably make change for profit on- it's just not worth my time. So annoying!

 

[Mariep26]

Thanks that answered my question...It is a book I,m shipping. When they make it that difficult to list something I will probably make change for profit on- it's just not worth my time. So annoying!

For a book try doing a seller's account on Amazon. I have had much better luck and I seem to get generally get more of my money.

 

[nunzia]

$4.00 is plenty for fair media rate shipping charges unless it is ia HUGE book or a lot. Then I raise my starting bid to cover that cost. There is also a limit in the Music/DVDs section. I think it's a good thing since so many gouge on shipping. I looked into Amazon and found their fees were much worse..for me..than Ebay.

 

[3boymthr]

$4.00 is plenty for fair media rate shipping charges unless it is ia HUGE book or a lot. Then I raise my starting bid to cover that cost. There is also a limit in the Music/DVDs section. I think it's a good thing since so many gouge on shipping. I looked into Amazon and found their fees were much worse..for me..than Ebay.

It is relatively fair, but they need to allow a little more now that shipping rates have gone up. If you are shipping a hardcover book 50C jut doesn't cover the cost of tape and a box or padded envelope or.... And if you want to be competitive and actually sell your item then you can't build too much cost into the start price of the book. Plus when you build those costs into the start price of the book their fee goes up (which I suppose is what they want you to do now that I think about it ) Same goes for DVDs and Video Games.