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 Replies: 13 / Views: 2,153 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3281 Posts |
So I recently got into my selling account for ebay. For my first items, the calculated shipping cost for each of my listings was $3.80-$4.20. I thought this was weird, so, I went back and went into my shipping settings when setting up another listing. Turns out I had the package selected as an actual package, when in reality I was just shipping stuff off in an envelope. I then changed it to "Letter" and the shipping cost went down to $0.70. I just finished one of my auctions and when I went to print the shipping label for the letter, the total cost was $2.93. Why is this, when in reality the calculated shipping for the dimensions of my envelope were $0.70, but I was charged $2.93 to print the label? |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10982 Posts |
Tracking? Plus it sounds like you got a Thick envelope/small package rate.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
3281 Posts |
Just did more research. Turns out that ebay forces you to pay the minimum of around $3 for the "First Class Package" as it is the minimum product that involves tracking. So even though I set it to "Letter," in the end it made me pay for the Package. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
8939 Posts |
Ok. So. Here's what I do.
For anything I want to ship in a letter I don't do calculated shipping, but fixed and charge $0.70. I select Economy Shipping as the shipping option and then put a blurb in the item desc. Never had a problem that way. If you do calculated it'll make you (the seller) overpay.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3281 Posts |
Thank you so much for that Grape. Let me get this straight. So the only Economy Shipping is FedEx SmartPost, I believe. Do I select that? Is this basically what I need to do?:  I presume this won't have tracking? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8939 Posts |
This is what it looks like for me. I just use one of the flat rate $.60 options. You may have to create a business policy to do that though.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3281 Posts |
Thank you, and what do you (as the seller) have to pay once ebay makes you print out the shipping label? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8939 Posts |
I don't print a shipping label. I just write their name on an envelope, slap a stamp on it and mark it as shipped.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3281 Posts |
Oh interesting, but won't that mean that you can't technically prove that it was delivered? I read that that can screw up your ebay rating. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8939 Posts |
technically you can't, but it's easier for me to take a hit on a .99c listing then pay 2.5$ to ship a .99c listing. It doesn't effect your rating. I ship around 1/4 of my listings this way and I'm still a top rated seller according to ebay. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3281 Posts |
Alright well, should I start doing that then? I'm a new seller so I'm not sure if it would be too dangerous to try to do that. Would you recommend I do this with my 17 Stars?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8939 Posts |
I mean, go ahead. Don't do it for anything valuable obviously, but I've never had a problem. I also work at a coin store in Silver Spring, MD and we ship probably well over 100 letters a week that way and rarely have an issue. Sometimes you do, and you may have to eat the loss, but it's quite rare. Personally, I've shipped around 100 or so that way and only ever had 1 coin lost, so a 1% loss rate is pretty good.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3281 Posts |
Thanks a lot, I'll go for it then. It's ridiculous to have to pay x3 what the coin is worth for shipping. I believe you can also print out a stamp or label directly from the USPS website, which has the price of around $0.55-$0.70 for a letter. Might be the easiest option. I'll simply just add a flat rate shipping cost of $0.70 as you said. Thanks a lot for the help, wouldn't have been able to do this without you Grape!
Edited by SilverCents
06/23/2020 5:43 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8939 Posts |
No problem, happy to help!
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Replies: 13 / Views: 2,153 |
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Posted 06/22/2020 9:36 pm
