Near Impossible To Compete With Gaming Resellers Who Illegally Abuse USPS Media Mail

[baangell]

It is illegal to ship video games via Media Mail, it's been that way for a long time, just ask Amazon whom had to pay a penalty to the government for abusing Media Mail back in 2014. I know Ebay could easily block this action, at least for those who use their shipping labels. I am writing here to see if we can't petition Ebay to help shutdown these cheaters and thieves, many of whom are Top Rated Plus sellers. If Ebay doesn't stop them I fear the Post Office may just drop the option completely. Lets make the playing field fair for all.

[simba6]

The post office looks in may media mail packages now.  They seem to have gotten wise to it.

[powell-memorabilia]

That’s not my experience.  I continue to buy items on eBay that are sent via MM, but definitely don’t qualify for it.  

Using MM is such a low risk move.  Even if a seller is caught, the penalty is to pay the Priority rate.  Until the USPS makes it painful to cheat, it will continue.  What they should be doing is rejecting the shipment altogether - return to sender, flag that sender for extra screenings.

[wrong66]

So, it's eBay's fault that sellers are abusing Media Mail? eBay's fault for everything, I guess. And how about sellers who send items over 1 lb. via First Class? I guess eBay should stop them, too? Maybe calculate the weight of the item that is sold and refuse to print a label for it if they think it might ship over 1 lb.? Should be "easy" for eBay to do, right?

[bashort]

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@simba6 wrote:

The post office looks in may media mail packages now.  They seem to have gotten wise to it.

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media mail is a relic of a bygone time, I have no idea why they do not just eliminate it.

It makes no sense to me why those who use media mail  even for legit reasons are subsidised by all other USPS users 

[randyshotrods]

Media mail fills the empty space in the truck,  Like bulk freight.  That's why it can take up t oa month to move 1 state.  Empty space is lost money.  

If you want ot talk about subsidizing,  Look to the packages from Especially Chine that are shipped to the states,  Delivered by USPS and the cost of the item including shipping from China is less than I can ship it,  media mail to the next town.  That's where the money goes.  Media mail is probably closer to actual cost of transport so they don't really make anything on it.   Those other shipments are what costs us. 

[onefootflipper]

Ebay does indeed aid those sellers. Every time I go to ship a video game or magazine it defaults to media mail for shipping without me clicking anything at all.  I have to manually change it over to first class. I am sure there have to have been some times when I was making 50 labels at a time and didn't even notice that it picked media mail for me for a videogame or magazine.

However half the legitimate media mail items I sell I have to make the label from Pirate ship because they are in a category that ebay has deemed has no media mail items and blocks out the choice.

[gamersbaystore]

That's just not true, I would know, I've been selling here for a decade. Media mail is not a system that can be easily abused, they will catch those who try, guaranteed.

And how do you know they're shipping games with media mail? My game listings are set to economy, but ship first class, I do this because ebay gives garbage estimated delivery dates if I don't, then I end up with whiny buyers. I wouldn't assume because a listing says economy that its being shipped media mail. This is a bad assumption.

Likewise, USPS does take action against those who abuse media mail. They will give you 1 warning, after that you get fined like $1,000. 3 strikes and you're out, they will simply ban you from shipping with media mail altogether. in severe cases they will ban sellers from using USPS at all, not kidding.

I would be more concerned about having to compete with counterfeiters, this is my biggest gripe with ebay. I sell authentic media, movies, music, books, etc, and have to compete with people who're clearly selling counterfeit goods. ebay vets us smaller sellers, but it appears they turn a blind eye to the larger ones. Some of the biggest media dealers on ebay are obviously selling counterfeit goods, the prices are just not believable.

[ward_warehouse]

Under a pound, it's not an enormous difference from the price of first class anyway. Sure every dollar is competitive when shipping a $10 video game but it's not worth the risk. Media Mail is great when it's over a pound, like selling a bunch of books. 

[gamersbaystore]

If sellers are abusing media mail, you can report it directly to the post office. Likewise, the penalties are incredibly severe, I see no logic as to why anyone would intentionally do it. Unless they like being fined thousands of dollars and permanently banned from the postal service.

[gamersbaystore]

You really have to be careful when printing labels, ebay often defaults to the wrong service. They do this all the time with my DVD's. They will often default to priority when I go to purchase the label for a movie, even though the listing is clearly set to media mail.

[coolections]

The only  way you know if a seller is cheating is if you are the buyer and received the item MM. Are you reporting to USPS when you get such an item in the mail? OR, is this just all fabricated and you are assuming all sellers are cheating.

[caseypl]

If you're selling a cased video game, is there even much of a difference between first class and media mail rates? 

[baangell]

I agree with some of what you say, the huge resellers are selling so dirt cheap they must be counterfeit. $3.50-$4 for a book or movie with free shipping is a loss of money but yet these huge resellers keep going and going.

On the issue of how I can tell if someone is using Media Mail it is that they announce it sometimes, or the shipping cost on a video game is $3.19 or a $5 game has free shipping. There are subtle clues.

[baangell]

It is very easy to see what shipping cost is on many items. What do you think when you see a video game with a shipping cost of $3.19? Especially when you can go to their page and see the service is 'Economy Shipping (USPS Media MailTM)'.