Specified USPS First Class when listing a lot yet eBay only shows USPS Ground Advantage for label?

[pamcki_5877]

This has happened twice in the last week.  I have listed lots and in creating the listing eBay allowed me to specify USPS First Class as my shipping option (it had been defaulted to Ground Advantage and I changed it to First Class).  The lots gets listed and sold with the cheaper First Class shipping, and that is what the buyer paid.  Then, at shipping time, eBay presents *only* a Ground Advantage label as a purchase option for me?  If I go this route I lose money on the shipping.  Why let a seller select a service when listing that they then cannot purchase from eBay?  I know I don't have to buy a label from eBay but is a convenience to do so.

[wastingtime101]

Hi @pamcki_5877 . eBay allows sellers to offer a large variety of shipping services to suit their business needs, however eBay does not sell postage for every type of shipping service or carrier.

First Class Letter / Flat service is untracked and not available through eBay labels.

You can purchase First Class Letter/Flat postage at the post office, use plain old postage stamps, or buy a label through stamps.com if you have an account with them.

That disc could be shipped as a First Class letter but it would incur the non-machineable surcharge.

If you ship using that untracked service, you will have zero protection against a non-receipt claim.

For a $30 disc in a category that's not immune to fraud, personally I would upgrade to Ground Advantage tracked package service. That decision and risk assessment is up to you.

[pamcki_5877]

Thank you for the response and advice.  I should have mentioned that I have also chosen eBay Standard Envelope service for a past listing and again it did not display as a purchasable label at shipping time.  Reading more about Standard Envelope it may be that my item was not in a valid category to qualify for that service?  Fair enough, but that could/should be discerned and disqualified at listing creation time, not at shipping time (eBay appears to have the logic to make that judgement call, why wait to shipping time to apply it?).  Thanks again.

[wastingtime101]

Yes, I've seen the same complaints about ESE (eBay Standard Envelope), that it should not be an available option on the listing form if the category is ineligible.

Best advice I can offer there is to check the ESE category eligibility list before offering it. You can download the Excel doc here:

https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/shipping/choosing-a-carrier-and-service/ebay-standard-envelope

ESE also has price limits, like the item cannot be higher than $20 to qualify.

[kensgiftshop]

The game disk you just sold for $30 has ESE and it doesn't qualify for it.

There's only a few categories that qualify and it's only for items under $20.

[pamcki_5877]

Got it, thanks.  Won't happen again but seems kinda stupid of eBay to allow the listing to be created when a simple logic check would prevent this - a $30 item cannot qualify for a service with cap at $20!

[evry1nositswindy]

First class changed names and is now Ground advantage.  It includes tracking--I wouldn't ship anything without tracking!

[muttlymob]

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@evry1nositswindy wrote:

First class changed names and is now Ground advantage.  It includes tracking--I wouldn't ship anything without tracking!

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First Class Package is now Ground Advantage.  First Class Letter and First Class Large Envelope are still valid services.

[seattlemower]

USPS Ground Advantage is the new name for USPS First-Class Package Service. 

This was explained when the change was made sometime last year.

Here is more information about that topic. https://faq.usps.com/s/article/USPS-Ground-Advantage

[kensgiftshop]

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@pamcki_5877 wrote:

Got it, thanks.  Won't happen again but seems kinda stupid of eBay to allow the listing to be created when a simple logic check would prevent this - a $30 item cannot qualify for a service with cap at $20!

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That's kind of like Media Mail being avaliable in auto parts, don't make a lot of sense.