eBay International Shipping is a rip off for buyers!

[countdrewsky]

I live in Canada and will NEVER buy from a seller using eBay International Shipping (aka Global Shipping Program) and I know I'm not alone. It's a complete and total rip off for buyers. The shipping cost is outrageous and completely random. Two identical items from the same seller will have different shipping costs. I swear someone at eBay throws a dart a board and whatever amount it lands on is what they charge. To make it even worse, there is no combined shipping. If a buyer makes more than one purchase from a seller, they have to pay ridiculously high shipping on each and every item. Doesn't exactly encourage buyers to make multiple purchases, does it? The shipping time is so much longer than if a seller ships directly. A seller mails something that sold to a "shipping hub" where it sits of up to three weeks (that's no exaggeration) before a new label is put on it and it's re-mailed. That's it. A new label. That's all eBay does to rake in more profit at the expense of buyers and seller. Yes, sellers. eBay charges final value fees to sellers based on the total cost of an item including shipping. Higher shipping = higher seller fees = higher profits. Just look at the financial figures. In the 4th quarter of 2023 sales were down 4% over the same quarter in 2022, but profits were up 2%. It's a losing game for sellers. You sell less and pay more to eBay.

This is from eBay's own Q4 report on their own website:

• Returned $379 million to shareholders in Q4, including $250 million of share repurchases and $129 million paid in cash dividends
• In February 2024, the Board of Directors declared a cash dividend for the first quarter of 2024 of $0.27 per share, an 8% increase from the prior quarterly dividend. The Board also authorized an additional $2.0 billion stock repurchase program, increasing the company's remaining stock repurchase authorization to $3.4 billion

It's corporate greed, plain and simple.

[marnotom!]

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@slati_2013 wrote:

The question is what would it cost to ship the same items via the USPS? I am going to go out on a limb and say no matter what eBay charges, it will still be probably cheaper than the USPS. 

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@slati_2013, if the item is listed properly with accurate information on the item’s shipping dimensions and weight, eIS will calculate a charge for its portion of the shipping charge that is cheaper than the USPS equivalent counter rate.

The problem is that the buyer also has to pay the seller’s domestic shipping charge (to get the item to the Illinois hub) in addition to the eIS charge, and this can add a significant amount to the overall shipping charge paid by the buyer.

[countdrewsky]

You're totally wrong. I buy a lot is small paper items... stamps, postcards, photographs... US and UK sellers who ship normally don't charge more than $3 or £3 to mail to Canada. With eBay shipping from the US it's usually from $15 to $25 per item and as much as £25 per item from the UK. 

[marnotom!]

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@countdrewsky wrote:

You're totally wrong. I buy a lot is small paper items... stamps, postcards, photographs... US and UK sellers who ship normally don't charge more than $3 or £3 to mail to Canada. With eBay shipping from the US it's usually from $15 to $25 per item and as much as £25 per item from the UK. 

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@slati_2013 is not "totally wrong," @countdrewsky.  Those US and UK sellers mailing postcards are using letterpost to send those small, thin, lightweight items, and because they're sending them as letters, they don't have customs documentation.  The practice of mailing merchandise as international letterpost is actually being discouraged by the Universal Postal Union.  Several sellers posting to the Canadian eBay discussion boards have reported that their international letterpost shipments of items such as trading cards are now being subject to random checks by Canada Post and being returned to them.

In a nutshell, eIS doesn't use letterpost to forward items because it's untrackable and doesn't have the required customs documentation.  You're likely going to find over the next few years that sellers are going to have a harder time sending you merchandise by international letterpost.  (Domestic lettermail isn't an issue, however.)

[countdrewsky]

You do realize you're losing sales by using it, don't you? There are many buyers like me who refuse to be ripped off and will scroll on past. It's a lose-lose situation. Buyers lose out on things they want and sellers lose out on sales. Makes no sense.

[countdrewsky]

And we don't buy. I guess it's your intention to reduce your sales as you alienate buyers. 

[marnotom!]

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@countdrewsky wrote:

You do realize you're losing sales by using it, don't you? There are many buyers like me who refuse to be ripped off and will scroll on past. It's a lose-lose situation. Buyers lose out on things they want and sellers lose out on sales. Makes no sense.

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I doubt that @inhawaii is losing sales as a result of using eIS.  Most US eBayers can make a decent go of it just by selling within the United States, unlike us Canucks who have a much smaller domestic market.  US sellers tend to offer international shipping as a convenience, whereas Canadian sellers have to offer international shipping in order to survive.  If an international buyer doesn't buy @inhawaii's widget, it's likely that a US buyer eventually will.

I'll grant you that many if not most sellers who use eIS probably don't bother to check their listings periodically to get a sense of just how much eIS is charging on top of their domestic shipping charge.

[asset_liquidators]

I tried it for a couple weeks. I quit shipping international 20+ years ago but after reading up on it I figured I would give it a shot. I had two sales, both resulting in cancellation requests within an hour or so of purchase.

Went in after the 2nd one and disabled EIS. 

[robbie31415]

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@countdrewsky wrote:

And we don't buy. I guess it's your intention to reduce your sales as you alienate buyers. 

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So If I turn it off you don't buy at all.

If I turn it on then I alienate some of you but some still buy and increase my sales.

Sounds like EIS is the way to go. Some is more than none.

[robbie31415]

I haven't had any cancels but if I did I wouldn't care.

I use the OOS function so all cancels reflect as an actual sale increasing listing 'sold' count.

Plus eBay gives more advertisement marks for previously sold listings.

It would be different if I did auctions.

[mam98031]

Yep, the only reason ebay's profits are up is because they continually jack up fees and rob their sellers blind.

If that is your response to the OP's concern, you'd then be incorrect.  EIS does NOT cost sellers more money in fees.  In fact it costs us LESS.  When a seller is using EIS, they do not have to pay the International Fee of 1.65%.

Those massive payouts to shareholders and ebay's executives comes at the cost of fleecing sellers for every dime they make. I'm paying 25% on average per sale now, no thanks to ebay's promoted extortion, which forces you to give up half the sale to get so much as a single view.

You use Promoted listings as a CHOICE and YOU set the additional fee that you are willing to pay for a sale.  Those are all choices you have made for yourself.  While Promoted listings work well for some sellers and not so much for others, it is a choice for each seller to make.  You decided to set your percentage high, that was  your choice.  Most sellers do not use the program.

Not to worry though, ebay's competitors like Mercari are absolutely destroying ebay. Mercari also charges no fees of any kind to sellers, except for $2 for payouts.

Interesting take on this very unusual change that Mercari has made.  From what I've read, Buyers are not very receptive to having to pay the fees.  And since this change is only about 3 weeks old, it is clearly way too soon to make a determination if this was a good move or bad move.  

Your statement is a bit misleading too.  Mercari requires that sellers with listings that predated March 27th either lowers their pricing by the selling fees that use to be charged to them.  If they don't, then they are still required to pay the selling fees, not the buyer.

Time will tell how this will work.  It is a very interesting to me to watch and see how this works out in the Months to come.

[inhawaii]

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@countdrewsky wrote:

You do realize you're losing sales by using it, don't you? There are many buyers like me who refuse to be ripped off and will scroll on past. It's a lose-lose situation. Buyers lose out on things they want and sellers lose out on sales. Makes no sense.

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Not using EIS: Zero international sales.

Using EIS: Some international sales.

How am I losing money?

[carlmarxx]

When  ebay  started  their  GSP   it   cost  me my  international   buyers    ,because  they  though  all  U.S.   sellers would be in it ! Which was never the case   . Also with the USPS international  1st class   rates kept going up   didn't   help  at all  .     around   2019   ebay  started  standard international  their 1st class  version  of GSP  which was the better deal  then USPS 1st  class    international   . Ebay used DHL international   freight  shipping 

[kensgiftshop]

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@countdrewsky wrote:

You do realize you're losing sales by using it, don't you? There are many buyers like me who refuse to be ripped off and will scroll on past. It's a lose-lose situation. Buyers lose out on things they want and sellers lose out on sales. Makes no sense.

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Do you realize more sellers are willing to sell to International buyers thanks to Ebay International?

[worldcoinauctions]

I feel your pain. If I ship a single coin to Canada in an ordinary envelope to a friend I'll take a piece of cardboard, put the coin actually in it and wrap it in paper because my post office clerk will press her hands on it and feel to see if there is anything but paper in the envelope. If there is the price goes to about $14. I won't do that for ebay sales though, they have to go through the EIS program since I've had too many issues in the past with buyers claiming something did not arrive. If I had a buck for everyone who said "just mail it, it's my risk" I could just quit selling. Sure it is, and when you file the INR and laugh I'm out the whole thing. Nope.

[iamalwaysright]

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@inhawaii wrote:

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@countdrewsky wrote:

You do realize you're losing sales by using it, don't you? There are many buyers like me who refuse to be ripped off and will scroll on past. It's a lose-lose situation. Buyers lose out on things they want and sellers lose out on sales. Makes no sense.

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Not using EIS: Zero international sales.

Using EIS: Some international sales.

How am I losing money?

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I think he's talking about alienating international buyers you never would have had in the first place.

Not using EIS: 0% alienation of your pool of buyers which consists only of domestic

Using EIS: 50% alienation of your pool of buyers which is now larger and consists of domestic/international

I threw that 50% randomly to make a point. It's perspective.

Pessimist might say EIS is alienating 50% of your pool, but not using EIS is alienating none of your pool. Optimist might say 50% of my pool of 100 buyers is better than 100% of of my pool of 40 buyers.

I think we can agree though that an international buyer would probably prefer to buy from a non EIS seller versus an EIS one. That's why I like EIS as stated in my previous reply, because I can blow a competing EIS seller out of the water as illustrated by the OP and their feelings towards it. 💥