eBay International Shipping rate tables??

[svbooks]

With the recent postal change, eBay now uses both weight and dimensions for shipping rates to customers.  Alas, we've never entered dimensions (on eBay, we do have in our own database).  I figured out how best to handle this domestically, however this would be much easier if I could find any detailed tables for eBay International Shipping.

Does anyone know if and where they exist anymore??  This used to be very straightforward, but I can't find the links anymore, they ones posted by eBay don't work.  Because dimensional shipping is different for this service than for the USPS, it's a mess figuring out how best to proceed.

[svbooks]

What makes this worse is there seems to be no rhyme or reason behind the rates anymore.  For example, two books, same exact weight and box dimensions, same shipping services offered, same destination country, WIDELY different rates being shown.  Worse, change the dimensions, then change them back, and the rates are not always the same as what the were to begin with.  Extremely frustrating.  (Yes, could change back to using USPS First Class Intl and Priority Mail Intl but I've liked this service previously.)

[shipscript]

With eBay International Shipping, you are only in control of the domestic leg. If your listing does not have dimensions or weight, eBay will use similar items in the same category to estimate the international cost for the buyer. 

[svbooks]

Interesting.  Well, all our items do have weights AND dimensions, but the rates shown still sometimes vary -- as though the software was not correctly using these weights and dimensions consistently.  What's worse is when you play around, change the dimensions, then change them back to what they were before and yet the price shown is different than 15 minutes ago.  I've also noticed lots of minor discrepancies (one item is $25.76 to ship, then $26.02 a couple of hours later for example).   Very buggy. 

In the past, there was a TABLE showing eBay International Shipping rates to all countries, but that only took into account actual weight, not dimensional weight.

[shipscript]

eBay's discontinued International Standard Delivery had rates to various delivery "zones" because the seller is the one who had to quote shipping to the buyer, if it had not already been built into the listing.  I have not seen any rate charts for the newer eBay International Shipping (EIS).

Nonetheless, I presume your issue is with shipping disparities. Are you seeing this for your domestic leg, or are you seeing this on your 54 listings that still offer USPS international shipping?

If you would like a report of all shipping services in your listing (EIS is not captured), you can run a report here:

https://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/BulkShippingScanner.htm

Previously, eBay would not add EIS to listings with USPS international set. However, I see that has changed and both EIS and USPS intl can coexist, as on this listing:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/144781000395 

[svbooks]

Oh, I never actually considered that EIS was different from EISD!  And thanks for pointing out that tool, I've never used any tools like that.

Our own database has shipping box sizes coded in, however we've never exported that or any dimension info to SixBit which we use to manage our eBay listings specifically, and hence had no dimensional info in eBay for our listings.  This was not an issue prior to this past Monday, everything worked correctly both domestically and internationally (well enough at least).

I thought I was being clever in setting all dimensions to 12" x 12" x 12" except for heavy items which I set to 12" x 12" x 13".  That actually worked a-ok for DOMESTIC shipping rates, eBay was quoting the correct rates based on weight.  Yes, this excluded passing along cubic rates to customers, but no big deal.  Also, most of our items are media so dimensional shipping rates don't apply unless the customer upgrades the shipping which is fairly rare.

Alas, that caused CRAZY HIGH international rates.  So I played around by lowering the "depth" to various things like 1" or 2" or 3" but the results varied greatly as I've noted before, as though the software was buggy.

I finally went through the SixBit database and updated the "depth" to a best approximation of cubic tier levels.  At this point, all is "good enough", seems to be close to what I'd expect.  But there are still minor discrepancies galore.

Check out:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/145568136614?ViewItem=&item=145568136614  and

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134902183329?ViewItem=&item=134902183329

Both are the same exact weight (to the ounce), same exact dimensions (entered as 12 x 12 x 2), same exact category.  To France, the former is $24.28, the latter is $26.17.  

At this point, not worth thinking much more about.

P.S. Currently, all our listings are set to just use eBay Intl. Shipping EXCEPT lightweight/inexpensive ephemera which goes by USPS First Class Intl. Letter/Large Letter rates and the ONE book you noted which I have manually set to Priority Mail International due to value.  I tried adding First Class International to a few listings but that was showing up on the main screen instead of the CHEAP EIS even though I listed that second as a choice, so decided to not offer it.  More bugs.  (Way less than on the River however!)

[svbooks]

One POSSIBILITY: The former item is $13.99, the latter $77.99.  So maybe due to built-in insurance, the quoted shipping rates are supposed to be different (unlike EISD).  That would explain this one specific "bug" at least.

[shipscript]

@svbooks 

I was just going to check the prices on the two listings. I think you are correct that the insurance value is making the difference in the two rates. There may also be a difference between DDP (delivered duty paid) and DDU (delivered duty unpaid). eBay will choose the latter if the item is below the tariff limits of the destination country, and may collect duty if above the limit.  Look at those same two listings for Canada. It appears that EIS offers both DDU and DDP options for the more expensive book, which I had not seen before.

[svbooks]

Very interesting, I can indeed see the two (very similar but not exactly the same) rates shown on the $77.99 item to Canada.   I had not seen that before either!

Well, for now I think I have things set up "well enough" so that customers are billed correctly and we're never caught holding the ball for having to pay extra for eBay's service.   There may be an occasional time our packaging is smaller enough to lower the rate a little, if so, I'm ok with that.  Just not so much with the reverse.

By the way, on EIS/EISD, I've never seen options offered for getting it to the consolidation point (Glendale Heights) IF use eBay's label for the postage.  They pick media mail for all media, can't remember what they've picked for non-media, maybe it was Ground Advantage, maybe it was Priority Flat Rate Envelope.  (I suppose we could print our own postage to that address using our postage provider, I think I have done that once or twice.)

[shipscript]

@svbooks 

When EIS pricing is given to the buyer, the buyer doesn't have an choice for inland cartage. I don't know whether eBay selects your first shipping option or your cheapest shipping option. eBay can not make up an option that you don't already have in your listing. However, they will show you how much was collected for your shipping leg. You should be able to select a different domestic shipping method if more appropriate. I have frequently upgraded from a buyer's selected Ground Advantage to Priority Flat rate if the prices were similar.  And yes, you could print your own label for inland cartage, but there's no need. Just make a different selection on eBay.