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Media Mail restrictions
I've seen many softcover books selling on eBay, which are advertising sending them as media mail. However, they have advertisements inside of them, which restricts them as being sent media mail. Am I missing something here? I sold one of these books recently and at the post office, because of the advertisements inside, they were not permitted to go as media mail and it cost me almost double what I would have paid if they had been able to go media mail. Any information here?
3 comments
monroe67
Mentor1 month agoEven if eBay selected only those listings with Media Mail as the delivery method,
eBay simply cannot verify that each and every one of those listings is truly, legally, allowed to be mailed at the lower Media Mail rate. There are just too many listings.
eBay, Inc., takes the position that the seller is responsible for everything in his/her listings. This includes any assertion that the listed item is eligible to be mailed through USPS by any of methods shown in the listing, including by Media Mail.
Unfortunately, some eBay sellers just do not know that Media Mail is limited to certain types of items. They just see the lower dollar amount and say, "That's for me!!"
On eBay, I've seen Media Mail shown as the delivery method for everything from Christmas tree ornaments to women's shoes to -- my favorite -- a box of 100 red metallic fish hooks. None of those meets the Media Mail requirement by any stretch of the wildest imagination.
If the USPS opens one of those "Media Mail" packages -- or, as you said, a book that has advertisements inside -- they (USPS) will ask the addressee, the eBay buyer, to pay the Postage Due.
Most people are very unpleasantly surprised by Postage Due, and many refuse to pay it. eBay will give full refunds to buyers who refuse to pay Postage Due: the buyer would open an Item Not Received (INR) claim through eBay's Money Back Guarantee (MBG), citing "Postage Due" as the reason.
In such cases, the seller will also get two unpleasant surprises.
First, the USPS will return the item to him and, if he wants to accept it back, he will have to pay the Postage Due.
Second, eBay will place a defect on his selling record. If he doesn't learn the lesson about Media Mail and continues using it improperly, eBay could start to charge him higher Final Value Fees as a penalty. Too many defects, and his eBay selling days will be over.
kalesija
OP1 month agoThanks for the input. I guess I'm assuming that sellers are honest with the content of their listings, including postal rates and what applies to the item they're selling, but I guess that just depends on the "honesty" of the seller. Too bad there seem to be so many of them doing this. Thanks again!
comics-scifi-collectibles
Mentor1 month ago@kalesija Advertising Rules for Books
No commercial ads: Books with external commercial advertisements, product promos, or sponsored third-party brand ads do not qualify for Media Mail.
Allowed exceptions: Paperback books may contain incidental announcements of other books (such as "other books by this author" or publisher previews at the back).
Disqualifying content: Periodicals, magazines, comic books with standard external ads, or books containing promotional inserts/flyers are strictly prohibite