Fellow Sellers! My USPS Priority Mail shipping discount has wildly fluctuated since April 2026. Has yours too?
Summary: lifeofbryan73, a seller, expresses frustration over fluctuating USPS Priority Mail shipping discounts on eBay since April 2026. They report inconsistent charges, such as higher costs for shipping closer to California. stephenmorgan suggests USPS price adjustments as the cause, while mam98031 clarifies that eBay was not hacked, but experienced a DDoS attack unrelated to USPS pricing changes. mam98031 also mentions upcoming rate increases and highlights a lack of communication from eBay on these matters. lifeofbryan73 appreciates the clarification and requests more information on the Seller Forum.
I'm a seller.
Since the eBay "shutdown/hack" in April of 2026, the shipping discount for my USPS Priority Mail has gone up and down without any sufficient explanation or remedy from eBay "Customer Service."
Background:
99% of my shipments are the same size and weight, and I ship them Priority Mail. I use the 14x13x3 boxes. My parcels weigh about 1 pound, 13 oz. Therefore, the only shipping variable is location in the United States. My shipping costs are lower the closer to my home state of California (Land of Taxes) and higher the further away, naturally. Makes sense, right?
Problem:
With each sale I make with the above criteria, the discount eBay provides me for using Priority Mail has been changing up and down. My usual discount (don't know if I'm allowed to share that) sometimes drops by as much as 50%, while I see other Carrier discounts rise to as high as 70% (FedEx, USPS Ground, UPS). For example, today I sold two items, same size and weight. One shipping to Arkansas, the other to Virginia. The cost to ship Priority from CA to Virginia was $13.70.
The cost to Arkansas $16.31?!
To ship closer to my home state, I have to pay MORE?! My shipping discount was cut by almost half! Why?
HAS THIS HAPPENED TO YOU?
I've made numerous complaints, with one supervisor agreeing there was a glitch in the system that needs to be examined. NOTHING SEEMS TO BE HAPPENING?
eBay: Fix. The. Glitch.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
mam98031
·1 week ago@lifeofbryan73 Ebay was not "hacked" in April of 2026. First we need to make sure that is understood. There was NEVER any data or information breached or in danger either.
It was however a Distributed Denial of Service hacking. A simple explanation of a DDoS is an attack to overwhelm a site with traffic. You can Goggle it for more detailed information if you like. But Ebay was NOT hacked.
The reason you are seeing differences is USPS pricing has absolutely NOTHING to do with this DDoS attack. But rather rate increases that have already been announced by Ebay and USPS in July, August and again in September. Apparently you missed seeing these notifications. And take a seat, but we have yet another increase coming on October 4th. I do have a thread on this as well as a couple other of the increases in the Seller Forum if you are interested in updating yourself.
It certainly has been a crazy ride with USPS in recent months.
lifeofbryan73
OP1 week agoThank you for the clarification, mam98031.
As I wrote, eBay has provided me NO information regarding USPS, good or bad.
A link to your Seller Forum thread would be appreciated.
mam98031
·1 week agoIt is the responsibility of ALL sellers to stay current on many things, one of which are the shipping rates with carriers the seller uses. Ebay does announce stuff to sellers and issue announcement, but if you do not subscribe / join the Announcement board, you aren't likely getting their messages. But keep in mind that this information is often in the News too. USPS doesn't keep it secret normally.
Here is a link to my most current thread I started on this subject. There is another one, but there is an announcement on the Announcement board back in August and July for increases too. Also when you are in the Announcement board you will see a current announcement by them for the increase happening this coming weekend. FYI the information they provided is a bit incorrect. But on my threads it clearly states the increases.
https://community.ebay.com/forum/selling-57920/topic/usps-october-4th-2026-rate-increases-483007/
stephenmorgan
·2 weeks agoYou can go here and see eBay rates before you purchase shipping.
https://www.ebay.com/shp/calc/rates
You can get the same rates elsewhere as well.
stephenmorgan
·2 weeks agoNo glitch, the price fluctuation is because USPS keeps adjusting their prices.
You discounts thru eBay are the same as anyone else using eBay would get.
lifeofbryan73
OP2 weeks agoBeing charged more to ship to Arkansas than Virginia from California is Orwellian Math (2+2=5).
The most I paid to ship Priority has been $14.51: Maine, Kansas, Michigan.
Why aren't our Seller Newsletters covering this information?