Vintage Magazines not Qualified for Media Mail
Summary: opto_tinker shared their experience of mistakenly using Media Mail for vintage magazines due to eBay not blocking that option until the shipping stage, resulting in additional costs. Several participants explained that items with advertisements, like magazines, do not qualify for Media Mail and discussed USPS rules and rates. 2paxaday and others expressed frustration over eBay's shipping options and offered solutions like using Ground Advantage. Some users suggested that eBay needs to improve its platform by warning sellers earlier to prevent such issues. opto_tinker argued for better user experience through system enhancements.
The fact that vintage magazines are not qualified for media mail wasn't brought up at the listing time, so I unknowingly selected Media Mail. As the result, the buyer paid for media mail rate. When I have to generate the shipping label, eBay suddenly woke up to block out the media mail option. I ended up having to cover the $5 difference in mailing cost out of a $10 sale.
It would be nice to have a warning or block out the option at the time of listing.
christworks
·3 days agoThis is an unfortunate oversight that has tripped up many sellers who don't understand what does and what does not qualify as media mail.
Generally nothing with advertising can be shipped using Media Mail. Most vintage and certainly modern magazines cannot be shipped MM since they have advertising in them. Some vintage children's magazines did not have advertising and technically can be shipped MM, but you can't list them in the magazines category because you will be blocked from buying a MM label.
opto_tinker
OP3 days agoIt’s an issue that can be easily fixed with a few lines of code.
christworks
·2 days ago@opto_tinker I never said it couldn't. The fact is for whatever reason eBay has not choosen to do that, despite that many people, including myself, have asked them to fix it.
This is not a new topic. It comes up here several times month and has for several years. If eBay isn't going to fix it, you need a work around which is to educate yourself on what is and isn't allowed. Then you won't make mistakes.
2paxaday
·2 days agobut you can ship 1st class in envelope for a decent price as long as the buyer doesn;t mind if the envelope is bent to fit inside a box.
2paxaday
·2 hours agoI have had media mail option blocked on MEDIA...and it's a pita. list in a different location but be mindful of the rules. You CAN ship First Class mail and have savings over USPS ground BUT...! If this is a collectible item you might want to STIFFEN the package against the carrier folding/bending it into a box, but THEN it is no longer media mail or First Class.
To get the benefits of FIRST CLASS it must not be beyond a specified thickness weight or dimension. The carrier or sorter gets it in with "flats" and can bend it. Collectors won't want their special item bent or in any manner harm its value SO..........
You are left with the USPS ground.
2paxaday
·2 hours agoHere's the idiotic thing the USPS should address with these vintage magazines: set a date limit.
In the VINTAGE category there may be advertising, HOWEVER, lots of the business advertised are DEFUNCT. They are not getting the benefit of their ads placed DECADES ago because they are no longer in business.
Just as the copyright office has a date limit attached to a book etc.... after set dates/times the "creation" becomes "public domain".
I feel like there should be the same for media mail because, as i mentioned, many of the ads in those OLD periodical are related to businesses or products that not long exist.
But...I suppose that would get TOO COMPLICATED, and the "leadership" at the USPS is now fubar.
tobaccocardyahoo
·4 days agoFar too many sellers make no effort to understand the process of selling online and packing and shipping their sales.
They are unprepared to be successful.
Ebay cannot educate people who will not educate themselves or prevent their errors caused by their failure.
Many sellers never read the existing help information and cannot figure out the proper category to list in.
opto_tinker
OP4 days agoNever heard of a seller being successful by reading the eBay help pages. lol
hdod7267
·3 days agoThere is not a lot of empathy from the "board experts" here. Ebay should have fixed this issue long ago. They do the same with "ebay standard envelope" on some categories that should qualify but don't.
I'm a full time seller and when I began I did not know the full rules on Media Mail... heck I still double check the regs from time to time. Pretty sure I even shipped a few mags media before learning about the ad caveat. I mean magazines are media after all.
Its awful UX that would be easy to fix. The only thing worse are those damn outdated ebay help pages and AI chat bots.
Good luck with your sales!
opto_tinker
OP2 days agoThe “board experts” seem to be in the business defending the silliest bugs. I wonder why. Wouldn’t a better user experience help everyone, including eBay?
opto_tinker
OP4 days agoSince eBay knows that the item cannot be shipped by a selected shipping option at the time of shipping, they know that at the time of listing already. They could at least pop up a warning for it, which would avoid putting the seller in a difficult position to either cancel the sale or subsidize the shipping out of pocket.
1786davycrockett
·5 days agoThere are many instances when eBay seems to provide too much information, and winds up accused of being part of the "nanny state".
And other times eBay is accused of not providing enough information, and eBay is accused of withholding knowledge.
One way or the other, eBay always seems to be the loser.
opto_tinker
OP4 days agoTough, lol. Unfortunately it is their job to make the customer experience positive. In this case, it is a simple job of hooking up the mechanism that blocked the generation of the print label for media mail at the time of listing, and/or at the time that the buyer pays for the shipping cost.
tobaccocardyahoo
·3 days agoUnfortunately, a positive customer experience is beyond the grasp of many of the "customers".
Sisyphus would have a better chance of having a positive customer experience than many who try and fail at selling on Ebay.
opto_tinker
OP3 days agoGreek generalizations aside, I actually gave a very specific suggestion to eBay on my comment above as a programmer myself. It’s rather unbelievable that a company started during the dotcom era still can’t get the basic core code to work properly.
kensgiftshop
·5 days agoIt's up to the seller to know what they can and can't ship with the different services.
opto_tinker
OP4 days agoTrue, but unhelpful. Any paid platform should have some sense of responsibility for helping the users.
mam98031
·5 days ago@opto_tinker What do you mean by "The fact that vintage magazines are not qualified for media mail wasn't brought up at the listing time..." Brought up by whom exactly? This is information a seller is expected to know about. ALL sellers are responsible to know what can and can't be shipped via various methods with various carriers as well as the rates that are charged. This is not something that Ebay does for the seller, only a seller can stay on top of this so they don't run into the same issue that you did.
We all make mistakes. This one was a relatively inexpensive one, so that is good. Just learn from it and move on. If you need more information on rates or shipping methods via USPS, just ask.
opto_tinker
OP4 days agoI posted this as a suggestion to eBay. Yes, a person is supposed to know everything that is related to his activities. But if you work for eBay, I would view your comment in a rather negative light.
mam98031
·4 days agoI don't work for Ebay nor do I know why you would even say that. If someone from Ebay were to post in the Community, which is very rare, then it would be well marked as being an Ebay employee.
Your post was not presented as a suggestion for Ebay, so I didn't take it that way, nor did others. I am however sorry I upset you in some way, that was not my intention.
BTW Ebay does help with this issue, but they can only do that by category. So in many categories that one might list an item it will not allow Media Mail to be purchased on Ebay. With over 2.5 Billion active listings at any one time, Ebay simply is unable to determine if something is eligible for Media Mail on a case by case basis.
As I stated before, we ALL make mistakes, we are after all humans. I've done it and so has most other sellers. We learn from our mistakes, do the best we can to work out of it and then move on a little wiser.
eburtonlab
·6 days agoMagazines do not qualify for Media Mail -- nothing with ads qualifies.
A good summary can be found here:
https://www.pitneybowes.com/us/blog/usps-media-mail-shipping-guide.html
Or here:
https://about.usps.com/notices/not121/not121_tech.htm
2paxaday
·4 days agoSo...Books...without ads is media...so why the wrong shipping charge?
2paxaday
·4 days agoI'm looking into this.
HOWEVER...twice in the last 30 days I had an accepted shipping and was paid by buyer for that shipping and eBay tried to charge me 3x the amount for the shipping label. That's not media and not kosher. Fortunately BOTH TIMES I was able to pack and pay independently at my post office.
In another matter, if I want to send a Magazine 1st class mail, I should be able to do so.
yet another matter! I had a bumper sticker for sale and wanted to do first class mail because it was small enough to send that way. I COULD NOT get the list form to accept that 1st class selection.
SO...the only choice was to jump my price and include free shipping. It worked once. But again? And another time it would not allow me to select include free shipping.
One of the many reasons I prefer to remain with eBay over other apps is because the shipping is 1) discounted on many items and 2) I have options on shipping choices. But things look really different compared to years age when I was more active, now that I have come back to liquidate more assets.
And I can't find a help menu that can answer these questions or issues.
mam98031
·4 days ago@2paxaday You seem to have a misunderstanding about what can be legit to ship via Media Mail. You have some magazines listed that your amount for shipping will only cover less than half of what it actually costs to ship the item.
Then there is the fact that USPS has raised rates a few times this past summer. The most recent increase happened on October 4th. Hopefully you are staying current on all these changes, but judging from the shipping rates you have listed on your listings, I think you missed some important increases. Don't get me wrong, on some of your items you likely have them priced OK, but others you will absolutely lose money on.
It is the responsibility of ALL sellers to stay updated on rate changes by Carriers. Ebay does announce them on the Announcement board as well.
There isn't ANYTHING stopping you from shipping magazines via Ground Advantage, a method of shipment USPS added a few years ago and discontinued 1st class mail for packages. But if you want to ship a magazine via Ground Advantage, you can certainly do that, in fact that is the recommended method of shipment. What you are NOT allowed to do is ship it via Media Mail. That has always been a no no.
You just need to update yourself on the rules and the carrier rates. Most of the issues you are experiencing are just due to you not being aware of the changes, NOT because Ebay is doing anything wrong.
2paxaday
·2 days ago · EditedI did, and I can tell you that sending a magazine...as long as it can be bent to fit in a mail box is cheaper by 1st class mail, wich I have done more than once over last 90 days or so. You have to check the weight, size of the envelop/package against the USPS chart. I had an item...NOT a magazine that ebay wanted to charge me $7.70 for. My calculation on the fly was $2.56. And when I got to the post office it actually turned out to be 2.27.
So yeah...you have to KNOW a lot about it and they wya I would have lost money was if I choose to buy that $7/.70 postage from eBay.
Don;t get me wrong. EBay is often a GREAT value, and certainly convenient than running up to the PO after every sale. But people assume that FIRST CLASS mail is going to cost too much.
Now, regarding VINTAGE magazines...A lot of people DO NOT WANT THEIR SPECIAL PURCHASE to be bent or harmed in anyway. Thus, in an envelop that you stiffen to prevent folding you are not media mail and probably not FIRST CLASS either.
FYI...don't know when you looked at my items but I did do a review and change some shipping prices. Maybe 2 or 3...
Anyone wants to know, 2 decades ago I was a mail carrier, NOT a clerk, and there have been MANY changes...not one that I can say was a "good" change. In fact still very disappointed in much of it. But, except perhaps for VERY LARGE or HEAVY items USPS is STILL the best overall choice for shipping.
PLUS: IF you decide to go to PO yourself and pay at the counter, stop and take a cell phone picture of the envelop/box. It documents the condition as it left and while the PO still does it will show the tracking number label. then send it to buyer as confirmation that it is sent and on the way. It's also a bit of personal care...something seriously lacking in today's sonic world or rush.
mam98031
·2 days agoThen you will have to take it directly to the PO and mail it as 1st class mail is not offered on Ebay. What I previously explained about Ground Advantage is correct. FYI, I never said you couldn't ship a magazine via some other method, I said you can't ship it via Media Mail.
Ebay isn't over charging you. They are charging what they must for the class of mail chosen. You are shipping via a different method than Ebay even offers, so you are not comparing apples to apples.
Often sellers don't want to use 1st class mail because for many reasons. For example, I primarily sell a lot of different types of craft books. Each one is shipped in a stiffened package, well wrapped in order to help prevent damage by the carrier. I would never send any of my books naked in an envelope without something to stiffen the book to prevent bending. That would be totally unfair to my customers that expect to receive a new conditioned book.
"in an envelop that you stiffen to prevent folding you are not media mail and probably not FIRST CLASS either." This statement is incorrect. You absolutely can ship a stiffened package via MM or Ground Advantage, but NOT via 1st Class Mail.
2paxaday
·Oct 7, 2026 at 6:56 PMI don't send books (hard or soft) 1st class, it's boxed, because it is a book.
Yeah...either you don;t understand or I didn't communicate it well.
You also can't get by with a cheap shipping in an evelope if it's past a certain thickness.
Clerks have a Gauge that determines if the thickness passes muster.
I am particular about packaging and shipping. And often *confirm my shipping with the postal clerk. Yep...it takes time but if you are there anyway to pick up mail or send more items it's worth it. But it's nice to give a buyer a break on shipping IF it is legit. An option is nice, like in one instance a buy selected a different shipping option and they paid for it.
Funny you should say 1st class mail isn't offered because not long ago I DID find it by searching in "change shipping". No, it's doesn't always appear...but sometimes it does.
When I decided to sell some bumper stickers what I had to do there was calculate the cost etc. and add to the price with "free shipping".
Insurance is another buyer option, but it also protects the seller.
Go read the info at usps.com, get a good scale, even take a small scale to the PO and compare your weight with their weight. Take the time to compare--or not. What you have time to do is up to you.
Everyone is in such a rush...sadly. Instant gratification, or demands of high stress life. :-(
opto_tinker
OP4 days agoGood to know. But these rather unintuitive rules were not enforced by eBay until recently. I have to admit that I have shipped vintage magazines using Media Mail on eBay before and never had a problem. Lol
2paxaday
·2 days agobut rules tighten so you need to be more specific now...flexible...perhaps note in description that shipping price reflects USPS regulation... and IF a magazine collector doesn't want his purchase bent to fit in the box they need to choose shipping as a ground parcel.