How does a seller collect shipping costs?
I sold several items on eBay nearly 20 years ago. Everything seemed pretty straightforward. I just sold something last week. I saw the item sold, and saw the address information to send it to. I took the item to the post office (buyer requested USPS general mail), packaged it and sent it. I paid the postage with insurance. Now it looks like I won't be getting reimbursed for the shipping, according to my Payment information. My question is... would I have had to purchase a shipping label from eBay in order to get reimbursed? Doesn't make much sense to me.
16 comments
mam98031
·2 years ago@kestr-2047
You had your listing set up with $69.97 for shipping. Your buyer would have paid that when they paid for the product. You can see this on your order.
https://www.ebay.com/sh/ord?filter=status:AWAITING_SHIPMENT
For the future, if you print your shipping label through Ebay, you can designate the payment for the shipping to come from you funds in Managed Payments and you get a discount on the shipping. You paid full retail when you took the box and shipped it at the Post Office.
lacemaker3
·2 years agoActually, that is not correct. The listing had calculated shipping, and according to eBay Terapeak Research, the buyer paid $49.33 for shipping.
Twenty years ago, many eBay users did not use PayPal. Many preferred USPS money orders. If PayPal was used, it was free unless the buyer funded the payment with a credit card. And, the eBay fees were tiered, depending on the value of the payment, and they worked out to considerably less than 10%, especially higher-value payments.
Final Value Fees as of Feb, 2004. The maximum percentage for regular auctions and fixed price, was 5.25%, for items that sold for up to $25.00. The overall fee was less if the item sold for more than that.
But, you always had to pay an insertion fee, whether the item sold or not. And there were reserve fees, and listing upgrade fees, and different fee schedules for some categories, etc..
mam98031
·2 years agoMy bad. I forgot to take into consideration that when I viewed the listing it would show me what it would cost me to have it shipped to my address, not the actual buyer's address.
mustang707
·2 years agoAlso, back then PayPal fees were collected separately at 2.9% and ebay was around 10% for a total of 12.9%. Today the fees are combined as one (13.25%) in Managed Payments.
mam98031
·2 years agoThat is not much of a difference. In fact when we transitioned to MP, in most categories we were paying 10.2% to Ebay and 2.9% to Paypal with a 30 cent per transaction fee. 10.2% + 2.9% = 13.10% FVF So we currently pay 0.15% more in most categories.
kestr-2047
OP2 years agoThanks for the replies. I found a few more detail on the transaction. I'm still shocked that I'll walk away from a $1000 sale with around $840. Last time I sold here, I sold roughly $1600 worth of electronics and walked away with over $1500. I guess I should have marked the price up higher. Lesson learned...
monroe67
·2 years ago"I'm still shocked that I'll walk away from a $1000 sale with around $840. Last time I sold here, I sold roughly $1600 worth of electronics and walked away with over $1500."
You say the last time you sold anything on eBay was "nearly 20 years ago."
Imagine how shocked you would be if the last time you bought a tank of gasoline was nearly 20 years ago.
Or a dozen eggs. Or a movie ticket. Or anything else.
Prices always go up.
iamalwaysright
·2 years agoOr an iPad. I’d be super shocked and force my sales guy to give me a ride in his Time Machine.
albertabrightalberta
·2 years agoYou said you purchased the shipping label and insurance at the post office. I hope you also paid for signature confirmation because on a payment of $750 or more, online-viewable s.c. is required for seller protection.
What that means is that without s.c., even if tracking shows delivery, a buyer who claims non-receipt will get a refund.
Please tell us you got s.c.
mam98031
·2 years agoThat isn't exactly correct. Your buyer paid you $1,000.00 plus $69.97 for shipping = $1,069.97.
If you were coming back to Ebay after 20 years away from selling expecting the fees would be the same as they were 20 years ago, that would be a bit more than unrealistic to be sure.
Fees are pretty straight forward and shown in detail on the Order on the right side if you want to take a peek. You are charged the FVF on the total amount of money you received from the buyer and that includes what they paid you for shipping and any sales tax.
Your above numbers do not consider that the buyer paid you for shipping.
How much did you pay for shipping by taking the package directly to the Post Office?
inhawaii
·2 years agoJust curious...
Why would you not buy your shipping labels from ebay?
What is it you don't like, the savings or the convenience?
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoWhen you create your listing, you determine the shipping options available to your buyer and the cost they pay.
You receive that shipping cost less the final value fee on that cost when the buyer pays for the item. You determine how you wish to spend that shipping to fulfill the order.
If you chose "free shipping" the buyer pays nothing and you have to pay to ship the item.
fern*wood
·2 years agoYou don’t have to buy your labels through eBay, but buying them online is much cheaper.
soh.maryl
·2 years agoThe buyer pays you the item price, the shipping fee and the state sales tax, if applicable.
The shipping fee that the buyer pays the seller is used to pay the shipping cost, or the label.
This process has not changed substantially in all the years eBay has been in existence.
bonjourami
·2 years agoNo, you dont need to use the Ebay labels, the buyer pays you for the shipping, and you then pay for it. A buyer cannot check out a purchase without paying the shipping fee. Remember, your selling fees are subtracted with the sale.You can go to Sellers Hub to see all the details of the transaction.
solidguitar1961
·2 years agoThe money will be included in your pay out . You can use the money that is processing to buy the label through Ebay.