What happened to the shipping discount we were getting when using E-bay labels?
Summary: The discussion revolves around an issue regarding the discontinuation of a shipping discount previously available when using eBay labels. tbestco initiated the conversation on May 26, 2026, seeking insight about this change. Several participants, including 1786davycrockett, albertabrightalberta, christworks, bonanza125, and authentic*vintage, responded without specific details, indicating potential confusion or lack of information about the matter. decoacl also contributed to the conversation, engaging with another participant, redmodelt, trying to decode this sudden change in shipping discounts. Despite multiple interactions, the discussion does not reach a conclusive understanding of why the discount was removed.
I allow eBay to calculate the shipping using the USPS retail rates. That difference always covers their fees on shipping and sales taxes, plus gives me something for the packing. Today someone ordered an item shipped Priority mail and not only is there no discount, but eBay did not even charge the customer the actual cost. On Ground Advantage the discount now is only 15% which barely covers what eBay charges in fees on the shipping. As a result I will no longer ship Priority mail and I have added a handling charge on Ground Advantage. E-bay takes enough of the sale as it is.
decoacl
·4 months agoReceived the Important User Agreement Update on May 28. My take on the update re: shipping.
ebay will be dictating what the buyer will pay for shipping, collecting those funds for shipping, KEEP those funds for shipping. They will send the seller a label to ship the item and it will be via a carrier that the seller may not want to use. And the seller will pay the fees on the shipping that they had ZERO control over. If I am reading that incorrectly, please let me know.
redmodelt
·4 months agoThere was just a post about this. The update say "may" in more than one place and only applies in certain category's. Indicating this is not an across the board change. From this post it has to do with using eBay labels not the amount that paid.
Read your eBay update - They are going to force yo... - The eBay Community
decoacl
·4 months agoThx for the reply. I use pirate ship almost exclusively. They trying to push pirate ship and others out?
marnotom!
·4 months agoRemember when sellers could accept multiple payment methods in addition to Billpoint and later PayPal? What happened to that?
authentic*vintage
·4 months agoMy ebay>>>Preferences>>>Account (tab)>>>shipping preferences>>>
Carrier rate settings
(Offer buyers eBay discounted carrier rates or provide your own custom discounted rate.)
Custom discounted rates
Double check to ensure you are not giving away your discount entirely - you can elect to give a discount of your choice or none at all but the default was set to give the buyer the full discount around a year ago and sellers have to opt out of that manually
bonanza125
·4 months agoWhat you should be doing to cover your fees is increasing your item cost not depending upon Ebay shipping label discounts. Adding handling charges on shipping cost will have buyers look elsewhere. What I do is I know the cost up front before I even list the item so I do free shipping and add that cost to the item. Ground Advantage only.
christworks
·4 months agoWelcome to 2026.
albertabrightalberta
·4 months ago@tbestco
I looked at several of your active and sold listings and every one of those I checked showed that you don't offer Priority shipping as an option.
If you're shipping priority mail (which you ARE allowed to do), you're paying more for the label than if you used GA.
1786davycrockett
·4 months ago@tbestco
Were you aware that USPS just raised shipping rates (without much notice) on both Ground Advantage and Priority on April 26?
That might account for the discrepancy which you are seeing.
tbestco
OP4 months agoI have been an eBay seller for over 25 years. I was aware that USPS did raise their rates, but I was not aware that the discounts given to commercial accounts were reduced to practically nothing. There is NO discount given on Priority mail and only 15% on Ground Advantage. I have shipped using Pirate Ship as well and the discount there was reduced the same way. This is something the post office did. When eBay charges us 13.6-15% fees on the shipping plus on the sales tax that means that we lose money on every shipment, besides what they charge us on the items as well.
If nothing else eBay should stop charging us fees on the shipping since using their labels has no real benefit anymore.
marnotom!
·4 months agoIt’s not gonna happen.
You may recall that the days of PayPal, PayPal based its fees on the entire value of the transaction, as well.
You may also recall that eBay dropped its FVFs when shipping became part of the transaction value.
You may also recall that when eBay moved to Managed Payments, it dropped the FVF percentages slightly to accommodate the payment processing portion of the FVFs and the addition of sales taxes to the transaction.
Best you can hope for is a drop in the FVFs overall, although the update to the UA seems to suggest that eBay.com may be moving in a different direction for its monetization of the site.
stainlessenginecovers
·4 months ago@tbestco You could NOT be more wrong!! There certainly IS a discount (vs. over the counter)
Example 15oz 12x10x5 89029 (Nv) to Zone 8 04072
Priority Weighed/Sized
$13.48 vs. $15.92
Priority Flat Rate:
Med $19.98 vs $27.17
Lg $27.76 vs $31.00
Env $9.62 vs 11.90
Bub Env $11.02 vs $13.25
tbestco
OP4 months agoYou are the one who is wrong. A customer ordered something that weighed 1 lb. in a box 6x6x6 that went from 45224 to 81413. She paid 14.50 to send it Priority mail which is what I allowed eBay to calculate based on retail over the counter rates. They charged me $14.47 for the label. That is NOT a discount. I sometimes use Pirate Ship and they have offered the same discounted rates as eBay. This is what comes up in their system. We only get a 15% discount on Ground Advantage.
