New seller, have Vera Bradley bags from late wife to sell

[summit.city]

I am new to selling. I have several Vera Bradley bags that were my wife's that I need to sell. I'm having a hard time trying to find a way to set shipping costs. If I have free shipping, I'm afraid I could run into problems where the final bid won't cover or will barely cover shipping costs. I looked into Priority shipping but the costs seemed awful high. How do I find a fair shipping cost while protecting myself from just giving the purses away?

I'm really in unfamiliar waters now. I also need to figure out what the names of the patterns are. So many questions, no idea where to start.

[reallynicestamps]

Free shipping works when you have a firm idea of the weight and measurements of your shipment, and where distance is not a factor.

Which would mean those Priority boxes you Americans get for free, I guess.

However, you could also use CALCULATED SHIPPING. which you will find on the Sell Your Item form. It's in the dropdown.

You choose the service you want to use, give the weight and measurements of the packed item, and when a customer looks at the shipping cost, she sees what she will be charged for delivery to her doorstep.

Remember we all  have our addresses and postal codes (zipcode) registered with eBay.

So it's much easier than you thought.

[reallynicestamps]

Oops I forgot to mention that Free Shipping isn't.

It really means the cost of shipping is included in the asking price.

Which is cheapest?

A $50 bag with $10 shipping?

A $60 bag with Free Shipping?

And customers looooove Free Shipping. They probably understand that it's not really free, but part of the price, but it's still a good gimmick.

[angelgirl327]

IMO, the only problem with free shipping is if they have buyer's remorse and want to return, then if you charged them shipping you can deduct that amount from the refund.  If you've done free shipping, it's iffy if you can. 

I would suggest calculated: cost varies by buyer location.  It will figure the cost of the shipping based on the buyer's zip code. 

As for the names of the patterns, you'll have to google them - they have a website.