Combined Shipping when Buyer Purchases on Two Different Days

[happydaysantiques]

Hi, everyone.  Back again for your kind input.

I'm currently listing some pieces from my dish set and want to list more.  But what if a buyer purchases something from the current pieces and then buys something from my next pieces that won't be listed until next week?  How will I combine shipping?  If I wait for all of the listings to end, I'll be shipping beyond my two-day shipping time.  Won't I be penalized?

I probably haven't used the correct words and hope you folks understand what I'm trying to ask.  Thanks so much for any advice you can offer.

[a_c_green]

I would not discuss what's coming up "next week" at all. Just deal with what's sold already, combined perhaps with what's currently listed right now.

In other words, if they want to hold off on paying for today's widget until the auction for another one ends in two days from now, that's fine, but there's no reason to hold off on paying in order to wait for an item that hasn't even been listed yet. That would just be getting needlessly complicated, not to mention running the risk of them cancelling an existing sale because they found a better deal elsewhere in the meantime.

Just sell, get paid and ship.

[berserkerplanet]

What a_c_green said. If you understand that, trust a buyer to not cancel, etc, and want to jump through hoops then here is a general outline:

>>until next week? How will I combine shipping?

You can't.

If the buyer pays for the initial purchase the clock starts ticking, and you have to ship and get an acceptance scan within your handling time to not take a late shipment metric ding, and upload tracking within your handling time to not take a TRS "tracking uploaded on time" percentage hit (if TRS is a concern).

If you ship the first purchase late, the only way to avoid a late shipment ding is if buyer is asked when leaving feedback and indicates on-time (I am unclear if buyers are always asked the question, and if not, what happens then)


eBay is no longer set up to do what you want - they are catering to the single new item purchase with immediate payment required, and in the buyers hands in 3 days.

Only way to do what you want is to not have immediate payment required (IPR) on a fixed price listing, hope that eBay doesn't apply their IPR to your listing, make sure the automatic Unpaid item assistant isn't on, make sure your buyer does not pay until she purchases the second item a week later, and then once she pays the clock starts, and you ship both within your 2 day handling. Some of that requires back and forth communication with the buyer beforehand to accomplish.

You would have to do some testing to determine if eBay is putting hidden IPR on your listing though or the whole exercise above would be in vain. I believe the general rule was anything under $1000 might get eBay IPR on it (even if you made sure to not apply seller IPR in the listing). If you can't be certain of that, then the above won't work. Both seller and eBay IPR only applies to fixed price listings not auctions.

Or if it is a one time thing, and your seller metrics can take the hits*, do it that way.

*that's one thing eBay says the couple of percent you are allowed on the metrics is for, but I prefer to reserve all of my couple of percent as a defense against eBay mistakes on the metrics.

[happydaysantiques]

Thank you, a_c_green and berserkerplanet, for the information.  It's always refreshing to know I can come here and receive such experienced knowledge.

Based on your inputs, my safest approach is to simply wait on any new dish listings until the current ones expire.  I was hoping to combine as much as possible, because these dishes are ironstone and weighty.  But, as you have pointed out, eBay isn't set up to accommodate it.

Thank you both, again.  Your input is much appreciated.