eBay

bestqualitygift · ‎07-13-2023

I am new to the community...!! Does anyone know how some people offer free shipping from U.S. while the item cost under $10 or so?? What company are they using to be able to afford it. Nowadays the shipping cost too much to offer it for free. ;(

I appreciate any help from you!!

slippinjimmy · ‎07-13-2023

@bestqualitygift wrote:
I am new to the community...!! Does anyone know how some people offer free shipping from U.S. while the item cost under $10 or so?? What company are they using to be able to afford it. Nowadays the shipping cost too much to offer it for free. ;(
I appreciate any help from you!!

There are quite a few sellers who a) do understand the full cost and b) if they know the full cost are willing to work for "pennies".

As far as lower rates, under 1lb USPS has pretty much the lowest prices but the Commercial prices eBay provides are not the lowest prices available. Presort, Zone Skip or just negotiated rates can be quite a bit lower (+/- 30% lower?). Unless you are shipping massive volume these rates are not available but you can work with consolidators who can share the discount with you.

I know most of your listings are not in the sub $10 range but you do have at least some that you are selling for less than $10, some less than $5 and with free shipping.

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep

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chapeau-noir · ‎07-13-2023

@bestqualitygift As you know, eBay offers base commercial shipping prices on their labels, so that saves sellers some money. Beyond that, beats me. I don't bother with 'free' shipping, which isn't free.

“The illegal we do immediately, the unconstitutional takes a little longer.” - Henry Kissinger

"Do not obey in advance." Timothy Snyder "On Tyranny"

slippinjimmy · ‎07-13-2023

@bestqualitygift wrote:
I am new to the community...!! Does anyone know how some people offer free shipping from U.S. while the item cost under $10 or so?? What company are they using to be able to afford it. Nowadays the shipping cost too much to offer it for free. ;(
I appreciate any help from you!!

There are quite a few sellers who a) do understand the full cost and b) if they know the full cost are willing to work for "pennies".

As far as lower rates, under 1lb USPS has pretty much the lowest prices but the Commercial prices eBay provides are not the lowest prices available. Presort, Zone Skip or just negotiated rates can be quite a bit lower (+/- 30% lower?). Unless you are shipping massive volume these rates are not available but you can work with consolidators who can share the discount with you.

I know most of your listings are not in the sub $10 range but you do have at least some that you are selling for less than $10, some less than $5 and with free shipping.

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep

caldreamer · ‎07-13-2023

You need to check your listing (photos NOT visible for many of your items).

reallynicestamps · ‎07-13-2023

Free Shipping means the seller has folded their shipping costs (postage+ packaging) into the asking price for the listing.

Which is cheapest?

A $10 item with $5 shipping? A $5 item with $10 shipping? A $15 item with Free Shipping?

When is it best to make the price $12 + $2.50 shipping and when to make it $14.99 with Free Shipping?

Not all shipping costs what it appears to.

In addition to the discounts on eBay labels, and those mentioned by @slippinjimmy , I use older mint postage stamps because I have thousands and they are still valid. But I bought them at well below their face value.

I can even sell mint postage on eBay at a discount and make a small profit after fees and shipping costs.

Which adds to what those sellers are doing.

Buying low and selling high.

bestqualitygift · ‎07-14-2023

I would like to offer free for everything but the shipping cost so much. My question is how do some sellers offer free for items as low as $10, the first class shipping would not cost less then $4-$5 so how do they make money?? I saw one seller who used Fedex for that and Fedex for small or light items is not worth it if it the item is $10.

thank you so much for your reply!!

theteamsetguy · ‎07-14-2023

@bestqualitygift ,

Like another poster indicated if you have enough volume you can negotiate very large discounts with UPS or Fedex that are not available to most of us.

I have a friend who once had a flat rate on all his packages under 2 pounds with UPS ground regardless of how far they went within the U.S. He was shipping 100 plus packages every day.

Also, at one of my former employers (One of the largest companies in the country) I used overnight mail quite a bit for documents. I usually used UPS but because we ran out of UPS envelopes and I found a bunch of Fedex ones I started to use Fedex. A few months later I get a call from UPS representative wondering why I sopped using them. He indicated my employer had a contract that charged only $3.00 for overnight letters to anywhere in the country. This was when overnight letters costs about $10.00 retail.