I was once a long time power seller here on eBay. Sadly, in the past I got burned twice selling high valued antiques by scammers and lost hundreds of dollars. Because of that, I no longer sell here anymore. With that being said, since I am a just a buyer here now, I still feel connected to the Ebay seller forum and Ebay in general. So as a fellow online seller (on another venue that starts with an E) and as a buyer on eBay, I thought I would still post here because we are all in this together.
I went to ship something that I sold on the other venue and got sticker shock! I sell antiques and most of my items only fit in boxes over 12X12X12. USPS is really getting really ridiculous and out of hand!! They now raised the prices of Parcel Select (Parcel Post) by messing with the ballon rate of anything over a certain size and now it is just as expensive if I sell to someone in my own state on the east coast and also if I ship it all the way to the other side of the country. I nearly fell off my chair when an item that was only a few pounds in a 14x18x14 box was going to cost my buyer $54!! It used to be anywhere from $22-$38 which was outrageous at that price as it was. Another item I just sold going to the midwest that weighs approximately 8 pounds that needs to go in a box that is 20x12x14 is costing my buyer $76.16 for Parcel Select!! This is seriously going to take a huge toll on my business. If an item is only $20-$50, I will no longer get sales now unless the item is extremely rare or valuable. The same goes for buying any items that fit in a box larger than a cube.
What are sellers like me going to do to stay in business? We all know that buyers want Fast and Free shipping because Amazon has spoiled a lot of buyers, but how many of us can afford to offer Free Shipping at these prices? Also, the new online sales tax laws that have been passed recently are only going to make buyers even less likely to buy more expensive items too now. I can stop selling larger items but, is this now going to limit my inventory to small items? Even if something is smaller, most of the items I sell are fragile antiques that need lots of bubble wrap and padding which will make the item larger thus needing a box over a cube (12X12X12).
As a seller this is really troublesome, but I am a buyer too. I am noticing the antique items I like to buy here on ebay are now showing astronomical shipping costs. For example I saw an antique teddy bear I wanted to buy, but the shipping was $48! As soon as I saw that I hit the back button. The sad part was that price was not even for Priority Mail. It was for Parcel Select. This is going to be very damaging to buyers and sellers alike.
I would possibly use Fedex if it was cheaper, but in the past when I used FedEx, it is slow as molasses and they lost 5 of my packages in one year, which included delivering my packages to the wrong house. In my eyes UPS is not much better but the USPS is a better service. I guess anyone that sells or buys something over 12X12X12 is pretty much screwed. I guess I needed to rant. This is going to hurt a lot of people, buyers and sellers alike.
penguins_dont_fly is a Volunteer Community Mentor
