So ebay just decides to stop you from using Media Mail for shipping?

[johneezstore]

So I tried to ship a car manual and it wouldn't let me use Media Mail which is what the buyer paid for.  Feebay tells me I have to go pay for it at the Post Office and if it's more expensive they will refund the difference.  What the heck?  I think if there was a competitor with ebay that even had half the traffic, 75% of private sellers would be gone.  LIke a lot of you, waiting for the day.  Between making ebay complicated, fees have risen, always taking the buyers side and many more things, they took all the fun out of this.  I started doing ebay over 20 years ago.  It used to be fun.

[dbfolks166mt]

     Thank you I am familiar with the eBay shipping calculator and I can get the Priority mail cubic rate off pirate ship. While I know 2 of the variables, size and weight, what I don't have is the 3rd and that is potential buyers locations. 

     This makes picking a shipping method difficult when creating the posting regardless of whether I use calculated shipping or free shipping. For free shipping I have to incorporate the highest cost of the best option rate to ship a package from the east to the west coast. If the item sells to an east coast buyer they have overpaid for the shipping which I can either refund or keep depending on whether the amount was significant. 

     It gets even more complex for calculated shipping since the best option may vary depending on the buyers location, it may be cheaper to send priority mail to an east cost buyer but cheaper to use a regional box for a west coast buyer. So similar situation pick one for the posting and once the item sells find the cheapest rate without impacting the delivery timeline and issue shipping discount refund if appropriate. Complex situation given the array of options. 

[luckythewinner]

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@dbfolks166mt wrote:

Sign the problem with the English language and the use of comma's which can be used to separate either independent clauses or after an introductory clause or phrase. USPS could clarify a bit better using a semicolon 

• Play scripts and manuscripts for: books, periodicals, and music.

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The separator between independent items in a list of bullet points is the bullet points. If periodicals were meant to be an independent entry, they would have been a separate bullet point.

For reference, here is the complete list directly from the DMM:

Media Mail Service

Media Mail service has special eligibility requirements for permissible contents. Media Mail rates are limited to the items listed below:

• Books (at least 8 pages).
• Sound recordings and video recordings, such as CDs and DVDs.
• Playscripts and manuscripts for books, periodicals, and music.
• Printed music.
• Computer-readable media containing prerecorded information and guides or scripts prepared solely for use with such media.
• Sixteen millimeter or narrower width films.
• Printed objective test materials and their accessories.
• Printed educational reference charts.
• Loose-leaf pages and their binders consisting of medical information for distribution to doctors, hospitals, medical schools, and medical students.

As you can see, none of the bullet points contain a list of independent items.

No one would interpret the last bullet point as saying that you can mail a "medical school" or a "medical student" by media mail.

You are grasping at straws.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I....  have always sold a lot of craft pattern books and magazines.  They are a big part of my inventory.  These do not have advertising in them, just patterns.  And I have been using media mail for them ...y

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Your pattern books and magazines aren't eligible for Media Mail, so you shouldn't be even considering workarounds.  Here's the USPS ruling regarding pattern books:

https://pe.usps.com/text/csr/PS-064.htm

[pikabo-icu]

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@dbfolks166mt wrote:

     I just returned from the USPS regional distribution center where I talked with the postmaster at that facility regarding the periodicals, media mail and several other things.  Apparently it's a common question they get due to some ambiguity in the information on the USPS site. The postmaster looked through one of the periodicals I had and in fact confirmed that it does not qualify for media male rates despite being in a gray area. I will adjust my postings accordingly. 

     He did tell me the cheapest way to send individual periodicals is to mail them as a flat rather than ship them. Rates for flats start at $1 but have a whole bunch of size and weight restrictions and also do not have tracking which is probably not a good idea for eBay shipping. For large bundles of periodicals and other non-media items because of the weight he basically said it can be a toss up between using USPS Ground, USPS regional boxes or flat rate boxes and Priority mail cubic it all depends on the size, weight and shipping distance. So there is no one best way. 

     I did mention that I had made a mistake and shipped some of the periodicals using media mail. He told me not to worry about it but to not continue to do so. Apparently it happens a lot and USPS catches a few. He noted the biggest offenders are senders of game cartridges and/or game CD's which do not qualify as media mail. Because the media mail guidelines are somewhat vague he recommended that if I ever had a question about qualification to simply bring the item to the post office and they would take a look at it and advise as to its qualification. 

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I wanted to quote this and applaud you for taking the advice & critiques in stride- you took them for what they were, constructive and took initiative to verify and correct any unintentional mistakes in your shipping.

THAT is commendable.. 

Rather than argue or get defensive YOU did the right thing..

BRAVO! 

[nobody*s_perfect]

""it may be cheaper to send priority mail to an east cost buyer but cheaper to use a regional box for a west coast buyer."

At current rates, there are no situations where a Regional box would be cheaper for some locations and regular weight-based Priority would be cheaper for others.  

The postage cost for a Regional "A" box is between the cost of a 2-pound and a 3-pound box for all Zones. And it's lower than the cost of a Medium flat-rate box.  

Likewise, the postage cost for a Regional "B" box is more than the 5-pound rate but less than the 6-pound rate for all Zones.

Even if rates change and that's no longer true, you can just offer both options in the listing.

[Anonymous]

This really wasn't the point.  Ebay has been allowing media mail for these books forever, giving the impression that it was allowed.   And now without warning they stopped it, but are still giving me the option of inserting it into my listings.

So I have hundreds of listings to re-do.

They should have handled this in a much better way.

Judy

[pikabo-icu]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This really wasn't the point.  Ebay has been allowing media mail for these books forever, giving the impression that it was allowed.   And now without warning they stopped it, but are still giving me the option of inserting it into my listings.

So I have hundreds of listings to re-do.

They should have handled this in a much better way.

Judy

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I don't mean to be combative but how the heck would eBay know what you are shipping?

Only YOU the seller know what you're sending out and it's up to YOU to select the proper shipping method.

For example: If I ship out an item $750+ I MUST include signature confirmation, for seller protection but eBay will allow me to buy a label for priority and cash out without adding signature confirmation.

Knowing the rules is on ME, knowing eBay policy is on ME.  

[Anonymous]

How does Ebay know what I'm shipping?  Because when I enter the Ebay category everything else in my listing gets adjusted for it.  If that category was not supposed to have media postage, it was up to them to have removed it from their listing app.

They keep track of everything listed and sold and they know what postage is being used for it.

Judy

[nobody*s_perfect]

eBay will let you offer Media Mail for anything, even obviously ineligible items like clothing.

Over the past year or more, eBay has been gradually expanding the categories for which they don't let sellers purchase MM.  They never announced when they started it.  However, over the past couple of days they have apparently gone just too far and they're now blocking MM labels for eligible items such as car manuals, sheet music and player-piano rolls.

[b86fiero]

Player-piano rolls:  Are they educational or entertainment?

Great Aunt had a player-piano years ago.  Put the roll into it and it played itself.  Didn't teach me how to play the piano but it sure was entertaining.

[nobody*s_perfect]

The "educational" concept appears sporadically in USPS guidance and rulings, but is mentioned in only two of the 9 categories of eligible items in the Domestic Mail Manual (see section 4.1, paragraphs d and g).

https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/173.htm#ep1113509

Mentioning "educational" specifically in relation to (d) test materials and (g) reference charts, rather than to the entire list, implies that the other types of materials don't need to be educational.  Hence the eligibility of any book even trashy romance novels, and any movie even the silliest. Player-piano rolls are specifically mentioned in section (e).

[b86fiero]

Thank you!

Perhaps USPS needs to rewrite the Media Mail rules into simple, non-ambiguous, short and concise sentences. 

[nobody*s_perfect]

The list of what you can ship doesn't seem that ambiguous to me.  But apparently questions have come up, because USPS came up with this handy reference chart for employees.  My favorite part is the separate categories for "new magazines" and "old magazines."

https://liteblue.usps.gov/news/link/2013/04apr/Media-Mail-Guidelines.htm

[farmalljr]

Pirate ship can be connected to your eBay account. When you ship, they give eBay the tracking info so you don't have to enter it manually. 

All of my international shipping under 4 pounds goes through pirate ship as well. Easy peasy. 

[farmalljr]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This really wasn't the point.  Ebay has been allowing media mail for these books forever, giving the impression that it was allowed.   And now without warning they stopped it, but are still giving me the option of inserting it into my listings.

So I have hundreds of listings to re-do.

They should have handled this in a much better way.

Judy

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I have to agree with this post. If a category allows media mail to be selected, then that indicates eBay knows there will be items listed in said category that are MM qualified. If they don't believe anything listed in a certain category should qualify for MM or be listed in that category, then they should NOT allow it as an option. 

If eBay is going to "restrict" things in certain categories, not allowing sellers to BUY the MM label, then they should NOT allow the item to be listed with MM. They have exercised some level of "control" over the shipping of the listing, then they should do the same when listing, not allowing MM to be an option if they aren't going to let you purchase the label you listed it with. 

Ask yourselves this, how many sellers who don't come here or don't know about other places to buy your shipping labels, get stuck HAVING to buy a priority label for something that they got a whopping 3.50 for to ship MM? I'm betting there is many of those situations. 

IMO, this is all a bunch of horse manure. If eBay wants to NOT allow media mail in certain categories or ALL categories, fine. I don't care. But if they are going to allow sellers to list something with MM, then they should dang well HONOR it and let them buy the label. If you aren't savvy enough to know how to get around their silly childish games, you can lose a lot of money. Just another example of eBay making stupid changes that don't help sellers at all, but cause more problems. But I'm sure it makes eBay more profits somehow, or they wouldn't be playing these stupid games.