Rarely will I ever use free shipping..why? because we all know shipping is never free, it is padded into the item cost, marketing ploys try to get you to believe it generates more sales....I do just fine without free shipping...You also have to consider it raises the price of your item if you are competing against others who are not using free shipping...and people start with the lowest price, and with the shipping changes made by dimensional and regional the shipping prices are scattered and really cannot be used for comparison other than the farther away a buyer and seller are the more costly it gets, unless you use a Flat Rate Pkg. Plus add in the fact that carrier prices are no longer stable as they used to be, they constantly are raising costs and sneaking in surcharges etc...so unless you have only a few items you are selling, plan on revising all your free shipping listings on a regular basis...
Tend to agree and free shipping can potentially be a disadvantage to both buyers and sellers although probably not so much in OP's case given what they are selling and shipping. If however the shipping costs can/could be significant the use of free shipping results in buyers who live in states that do not apply sales tax to shipping, which is about 1/2 of the states, paying sales tax on the shipping cost since it is embedded in the items price.
Since the buyer is paying sales tax on the shipping in these instances the seller is also paying the FVF's on the added sales tax.
