USPS Website Rates and eBay Label rates don't match ...

[mr_lincoln]

A Buyer wanted an estimate to ship a heavy item.  I estimated size and weight and went on the USPS site and calculated Priority Mail for the shipping method as follows:

22" x 22" x 11" (5324 CUBIC INCHES) & 26 lbs = $ 90.25 Priority Mail

Buyer placed the order and I packed the item up and was able to slightly reduce both size and weight ... when I saw my cost PLUS what eBay said I saved (the ridiculously small green number in the pricing box) the total was HIGHER then the USPS site ...

21" x 21" x 12" (5292 CUBIC INCHES) & 22 lbs = $ 93.65 Priority Mail

Am I missing something here?

[calntom]

Yes, UPS Ground

[slippinjimmy]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

A Buyer wanted an estimate to ship a heavy item.  I estimated size and weight and went on the USPS site and calculated Priority Mail for the shipping method as follows:

22" x 22" x 11" (5324 CUBIC INCHES) & 26 lbs = $ 90.25 Priority Mail

Buyer placed the order and I packed the item up and was able to slightly reduce both size and weight ... when I saw my cost PLUS what eBay said I saved (the ridiculously small green number in the pricing box) the total was HIGHER then the USPS site ...

21" x 21" x 12" (5292 CUBIC INCHES) & 22 lbs = $ 93.65 Priority Mail

Am I missing something here?

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Which USPS calculator did you use? The one for Retail rates or the Business rates?

The amount eBay shows as "savings" is probably (I have never used eBay to buy postage) the difference between Retail rates and Commercial Base.

[nobody*s_perfect]

 That price of $90.25 is the postage cost for 30 pounds to Zone 8.  But the first box has a dimensional weight of (5324/166=) 32.07 pounds which rounds up to 33 pounds and should ship at $95.70 (retail). 

The second box has a dimensional weight of (5292/166=) 31.87 pounds which rounds up to 32 pounds, so the retail price to Zone 8 would be $93.95;   the online price would be $78.38 and the TRS price (with 3% discount) would be about $76.

The price of $93.65 doesn't appear on the USPS price chart for domestic Priority Mail, so I suspect that there's a math error related to the TRS discount, such as adding your total online discount onto the regular online price.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@slippinjimmy wrote: ... The amount eBay shows as "savings" is probably (I have never used eBay to buy postage) the difference between Retail rates and Commercial Base.

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OP is a TRS so he gets an additional 3% discount when purchasing Priority Mail postage through eBay.

[berserkerplanet]

The TRS PM price for 21x21x12 to zone 8 is $76.03 to be exact.

>>The price of $93.65 doesn't appear on the USPS price chart for domestic Priority Mail, so I suspect that there's a
>>math error related to the TRS discount, such as adding your total online discount onto the regular online price.

I don't think that's what's going on here. TRS discount won't affect retail rates and I don't see it happening.

Need more info (preferably screenshots). Both the amounts in the OP are wrong, the USPS.com calculator comes up with the correct retail $95.70 rate for the initial dims, the classic eBay label flow and estimating calculator come up with the right amount for the reduced dims, so it's not calculator errors, it's something else.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@berserkerplanet wrote:...
>>The price of $93.65 doesn't appear on the USPS price chart for domestic Priority Mail, so I suspect that there's a
>>math error related to the TRS discount, such as adding your total online discount onto the regular online price.

I don't think that's what's going on here. TRS discount won't affect retail rates and I don't see it happening.

Need more info (preferably screenshots). ...

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Because OP said, "when I saw my cost PLUS what eBay said I saved (the ridiculously small green number in the pricing box) the total was HIGHER then the USPS site ..."

[berserkerplanet]

Ok. I reread that line in your post, but now I'm totally confused.

Are you saying those numbers in the OP are some sort of computed combination of calculator prices, minus some eBay discount number that was displayed, divided by my age in quatloos, plus the GDP of the Republic of Bungistan?

Because the numbers still don't have any grounding in reality based on the info presented.

Either I'm missing something obvious, or there is some really tortured logic in play here

[mr_lincoln]

@berserkerplanet, @nobody*s_perfect 

I did the USPS zip to zip check last week when the Buyer asked if I would ship a Local Pick up item.  I went to the USPS site OUTSIDE of eBay to basically see what a Buyer would see if they did a zip to zip check on a price.  That's the one that came up as $ 90.65.

On eBay I get the Commercial rates and nobody*s perfect is right, I had a math error, the total counter price should have been $ 93.95 and not the $ 93.65 I originally listed.    It just seemed odd that the smaller lighter weight package cost more to ship, $ 3.70 so I wanted to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong with figuring it out and seeing that difference.   The Buyer paid the $ 90.25 but I was charged the $ 93.95 rate but with the discount you are both right, out of pocket cost with discount was $ 76.03 ... 

[nobody*s_perfect · Accepted solution]

The USPS.com shipping calculator shows a retail Priority Mail price of $95.70, which is correct for the package's dimensional weight of 33 pounds.  I suspect that you mis-entered the dimensions when you checked and got a price of $90.25, which is the price for a package that has a dimensional weight of 30 pounds as mentioned above.  

Your smaller box has a dimensional weight of 32 pounds.  The actual weights are less than the dimensional weights, so they aren't used to determine the postage cost.

[mr_lincoln]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

The USPS.com shipping calculator shows a retail Priority Mail price of $95.70, which is correct for the package's dimensional weight of 33 pounds.  I suspect that you mis-entered the dimensions when you checked and got a price of $90.25, which is the price for a package that has a dimensional weight of 30 pounds as mentioned above.  

Your smaller box has a dimensional weight of 32 pounds.  The actual weights are less than the dimensional weights, so they aren't used to determine the postage cost.

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Yes, that is probably what happened ...