eBay

kagaut1670 · ‎07-19-2021

I'm brand new to selling things on Ebay, and I'm wondering what the best way to ship items is. When I listed my item that is going to sell, I selected "Calculate Shipping Cost." I have since realized that Ebay WAY under-calculated the size and weight of the package that I will be sending. So, what's the most cost effective shipping method? I would hate to end up losing money on my first sale... Is USPS Retail Ground the way to go?

Thanks in advance!

jack-falstaff · ‎07-19-2021

USPS retail ground is for retail stores... which means you have to buy a label at a physical location. Personally, for starting out, I recommend the easiest option: USPS and what service you use within USPS depends on what you are selling.

I personally dislike calculated shipping and opt for flat rate. Flat rate shipping lets you put in whatever amount you feel is appropriate.

An example would be if I were to sell books and I put in a flat fee of $5.... It means no matter what, I am only asking to be reimbursed $5 for shipping. Sometimes its actually less than that to ship, sometimes its more... but I feel it works out in the end.

For anything more than 100$, I go with USPS priority mail flat rate boxes. Its one fee just for the size of the box up to 70 lbs.

My favorite method. Call it free shipping and fold the price of shipping into the items price itself. It comes out as the same fee, and is more attractive to buyers and also the eBay algorithm that decides what buyers see first.

Best of luck!

lamber9347 · ‎07-19-2021

@kagaut1670 wrote:
I'm brand new to selling things on Ebay, and I'm wondering what the best way to ship items is. When I listed my item that is going to sell, I selected "Calculate Shipping Cost." I have since realized that Ebay WAY under-calculated the size and weight of the package that I will be sending. <snip>

That's a confusing sentence. You, the seller, are who determines the weight of the item and the dimensions of the box you will use. There is no way for eBay to know this information. USPS is the preferred method of shipment. Calculated only means the buyer enters their zip code to determine the zone in which the package needs to be shipped by USPS. Your other choice is flat rate which would not change based on buyers zone. The item weight is determined by the seller at the time you create the listing. Best of luck to you....

kagaut67 · ‎07-19-2021

Thanks! Yes, I realized my mistake after creating the listing. I didn't include the weight and dimensions of the item. Ebay auto-created those for me based on similar items that had been sold. I guess I just have to learn from this mistake and make sure to double-check in the future! Thanks for the advice. 🙂

lja440 · ‎07-20-2021

@jack-falstaff wrote:
USPS retail ground is for retail stores... which means you have to buy a label at a physical location. Personally, for starting out, I recommend the easiest option: USPS and what service you use within USPS depends on what you are selling.
I personally dislike calculated shipping and opt for flat rate. Flat rate shipping lets you put in whatever amount you feel is appropriate.
An example would be if I were to sell books and I put in a flat fee of $5.... It means no matter what, I am only asking to be reimbursed $5 for shipping. Sometimes its actually less than that to ship, sometimes its more... but I feel it works out in the end.

For anything more than 100$, I go with USPS priority mail flat rate boxes. Its one fee just for the size of the box up to 70 lbs.

My favorite method. Call it free shipping and fold the price of shipping into the items price itself. It comes out as the same fee, and is more attractive to buyers and also the eBay algorithm that decides what buyers see first.

Best of luck!

As someone that has been selling on eBay off and on since 2004 and a mail carrier since 2000, your post confuses me.

First off, retail ground is NOT for retail stores, it merely is the ground service when you purchase postage at your Post Office window. It is the same service that is called Parcel Select when purchasing postage online. And to answer the OP's question it all depends on what you are shipping. Is your item prohibited from traveling via air, is your item oversized (over 1 cubic foot). If so then yes Retail Ground/Parcel Select may be the way to go.

In a lot of cases, Flat Rate (using the flat rate mailers)may be actually more than what you would pay buying postage based on weight and distance. You mentioned shipping a book. While I do sell books and other media items charging a flat rate works because they qualify for Media Mail which is a flat rate service costing the same amount if I am shipping it 20 miles away or 2000 miles.

As for other items I usually list with Free Shipping (shipping included within my starting or BIN price). For this, I will use clothing lots as an example. I usually make up lots based on what I can get in a MFRB. The cost of this postage is factored into my starting price when I am writing the listing. I list as Free Priority Shipping. Now, if the buyer is on the other side of the country it's a no-brainer that a MFRB is the way to go. But if the buyer is close I will instead ship either in a RR'B' box or a brown box (using Priority zoned rates), depending on given the weight, whichever has the best value. I am certainly not going to put a light and fluffy sweater in a MFRB ($13.75) and ship it to Zone 2 when shipping it in a brown box would cost around $8 for the same service.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎07-20-2021

"what's the most cost effective shipping method?"

Use Media Mail for eligible items.

Use First Class package for packages up to 15.99 ounces.

Use Priority Mail for everything else, unless it's something that must travel by ground as described in the other post. Then use Parcel Select Ground and purchase postage through PayPal at www.PayPal.com/shipnow because eBay doesn't offer it any more.

For Priority Mail sometimes a flat-rate box will be cheaper but usually the weight-based rates are cheaper especially for closer buyers. You can figure this out using eBay's shipping calculator.

http://www.ebay.com/shp/Calculator

USPS Retail Ground has to be purchased at the Post Office. It costs more than the online equivalent (Parcel Select Ground) of course. I'm pretty sure it's more expensive than the online rates for Priority Mail.

jack-falstaff · ‎07-20-2021

When someone is brand new for anything, teaching everything will result in learning nothing. I like to start with a few easy options and evolve from there. Shipping has a ton of options just on USPS. When you throw in UPS and FedEx, it can be very overwhelming. It's why I always advise what I found to be tried and true methods. If you are looking for the best deals, you have to go through all the services, not just USPS. For big items, UPS is sometimes the best way... For really expensive small items... FedEx. So I opt for what is the most user friendly for someone just starting.

As for retail ground, its been a long time since I used that and eBay would not print labels or had any discount for retail ground. The stock line was that there was no agreement with eBay and USPS at the time so while you could list it as an option, you could not print a label. Maybe that has changed, I just never use it.

Some of what I said are baked in personal experiences. I don't like using media mail unless I am selling something under $10 and can easily take the hit. The few times I have used it, my stuff was lost and I had to eat the costs. I don't use it, I don't recommend it, but hey... thats just my personal experience and being a firm believer in 'you get what you pay for'.

Cheers

nobody*s_perfect · ‎07-20-2021

"As for retail ground, its been a long time since I used that and eBay would not print labels or had any discount for retail ground. The stock line was that there was no agreement with eBay and USPS at the time so while you could list it as an option, you could not print a label. Maybe that has changed, I just never use it."

eBay doesn't offer labels for Retail Ground because, as the name implies, it's a retail service which can only be purchased over-the-counter at the Post Office. There is no online resource for purchasing Retail Ground postage. The online equivalent is called Parcel Select Ground. Both services used to be known as Parcel Post.

buyselljack2016 · ‎07-20-2021

When someone is brand new for anything, teaching everything will result in learning nothing.

------------------------------------------------------

Well, yes, and no 😊

It is good to present as much as possible rather than tossing out "bit n pieces".

Also the "bits n pieces" must be accurate.

The presented choices need to be "bite size" . Something that one can look at, assess, and compare to other options to determine what is good for them in different instances.

monster-deals · ‎07-20-2021

The way the question is worded there is no answer or 100 answers.

What are you shipping? Where is it going? How expensive is it? How fast does it need to be there? How big is it? How much does it weigh?

lja440 · ‎07-21-2021

@jack-falstaff wrote:
When someone is brand new for anything, teaching everything will result in learning nothing. I like to start with a few easy options and evolve from there. Shipping has a ton of options just on USPS. When you throw in UPS and FedEx, it can be very overwhelming. It's why I always advise what I found to be tried and true methods. If you are looking for the best deals, you have to go through all the services, not just USPS. For big items, UPS is sometimes the best way... For really expensive small items... FedEx. So I opt for what is the most user friendly for someone just starting.

As for retail ground, its been a long time since I used that and eBay would not print labels or had any discount for retail ground. The stock line was that there was no agreement with eBay and USPS at the time so while you could list it as an option, you could not print a label. Maybe that has changed, I just never use it.

Some of what I said are baked in personal experiences. I don't like using media mail unless I am selling something under $10 and can easily take the hit. The few times I have used it, my stuff was lost and I had to eat the costs. I don't use it, I don't recommend it, but hey... thats just my personal experience and being a firm believer in 'you get what you pay for'.

Cheers

I agree on the information overload. That for one reason is why I didn't mention UPS and FedEx, for the second reason is that I am rural, the only availability I have with UPS is a UPS store which has random extra charges. There is also no FedEx near me and with them, there is an $11.45 charge here JUST to pick up a package and you may wait days for that pick-up.. I don't really know them well enough to hand out information on their shipping.

As far as USPS I think it's all pretty simple. Free carrier pick-up almost anywhere you have home service, no added surcharges unless you are shipping large items. Over the years I have explained it to many of my customers (I have Amish and they almost all will have some kind of home-based business). I have Amish that ship items from a family that sews the many different ladies caps to a man that raises and ships live exotic chickens and pheasants and large sportfishing catch nets. We have a specialty Amish hardware and houseware mail-order company that will ship a half dozen to a couple dozen random-sized and weight packages daily. These do not (except for the bird guy) print their labels (per their orders laws) but they figure out postage to the penny and have a check for the retail amount with the packages. So I don't think it is too much for the average eBayer to grasp as long as they have an accurate scale.

lja440 · ‎07-21-2021

@jack-falstaff wrote:
When someone is brand new for anything, teaching everything will result in learning nothing. I like to start with a few easy options and evolve from there. Shipping has a ton of options just on USPS. When you throw in UPS and FedEx, it can be very overwhelming. It's why I always advise what I found to be tried and true methods. If you are looking for the best deals, you have to go through all the services, not just USPS. For big items, UPS is sometimes the best way... For really expensive small items... FedEx. So I opt for what is the most user friendly for someone just starting.

As for retail ground, its been a long time since I used that and eBay would not print labels or had any discount for retail ground. The stock line was that there was no agreement with eBay and USPS at the time so while you could list it as an option, you could not print a label. Maybe that has changed, I just never use it.

Some of what I said are baked in personal experiences. I don't like using media mail unless I am selling something under $10 and can easily take the hit. The few times I have used it, my stuff was lost and I had to eat the costs. I don't use it, I don't recommend it, but hey... thats just my personal experience and being a firm believer in 'you get what you pay for'.

Cheers

Of course, eBay doesn't print Retail Ground labels, like I said that is a service you buy at the Post Office Retail Window. Online the SAME service is called Parcel Select.

I have been buying and selling records books and other media items since 2004. I have never had a Media Mail package incoming or outgoing go missing and the only problems I have had are with large lots that I have bought where the seller used old boxes that were no longer sturdy enough for the load placed in them. This could have happened with any service from any carrier and really had nothing to do with the Media Mail service.

kawe-4254 · ‎07-21-2021

thank you for information.

jack-falstaff · ‎07-21-2021

I just have bad luck with media mail so avoid it. I have used it for about $120ish dollar and lost about $80 ish dollars with it being lost... and when media goes lost, its not retrievable. So even though I get a lot of media mail packages just fine, I have just lost too much on it.

lja440 · ‎07-22-2021

What do you mean it's unretrievable? If you mean uninsured that is the case for all packages except Priority which carried a built-in $50 or $100 insurance. If you mean you can't file a lost claim that is totally untrue, lost claims will generate a search for it no matter the class of mail. Now back when packages didn't automatically have tracking attached that was true, but it was true no matter the package class.