Beware of eBay's new Media-Mail Policy

[kshinhale5uzh]

Been selling on eBay for around 15 years. I sometimes list books in categories other than the book category. It's a marketing strategy...like listing a WWII book under "Military Collectibles" or a vintage bible under "Religious Collectibles".   When you select Media-Mail as your shipping choice, you will get a pop-up window asking if you are sure your item qualifies for Media-Mail, then you click something like "Yes, continue listing" and it's no problem.  I did one like this on a set of historical books last week...but when the auction ended last night, the shipping label blocked me from shipping Media Mail because my item was not listed in the proper category to qualify for Media Mail.  They tried to force me to pay for Priority mail.  A phone call to the help desk told me that because so many people cheat and use Media Mail illegally, the post office has asked eBay to do their policing and block everyone who uses Media Mail outside the book categories.  I find it hard to believe that the post office expects eBay to police us. Remember that eBay earns fees on shipping costs as well as sales prices! Seems like another money-grab to me.  

[maxiboy2013]

If the reason for this is the abuse you stop the abusers, you do not punish the people who are using the mail rate correctly.  As for the Post Office perhaps if they had employees that actually worked the could do their own policing instead of expecting other companies to do their work for them.  Just saying . . .

[decosuzy66]

I just got an email telling me that many of my listings do not qualify for media mail! Books and records are supposed to be allowed! This is ridiculous! I have to change everything not happy!

[ultra_jake_dx]

Me too! What the heck. Categories not allowed to ship media mail include books (what?), movies (why?), music,... This is not good. A lot of sales won't be made on ebay because the shipping will now be cost prohibitive. I sell a lot of books, vhs tapes, dvds, blu rays. Cheap media mail shipping rates keep the transactions flowing. This is going to eliminate many transactions.

[elmdweller]

Received Ebay's e-mail about this today. Had enjoyed using Ebay labels, but looks like I will be going straight to the P.O. again, or will stop selling sheet music & DVDs. Have to blame a programmer, as the P.O. stills says these are legal for Media Mail. GRR.

[varebelrose]

As said earlier. its a small PITA, but just go through Paypal to print your media postage. Costs the same as on eBay.

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/shipping-center

[donsdetour]

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@elmdweller wrote:

Received Ebay's e-mail about this today. Had enjoyed using Ebay labels, but looks like I will be going straight to the P.O. again, or will stop selling sheet music & DVDs. Have to blame a programmer, as the P.O. stills says these are legal for Media Mail. GRR.

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re read the message: it does not say the categories you mention are not for use with media mail

It says they are the main category you sell in.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@decosuzy66 wrote:

I just got an email telling me that many of my listings do not qualify for media mail! Books and records are supposed to be allowed! This is ridiculous! I have to change everything not happy!

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Don't change anything yet!  It's probably just the glitch du jour.

If eBat actually denies you access to MM labels for eligible items such as books, you can purchase postage elsewhere such as through PayPal until they get it straightened out.

www.PayPal.com/shipnow

[jpv258]

Thing is, I only sell movies (DVDs and Blu-rays), yet I got that e-mail... So I am a bit confused.

[nobody*s_perfect]

IMHO that's just a strong indication that the message was sent to everybody who has any listings at all that offer MM, even if only in eligible categories.

[nuclearomen]

made a purchase this weekend, got shipping confirmation this morn, seller is shipping item media mail when it's not a qualifying media mail item. This is from a large seller  also. Was curious how they were selling for $12 and free shipping when the wholesale on them is $5. 

[tacenator]

The free service PirateShip is a superior solution.  Just say it qualifies for media mail and you get the rate.  PS is superior in every way to eBay shipping and only occasionally is higher priced on some flat rates; then I use eBay.  THE BIG THING ABOUT PS IS THAT YOU CAN PAY VIA CREDIT CARD!!  With eBay constantly chipping away at our profit margins, I like getting the 1.5% that my credit card gives back. 

One click copies the tracking number to upload easily into eBay.  You can copy/paste the buyer address into PS from eBay.  Really easy and nice.  Offers insurance, signature, etc.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@tacenator wrote:

The free service PirateShip is a superior solution.  Just say it qualifies for media mail and you get the rate.  PS is superior in every way to eBay shipping and only occasionally is higher priced on some flat rates; then I use eBay.  ....

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As a Top Rated Seller, you should be getting an extra 3% discount on ALL of your Priority Mail shipping labels purchased through eBay. Not just on flat rate packaging.

[forsalebyophir]

The email must have been a glitch, I just got another email which said to disregard the previous media mail prohibited categories email. But, thanks to this thread I now understand the media mail rules much better. I rarely, if ever, sell magazines or journals, and I thought I was good following the rules, but I did not know the advertising inclusion gotcha.

[slyders_finds]

True. I had a guy send me a skateboard deck and tshirt media mail. The thing just screamed..."I am not media mail"(32" long flat box) and it still went through no problems. I am sure because of the state of the world employees are paying less attention than normal. 

[dstump2]

This is so nuts. I did the same thing. Had an autographed CD and wanted to list it as a collectible so now ebay won't allow me to ship the item as media mail based on the marketing strategy of making the category collectible.