@northshorejoe wrote:
Why would I choose Calculated Shipping on a First Class Item? Ebay will charge someone up to $9, depending on how far they are from me, to ship an item First Class whereas it really only costs $4.75....all the potential buyer sees is the $9 shipping cost and they're running away.
The way to use calculated and not have eBay charge the buyer up to $9 is to cap the weight of the item at 13 ounces in the listing. 13 ounces ships for the same as 15.99 ounces online, but the buyer is charged at the Priority rate for any 1st Class over 13 ounces as they are paying the "Retail" cost.
Either cap at 13 ounces, or choose "pass savings on to buyer". The 13 oz cap vs pass on savings, will give you a few pennies to use for packaging/fee when the buyer pays "retail vs online" rates, but will not charge them the Priority rate.
When printing the label you would of course put in the correct shipping weight.
Like you, I don't use "calculate" on 1st Class. I just pop in a flat rate that averages out in the long run.
As to the listings being changed to calculated that you did not expect. Do you use business policies? If so, changing a listing somewhere along the way may have had a box check mark that said to "apply this policy to" , thus making changes to many when the intent was for just one listing.
