Ebay "Discounted" USPS Region A box is the same Cost as the USPS.com Retail Price??

[jeltonk]

So I am printing out a shipping label for a sold item. I am using USPS Proirity Region A shipping option and it shows a cost of $11.63 stating that "ON EBAY YOU SAVE 16%" I then go to the USPS.com website and look up the same shippng method and weight and the cost shows exactly the same at $11.63? So - my question is where is my 16% discount??? Am I missing something here or is eBay telling me they are giving us discounts on Regional boxes when they actually aren't. Thoughts?

[stainlessenginecovers]

Savings is compared to 'walk in'; there is a savings using USPS website as well as ebay or walking into the post office and purchasing.

[jeltonk]

But the verbage is "ON EBAY YOU SAVE X%" - On eBay the other categories of Priority boxes you actually get the percentage off as compared to the USPS.com Priority cost, - (ie a medium flat box is $15.50, but eBay provides it for $13.75 - 11% discount) but for the Region A box the price is the same between USPS.com and eBay.

[nobody*s_perfect]

The programmers who set up the USPS site forgot to add the $2.30 "Retail surcharge" for the Regional Box prices.  All of the other Priority Mail prices shown at USPS.com are retail. If you purchased your postage at the actual Post Office, you'd pay the higher price (with the $2.30 surcharge).

You can see the actual accurate comparison of eBay rates vs Retail prices if you use the eBay shipping calculator.

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

[stainlessenginecovers]

It's not the same; one of mine would be $11.63 at usps website, $11.29 on ebay. Not the 18% that they show, but again- ebay is using 'walk in' pricing vs. their pricing. 

[nobody*s_perfect]

You're a Top Rated Seller, so your eBay price has a 3% discount below the regular online rate.

[jeltonk]

I use carrier pickup so the cost is the same to me for regional boxes online vs USPS pickup.  A little misleading as to the discount percentage in my opinion. 

[nobody*s_perfect]

It's "misleading" because USPS made an error.  eBay is accurately comparing the USPS online and retail rates. You are getting a discount when using USPS pickup because their programmers made an error so that you are only charged the online rate.

[little*blackdog]

But you can't get those Regional boxes at the Post Office.  Only online.

[nobody*s_perfect]

That's true of most of the free Priority Mail boxes. Most PO's only stock the flat-rate envelopes and boxes, and rarely have any of the other 10 or 15 types of regular-rate Priority Mail boxes.

[a_c_green]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

You are getting a discount when using USPS pickup because their programmers made an error so that you are only charged the online rate.

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...but if the seller is using USPS pickup, he must have bought the label on-line, right?

[nobody*s_perfect]

Right. He bought the label through Click N Ship at usps.com. All of the other Click N Ship prices are retail.  But the prices for the Regional boxes are at the online rate, apparently because of a programming error.

[mobley120]

Sounds like an eBay error, like eBay's pricing has it being shipped out of your regional area, in which will cost more.

EBay isn't immune to screw-ups. 

[a_c_green]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

Right. He bought the label through Click N Ship at usps.com. All of the other Click N Ship prices are retail.  But the prices for the Regional boxes are at the online rate, apparently because of a programming error.

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When I look up the postage cost for a Regional Rate A box via Click-n-Ship on USPS.com (1½ pound box going from Chicago to Boston), it shows me $9.01 as the on-line price and "Not available" as the retail price. (Trying the same shipment through eBay shows me $8.74, reflecting my 3% discount. PayPal's shipnow service does not offer RRA at all.)

That being the case, I'm not seeing a programming error per se, as there does not seem to be any way to buy the Regional Rate postage other than on-line. 

[nobody*s_perfect]

When the Regional boxes were introduced, the postage for them was only available online. After a couple of years, the retail surcharge was added so that it could be purchased at the PO counter. It looks to me like the USPS site never got updated with some of that information.