Estimate shipping cost.

[skysurfer73]

Greetings. I’ve been a buyer on eBay for many years but never sell anything.  Now I want to try. I did some research how to estimate shipping costs and options but there is something I still don’t understand. If I sell an item and I expect that an item could be purchased either from the US or  from overseas, how will do find out more precise shipping cost? Lets say I figured that if someone purchase an item from Australia and shipping cloud be around $100. I can show shipping cost $100 on my item page. But what if someone from US or Canada would want to buy it and will see such shipping cost of $100. Most likely that customer won’t buy it because of shipping cost. Is there a way to show a flexible shipping cost based on possible buyers country? Thanks for help. 

[krazzykats]

Pack up the item, weigh it, measure it. Use calculated shipping.

[richard1rst]

Never EVER!"Estimate" shipping costs. When you create a listing enter the size and weight of the package. Select the method by which you will ship (USPS, first class, priority, FedEx, etc) and eBay will calculate the shipping based on where the buyer lives.

YOU do not state the shipping costs, eBay will do that for you.

[nobody*s_perfect]

You don't need to know the shipping cost.

eBay listings can be set up with a built-in shipping calculator which will automatically show the shipping cost from your location to that of any member who looks at your listing.  Just take a look at eBay's listing form, and you'll see this setup option. You just enter the package weight and dimensions and choose which shipping service(s) to offer.  The shipping calculator will automatically do the rest.

[bigdeals.etc · Accepted solution]

Yes. I'm assuming you are in US. For US shipping, it's separated as domestic shipping. That is a separate price from international.

When displaying international shipping, you can choose/group specific countries that you want to offer the same shipping price. You'll see that when you click to add an international shipping cost. There's boxes for different countries that you check off to include them in the group. For instance, I grouped Canada and Mexico buyers to have the same shipping price, and a different price for all other countries.

[skysurfer73]

Now it makes sense. I didn’t catch the eBay will calculate shipping for me. Thank you 

[skysurfer73]

Yes. I live in US. So if I expect the item could  be purchased  either from US or from overseas then I may want need to group shopping, or it is optional? 

[nobody*s_perfect]

Setting up country groups with specific shipping costs is completely unnecessary. It's a labor-intensive alternative to just using calculated shipping.  USPS prices change yearly at the end of January so if you set up flat rate table, you have to re-do them every year.

For new sellers, it's probably prudent to stick with domestic shipping for a while, anyway.

[bigdeals.etc]

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@skysurfer73 wrote:

Yes. I live in US. So if I expect the item could  be purchased  either from US or from overseas then I may want need to group shopping, or it is optional? 

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No, you don't really need to group countries if you don't want to. You can just put one average price for all countries... but you'll probably get less purchases from Canadians if you are charging them the same price to ship to say Japan.

@nobody*s_perfect  is correct that you can just do calculated shipping when just starting out (to decrease workload and not overwhelm yourself). I just learned by not using calculated shipping so I'm able to use various different markups for certain (troublesome) countries.

And he also makes a good point (which I didn't initially think of but agree with), for beginning sellers just start slow and sell only to domestic by restricting international sales. Trust us, you don't need the risk and headache with international sales until you get your feet wet and learn the ropes. International sales will probably only be a small percentage for you anyway at the moment but can easily take up 90% of your frustrations. Good luck

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@bigdeals.etc wrote: .. . I just learned by not using calculated shipping so I'm able to use various different markups for certain (troublesome) countries. ... 

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Or you can just block those countries and skip those headaches altogether.

[bigdeals.etc]

I'm way too greedy for that

[3eyedfishcatcher]

The best thing to do to know the shipping cost is to prepackage the items before you finish the listing and use the actual weight & dimensions of the box. Then in the listing if you have calculated shipping selected the buyer will already see the shipping cost in the listing and after they purchase you will not have to worry about the cost being to low. Most of the shipping services are using zone pricing and the further the buyer is from you the more the shipping can cost. In the past before the zone pricing there was a flat fee for the weight and dimensions so you could reasonably guess at domestic shipping prices and offer free shipping as your price could have that cost included.

If you are going to sell on ebay regularly you really will need to invest in a shipping scale to weigh your items. Harbor freight has a good scale from centex that usually runs for 40 dollars. If you use their 20 to 25 percent off coupons it will drop the price instore or online pay for most of the shipping.

[skysurfer73]

Ok. Great. 
May be a silly question but what if I post the item and shipping cost from eBay calculator, does it mean I have to use that shipping method? There reason why I am asking is that I have company discount with FedEx up to 50-60% (I don’t work for FedEx though). May be it will be easier and cheaper for me to go that way. 

Thanks again. 

[nobody*s_perfect]

If you specify a service in the listing, then you are supposed to use the same carrier, and also either the same service or an upgraded level of service. So you could set up calculated shipping for FedEx ExpressSaver or 2Day in your listing, and then purchase FedEx shipping wherever you choose to.

Many buyers have strong opinions about carriers, often based on the performance of their local delivery person.  For instance, I avoid FedEx because the delivery people leave packages out on the steps rather than safely on the porch.  If I had paid for USPS or UPS, I'd be disappointed to get a FedEx delivery. At a previous address, my FedEx person smoked in the truck and everything stank.

You might find that eBay's USPS rates are better than what you get for FedEx, especially for small lightweight items that can be shipped as First Class packages.

[3eyedfishcatcher]

It sounds like the company you work for has a deal for labels though FedEx. You would still have to know the buyers address before hand to determine the price up front. In the listing you would select to charge a flat fee for the shipping and enter that amount in the listing. With this if you miscalculate the shipping cost you could end up under charging the buyer and paying out of your pocket. The better thing to do would be to use the calculated shipping and purchase the label through eBay as the buyer is paying shipping using your work to cut the shipping cost in half after the buyer pays would kind of be  dishonest as you would be over charging the buyer and using your work to pay for the shipping on things you sell on eBay. If your work finds out then you could lose your job and be facing theft of service charges. accouple of items they may not notice or care however long term the cost could add up and someone will notice and look into the purchases of the labels.