How can ebay sellers sell item for $3.00 and pay $2.61 for 1 oz to USA buyers?

[old_ladies_estate_sale]

Hi, I am having touble understanding how I can compete with sellers who sell like items for $3.00 a listing for similar item with free shipping ?  I sold some of mine for $3.00 right? then found out the shipping is for first class postage for 1 oz or even 2 oz is $2.61...my fees are 10% on $3.00 making that $.30 and Paypal fees is $.34 for payment...so how is this possible?  I want to be competitive with others sellers and offer a product that is quality and as cheaply as possible for shipping...just not sure I understand how they sell 100s of these items which by the way are hand made....and make no porfit and sometimes actually cost them more than money sent to them for the product.  I used to sell these same items for $.8.00 for same items and only made a minimal profit then...so what are they doing that I cannot readily see?  It is frustrating to say the least.  Any insites?  Please be kind to me...:)

[chrysylys]

Depends on the item and where the seller is located.

[chrysylys]

If you mean the tags, how big/heavy are they?  Can you use an envelope and couple of stamps?

Also, the writing over the images is not permitted.  You're allowed to have your user ID only (for now), but it isn't supposed to obscure the image content.

[partial*eclipse]

Many sellers choose to mail their items as letters or flats rather than as packages.

[daveroo]

And postage from China is REALLY cheap -- assuming they ship at all.

[fuzzface50]

Move to china and between the shipping fee they get charged and the low wages they get paid,  you would think you are living like royalty on the money they make on ebay.   🙂

[beautybylynn]

You and I (And every taxpayer in the US) has the privilage of "helping" China give cheap shipping 

[chileboy]

I've suspected at times that some sellers take their stuff to work and print the postage on their employer's meter or whatever without reimbursing them...

[duchess-at-speakeasy]

Sell 3 or 4 of the items to a buyer.  That's $9 or $12 and the same $2.61 for up to 4 oz.

Or, for small paper items such as postcards, send a non-machinable letter rather than a package.  I routinely offer up to 3 postcards with $1 postage.  Weight is 2 oz. and costs me a $0.91 stamp. Of course, I also offer FCPS at an appropriate charge if the buyer wants tracking.

Remember, postage rates increase again in January, so be sure to examine your pricing and make the adjustments soon.

Bottom line: Add up your expenses before you decide on a selling price.

~~C~~

[springs_2013]

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@chileboy wrote:

I've suspected at times that some sellers take their stuff to work and print the postage on their employer's meter or whatever without reimbursing them...

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I suspect some people also take their employer's stuff and sell it as well as using their postage meters. 

[chileboy]

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@springs_2013 wrote:I suspect some people also take their employer's stuff and sell it as well as using their postage meters. 

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Yeah, that too!

[entrust2005]

Our government signed an international agreement that US postal customers will cover the bulk of the shipping for the China and other countries.  It is our government's way of "Thanking you"

Please search Google for with the following words

forbes shipping costs from Hong kong

You will see an article from Fobes magazine from from November 5, 2017 titled "As U.S. Postage Rates Continue To Rise, The USPS Gives The Chinese A 'Free Ride'"

Basically you, the American or European postal customers have to pay a premium on all of your shipping to finance steep discount shipping for the sellers from China/ Hong Kong and other countries.  This is because our government, going back to the 1800's, sold you out to pick up the tab for their shipping on every package they sell.  It is an indirect way of punishing you for trying to make an independant living and our friends in congress (Republicans and Democrates) have not and will not kill that penalty.

The costs of the steep discounts to the Chinese are added to your shipping for all  packages.

Please read that article.  You will not believe it, but is is true

[shoptalkid]

Those sellers probably are using letters even though their listing might say "Standard (US first class package)".    USPS does NOT classify a stamped letter envelope as a package, regardless of the contents.  But those sellers don't know any better.   Some will argue on the boards "but eBay doesn't give the option for a letter".  Ummm, yes they do, it's called ECONOMYand then when you select the package size and dimensions,  select "letter" and enter the approximate size.  

[old_ladies_estate_sale]

One of the items I sold to was Ca and I am in Tn...the other was in NC and one was 2 oz...the fartherest..and the other 1 oz...and still both were $2.61 in order to get tracking..but if I mailed in a plain envelop with only a postage stamp it was $.49 no tracking...if the buyer is not honest...and lots on Ebay are not anymore...then they claim never to have gotten it and I have to refund their money...or print and cut the tags out again and send them with tracking.  So I raised my price and have not sold anymore 😞

[old_ladies_estate_sale]

Do you mean Ebay does not allow me to protect my images with writing over my images??  Sometimes I use a watermark but mostly I just write over them with my user name...so this is against policy?? Wow that is just not right.  thanks for telling me.