Media Mail/eBay Category Issue

[fandan]

I created a listing through Turbo Lister in the Collectibles>Historical Memorabilia>Fraternal Organizations>Fraternity & Sorority category. The listed item was a book (with no advertising), so I chose USPS Media Mail as the method for shipping. The item sold and when I went to create the shipping label, it indicated that my item could not be shipped via Media Mail based on the category it was in. As a result, I had to ship the item via USPS First Class Parcel at a cost that was more than the $3.50 Media Mail I had in the listing.

So, my questions are:

1) How can I avoid this situation in the future? What other categories won't let me ship a book via Media Mail?

2) If I had chosen Books>Non-Fiction as a 2nd Category, would I have had the same problem or not?    

[nobody*s_perfect · Accepted solution]

Not sure about the categories questions, but in the future you could just print your postage label through PayPal because they don't have  those restrictions.

www.PayPal.com/shpnow

[groovystuff4you]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

Not sure about the categories questions, but in the future you could just print your postage label through PayPal because they don't have  those restrictions.

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There's a significant discount purchasing postage through eBay. Is that the same with PayPal?

[orangehound]

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@groovystuff4you wrote:

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

Not sure about the categories questions, but in the future you could just print your postage label through PayPal because they don't have  those restrictions.

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There's a significant discount purchasing postage through eBay. Is that the same with PayPal?

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Unless a seller is Top Rated, you get the same commercial rates on eBay as one would get on PayPal, pirateship, stamps.com, etc.

And, I'm nearly certain that the 3% discount given to TRS sellers only applies to Priority Mail.

[fandan]

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@orangehound wrote:

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ss a seller is Top Rated, you get the same commercial rates on eBay as one would get on PayPal, pirateship, stamps.com, etc. And, I'm nearly certain that the 3% discount given to TRS sellers only applies to Priority Mail.

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I am a Top Rated Seller and my eBay postage discount applies to more than just Priority Mail. I know that I get it with First Class Parcel. Would I get the same postage discount with PayPal that I do with eBay?

[buyselljack2016]

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@fandan wrote:

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@orangehound wrote:

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ss a seller is Top Rated, you get the same commercial rates on eBay as one would get on PayPal, pirateship, stamps.com, etc. And, I'm nearly certain that the 3% discount given to TRS sellers only applies to Priority Mail.

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I am a Top Rated Seller and my eBay postage discount applies to more than just Priority Mail. I know that I get it with First Class Parcel. Would I get the same postage discount with PayPal that I do with eBay?

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There is no "eBay" discount other than TRS Priority 3%.

Online shipping rates are the same other places.

It is not am "eBay" discount. They just say it is to make you think eBay is doing something special for you. They are not.

[orangehound]

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

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@fandan wrote:

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@orangehound wrote:

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ss a seller is Top Rated, you get the same commercial rates on eBay as one would get on PayPal, pirateship, stamps.com, etc. And, I'm nearly certain that the 3% discount given to TRS sellers only applies to Priority Mail.

---

I am a Top Rated Seller and my eBay postage discount applies to more than just Priority Mail. I know that I get it with First Class Parcel. Would I get the same postage discount with PayPal that I do with eBay?

---

There is no "eBay" discount other than TRS Priority 3%.

Online shipping rates are the same other places.

It is not am "eBay" discount. They just say it is to make you think eBay is doing something special for you. They are not.

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^^ This

(Whenever eBay says they've "negotiated" discounts with the USPS because eBay accounts for 15% of all USPS business, what they mean is that they are getting more profit from the negotiated rates, but they aren't passing those discounts on to the sellers).

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@groovystuff4you wrote:

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

Not sure about the categories questions, but in the future you could just print your postage label through PayPal because they don't have  those restrictions.

---

There's a significant discount purchasing postage through eBay. Is that the same with PayPal?

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As noted in the other posts, eBay and PayPal both charge the same regular online rates that you'd pay anywhere (stamps.com, endicia, etc.), except that TRS pay 3% less for Priority Mail postage when purchasing through eBay.

Specific to the topic of this thread, neither venue gives any discount on Media Mail.  The postage cost is the same for eBay, PayPal, and at the Post Office counter.

[fandan]

Okay, thanks for everyone's input. I guess I'll go with PayPal when printing shipping labels involving Media Mail.

[berserkerplanet]

Good call.

I believe the eBay Media Mail restrictions are totally category based, and there are few where it is allowed (not aware of any lookup tables that outline which cats - would have to determine that by trial and error with sold items in various cats)

Another alternative is to use the eBay classic label flow - it doesn't have the Media Mail on/off switch.

I posted a bookmarklet here:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Method-to-Automatically-Switch-Back-To-Classic-eBay-Label-FLow...
that you could use to switch to the classic flow from the new label flow when you run into one where you need to use Media Mail (or add additional Priority Mail USPS insurance, etc)