Shipping Fees

[sister*rose]

Why are shipping fees so ridiculously high? They are often more than the item costs. Are fees not regulated through Ebay? Can a seller just charge whatever they want? 

[redmodelt]

If you mean the shipping cost, no they are set by the carrier. Sellers can add handling fees. You can see the shipping cost when you look at the listings and is your choice to buy or not based on item, shipping and your sales tax or if free shipping (which it is not, just that cost is built into the price), item plus your sales tax. 

[klhmdg]

Because nothing is "free" and all shipping companies have raised prices through the roof. 

Gas, Covid, lack of employees, paying everyone else $20+ an hour.... 

eBay cannot tell USPS, UPS or FedEx what to charge.  

eBay can only "regulate" their own fees and all they seem to do is raise those also.

Yes, a seller can just charge whatever they want. eBay doesnt own the item and cant chose what to sell it for. 

[1tuna]

there are fees and then there are costs

sellers can charge what they feel like charging

75% of sellers offer free shipping already

I charge $5 for shipping 6 ounce packages and its a bargain

priority mail for many items is going to cost real money 

#6 stanley plane

griswold dutch ovens #7-8-9

the above items are heavy common items that are going to cost money to ship

I prefer to ship watches  but I still like tools and cast iron

the majority of successful buyers learn to shop total price

@sister*rose 

[fuzzface50]

shipping fees are based on weight, size of package and the way you want it shipped. Item price has no bearing on the shipping price. 

People that don't ship don't always realize how expensive it is until they actually ship something.  Not sure if it is because so many companies offer free shipping and they think it is actually free or what it is? 

I was behind a lady shipping shoes at the post office and she had $2 in her hand. She was flabbergasted when the teller told her it was $10.?? something. She actually thought $2 was enough and she was expecting change back out of that besides. 

[ward_warehouse]

Half of my stuff is free shipping but for the half that fluctuate in price too much the further it goes, I have  a shipping table set up so it goes by weight or cubic then switches over to a MFRB if that's cheaper to further zones. So I couldn't possibly make it any cheaper for my customers. And yet out of all my star ratings, "reasonable shipping cost" is still the only one that's not a 5/5. 

So you can't just blame it on the sellers. There's only so much we can do with non-stop postage increases. 

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@sister*rose wrote:

Why are shipping fees so ridiculously high? They are often more than the item costs. Are fees not regulated through Ebay? Can a seller just charge whatever they want? 

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Price has absolutely nothing to do with the cost of shipping.

I charge $3.95 to ship a piece of paper.  It doesn't matter if that piece of paper costs $1 or $100.  The actual cost to me to ship that piece of paper with tracking ranges from $3.50 to $4.50 depending on the zip code to where it is going.

For larger things it costs even more.  To ship a 5 pound 12x12x12 package coast to coast costs $27.75 Priority Mail.

https://postcalc.usps.com/Calculator/MailServices?country=0&ccode=US&oz=02134&omil=False&dz=90210&dm...

If that five pound package is just an inch larger - 13x13x13 -  look at the dramatic difference in price:

https://postcalc.usps.com/Calculator/MailServices?country=0&ccode=US&oz=02134&omil=False&dz=90210&dm...

Priority Mail is now $64.15

Most sellers don't overcharge on shipping.  They charge high shipping costs because that's what it actually costs.