eBay

brilliantnorth · ‎01-01-2021

When I listed an item I chose USPS Retail Ground as the shipping method. The item sold and now I want to pay for shipping and print a label but USPS Retail Ground isn't coming up as an option, and this is what the customer chose. I don't know of any reason this item shouldn't be able to ship Retail Ground? The package is 11x9x7 and 1 lb, 9 oz, going to zone 7. Thanks for any help!

nobody*s_perfect · ‎01-01-2021

The reason is that Retail Ground is a retail service, i.e., it's available only at the Post Office counter. The online equivalent is known as Parcel Select Ground. You might not find a label option for that, either since eBay has started phasing it out. You will find that an online label for Priority Mail will cost $10.54, which is less than what your buyer paid for Retail Ground ($12.60) .

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buyselljack2016 · ‎01-01-2021

@brilliantnorth wrote:
When I listed an item I chose USPS Retail Ground as the shipping method. The item sold and now I want to pay for shipping and print a label but USPS Retail Ground isn't coming up as an option, and this is what the customer chose. I don't know of any reason this item shouldn't be able to ship Retail Ground? The package is 11x9x7 and 1 lb, 9 oz, going to zone 7. Thanks for any help!

USPS Retail Ground is a service at the Post Office. "Retail"

It is not a "online" option.

Use Priority. The "online" rate for Priority may be close, or less than "retail ground" amount paid. I see $2 less for Pri. 2# to zone 7

It is faster, and comes with $50 insurance.

If you click on "compare services" you may scroll down and see Parcel Select (Retail Ground equalivent) Compare cost to Pri. Probably pennies difference

nobody*s_perfect · ‎01-01-2021

The reason is that Retail Ground is a retail service, i.e., it's available only at the Post Office counter. The online equivalent is known as Parcel Select Ground. You might not find a label option for that, either since eBay has started phasing it out. You will find that an online label for Priority Mail will cost $10.54, which is less than what your buyer paid for Retail Ground ($12.60) .

4pawsfundraiser · ‎01-05-2021

According to ebay.. USPS removed that option from ebay. So now when you have a heavy item or a large pkg.. they want you to use Fedex or UPS! Some ppl say ebay is pushing sellers to use those two. The problem with them two is, there is a hidden fee that you dont see till later when your billed. I will NEVER use them. Now for parcel ground, Ebay hasnt removed it from their shipping options. Becuz of this.. I had to cancel out a few sales. I have no idea what the hell is going on w/ebay. They advocate for us to communicate yet they do the total opposite. Now, anything I list that wud be cheaper going Parcel Ground. I lose those long distance buyers. I might as well sell on facebook marketplace where everyone has been going. Sold many things there already. Might just start posting all my items there now. They offer shipping. It has gotten so bad on here it's crazy.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎01-05-2021

eBay has decided to phase out access to Parcel Select Ground labels, even though USPS has made no changes in their services or policies, and it's offered by all other online postage sellers including PayPal, endicia, stamps.com, etc. You can purchase Parcel Select Ground postage through PayPal at

www.PayPal.com/shipnow

But do compare prices before you do that. For Zones 1 - 4, the USPS online price for Priority Mail is literally 10 cents more than Parcel Select Ground, and for Zones 5 - 8 the difference is less than a dollar. If you're a TRS you get a 3% discount when purchasing Priority labels through eBay, which makes it cheaper than Parcel Select.

IMHO Parcel Select ground should only be offered when necessary such as for hazmat or Oversize packages (i.e., length-plus-girth above the Priority limit of 108 inches).

sleeppolice · ‎01-16-2021

Just got off the phone with ebay help and they say that usps economy shipping (Parcel select, which is the online version of retail ground) is currently suspended as a delivery option when you go to the print shipping label option. apparently, USPS has asked major marketplace companies (ebay, amazon, etc) to temporarily reomve the option becuase of the very high volume of packages right now coupled with USPS staff shortages due to the ongoing pandemic. Ebay did not give a timeframe to restore the delivery service option but it does appear to be temporary.

I would start listing items using UPS/Fedex Ground or USPS Priority mail as preferred shipping options and price your shipping accordingly.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎01-16-2021

eBay customer support representatives are not a reliable source of information about USPS policies. The main way that USPS has discouraged use of Parcel Select Ground is by decreasing the price difference between Parcel Select and Priority Mail. Parcel Select is still available on other label purchase sources such as PayPal.

eBay started removing Parcel Select Ground as an option for shipping labels many months ago. According to an eBay staff member in the weekly chat, the removal is not due to a request form USPS but because eBay wanted to decrease buyer complaints about slow shipping, which is not quite the same thing. See post #15 in this thread:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Chat-with-eBay-Staff/Community-Chat-December-9-1-00-pm-PT-Gener...

calntom · ‎01-16-2021

@brilliantnorth

Think UPS Ground or USPS Priority as a distant 2nd choice.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎01-16-2021

Why would Priority be a "distant 2nd choice"? The cost is nearly the same. Plus you get insurance included and maybe a free box.

pooh333piglet · ‎01-17-2021

You can still make a label for parcel on the app. At least for now. I guess that will be phased out at some point.

If you cant print from your phone select the option to email it and send to yourself and print that way

calntom · ‎01-17-2021

@nobody*s_perfect wrote:
Why would Priority be a "distant 2nd choice"? The cost is nearly the same. Plus you get insurance included and maybe a free box.

At this juncture of the shipping dilemma, USPS Priority is still a risky choice if your shipment passes thru any of the certainly, still troubled distribution centers which could encompass anyplace in PA, Detroit, Chicago, NY, New Jersey just to name a few. Thus USPS Priority would be a distant 2nd choice for me at this time.

UPS has been 100% on time delivery over the last 6 weeks, over 50 shipments. (though I was in vacation mode for ~2 weeks or so here on eBay.)

USPS still is not where it was the 1st week of October. I am thinking it may still be 2 to 4 weeks before USPS clears many of these troubled distribution centers, perhaps longer. I am getting very antsy to open back up on Amazon but my business model there requires ~75% USPS 1st Class Package, thus vacation mode will remain on and the Advil bottle remains full.

4pawsfundraiser · ‎01-25-2021

I will never use either UPS or Fedex. Example why, I sold a large size picture frame. Sell was $58.00. Shipping was $29 when we printed out the label. Went Fedex. Later when going over our statement, we saw that Fedex billed us $52.00. So now.. we made NO profit on profit after paying out to ebay and paypal. It actually cost us money. So no, I will never use those two services. Unless the buyer wants to pay us the extra it cost shipping w/either service we aren't going that route and I highly doubt they'd want too. Regardless, we list now on both fb marketplace and ebay and so far.. we have been selling on marketplace. Items are cheaper then obviously ebay. No tax, no middleman and we still ship. We also get rated on marketplace too. So far now, our sales for heavy or large items would have to be up to the buyer if they want to spend that extra money yet those items are more so for buyers not as far. I highly doubt ebay will bring back USPS ground. Until that happens, I dont believe it. They say a lot of things, promise a lot of things and neither come out to be true. We just had an experience with ebay and had to write a letter to their VP.

4pawsfundraiser · ‎01-25-2021

Sadly paypal removed it too. I kno, I tired going that route and it was gone. Like I said, it's getting real bad on here. Even if you went to the post office directly to ship ground, ebay will still take their 10% profit off the shipping so you lose even more $ yet we are the ones doing the leg work. Every dollar counts. My lawyer recently said, time is money. If you deduct running to the post office, gas burned driving around for boxes, supplies etc and sitting at your computer posting items and taking pictures.... we would see, their really isn't much of a profit. Marketplace seems to be getting bigger and bigger. Everything has to start somewhere. I'm sure in time... marketplace may just blow ebay off the net. Call me crazy but, we are selling on there. Sometimes it takes longer yet.. sales on ebay have been what it used to be anyway.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎01-25-2021

Parcel Select Ground is still offered as a label option through PayPal. AFAIK, eBay is the only online postage provider that doesn't offer it. Even with the new rates that went into effect yesterday, Parcel Select still costs just a little less than Priority Mail so the savings is usually not worth the slower shipping and lack of insurance. I agree it makes no sense to run around to the Post Office, when over 90% of USPS customers can just request Carrier Pickup.