ebay charged me more for flat-rate shipping than the buyer paid

[odd_ogg]

I advertised a product with (padded envelope) flat-rate priority-mail shipping provided at the buyer's cost.  eBay posted a shipping cost of $7.75 on the advertisement when it was submitted in June.   It is now October and the item just sold.  eBay collected $7.75 from the buyer, but charged me $8.30 for the shipping label.   Anyone know why this could happen?

[Anonymous]

When you listed the item, the $7.75 was the correct price, but rate hikes took place effective 10/2. It does not appear that your listing adjusted automatically to compensate for the increase.

[wastingtime101 · Accepted solution]

Did you use flat rate or calculated shipping on your listing @odd_ogg? If you posted the price with a flat rate, then it will not automatically adjust as price changes (up or down) go into effect.

$7.75 is the Jan 2022 online price for a regular flat rate envelope, not padded flat rate.

It appears you set up your listing with flat rate instead of calculated shipping.

When you purchase a label through eBay where they waived the holiday surcharge that went into effect yesterday, $7.60 is the current online price for a regular flat rate and $8.30 is the price for the padded flat rate. Those are the rates for a Top Rated Seller, so you may see rates 3% higher if you're not TRS.

eBay charges fees on shipping so a lot of sellers charge retail rates instead of online rates as the difference will cover most of the fees.

[odd_ogg]

Thank you.  Curiously, though, the shipping mode selected was

Expedited Shipping (USPS Priority Mail Padded Flat Rate Envelope).   (I saved a copy of the advertisement as eBay presented it.)   I believe that eBay set the fee.

Whatever...  I'll be more careful in the future.  It's only fifty-five cents!

[wastingtime101]

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@odd_ogg wrote:

Thank you.  Curiously, though, the shipping mode selected was

Expedited Shipping (USPS Priority Mail Padded Flat Rate Envelope).   (I saved a copy of the advertisement as eBay presented it.)   I believe that eBay set the fee.

Whatever...  I'll be more careful in the future.  It's only fifty-five cents!

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Right, but you can choose Padded Flat Rate as the shipping method, but for rate calculation use either flat or calculated to determine the price you charge for the padded flat rate.

If you want to know for sure what happened, go to the sold listing, click "sell similar" and scroll down to your shipping section to see whether you entered a flat rate or if you used calculated. Then you can cancel the draft listing.

The reason why it would be good to check is because you may have done the same thing with other listings that are currently active.