eBay shipping cost

I find ebay shipping to be easy and accurate if you do it right. You need choose calculated shipping and enter accurate weight and accurate box dimensions. If you do that, ebay will calculate the correct shipping. If the shipping rates change mid-auction, they will get it right. Also, the shipping your customer pays is based upon the rate at the post office (unless you tell them to pass your discount along to the customer) so your discount will actually only lower your cost. Yes, sometimes Priority comes out cheaper than parcel select, mostly on light and small items. The post office does this intentionally to promote their preferred product. Flat rate is your friend on heavier items but not on light items. But, no doubt, one of the most important items is the box size for accurate pricing...

Originally Posted by harsas

I find ebay shipping to be easy and accurate if you do it right. You need choose calculated shipping and enter accurate weight and accurate box dimensions. If you do that, ebay will calculate the correct shipping. If the shipping rates change mid-auction, they will get it right.

It must have been a glitch or something. The box weight and size was set when I opened the auction. Nothing that I know of changed unless eBay is bait and switching the shipping like if it's set to parcel select and when set the auction but when you go to print shipping label it shows 2 day priority. I'm still new to eBay with only 11 sales. I'll learn one day. Plus I use the eBay iPad app. May need to go back to the laptop to do sales.

Thanks

Originally Posted by Tincankeith

It must have been a glitch or something. The box weight and size was set when I opened the auction. Nothing that I know of changed unless eBay is bait and switching the shipping like if it's set to parcel select and when set the auction but when you go to print shipping label it shows 2 day priority. I'm still new to eBay with only 11 sales. I'll learn one day. Plus I use the eBay iPad app. May need to go back to the laptop to do sales.

Thanks

There are two possibilities, if the weight was right. First, the box size was wrong. Second, there is a glitch that I have found (as an aside, I have found ebay software in general to be rather "buggy"). On certain settings on the listing page, when you change them, they will refresh the page. Pricing comes to mind but there are others as well. You need to allow the page to refresh (change the item and then click in the white space) before you continue. If I don't do this, I have had the software reset anything I changed in between refreshes. Weight and shipping method are the things that get reset most often. DO NOT hit the refresh in your browser. This is something that ebay software does on its own. I have been selling on ebay for more than 15 years and I have developed some habits to avoid problems. The first is, every time the page refreshes (you go back to the top of the screen), double check all of your settings and then double check again before you go to the confirmation page. Also do a copy (to clipboard) of the text in your listing. Then after you list the auction, ebay shows you a link to check the auction. Use it. I have often found errors in the listing and then need to go back and fix them. The copy of the body text is because I have actually had ebay change my text back to the original auction that I uses as a "sell similar" for the new auction. I hate to have to rewrite the text...

As for the shipping label, you can actually change shipping weights, package sizes and shipping method before you buy the label (change dimensions and weights). Of course, the customer has already paid so this can cost you money if you did not get the listing right. I have paid many a shipping fee learning to navigate eBay's software. Trust me, it has gotten a lot better than it used to be...