EBay Shipping

[Fire1981]

I’m trying to figure out how to ship marbles after my auctions have closed on EBay. I see flat rate at $4.95-$5.95. But then I see auctions close with $15.00 plus shipping rates. Any advice on how to lock in the flat rate I sited earlier here. Take about being a Newbie. 🔥

[Fire1981]

You win,you pay me, I ship the marbles and you leave me 100% positive feedback. I don’t want someone to look at the shipping rate and flat out laugh their way out of being a bidder. I have. What about you guys. Have you ever bailed on an auction because of crazy shipping rates🔥

RAR

[wvrons]

No matter how you ship, never ship without a tracking number. I shipped one or maybe 6 marbles in a padded envelope. You can get them in different sizes at Walmart. Different sizes and weight will be a little bit different cost to ship. Usually cheaper than the USPS small flat rate box. High dollar marbles I shipped in USPS small flat rate box. Numbers of marbles or whatever fit, I shipped in USPS small flat rate box. The flat rate USPS boxes all come automatic with tracking. You can find current price for flat rate boxes on the USPS website. You can order flat rate boxes for free on the USPAS website. Of some post office keep some on hand.   Some sellers have free shipping. They just add the shipping cost on to the starting bid.  Starting the bid at what ever they want to, plus the shipping = the starting bid.  I started hundreds of my listings with $0.99. The $0.99 starting bids all did just fine. Just as well as any other start bid. 

I have passed on many auctions with high shipping cost.  I do not understand bidding $3.00 or buying a marble for $3.00 and paying $5.95 shipping. A $3.00 marble is not worth $3.00+$5.95=$8.95  I always tried to put enough marbles in a group that they were worth more than the shipping cost. 

I have not sold anything on Ebay for a year. If you sell very much you will get a 1099notice at the end of the year from the IRS, to file with your Federal taxes. 

Ebay got more complicated every year. It is all set up for the buyer. As a seller, if someone wants a refund no matter what. Ebay will make sure they get it.  Ebay owns Paypal and every transaction goes through Paypal.  Of course there are also Paypal fees, which Ebay gets. 

They have probably made more changes since I last sold on Ebay.  

Good Luck.  

[TNG]

This is likely due to mis-assigned policies regarding certain listings, though you may also want to confirm that they are Continental US addresses for your auctions closing at higher than average prices for shipping, as 12-15 is the average shipping cost to send something to like Canada, or the UK from the US. You can view your Policies on Ebay here;

https://www.bizpolicy.ebay.com/businesspolicy/manage 

 

It should look like this;

 

 

 

Look for any marked "Shipping" in the "Type" column, your dashboard may look significantly different depending on the amount of policies, as I have cleaned mine up several times. The shipping information should be listed in the description, as here in the example it is shown to be USPS first class, 2 business days - Standard services($2.85), and to the right it shows the number of listings being covered by this policy (Shown as 153 in the example.) You would be confirming that both your shipping policies are correctly set, by either creating a flat-rate policy and then assigned any applicable listing to it, or just removing the listing from any alternate shipping policies that are "Calculated" to avoid the crazy all over the place calculations. I prefer calculated personally, but this is the path if I am understanding the initial question correctly.

[TNG]

Hi Wvrons! Ebay had actually kind of cut ties with Paypal, and now requires any listing to be "Managed by Ebay Payments" Which can include Paypal but only as a secondary option and only for things like paying for items and receiving payouts. You can no longer strictly use Paypal to get the lower fees when selling, as even if a customer uses paypal the payment is processed by Ebay before you see it as a seller.

[wvrons]

Shipping outside the USA is more cost and detailed customs forms have to be filled out.  Many times once the package leaves the USA there is no tracking.  No tracking proof and any seller can say they never received the item and get a refund. I had it happen once. I lost the marbles and had to refund the buyer the bid amount and the shipping cost. 

Insurance for marbles is a waste. Because there is no licensed certified marble appraiser for a value. The USPS will not accept a sold Ebay listing or a Paypal transaction. Better ask all the details with your post master about insurance on marbles.  My postmaster paid my claim of $40.00 once. But he said he could not do it again. It would have to approved from way on up the line. He said that he had never had a approval for money for marbles.  Because there is no way to look up a certified value. 

My last few years. My Ebay listings always said no shipping outside of the U.S.A.   To much hassle, time, cost and risk   A medium flat rate box to Italy, shipping can be from $40.00 to $96.00 . A small flat rate to Italy is usually $28.00 to $40.00.  

[TNG]

I also do not ship outside the US, and my listing or auctions can only be viewed or bid on by US account holders, as like you said it's just too much of a risk with no shipping/delivery confirmation for most regions. C'est la vie. I have purchased auctions from sellers in Canada, but only if I felt that the items had been undervalued enough to account for the additional shipping.