Introduction
I was selling some phones on Ebay that would fit in a USPS padded flat rate envelope. I do what I normally do and list the auction like this:
Stupid Ebay
I had been doing this for years, and have been fine. Then the first instance happened a month ago where a person bought 2 of the phones and they still only paid the $7 flat rate shipping fee. I didn’t think much of it; I threw the phones into a regional rate box and went about my business. Then yesterday, I get this Paypal email:
Yes those geniuses at Ebay decided to program their shipping algorithm to assume no matter the quantity purchased, it would all fit into 1 padded flat rate envelope. It didn’t break the bank here since I was able to fit everything into a medium flat rate box…barely.
Lessons Learned
From now on, DO NOT list your items with flat rate boxes. I believe if you list it saying “Priority Mail” and list the weight of each item, then the Ebay algorithm will then multiple quantity * weight = total price of shipping.
Raise the price per each item, offer free shipping. Makes it easier and people love “Free Shipping”. That is my experience anyhow. Seems to me 75% of my ebay customers have no clue that shipping costs money anyhow so they want it “free”. Therefore, why fight the tide.
I’ve seen more and more auctions NOT doing free shipping. I’m not sure why. I think it’s because Ebay shows the non-shipped price on the search results sometimes for best match (maybe?)
And now that ebay changed the entire listing layout to this new crap there’s no longer a way to enter condition notes for new:other.
Oh I wasn’t aware of that. I think mobile listing will let you fill in for new:other?
I’m not sure, I don’t use mobile apps for anything mostly because my phone is crap.
Maybe you should buy a phone from vinh
Didn’t he write a post telling us to NEVER buy a phone from ebay? lol
I never said eBay 😉
Drrr. Is there a face smack smiley?