eBay advised sellers of higher shipping rates that are taking effect in the New Year.
“The major U.S. carriers have announced their 2026 rate updates. As always, eBay continues working closely with our carrier partners to secure increases that are lower than standard commercial or retail rates, helping keep eBay Labels pricing as competitive as possible.”
However, the marketplace failed to remind sellers that they would be paying higher fees to eBay since it bases commissions on the total amount of the transaction, including shipping. In addition, sellers who offer “free shipping” must either absorb the higher costs or raise their prices – an important reminder omitted from eBay’s advisory on Monday.
The full announcement is a must-read for sellers; some important takeaways include the following:
- Shipping carriers are changing surcharges – be sure to read each carriers’ changes carefully. As eBay wrote, “To help avoid unexpected surcharges, always double-check your package weight and dimensions (length x width x height) to ensure they fall within the carrier’s limits for the service you’re using.”
- USPS peak pricing rates will end and the new rates will take effect on January 18, 2026 (and doublecheck USPS nonstandard and noncompliance fees for 2026). The eBay shipping calculator will automatically update when the new rates go live.
- FedEx 2026 rate increases take effect on January 5, 2026 for all services, except FedEx 2Day One Rate, which will increase on January 19, 2026. Starting January 12, 2026, FedEx will introduce an update to how it assesses the Additional Handling Surcharge, which eBay advised “can materially impact how certain packages are classified and priced.”
- UPS: “As of now, there are no announced rate changes to 2026 UPS shipping rates on eBay. However, effective December 22, 2025, UPS rolled out its surcharge rate updates. “Starting January 26, 2026, UPS will also introduce an important update to how certain surcharges are assessed, including the Domestic Additional Handling Charge – Dimension and the Domestic Large Package Surcharge. Rather than using maximum dimensions, UPS will transition to a cubic volume maximum, calculated by multiplying length × width × height.”
In addition to carefully reading eBay’s post, sellers are advised to do their own research on 2026 rates and surcharges for the shipping carriers and services they use.
hahahaha ebay lower than standard commercial, better wake up, sales drop every time there is an increase. UPS just jacked their prices Dec. 22nd and haven’t sold a fishing rod since; I’m worried about the change in Domestic Additional Handling Charge and dimension rates.
Good thing I’m out in 2027
eBay fails to remind it users that is FVF on shipping is a scam that has ripped consumers off for billions.
1. eBay can easily compare the cost of its own labels to what was charged the buyer and only charge FVF on any overage.
2. eBay can do the same for any 3rd party label providers such as PirateShip. There is no technical reason preventing them form doing this. Such third party label providers already communicate with eBay when you import your orders there and they relay the tracking number back to eBay. Its a simply matter of update their APIs.
The first two methods above represent how most purchase are purchased on eBay. Anyone using the two methods could immediately offer commercial rates on their items knowing they would not be charged any FVF on the shipping. This would also lower the sales tax collected in states that charge sales tax on shipping.
3. The third most common method are retail purchases. The most likely scenario would be that such purchases would not receive any credit die to the lack of the ability to verify how much was spent on postage. This would cause sellers to convert to online labels and lower commercial rates.
However even this method could receive credit as USPS may be able to modify its internal API that it uses for its retail postage meter machines to allow this data to be accessed. eBay would be able to obtain the cost of each package via its tracking number via API calls.
But of course eBay would never do any of that because eBay is run by crooks!