Sellers concerned about how a USPS rate change on July 12 would impact Ground Advantage lightweight packages are getting a reprieve. eBay told sellers on Tuesday that eBay Labels would continue to offer the same four weight tiers for Ground Advantage “with no rate increases at this time.” Pirate Ship shared a similar announcement for sellers the same day.
USPS had announced in May it was eliminating “ounce-based rate differentiation for published Commercial USPS Ground Advantage prices” – a change resulting in an average price increase of 11.8% for USPS Ground Advantage Commercial.
But USPS had added that the change would not impact customers with negotiated commercial rates – which we noted at the time could have meant marketplaces like eBay and Etsy would not be impacted.
Sellers expressed concern on Tuesday that regardless, some under-1 lb packages could be impacted after they read Pirate Ship’s announcement. An eBay seller asked shipping guru Wastingtime101 on Reddit, “Someone brought up the point that Pirate Ship says the 4/8/12oz rates will only apply to the contiguous 48 states. eBay’s announcement makes no such claim.”
Wastingtime101 advised that sellers should plan on eBay’s discounted rates only applying to high volume zips, adding: “Non-contiguous states (AK/HI), territories (PR, GU, etc), military (APO/FPO/DPO) – anything that falls under zone 9, and also “rural” (low volume) zips throughout the contiguous 48 I believe we will be paying the commercial rates as we (mostly) have been since Sept 2024.”
eBay also announced on Tuesday new rates for eBay Standard Envelope (1 oz $0.78; 2 oz $1.07; 3 oz $1.36). Currently the rates are 1 oz $0.74; 2 oz $1.03; and 3 oz $1.32.
Meanwhile, Whatnot announced on Tuesday that it would be eliminating flat-rate options and making Ground Advantage the default USPS shipping service as of early August, although Whatnot will continue to make Priority Mail available as an optional shipping service.
eBay sellers should read the full announcement to read about all of the changes that will impact shipping rates purchased through eBay Labels – it noted that the eBay shipping calculator would update rates when the changes take effect on July 12th.
