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.
*Update 7/9/2026: An eBay moderator posted the following update on July 8:
“For eBay Labels Ground Advantage shipments under 1 lb to rural zip codes, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and military addresses, USPS will charge the same rate within each zone regardless of weight in ounces.
“For the continental United States, the tiered-weight structure remains in place.”
As a seller of very light weight crafting supplies, I have now blocked sales to Hawaii, Alaska, territories, and military addresses. This saddens me, as I had a nice sale to Hawaii and Guam this month, and regularly ship to Puerto Rico, but I cannot afford to ship 1 oz items at the 15.9 oz rate to these locations. Hopefully, those state Representatives can force the Post Office to go back to shipping the way it was.
I can’t find out for positive if ebay’s keeping the ounce rate for non continental states and territories. Its a $2-3 rate increase and hate to block them but that’s way too much
They are, rates for non continental states and territories jumped $2-$3, also ebay labels are higher rates to some continental US zips but Pirate-ship is $2.50 cheaper, don’t know if a ebay glitch of rural zip code. I’m keeping up both for sites and using the cheaper shipping rate.
Whelp there goes HI and AK, shipping jumped to $8.50 for a 4 oz package. Now I have to figure out what to do with the “rural zip codes” can’t block them and lose money if I ship to them.
Here is the way I understand all of this about USPS Ground Advantage: An Ebay seller using Ebay shipping can have Ebay figure shipping based on zip codes, and charge the buyer Retail rates or pass on the lower Commercial rates to their customer. That’s in your preferences somewhere. I’ve been charging Retail rates for ever and I forget how to change it. lf you charge Retail rates, you are used to making a profit on each shipment, even after Ebay has taken their 13% of what they collected. If you pass on the Commercial rate to the customer, you will be losing 13% on your shipping.
If you have been passing on commercial rates, not much has changed; some rates go up; Ebay collects more and you lose another 13% of the increase.
If you have been charging Retail rates, the buyer pays the same as before, but in the special circumstances explained in the story, your profit becomes a 13% loss because you don’t get to ship at the commercial rate.
The solution is simple: Immediately stop selling to Alaska, Hawaii, US Possessions, and APO/FPO unless that is an important part of your business. As for the Rural zip codes, you too are going to pay what the buyer pays and you are fined by Ebay 13% of that amount.
One thing you should know about Ground advantage: The Commercial rate for Ebay shipping increases at 5oz, 9oz, 13oz, 1lb and then a huge jump at 1lb 1 oz. Notice the rate for 15.9999oz increases at exactly 16 oz (1lb), then takes a big jump at 1lb.00001oz. That’s 2 increases as the weight gains .00002 oz. Solution: if your package weights more than 15 oz but less than a pound, don’t round up, use 15oz. If your package weighs slightly over 1lb, get out the scissors and make sure it weighs less than 1lb.
@Shanna
“Hopefully, those state Representatives can force the Post Office to go back to shipping the way it was.”
Many have said they would like USPS to managed more like a business.
Those areas have increased costs.
Even the current changes being made do reflect the actual costs for those locations and thus the Lower 48 are actually subsidizing these locations. Just take a look at what UPS and FedEx charge for these locations and you will be shocked.
The Constitution established the Post Office as means to of communication of First Class materials, not as a package service. When the Post Office first began and for many years thereafter it did not include delivery to your door – only the nearest post office. Home delivery was not experimented with until the Civil War in a few large cities and only added as local revenue could support it.
Congress forced home delivery, free rural delivery, airmail service and a host of other services which led to USPS losing money for a large portion of its life.
Before the changes Ground Advantage enjoyed a sweep spot for many larger sized packages for Alaska and Hawaii as it was cheaper than UPS & FedEx.
Certainly less complicated that before Ground Advantage when First Class Package Services was limited to 13 ounces at retail prices and 15.999 for commercial rates. This meant if you charged customers the retail rate you needed to charge customers the 13 ounce rate for all packages 13 to 15.999 ounces as anything over 13 ounces would be rounded up to Priority Mail since those weights did not exist on the retail rate.
Ah the good days of 1999 when Priority Mail was the same rate for zones 1 through 8 for 1 to 5 pounds and there was no zone 9.
1p $3.20 “All Zones”
2p $3.20 “”
3p $4.30 “”
4p $5.40 “”
5p $6.50 “”
Politicians are all 2 faced liars, talk on TV about how they are going to fix the USPS and then nothing. Been writing them for the last 6 yrs about the outrageous rate increase “crickets”