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Tue June 9 2026 22:03:53

This USPS Fee Caught an eBay Seller by Surprise

By: Reader

Dear Ina,
Just wanted to reach out to let you know of a new scam from our friends at the USPS.

I have just been hit with three "postage adjustment charges" of about $1.35 each for mailing my eBay packages at the post office in the next town. I live in Erie CO and have been using the PO in Lafayette CO. Both local post office branches are about 6 miles from my house, but the Lafayette one is more convenient for me.

Since my origination zip is 80516 and the Lafayette zip is 80026, the post office charges me more. What is particularly galling is that packages from both branches are routed to the same postal sorting center in Denver.

What a rip off. I just want to know how my dropping off the packages at a different post office results in some sort of cost to the post office.
J.

Note from the Editor: eBay poster and shipping expert wastingtime101 posted a thread on the eBay discussion boards about this last year and explained that shipping from a different zip code where the first 3 digits are different can result in a cost adjustment.

They also explained how to deal with the issue:

"Ship from the same zip code that's printed on your label. You can have different "ship from" and "return" addresses. Your return address being your home or business, and your ship from being the post office where you're shipping. Just click 'edit' next to the return address before generating the label and you'll see a field to edit the ship from address.

"If you use calculated shipping on your listings, you'll also want to update the zip code on your listings. Update it in the location field at the bottom so it matches the post office where you're shipping."

Comments (2) | Permalink

Readers Comments

This USPS Fee Caught an eBay Seller by Surprise

by: etectra

Wed Jun 10 09:51:31 2026

A few zip codes are specific to all five digits, not just the first three.

Download a USPS zone chart for your zip.

https://postcalc.usps.com/DomesticZoneChart

A few exceptions using five digits will be listed and apply to one or more services.

This USPS Fee Caught an eBay Seller by Surprise

by: Andy

Mon Jun 15 12:31:16 2026

Just to add to that detailed explanation: you can store more than one address for the Ship From ZIP location and choose between them at shipping time before you purchase your label. While this may or may not affect the postage cost, it can also alleviate a common misunderstanding by USPS workers that they somehow won't get ''credit'' for handling the package if it doesn't have their local ZIP Code as the Ship From location. (Answer: They get ''credit'' for the package, such as it is, by scanning it at Acceptance time, as they're supposed to do anyway.)

Go to https://accountsettings.ebay.com/uas/addresses and you can enter additional Ship From ZIP entries as needed. For a remote post office that doesn't match your home address, use the street address of the post office itself. (Only its ZIP code will show on the label.)

Your Return address simply shows the address to which you want returns to be sent, and you can store multiples of those as well.

The fact that the packages are being collected at the same origin sort doesn't matter; the cost is based simply on the area enclosing the origin ZIP, and in the case of Erie CO vs. Lafayette CO, it appears that they're straddling a border, one on each side. The Ship From ZIP entry on the prepaid label tells the USPS the source location for which the prepaid postage was calculated.

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