eBay 'Urges' Sellers to Forgo Shipping Discounts

by: etectra

"eBay will pass along shipping-label discounts to buyers by default beginning October 1, 2026, unless sellers proactively opt-out by September 25."

Thats is a lie since eBay pays less than the discount rates they give us.

For years eBay gave top rated sellers the USPS Commercial Plus rates and $100 while giving non top rates sellers the higher Commercial Base prices and only $50 shipping. Yet any of thee sellers could go to PirateShip and get Plus rates & $100 insurance.

After USPS did away with Plus and Base pricing to create a single Commercial rate eBay continued the fraud for a period of time by giving the non top rated sellers the commercial price plus $50 insurance and top rated sellers the commercial rate plus $100 insurance. eBay charged FVF on shipping so this was just a slight rebate on the FVF and of course later eBay raised FVF to make sellers pay for it who in turn pass the cost onto buyers.

eBay prevented decimal places in package dimensions for year and instead told sellers to round up package dimensions to the nearest inch. For years eBay violated USPS guidelines in order to charge higher tier rates on some cubic packages; disqualify packages from cubic rates when they should have not been disqualified; and force dimensional rate son packages that did not qualify for such higher rates.

eBay refused to add lower cubic rates to its site for years while PirateShip and other 3rd party label providers had them.

eBay FVF on shipping is a fraud. The vast majority of packages are shipped via online labels, which eBy can compare to what the customer paid and only charge FVF on and overage. Retail labels would get no credit as a way to have sellers move to online labels or eBay could work with USPS to modify their internal API for their meter machines to extract package costs base don their tracking number.

In 2010 eBay negotiated the China Post, USPS and eBay deal to provide cobranded shipping labels for the communist vendors in China. This abused a 1969 UPU program and led to USPS losing billions of international mail. These loses were made up by raising domestic rates which in turn earned eBay more FVF on shipping, which was the whole point of the agreement - to force American to subsidize eBay and its communist partners. This destroyed American resellers jobs as well as U.S. manufacturing jobs.

This only came to an end in Trump's first term. In Trump's second term he further claimed down on China's abuse no longer allowing these packages to enter the U.S. without being taxed.

eBay sells third party insurance to undermine USPS profits on insurance which are used to offset other costs, thus buying eBay insurance raises USPS raises which in turn earns eBay more fees.

eBay switched the manner in which multiple quantity listings with calculated shipping were billed. It has always been by multiplying the fee for one item times the number of items ordered. The buyer would then ask fo ran adjusted invoice. Sometime in 2024 eBay changed this to based the shipping rate solely based on the combing the weights. That was highly dangerous for the seller as the combined size of the items could make the package subject to dimensional rates which could cost a considerable more than just a rate base don the weight. But of course eBay did not care if the seller got shortchanged on the shipping as they made no announcement of this change and sent no messages on the matter. Sellers were left having to contact eBay customer service multiple times to find out they had to create a new multiple quantity shipping rule in their eBay preferences and then apply that to any such listing.

eBay's USPS contract should be terminated for massive CONSUMER FRAUD!

by: Shanna

etectra is spot on. During the USPS funding hearing, where the USPS was losing billions of dollars and not paying into the pension fund, a Congressman asked the Postmaster General how much money were they losing on their Amazon contract. The PG would not answer, claiming USPS is an independent agency and did not have to disclose to Congress any of its contracts. The Congressman asked if the rumor that Amazon was paying 20 cents on the dollar for postage, and the PG did not deny it.

With the decline in lettered mail, the USPS could not justify keeping a large union workforce with declining volume. Enter Amazon, which offered USPS an exclusive deal to deliver their growing volume of packages, and the USPS agreed to making Amazon deliveries a higher priority than their own packages, guaranteed deliveries on Sundays and holidays, and obviously gave them a hefty discount so they would not have to lay off union workers. It was like they were in business to lose money because they knew Congress would bail them out, even though they claimed to be an independent agency.

Now that Amazon is delivering their own packages, eBay has to be the #1 customer of USPS. Surely they got as good a deal as Amazon did. Even at 50% label costs, eBay is making a big profit supplying sellers with shipping labels. But not once did they ever think or propose to pass any of that discount to their customers. Other platforms like Poshmark and Mercari offer flat rate shipping for way less than eBay does. Even postage platforms like Pirateship have cheaper shipping than eBay.

If eBay wants to offer cheaper shipping to entice buyers, why are they not offering sellers a discounted shipping rate?

by: etectra

In addition to the above...

eBay hides shipping rates from buyers. I caught them red handed hiding the cheapest USPS options on all my listings. When I called them they said it was only some shipping options on some listings. No it was not as I verified via a VPN enabled browser to hide my IP and checked numerous shipping zip codes across the across in each zone while not logged into a eBay account. I also checked multiple items.

---

To add to what Shanna said. Amazon is also to blame for USPS's loses on international mail as Amazon copied eBay's program and provided their Chinese communist partners with the same subsidized shipping labels.

Some of Amazon's Chinese partners were print on demand services which stole many images from designers on sites such as Zazzle and offered them for sale on Amazon. Even if these designers got the listing removed it may easily remain in Amazon's catalog. Even the Chinese sellers Amazon store was shut down they were already operating other stores with stolen designs. Amazon would even tell these designers on Zazzle that they needed to purchase a copy of the infringing product to prove it was their design.

Of course Obama, Biden and Congress did nothing during Obama's 8 years in office to stop these loses and the abuse of a Universal Postal Union's program designed to helped developing countries.

by: pace306

.... FVF on shipping has been a scam from day 1.  

Always has been, always will be.

The mess created above aptly describes what happens when a platform 1) gets too big for its britches and 2) meddles in your affairs.

eBay = the San Jose Mafia because it feels that you "need to pay up to them" just as the top Don gets his cut.

Dont publish ANY rates ANYWHERE  or you will push more sellers then you know to Pirateship and Indicia.

If eBay wants to offer shipping options, decide on rates and leave sellers be.

Poshmark has it figured out as does (shudder) Vinted. eBays "list it for free so we can steal from you on shipping FVF" doesnt "play well in Peoria" any longer.

Too much nonesence for too little - stay in your lane

by: NJSRR

Maybe I'm just too groggy this morning, but if somebody could explain this to me I'd appreciate it.    

For example:  
I ship a Ground Advantage package. The Ebay discounted shipping cost is say, $5.80 but I charge $7.50 to cover my postage, the Ebay fee and cost of the box.  The customer pays $7.50.

But if I "pass along the discount" like Ebay wants.......then I pay $5.80 and The customer also pays the $5.80?    

Do I have that right?

by: IFindBugs

Sellers can save much, much more on postage cost if they are willing to do a little more work.

Sellers who have access to buying entire stamp collections directly from the public can buy genuine postage stamps for about 25% of face value. That is pretty much the standard percentage for the ''discount postage'' portion of a collection, paid by stamp dealers, when buying entire stamp collections.

(However, be EXTREMELY CAREFUL about buying postage from ANY online sources -- there are a LOT of forged postage being sold even / especially in the ''large online venues'' if you know what I mean. The only reliable way that the method that I am describing works is to buy ENTIRE stamp collections directly from the PUBLIC (not from other sellers / sources.)

Also, clever sellers, with consultation with their local post office, can find ways to use vast quantities of low-face-value stamps on packages; such low-face-value stamps can be obtained even cheaper. While sticking lots of stamps on a package seems like a lot of work, a seller can EITHER  make more money by charging the full postage amount to the buyer even though the seller's cost is less, OR the seller can promote to their buyers that they charge lower postage (or free shipping) because the seller is potentially saving so much on the postage stamps (though with a little more labor).

The typical stamp dealer who buys entire stamp collections directly from the public can, in that normal process, easily obtain per year, tens of thousands of dollars of postage at a low percentage of face value.  I am offered so much of it by the public that I cannot take it all! (My largest *SINGLE* purchase was over $400,000 of face value for less than $100,000 -- and the person selling them fully understood exactly what they were selling!!!) [Note that the post office does not take back stamps.] Of course, the eBay seller basically has to also be or become a stamp dealer because the seller has to have a method to sell off the rest of the stamp collection that they purchase, those other parts are presumably the better parts anyway.

All of these are absolutely and completely genuine postage stamps and this practice is absolutely completely legal and proper. There are absolutely NO ''gray'' areas involved. It is no different from a person finding a sheet of 40-year-old stamps in their desk drawer and using the stamps for postage or selling those stamps to a friend below face value so that the friend can use them.

All ''regular'', MINT / NEVER-USED, U.S. postage stamps issued since about 1861 (yes, since early in the the Civil War) are still valid for postage. The USPO / USPS sold those stamps decades ago and has not YET had to provide the service the stamp buyers paid for, but the USPS still carries that cost on their books as a liability because they owe the public a dollar of service for every dollar of stamps that have not yet been used for postage.

Note that certain ''special service'' stamps (such as ''special delivery'' or ''postage due'' or ''official'' stamps) have never been valid for any use other than those purposes and those purposes don't even exist any longer.

Also not that certain ''service denominated'' stamps, such as ''bulk rate'' and ''non profit'' and ''zip code presort'' stamps, are officially categorized as ''pre-canceled'' stamps and their use requires a special permit which is available from any post office at NO charge and there are NO additional costs involved. Quantities of such ''pre-canceled'' stamps can often be found in stamp collections at even lower percentages of face value, but their denominations are low, so it is more work to use them. [Search for an illustrated listing of the actual face value of non-denominated / pre-canceled stamps that was published perhaps 10 years ago by Linn's Stamp News.]

Lastly, if a seller wants even more control and to spend less time waiting for a postal clerk to cancel (postmark) stamps, etc., a seller can obtain a special ''mailers postmark permit'', again at NO charge, through any post office. That allows the seller to do the canceling / postmarking themselves (which some buyers, especially stamp collectors, will appreciate). If a seller has a friendly small, local post office, having such a permit can really speed up the process as long as the seller is ALWAYS ABSOLUTELY 100% accurate with the postage amount and thus gains the trust of the postal clerks in that office. HOWEVER, the ''changeable-date rubber stamps'' to do the canceling / postmarking have to be obtained by and paid for by the permit holder -- the last one that I bought (a custom-made XStamper) cost me about $125; they last about 10 years -- these have to be custom made and pre-approval of the design must FIRST be obtained through the permit-issuing post office. For my company, having this permit and doing the canceling saves us time worth more than that cost, every month!

by: redheadedlady

I have quite a bit of problems with ebay's postage.
I sell patterns that I have to mark 3 ounces to get the label.
They are in little padded envelopes which usually cost $5+
On some when I go to print the label it is  $7.49 It's awful then you have
to do a refund, etc,etc.  Pain the neck.  
All that for a few extra pennies for a final value fee!!  Why don't we just give them our money and forget it.  I know they need it so bad.

by: Shanna

redheadedlady,

Now USPS is charging the 15oz rate on any sub one pound weight to what they call rural zip codes. The US Constitution created the USPS, and it calls for delivering mail to everyone. They are still shipping a 4oz package from China to a rural zip code for 48 cents, but they will charge Americans $7.48.

Ebay needs to allow sellers to either block rural zip codes, or they used to allow sellers to charge more to customers from Hawaii and Alaska. They could do the same for rural customers. Its not fail to price an item with free shipping at the 4oz rate and them be charged the 15oz rate.

by: terry55

I know ebay gets cheaper rates then passed on. I signed up for Click n Ship Business account on USPS, no rate increase for rural zip codes but is a pain to copy paste each address. But I save $4 to $15 a day, so worth it. I pay the same shipping on rural as city zip codes. Ebay won't set up rural zip codes like HI and AK because they'll lose too much money and too lazy to set up the rule.
 

by: Rexford

The change is potentially bad for eBay sellers because eBay is taking the shipping discount that sellers receive through eBay Labels and automatically passing it to buyers. For example, if USPS retail postage is $12 but an eBay seller can purchase the label for $8, the seller has traditionally been able to charge the buyer $12 and use the $4 difference to help cover packaging materials, labor, handling, and other costs associated with shipping. Beginning October 1, eBay will make the $8 discounted rate the default for eligible calculated-shipping listings, meaning the seller may collect only enough to pay for the postage itself while still bearing those additional shipping expenses.

The problem is compounded by the fact that eBay charges sellers fees based on the total amount paid by the buyer, including shipping. Consequently, the difference between retail postage and the discounted eBay label price is not necessarily pure profit; for many sellers, it functions as an important allowance that helps offset the real cost of fulfilling an order. By automatically giving that savings to the buyer, eBay is effectively reducing the seller's ability to recover those costs while using the lower shipping price to make listings appear more competitive. Sellers can attempt to recover the lost margin by increasing item prices or adding a handling charge, but visible handling charges can make listings less attractive to buyers.

The timing also makes the policy particularly concerning because it takes effect October 1, just days before USPS's October 4 holiday shipping-rate increase. Thus, sellers could face higher carrier costs at the same time eBay is encouraging them to show buyers lower shipping charges. Although sellers can opt out by September 25 and change the setting later, the fact that eBay is making the discounted rate the default puts the burden on sellers to discover the change and actively protect their existing shipping strategy. In practical terms, eBay is improving the apparent price competitiveness of its marketplace by giving buyers more of the shipping savings, while sellers continue to absorb the costs of packing, handling, and operating their shipping process.

by: Rexford

"one seller on the eBay discussion boards said they had previously resisted the change but had already begun offering the discount rates to buyers because they were seeing "more and more complaints about the prices for our Ground Advantage items."

Tell the complainers to contact their congressmen and the Consumer Advocate at USPS headquarters.  Sellers do not set USPS prices.  Sellers should not subsidize USPS or eBay when it comes to shipping.  This is not a seller problem.  This is a USPS pricing problem.  Some might also say that it is an eBay "take a cut of the shipping price" problem...or at least adding to the problem.  

Regardless of how this turns out, eBay will still receive its cut on shipping.  It remains unsee what price eBay negotiates with USPS and what they've padded in for themselves even before they take a cut on sellers' shipping.