Free shipping...everywhere!

[OtakuDude]

How is it that everyone seems to offer free shipping on their items now? When it first starting being offered a couple of years ago, I figured that those sellers were shipping their items from work or simply incorporating the shipping cost into their selling price.

Now it seems just about everyone is offering free shipping on their items and it can't be that they're all raising their BIN to cover that extra cost. Looking about, I find numerous larger or heavier items being sold where the BIN itself would not cover the entire shipping cost, let alone leave the seller even a modicum of a profit.

Is there any way for me to get on this gravy train as well? I have about 120 items listed and even though my prices are lower than many identical items (and lower than all for others), my sales are negligible for the most part. The only thing I can figure is that I'm getting screwed as I have to add a s/h fee to my sales whereas other sellers seem to avoid that added expense.

If anyone wants to look at my auctions and advise me on what I could do differently, my ebay ID is 205wr. Thanks in advance

 

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[Beans]

It has been a while since I did ebay. When I did 99% of the time I had a S/H charge. One of the things I did was put a note in my description. REF SHIPPING: If the difference is more than 1 Dollar to buyers favor I will reimburse the Difference. If it is more that what is listed there will NOT be any additional charges. (Something like that). I do not know if it made any difference but I did lot of reimbursments and got a few return buyers. I also sold in a total different category than what you are selling.

 

[Beachkid23]

I have free shipping on all of mine. Unless they are large items. But I buy in bulk, thrift stores or yard sales. To me I want to get rid of the thing. So if I pay $1 and sell for $20 w/ free ship I'm ok with that. Sometimes it stinks eating that charge. I don't insure anything anymore unless it's over $175 or going to an apartment. And it's cheaper to insure a first class package then priority mail too.

There is where you can offer free first class shipping and then if they want it priority then they choose and pay the shipping costs too. Just have 2 options on your listing. I guess I just like moving the stuff too. Don't know if any of this helps. I just woke up...

 

[kcm]

I "thought" I heard something a little while back about some sellers having some sort of "subscription shipping agreement" with certain carriers. If I remember correctly, some sellers/companies get reduced shipping charges, though I can't help but suspect that would be for larger businesses; places that ship in volume.

 

[trdhrdr007]

If you are a Top Rated Seller (TRS) on eBay you get reduced shipping rates. I offer free shipping on almost everything & build the cost into the price. Selling with free shipping also gets your items closer to the top of the search results.

I skimmed through your listings OtakuDude. It looks like most of the items you are selling are somewhat common. In other words you have a good bit of sales competition. I've got no idea what demand is like. I do know that if someone does a keyword search for something you are selling identical items with free shipping will show up at the top of the list. It's entirely possible someone looking to buy will buy the 1st one they see without looking any further. I try to stay away from items that have a lot of competition.

 

[Deerhunter24]

I'm a Top Rated Seller as well. We used to get what they called "Commercial Based Pricing." In 2015 for example, I could mail a package First Class anywhere in the USA for $2.04, if it weighed 3oz or less. In January, they got rid of Commercial Based Pricing. Basically all packages weighing 8 ounces or less cost $2.60 to ship in the US. Then 3 oz and less lowered down to $2.54. It recently lowered again to $2.45. But I do what the person above me does as well...I add it into the price.

 

[Deerhunter24]

The more you sell...the faster you realize the best way to ship certain items. I ship 95% of my items with First Class Mail through USPS.

 

[mugsisme]

I offer free shipping and build it into the price.
I ordered 3 oven racks a few weeks ago. I paid $10 shipping. They didn't fit. I sent them back. Cost me $30, and I didn't take extra insurance. I asked at the UPS store how the company can afford to ship for so cheap. They said big companies have deals with UPS so they can ship a lot for cheap.
Still waiting for my CC to give me a refund. That drives me more batty, waiting for them too give me back my money.

 

[RustyGold]

I offered free shipping on a high end detector I sold on eBay to a noob with zero buys and 0 FB and to have seller protection I needed to send it within two days priority, insured with signature confirmation.
Yikes! It cost me 96.00 bucks! Not going to do that again.

 

[kcm]

Crap!

 

[mugsisme]

If you insure, you don't need signature confirmation. Over $100, the P.O. automatically does it to protect themselves. It may have gone up. I know the label I printed tonight for 260 has it on it.
Ouch, $96 is a lot to eat

 

[RustyGold]

Yep not looking forward to the eBay fees either.
Best of luck out there!

 

[RustyGold]

If you insure, you don't need signature confirmation. Over $100, the P.O. automatically does it to protect themselves. It may have gone up. I know the label I printed tonight for 260 has it on it.
Ouch, $96 is a lot to eat

I did not know that. The sale cost over 300. By the time it's shipped.
I get way too stressed on large ticket items so on more expensive items I'm going craigslist from now on.

 

[mugsisme]

My son sold coins for two thousand. I kept telling him there were going to be high fees. He we thrilled to see they were only $77.
So then I explained that was PAYPAL; EBay wasn't billed yet. Then I get a frantic message from him. He looked up his fees on eBay like I told him, and he nearly had a heart attack.
And then he screwed himself with shipping. He charged $10. Because of the expense and they had to be insured, he ended up paying $50 for shipping.
I told him not to sell those coins on eBay. Mommy's always right, right?

 

[cmnjn]

My son sold coins for two thousand. I kept telling him there were going to be high fees. He we thrilled to see they were only $77.
So then I explained that was PAYPAL; EBay wasn't billed yet. Then I get a frantic message from him. He looked up his fees on eBay like I told him, and he nearly had a heart attack.
And then he screwed himself with shipping. He charged $10. Because of the expense and they had to be insured, he ended up paying $50 for shipping.
I told him not to sell those coins on eBay. Mommy's always right, right?

His eBay fees should be about $200 (10% - I'm guessing he doesn't have a store front? If he did it would have been 6% saving him $80) and his Paypal should be about $58.30 (2.9% + .30 per transaction)...the fees are irritating but even with shipping of $50 that still nets him about $1692...which isn't bad if he found the coins or hopefully bought them cheaper then what he sold them for. Ebay is a great though annoying place to sell but you ALWAYS have to check fees & shipping costs and add those costs into the BIN price.

 

[Beachkid23]

I do a lot of free shipping but on higher-priced items or heavy items I charge for shipping. They still sell. And I have two sites my store and then one of my wife's account. She mainly Buys things but I will put some on her site as well, and I charge for shipping on that one. Stuff still sells either way. Not ridiculous shipping like four dollars for a gold necklace, unless it's something priority mail that's heavy but then I use a lot of that FedEx smart post also. It just depends if you have a common item that there's 10,000 of charging for shipping probably won't get it sold. If it's a certain type of jewelry or something heavy you can usually charge shipping on it and my experience. I mean I have stuff so every day so I can't really tell you if free shipping so it's quicker or not. Just depends on who's looking for what, and a lot of my stuff has best offer so they will offer something but I don't really care I just want to sell it all.