eBay to Change How It Collects Shipping Costs from Sellers

by: pace306

eBay ISNT "simplifying ANYTHING" except ITS bank account.

Tired of being charged "COD" for postage and then giving sellers "terms" aka net 30 (or what ever your billing cycle is), they will now just debit you "on the fly".

Saves them some $$ for not having to "carry" sellers and its something they can tell Wall St about (we saved money on shipping!) .

by: ThebigR

Why would anyone use ebays shipping label service? Pirate ship is world class as close to perfectly ran as any one could get and I print 1000s of dollars worth of label a month.....  

by: Chicago48

Is the shipping fee related to EB using the Software? That's the only reason I see why it should charge fees.

by: CT Bay

Ebay shipping labels keep buyers updated on the status of their order without having to track the packages on the carrier’s website. Transferring customer data to a 3rd party shipping service opens an avenue for errors that need not exist. I could see how Pirate Ship could be cheaper for someone shipping the same size items frequently. If you sell thousands of baseball cards and Pirate Ship is three cents cheaper I could see how it could be worth the savings. I find for what I ship Pirate Ship is more expensive far more than its less expensive. The difference, plus or minus, is almost always within $1. If it was always less, which it definitely isn’t, $1 isn’t worth juggling extra software, disconnecting buyer updates, and opening up room for errors.

by: lisapar

I stopped using UPS and FedEx when I started seeing "rural delivery" charges up to $18 a package!  WTH ??  That stings the bottom line.  I switched back to USPS after their Ground Advantage program rolled out and it's been a blessing -- saving a lot on shipping costs as well -- thanks to taxpayers!

by: Chicago48

If you use Pirateship doesn't EB still take a cut of the shipping fees?

by: ThebigR

I don't sell sports cards never had to juggle any software and all information is loaded into a buyers purchase history that they can view on ebay. Ever have a problem on pirateship you can chat with someone in less than 5 mins. problem with ebay you might wait days to get someone to respond...  

by: Sierra

@pace306 - Why shouldn't you pay for your shipping labels when you buy them?

@ThebigR - If you know when PirateShip charges less for shipping labels, then it's fine to use eBay's shipping labels! Of course, if you spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on shipping labels, in which case PirateShip (or any 3rd party) is better because you could pay with a rewards credit card and rack up miles or points!

@Chicago48 - I think you don't understand the change. eBay is simply going to start charging purchasers of FedEx & UPS shipping labels at the time they buy their labels ... just like they've always charged purchasers of USPS shipping labels.

@CT Bay - There are times when PirateShip labels are MUCH cheaper than eBay, Etsy, or PayPal labels. For me, this has been when I ship something fairly heavy in a polymailer. I've saved $30 on Priority Mail shipping several times when I ship antique quilts from the West Coast to the Midwest! ''Transferring customer data'' is all automated (unless a seller chooses to type the info), so where's the opportunity for errors???

@Chicago48 - eBay charges their FVF on the selling price + customer-paid shipping. Where you buy the shipping label has no effect on this fee.

@ThebigR - PirateShip could teach other companies about customer service!!! That they speak pirate is a fun bonus! :-)

by: Shanna

CT Bay,

You do understand when you use most 3rd party shipping services, like Piratebay and Stamps.com, the tracking number is automatically sent to eBay and posted on the seller's and buyer's pages.

Piratebay is significantly cheaper that eBay's label cost with oversized packages. Ebay produces way more USPS labels than Piratebay, so how has Piratebay beat them on pricing? Because eBay pays a fraction of the cost of the label, just like Amazon's sweatheart deal with USPS, and they are keeping the difference for themselves. They make more on postage than FVFs. That's why they push returns on buyers, the return label is even more profit for them.

by: ronk53

I will not use Ebay shipping under any circumstances. I use Pirateship and it is flawless! I shipped a package to Canada thru Ebay shipping and it took 3 weeks. Buyer was NOT happy. USPS is usually 8-10 days.

by: ebayout

Saved $1 today by shipping Priority Mail cubic through Pirate Ship instead of using USPS Ground Advantage through ebay. Ebay doesn't offer PM cubic. Pitiful.

by: railady

I used Stamps.com until they priced my small business out of their services ($20/month subscription) I switched to ShipStation for $9.99 but it was too complicated for me.  Went to PirateShip and wish I had in the beginning!!! It's been flawless and so incredibly simple - plus NO subscription fees!!!!  

After hearing so many complaints about eBay labels, in 2 years I have not had ONE problem with PirateShip! and I ship ALL KINDS of sizes and it's always cheaper - although I DO ship extra large (16x16x16 or larger) with UPS, and PirateShip has unbelievable UPS rates for those - the last I paid about $30 for and through UPS it would have been like $70.  

by: railady

@CT Bay - I'm not arguing against you, what you are doing works for you !!!  Everybody is a bit different, IMHO. I appreciate the simplicity of PirateShip and the ZERO technical problems I have had interfacing with eBay.

Any of the postage services discussed transfer customer data to their website - I'm not sure what "errors" can happen other than it doesn't come through(?). I've double checked PirateShip addressing eBay packages for nearly 2 years and never one "error."  

As far as finding package tracking/shipping status, all I have to do is log into PirateShip and there on the home page is a list of shipped labels with tracking/delivery status right there to see - all I have to do is scroll down, I do not have to click on them one at a time. It's right there to see.

by: CT Bay

It’s commercial pricing. Commercial pricing is commercial pricing and any difference between pirate ship and EBay is negligible. Pirate ship might be good for some people. Everyone’s store is different and everybody sells different stuff and has different goals in mind.
I’m trying to keep my average sale price up. I am not hunting for the most bargain, basement way to ship things. I’m looking for the best service that most closely fits the customers, expectation, given what they paid for the item. If someone paid $500 for something, I’m just gonna pay the extra two dollars for shipping rather than juggle other software. Yes, I know pirate ship uploads the tracking number, and the customer can track it. What it doesn’t do is send emails about the item being shipped early or arriving early. It only places the tracking number. It doesn’t provide email updates. The API that is automatically uploading data from pirate ship is broken half the time. Heck EBay is broken half the time. So yeah, you’re probably humming along just ducky, until it’s not. Then you’re spending all day finding out what the problem is,  and correcting all the data it didn’t upload or uploaded wrong.
You can get support in five minutes, huh? I haven’t called Support in years. If you need to call somebody to help you you’re doing it wrong. When you call support all they ever do is nothing so you might as well ask the closest wall for support.

by: pace306

@Sierra

@pace306 - Why shouldn't you pay for your shipping labels when you buy them?

You absolutely can - the point is that eBay "figured out a "new way" to "enhance revenue" on the backs of sellers (yet again).

If you use Pirateship they charge your cc right away - so its more then inline with industry standards ... BUT when you promise that big changes will be announced and then implemented LATER ON (so that your base can get used to the idea) and then you DONT ... thats a "horse of another color, no ??"

Plus I guess, its easier to dump on sellers then to lay off a few more useless eBay employees .....

by: pace306

YES - "PirateShip could teach other companies about customer service!!!



Umm .. they dont actually PIRATE anything .... not movies, music or even postage ..... That they speak pirate is a fun bonus! :-) "

by: iheartjacksparrow

I use Endicia (Stamps.com's sibling). The way they handle the money aspect, I send them a certain amount (usually $50 at a time), and those funds are held in my account. When I print out a label, the cost is deducted from my account funds, and a total is always displayed at the bottom of the label screen so I know when to replenish the funds I have on account.  

by: arocct

@ TheBigR and all,

I also use and prefer Pirate Ship, but with domestic larger items, these days some zip codes are much cheaper with Fedex Ground than UPS Ground.
(No Fedex on Pirate Ship)
Other day Fedex was $34 vs $41 UPS on ebay. Ebay and Pirate usually have same UPS Ground rates.
So, I always start out on Ebay when it's bigger and domestic.

by: shut1968

@ThebigR  -- Nail on head
We ship out 2500 - 3500 packages a week of all sizes and we have accounts with Pirateship, Shipstation and Stamps.com and when comparing to Ebay shipping pretty much every time any one of the three beat Ebay.
I will never use the shipping services of Ebay, Amazon, Etsy, Mercari, Facebook, or Walmart.. every single one of them charge at least a few cents more than the commercial rates of any of the three main shipping services, all of the sites send out notifications/updates to the customers about the delivery of their packages and at any time the customer can go on the sites and look it up if they want too, they click on the tracking number and go directly to the USPS, UPS, FedEx site to get the status of their package.
I don't allow any more double, triple, quadruple dipping off of my sales by any of them... same way I will NEVER allow any of them to fulfill  my orders with their warehouse services..  

by: Jon M

I ship from Florida, so UPS / FedEx is always cheaper on the larger packages going beyond the South East. I use Pirate Ship too and have found it to be the exact same price as eBay.  I'm glad eBay has made the change. Will simplify my accounting.