eBay Announces New Rates for Its Standard Envelope Shipping Option

If you’re a seller who takes advantage of the eBay Standard Envelope shipping option for lightweight items that can be mailed in an envelope, be aware your costs will be rising later this month.

eBay Standard Envelope uses the US Postal Service but offers limited tracking through eBay (and only through eBay) that usually costs much more than the cost of a First Class postage stamp.

As a result, eBay is increasing rates for the service on the same date the USPS is raising its rates: January 22, 2023.

Here are the current rates:

1-ounce package: 57 cents
2-ounce package: 81 cents
3-ounce package: $1.05

Here are the new rates taking effect on January 22, 2023:

1-ounce package: 60 cents
2-ounce package: 84 cents
3-ounce package: $1.08

Note that just because an item can fit in a small envelope doesn’t mean it can be sent via eBay Standard Envelope. First, it’s limited to three categories: Trading Cards; Coins and Paper Money; and Postcards and Stamps. Within each category, there are strict criteria as well – see the eBay help page for details.

In Monday’s announcement, eBay also summarized how other USPS rate changes will impact sellers who use its Shipping Label service.

eBay made a point of calling out a few changes to USPS rates that may not be on sellers’ radar screens:

• Signature confirmation —$0.15 increase to $3.25
• Nonstandard Length fee >30” is decreasing from $15.00 to $7.00 for Parcel Select Ground
• Nonstandard Volume fee > 2 cu ft is increasing from $15.00 to $25.00 for Priority Mail & Priority Mail Express
• Elimination of Regional Rate Boxes for Priority Mail and Priority Mail International

Sellers who don’t use calculated shipping would be especially wise to research changing shipping rates – especially those surcharges..

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.