Internet Auction Blog

Why the hell does Paypal’s multi-order shipping not allow me to choose regular US Priority Mail flat rate boxes? The only choices it gives me for Priority Mail are: Flat Rate envelopes, Package/Thick Envelope, and Medium Flat Rate box.

Seriously? What about the small flat rate boxes? Or the regular flat rate boxes? Why are they not included as choices in Paypal multi-order shipping?

If they don’t get this fixed, I will be using Stamps.com or some other source to print my postage.

If you live outside of the United States, and purchase an item from a U.S. seller on eBay, and they will only ship via USPS Priority Mail, they have a very good reason for it.

Personally, I print all my postage labels with Paypal, and Paypal only allows for international mail to be sent using Priority Mail, therefore I must charge $10.00 to ship an item outside of the United States.

Some people will write and ask “why can’t I just pay you $3.00 and you send it by regular mail?” — well, because that would actually cause me MORE work, and I don’t want to do it. My auctions are a business, and my business has routines, and it is just a hassle to break that routine.

If you buy something from a US eBay seller, and they don’t say how much they charge for international shipping, CONTACT THEM and ask before you bid or purchase the item.

eBay continues to make really ignorant decisions. John Donahoe is an idiot. Yes, I know he went to Dartmouth and Stanford, but he must not have ever learned the saying “don’t fix what isn’t broke.” John Donahoe, you are an idiot. Starting in October, eBay will begin limiting what a seller can charge for Shipping & Handling. They will start in the “media” categories. The most a seller will be able to charge is $4.00 for shipping an item.

I often sell vintage record albums. The albums measure 12″x12″ inches in size. I buy specially cut-out cardboard to use as packaging material. I buy oversized bubble mailers to ship most record albums, or even specially sized cardboard boxes for more expensive record albums. Plus my postage and time, I will lose money by shipping these record albums for $4.00.

The US Postal Service allows for “media mail” to weigh as much as 70lbs! I also often sell large collections of books which weigh nearly 50lbs. These CANNOT be shipped for only $4.00 as eBay insists. So what are we supposed to do? eBay tells us to use the shipping calculator to charge actual shipping costs. Ridiculous. So sellers aren’t supposed to be compensated for their time and packing materials? Only shipping costs?

I know, I know, eBay says to raise my starting price. Are you kidding? I start all my auctions at 99 cents. If I start my auctions higher, eBay charges more. This is all a ploy by eBay to capture more of our money, and they think sellers are too stupid to realize it.

Did you know that if you’ve been printing your postage with Paypal, that you might be getting ripped off? This is especially true if you pay for USPS insurance. Here’s why:

I pay for postage, insurance and delivery confirmation using my Paypal account. This “electronically” lets the USPS know that a label has been printed and paid for, but does NOT indicate that the USPS has received the package from me yet (so the USPS is not responsible for the package yet).

Next, I take the package to the Post Office for them to deliver. They are supposed to scan the label at that time to acknowledge receipt of the package, and that the package is insured. HOWEVER, I’ve noticed that when I take the packages to the Post Office, they DO NOT scan them, they simply set the packages behind the counter and say thank you. I asked a clerk, and he told me they scan the packages when the packages reach their destination point.

So what happens if the USPS loses your package before it reaches its destination point? YOU LOSE YOUR PACKAGE AND YOUR MONEY. But wait, you insured it right? Too bad, because the Post Office didn’t scan the package when you brought it to them, so they’ve never acknowledged receiving it! (in other words, they won’t take responsibility).

This is unacceptable, and we need to make the US Postal Service change their practices. If using Paypal to print postage and purchase insurance, we need to make sure the post office is scanning EVERY package we mail, in order to acknowledge they have received the package from us.

After all, what’s to stop a postal worker from stealing our items before they reach the destination point?