Are you considering selling on Ebay during this economic downturn? Here is a quick guide on how to set the price of shipping for your Ebay goods. This is one of a series of guides I am publishing about how to succeed on Ebay.
What price should I charge for shipping?
My answer may surprise you, Free. I am not leading you astray. Set the price of shipping for your Ebay item at free. This will help your item list higher in the search engines and you will be able to receive more page views for your item. It is important that you figure the price of shipping INTO the item you are selling however. Items with free shipping on Ebay typically are 15% higher than the cost elsewhere (not always, I am just stating a general rule I have noticed with several items selling on Ebay). This is so the reseller can figure in the price of shipping and the charges ebay imposes onto the seller in listing fees and ending auction fees. Therefore, you will want to set the price of your item higher than you might sell it on craigslist because of the additional fees incurred when you sell on Ebay.
What to do about Shipping?
So what do I do about shipping? You still need to figure shipping into the price of the item you wish to sell. Take the amount you want to sell the item for and add shipping. This will be the price of your item using Buy It Now.
If you are running an auction, start the bidding low. If the item is popular (check completed listings to find out if similar items are selling on Ebay), then you can offer free shipping and receive the advantage of listing higher in the Ebay search engines. However, if you are selling an item which may not be as popular, I would recommend figuring out the shipping price and charging this in addition to the winning bid. (You will also want to set the starting bid higher, something we will discuss in an upcoming guide.)
Figuring Shipping
The easiest way to figure shipping is to pick up several flat rate envelopes and boxes at your local post office. This will work for small items. A small flat rate box or envelope will ship for $4.95 and arrive in 2-3 business days. A larger flat rate box will ship for a little under $9 (I believe this is the current rate) and also arrive in 2 -3 business days. The USPS offers priority mail flat rate boxes you can receive for free. The advantage to priority mail flat rate boxes and envelopes is they arrive quicker than mailing by parcel post and you will not need to spend extra money on packing material.
For some items you may want to mail the item by first class (for envelopes) or parcel post (for packages) in order to keep the cost of your item low. If the item is light weight, your actual cost of shipping might be under $3 using these methods but you will need to calculate in the amount of your mailing supplies. For instance a sturdy envelope could cost you as much as $1 or more. After the price of shipping and mailing supplies, you may end up paying more than if you simply used the supplies the usps provides and mailing the item priority mail. This is why I wrote an article about making your own alternative mailers for shipping small packages.
If your item weighs more than 13 oz , you will need to bring it to the post office desk. This is a law created by congress as an anti-terrorism measure.
However ANYTHING mailed in the small rate envelope or package will cost $4.95 to mail, no matter how much it weighs as long as it fits within the mailer provided. This can end up being a terrific amount of savings.
If you are sending something parcel post, you may want to pick a zip code which is the greatest distance from your home, bring the item to your post office wrapped in the packaging material and ask to calculate the approximate amount of postage.
For international orders, I recommend marking within your Ebay auction that international buyers will need to pay actual shipping costs. Do yourself and America a favor though – be willing to ship internationally. It stimulates the American economy and you will be surprised at to home many items many internationals are willing to order within the states simply because they do not have access to those items near their home. An example of this is the fact I had a customer from Norway who wanted to order size Q crochet hooks from me because she could not purchase them near her. In the states we would never even imagine paying overseas shipping to have something this simple shipped to us. Why not order the item within the United States from a local seller? However, some of the smaller countries do not have access to resources the way we do. Therefore, it is important to remember this when you are selling on Ebay. Shipping outside the borders of the United States will help you sell more items online.
