My best sales were
A Wooden Spoon Rack $34.99 plus shipping. I paid a couple of dollars for it originally to keep but never used it for what I bought it for. I misquoted the shipping and ended up eating $10 in extra shipping so I really only made $24.99. I hate when that happens. The buyer was from Thailand and for some reason ebay was not showing them a shipping cost so I had to go to the USPS site and calculate it. I was off…but I'd already told the buyer what it would cost and they had already paid. Whatcha gonna do? I figured it was still a decent sale.
LL Bean Hurricane Cloth Shirt 32.95 plus shipping. Paid $1.50 for it.
One of my book sales. Notice the title. It's what drew me to the book in the first place.
A question for my fellow re-sellers. Do you get a shipping discount when you print your shipping labels through ebay and are you a top rated seller? I'm wondering if only top rated sellers get the discount. The reason I ask is because I saw another blogpost where the seller gave back the difference after the discount to the buyer. She wasn't sure if what she did was right. The majority of commenters felt she did the right/nice things. I told her I keep the difference because I earned the discount being a top rated seller. Maybe I'm wrong though. Maybe everyone gets that discount and maybe most people give it back to the buyer. Before I realized the difference was because of the discount I gave it back to the buyers a couple of times figuring it was an issue of weight difference. Now that I realize it's my discount I keep it. Sometimes it can be up to $10 if it's international shipping priority. How do you feel about it? It's not exactly a perk if you have to give it to the buyer its it?
I get a shipping discount but I'm far from a huge seller. It generally only turns out to be a few cents though so I figure it would cost more to try to refund. :)
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear of the shipping discrepency - the USPS calculator is the worst sometimes!
Are you a top rated seller Shannon? I'm wondering if just top rated sellers get a discount or everyone. Or maybe a top rated seller gets a larger discount.
DeleteYou brought up an important point if you refund the shipping discount to the seller, unless you call ebay you're still paying final value fees on that amount. A person should account for that if they are going to refund or they are going to actually lose money.
Yes, I am a TRS and I get a shipping discount. But do I refund the customer the few cents I make? No I just think of all the costs of shipping a package: Sometimes I use USPS boxes, but not always, I still have to use tape, plus ink and paper to print my labels, packaging materials like bubble wrap, use expensive internet and electricity to run my computer and printer, and gas to drive my packages to the post office, not to mention the ebay and paypal fees. I offer free shipping on almost all my items so your question of refunding shipping costs isn't even an issue for me, but with all the fees we pay as sellers, I think we deserve a little extra if we're entitled to it. The discount is for us, not the customer. It's like a little reward for doing a good job.At least, that's the way I see it anyway. :-)
ReplyDeleteThat is how I see it too Lorraine but I started to wonder if maybe it was just me. Thanks for chiming in.
DeleteI'm a TRS and I get a shipping discount too. I keep the discount myself. I am like Lorraine, I earned my TRS and I earned the shipping discount. I ship things daily and sometimes I ship the same day if I get paid before I make my trek to the post office. Recently I shipped something international and made more in profit than I sold the item for.(sold for $25, profit after fees was $26) Did I return the difference? No, I earned that discount.
ReplyDeleteYes if the discount was for the customer they should give it directly to the customer. They don't they give it to the seller.
DeleteIm with Lorraine. Im a TRS everyone gets commercial pricing (discount) but TRS get commercial plus pricing in addition to $100 in prioirrty mail insurance instead of the standard $50. and no i dont refund shipping either. Shipping supplies dont buy themselves
ReplyDeleteGood to know. That's what I wondered.
DeleteI am a TRS and Powerseller (I dont know if there is a difference in shipping discounts with that).... I do not refund shipping either. I saw your comment on the bloggers post you were referring to and completely agreed with your comment. I do the same as Lorraine and offer free shipping on just about all my listings (unless its auction).. That way the buyer never really knows what I pay.. and they can be happy knowing they got "free shipping."
ReplyDeleteWith as hard as it is to maintain TRS, and all the final value fees, I would think its safe and OK to keep and shipping differences.
***to keep THE shipping differences
DeleteI offer free shipping on a lot of items but the biggest discount is when it goes international and the free shipping doesn't apply. That discount is often quite a bit…$5-10.
Deleteohh I c. I never ship internationally except through the global shipping program. I never realized you could get such a big discount shipping internationally.
DeletePS. How did you do your back drop on your shirt you posted? I am wanting to sell more clothes but can never make them look pretty in pictures. Yours looks great.
Deletealso.. sorry for blowing up your comment section (I think this is my 5th comment! Yikes!) :)
Ashley don't worry about too many comments. I love comments :) Love to get a discussion going. I do global shipping but only recently and not on all countries. You can designate which countries you want to do global shipping to. I chose those that I wouldn't have shipped to previously like Russia and Mexico to do Global shipping and I still offer other options to other countries. It was kind of complicated to do that but I finally figured it out. You don't have to offer global shipping to everyone if you don't want to. So yes, if you do get your shipping discount the discount can be significant.
DeleteThe backdrop on that shirt was just against a white sheet which is how I do all of my clothing right now. Sometimes I also use http://clippingmagic.com/ to make the background a uniform white but on that listing it looks like I didn't because I see some variation in the background colors. I highly recommend http://clippingmagic.com/ though if you want to make your background look better. I wrote a blogpost about it here
http://thirdhandshoppeblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/photo-editing-with-clipping-magic.html It's free and allows you to white out a background.
Thanks for all the shipping info Nancy! Ill go look at that post right now :)
DeleteYou're welcome Ashley. I enjoy reading your blog too. Keep on!
DeleteOne more thing to add... I was just talking this over with my husband who said: "eBay isnt giving the BUYER the discount. They are giving the SELLER the discount. The buyer doesnt get the perks to the discount."
ReplyDeleteI rest my case. ;)
I am a TRS, however, I lost it for a month (due to some thing out of my control at Christmas). I have my TRS back now but even when it was gone I still got the discount. And no, I don't refund my customers, unless I put a fixed price and I over charged by more than $5.00. Then I do. I figure it is my "handling" charges, all part of shipping and handling :)
ReplyDeleteGood to know you still have a discount if you lose your TRS. It's something that can happen to any of us. Glad to hear you got it back.
ReplyDeleteIf the discount if only a dollar or two, I don't refund the buyer. However, with international shipping, it sometimes becomes a $5-$10 shipping discount. I do refund those.
ReplyDeleteI guess I started out feeling more like you but my feeling about it has changed. It's good to know how other people see things though.
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