Do we have any ebay sellers on here? After retiring 5 years ago my wife and I started going to liquidation and Government auctions if there was one while we we traveling. It's addicting to buy huge lots of stuff you will most likely never use at 90% off retail. I'm talking most new or shelf pull items with some returns mixed in.

Anyways I needed to start getting rid of some of this stuff..I had to build a 20x24 garage to store this stuff in and it's stacked full with shelving from floor to ceiling.

So I started listing on Ebay and before I knew it I was doing $6,000 a month and hired my son to help list and ship...a few hours each day. Then it turned into $8,000 a month and it's now $9500 a month...LOTs of shipping.

To get to my point...on ebay with a tracking number it cost $2.61 for under 4 ounces and $2.77 for over 4 to 8 ounces to ship any place in the USA. Most of the things we ship fall into one of those.

Why is it that the USPS raises its rated almost yearly claiming they are losing money. Yet they only charge pennies for a package the same size coming from China or Royal Mail International Standard?

Are we US shippers paying the price to keep the cheap China items coming to America? One of the things I get a ton of at these auctions...I can't sell it. Well I can but you can get it shipped from China almost cheaper than It cost me to ship....

It cost me $3.48 to ship (11oz) and it only cost .07 cents for a person in China to ship it to me. So i usually lot up a few large boxes a couple times a year and drop the items off at the Boy/Girl Club.

I just bought this charging cord http://www.ebay.com/itm/112073795800?_tr...EBIDX%3AIT (actually 40 of them for a lot of razors that came without the charger)

I cost me $2.77 cents to ship this cord to you in the USA. It costed the seller $1.32 to ship it from Hertfordshire, UK, United Kingdom to my home. Maybe not that much...its what he is charging me to ship it. I'm sure his shipping supplies are added in.

My shipping cost on average is 15% of each sell add in the 14% ebay and paypal cost and the 10 to 15% that I usually have in the item...

it's still a good racket for a retired person but I shouldn't have to pay a higher shipping cost $2.61 vs 0.7 cents than someone shipping something from China.

Imagine the extra money out of peoples pockets that is going to cover keeping items from China at a low price.

Interesting. Maybe they are getting discounts for volume?

My material supplier pays 90% less than I do for shipping with ups and FedEx because of their volume.

I used to ship a lot from USPS, and their rates were completely nuts.

For example, I could ship a 12x12x12 box priority mail that weighed 2 pound for about $7 anywhere in the US.

But if I had to ship in a 12x12x13 box priority mail, that same two pounds suddenly became $27 to ship. In some cases, it was cheaper to send it overnight with USPS than their priority mail 2-3 day. All for a box that was one inch longer on one of the dimensions.

So, I designed my shipping software to break up a shipment into boxes that were 12x12x12. I could ship 4 one cubic foot boxes, 2 pounds each for a total of 8 pounds for the same price as a single 12x12x13 box at only 2 pounds.

(05-21-2017 05:04 PM)Niner National Wrote:  Interesting. Maybe they are getting discounts for volume?

My material supplier pays 90% less than I do for shipping with ups and FedEx because of their volume.

No that's not it there's some same time sellers (china) that sell things for .84
on ebay.

I also designed a few Halloween props and I use this little plastic box to house the electronics in http://www.ebay.com/itm/172283752131?_tr...EBIDX%3AIT

As you can see he adds in .07 cents for shipping and lets not forget ebay and paypal fees adds up to 15% of each sell



This person has close to the same amount of feedback as I do and the feedback rate runs about 55% on buyers who leave it and don't. So we are probably at the same level on items sold

That box would cost me $2.61 to ship it to you. I buy maybe 700 of these each year from this seller so I get them shipped to me at .73 each

From what I understand someone in our government made the deal that once a e-packet reaches America it's basically shipped to the buyer at no extra cost. The only cost is what it takes the seller to get it here.

This is just another example of politics cost us more money.

I've bought things from China for a couple of buck and free shipping. Don't know how we can get things at a price that is less than the shipping should be.

Sometimes the shipping even makes you sign for the $2 item. That's even crazier. China is paying pennies and somehow forcing USPS to spend a few minutes at the house waiting on a signature for a piece of crap.

I get some things several hundreds of dollars left on my porch or box. Recently had something like 12 bucks had to be signed for.