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Happy New Year! OUCH! I think the Old Swap Meets are going to come back! No one will pay to buy and ship on ebay with the USPS or FedEx.
That's why I'm trying to unload all my stuff, Its getting out of hand! Plus buyers are paying sales tax on old, used 30-40-50 year old parts.
Plus a 1099K issued and reported to the IRS over a mere $600 bucks. WTF?
See what rates are changing for 2022 Dear Martin, Every year around this time, shipping carriers adjust their rates. For your convenience, we’re providing a snapshot of each carrier’s rate changes: USPS® shipping rates—increasing 3.1%-8.8% FedEx® shipping rates—increasing 5.9%-6.9% UPS® rates on eBay Labels—no increase at this time

I never bothered buying parts bikes. I always considered eBay my parts bike. I may have to rethink this.
Hopefully something will come in to fill the void the demise of eBay is leaving. It's just not practical to find and travel to swap meets every time I need a part.

Here is a fun one I just got burned by last week (several times in a row). When calculating the shipping within the Ebay selling form, FedEx often has much better "rates" than USPS, so I've been using that option for shipping on the stuff I've listed.

But it turns out that when you "buy" the the FedEx label through Ebay, that's just an estimate.  You don't actually get charged until a week later, and guess what?  That estimate was too low.  Now the price has gone up by 50%.  Of course the actual fee never goes below the estimate.   $9.11 became $14.17.  $14.06 became $20.35. So I get stuck holding the bag because the buyer underpaid.

I spoke with Ebay, they told me I needed to talk to FedEx.  I spoke with FedEx and they said, "Yeah, that's right."  I told the lady what if you walk into a coffee shop and ask how much the coffee is, they say $4, and then after you order they tell you it's $6.  She didn't have anything to say about that.

So I guess USPS is the way to go.

I think instead of "inflation" we should call it what it is....  companies price gouging us and hoping we blame the government 

For clarity then, is it Ebay who sets the shipping rate posted in the parts adds?

I never bothered buying parts bikes. I always considered eBay my parts bike. I may have to rethink this.
Hopefully something will come in to fill the void the demise of eBay is leaving. It's just not practical to find and travel to swap meets every time I need a part.

Ebay is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
You can find bikes and parts you would never find in the past.
Anyone remember Buzz Kanter's "Old bike journal" ?

But it turns out that when you "buy" the the FedEx label through Ebay, that's just an estimate.  You don't actually get charged until a week later, and guess what?  That estimate was too low.  Now the price has gone up by 50%.  Of course the actual fee never goes below the estimate.   $9.11 became $14.17.  $14.06 became $20.35. So I get stuck holding the bag because the buyer underpaid.

The ebay estimates are just estimates, the are not the real FedEx prices.
Ebay and FedEx are separate company, FedEx sets their rates not ebay.

I spoke with Ebay, they told me I needed to talk to FedEx.  I spoke with FedEx and they said, "Yeah, that's right."  I told the lady what if you walk into a coffee shop and ask how much the coffee is, they say $4, and then after you order they tell you it's $6.  She didn't have anything to say about that.

The FedEx girl is an employee, she does not set rates, FedEx sets the rates, the FedEx girl works so she can buy food, have a place to live, have a boy friend.
It would be like asking a drunk on the street what a cup of coffee costs at starbucks.
The drunk says $4, when you go into starbucks they want $6, the drunk does not set starbucks rates.

I think instead of "inflation" we should call it what it is....  companies price gouging us and hoping we blame the government.

The Federal reserve pumped $3.5 trillion into the economy since March 2020 when the virus started.
A lot of this money went into the stock market, some of it went other places like into the pockets of people who buy motorcycle parts.
The Federal reserve has stated the inflation is "temporary", ya good luck with that, perhaps they will suck $3.5 trillion out of the economy (never happened before, not likely).

For clarity then, is it Ebay who sets the shipping rate posted in the parts adds?

Yes, it is ebay and they are not very good at it.

wrote:

For clarity then, is it Ebay who sets the shipping rate posted in the parts adds?

Yes, it is ebay and they are not very good at it.

Ebay does provide a discount for some shipping.  I'm assuming they have negotiated this discount with the carriers.  But no, they don't set the rates at all.  And they allow you to purchase from USPS, FedEx, and UPS.  The seller has the option to offer any of these, or all of these, or purchase shipping outside of Ebay.

My specific issues lies completely with FedEx.  However, as an ebay seller, it makes it very difficult to know if it's worth the effort when I don't know what the actual shipping will be.  I sold an item for $5.25 the other day, and the shipping was $15.45.  After ebay fees, I stand to make $3.46.  But I'm guessing that FedEx will charge me closer to $20.  So now it will cost me money to give that thing away.  Nice. 

The place where it does become an issue with Ebay itself is that Ebay gleefully charges a 12.5% fee on shipping along with the final value.  I've seen quoted shipping rates for a single item vary between $10 to the east coast and $50 to the west coast (I'm in PA).

So say an item sells for $20.  Ebay takes 12.5% of the final value, so $2.50 off the top.  If shipping is $10, ebay takes another $1.25 as their cut of the shipping.  So I take home $16.25.  However, if shipping is $50, ebay takes $6.25 for their fee on shipping.  So my $20 final value turns in to $11.25.  I have no idea where the package might end up, so it's hard to know if it's even worth it to list some things.

By the way, I didn't include the 12.5% fee ebay also charges the seller for the sales tax that they charge to the buyer, which is super cool.

So as the shipping rates go up people will likely bid less on items, since any smart bidder will look at the overall cost, and then ebay will also take a larger part of that smaller "final value" as a fee, based on their 12.5% of the higher shipping rate.  So profit is reduced twice.  This is what I took away from z1kzonly's post.

Another comment.  Ebay is a great place to find parts, and of course they charge what the market allows, but I wish they were more upfront and honest about it.  It's really hard to get to the page where they show the full fee details for each auction. 
Also, once you purchase a shipping label through ebay, it's nearly impossible to find the original quoted value for FedEx.  You can only see the final charge.  And on and on. 
And don't get my started about the various places ebay flashes up, in big rolling numbers, the "90-day total sales".  This number shows the total amount that's been collected by Ebay for your auctions for 90 days.  So it includes the final value, the shipping, and probably the sales tax.  Of course only a tiny amount of that actually gets to the seller.  But that's the number that's big and bold and up front.  The value shown is so large as to be laughably, comically, obviously a lie. 
The actual piece of the total that you keep?  Well, you need click through four pages and then several drop downs to see that value for each item, and then add it all up yourself.

 

Does anybody use Facebook Market Place or Craigslist instead of Ebay?

Ebay does provide a discount for some shipping.  I'm assuming they have negotiated this discount with the carriers.  But no, they don't set the rates at all.  And they allow you to purchase from USPS, FedEx, and UPS.  The seller has the option to offer any of these, or all of these, or purchase shipping outside of Ebay.

USPS, FedEx, UPS do not offer discount for ebay packages.

The place where it does become an issue with Ebay itself is that Ebay gleefully charges a 12.5% fee on shipping along with the final value.

Ebay seeks profit, they charge as much as they can, stockholders own the company, they probably are gleeful.

By the way, I didn't include the 12.5% fee ebay also charges the seller for the sales tax that they charge to the buyer, which is super cool.

The states get the sales tax money not ebay, the states are gleeful too.

Sellers can do two things to control shipping costs.
1) Ship usps with flat rate box.
2) Increase the size and weight dimensions so the real shipping cost is less then ebay estimates.


Every buyer and seller decides what is best for them.
If you see something on ebay you want and can afford it you buy it.
Sellers decide if selling on ebay is profitable and worth their time.
It would be great if there was a competing company, ebay has a monopoly, craigslist and facebook are minuscule compared to ebay.

wrote:

Does anybody use Facebook Market Place or Craigslist instead of Ebay?

Craigslist is so full of buyers advertising to buy old Kawasaki bikes that it’s really hard to find anything but their listings when doing searches. Facebook is scammer heaven. You need to really be careful. When I contact a FB seller I tell them I will only pay using PayPal and pay as good and services. I will tell the seller I will add .03% to cover the service fee they have to pay. If the won’t accept that method I stop the communication. I was burned once. I’ve also had different sellers send me the same photo of a part. I asked one “where did you get that photo” he said it’s in my living room. My reply was “funny this other guy must live with you because he sent me the same picture”. Never heard from either seller again. 

I base a lot of eBay purchases on shipping cost. If I feel shipping plus part is higher than the parts value I pass. 

FB is trying to horn on the sales and shipping. I use Pay Pal with tracking. CL is full of scammers and tire kickers. 
Steve

I'm looking at an old guitar on ebay , for what they want plus the tax it is at a premium price but still worth it, but then you add the 150 bucks to ship it from Kansas to Illinois, it's a total deal breaker