eBay® PowerSeller Business Practices FOR DUMMIES®

Chapter 10. Setting Shipping Costs That Pay

Buyers who visit the eBay site are bargain shoppers, and they look for the lowest possible prices for their items in the eBay search engine. They're also becoming more cognizant about the "hidden" expense buried in the item's shipping and handling fees.

When you set your shipping fees, you must take into account every expense involved in the packing and shipping area of your business. Your shipping area can become a losing proposition if you don't work out hese figures every so often.

Too many eBay sellers — unquestionably out of greed — have increased shipping prices to outrageous amounts. I'll bet those sellers think they've found a cute way to shave a couple of cents off their Final Value fees (after all, Final Value fees aren't charged on shipping costs). But when the shipping fee is half of (or even equal to) the item cost, a prospective bidder may think twice about placing a bid. It seems that eBay has smartened up on this practice as well; they have gone so far as to alter the search engine options to allow a price plus shipping sort. This sort can also be affected by eBay's Shipping Calculator, discussed further on.

Tip

When buyers search for an item on eBay, remember that they can use the drop-down menu that appears at the top-right of the search results. This menu allows shoppers to reorganize search results by various parameters. One such parameter is price plus shipping cost. This search option returns results in price order (from ...