About USPS and eBay with updates.
As a man of the internet, I tend to sell things on eBay. Nothing major like cars or anything crazy like that. But sometimes you buy something stupid and you sit back and go "I don't want this in my house!" and so you put it on the worlds largest market so someone else can buy it and a few months later go "I don't want this in my house". It's all good really! And even though eBay is in the background waiting to take a percentage of all of your sales. This is acceptable to grant access to the largest market community on earth!
However,
[quote]Parcel Post® will no longer be available for purchase through eBay Labels as of January 27. A replacement service akin to Parcel Post will be available via eBay Labels in March.[/quote]
Wow, almost two months before people get an alternative. Way to be on the ball about the USPS! Our American government in action here folks. As a result, January and February is not a good day to buy OR sell on eBay because of this.
But wait! There's more
- Billy Maze
This snap-shot was taken as of 2/3/13
Ebay in an act of neglect decided to keep the option listing online anyways. Which if you're relisting auctions rapidly like I do. Or simply do not read the notes that they send out. When you list your auction you'll find out quickly (As I did) that suddenly you are not forced to choose a more expensive option. This is not terrible if your package is light, the cost only fluctuates by 1-2 dollars. but if you have something heavy like I did (34 pounds of love! in a 12x12x20 box!) then suddenly you realize that all of the money you made on your auction just vanished!
I could get upset at government for slowing down business. But eh, if you look at all of the carriers they're ALL talking about jacking up their rates due to fuel surcharges. And USPS did give warnings about it. But what I can't tolerate is a company that simply doesn't give a shit and leaves out-dated forms of shipping still on their website.
Update 3/13/2013
It appears that the new service Parcel Select is now the new "Parcel Post" from USPS. It would've been nice if eBay actually made an announcement about this like they did when they said they were stopping parcel post. However, eBay doesn't see the need to inform their sellers that there are discounts out there and instead would rather sellers take a hit on their ratings in terms of their overall shipping prices being drastically higher than new sellers that just started.
So thank you eBay! Thanks for shafting your customers once more with your inability to do business online. It's a miracle that no other company has come by to knock you down yet!
i agree.... parcel post(PP) was great for items 3+ pounds, you could ship them reasonably. Loved it, but mostly I do Priority, espy on smaller pkgs as it IS cheaper than PP was!!! That was weird but it was.
Now I hear Parcel SELECT (PS) is coming and replacing PP.... BUT it's just for businesses and lightweight packaging...not what WE need. So it's nothing.
The only GOOD THING is those Regional A & B boxes, espy the A box... I save SO MUCH $$$ using them, but then again, your item has to fit in the box. But if it does, it's a lot cheaper.
Lets hope in March eBay does offer some PP rates we can USE and they are good... but I'm thinking NOT. ~Patti
I didn't know they were going to lock it down to Business only. But I will do a follow-up the moment parcel post is re-instated in March.
Ebay could offer alternatives to PP as well. And since they just brought FedEx on with them it could be a possibility. When I talked to one of the agents at Dell Computers, they were saying their FedEx cost discount was obscene like %70. Although that would be amazing to be able to ship 50lbs ground for $15.00 across the country. If FedEx offered a reasonable discount to Ebay sellers comparable to PP I would switch to them no problem.
I guess when making this post I was just annoyed of Ebays administration being was too lazy to remove the shipping option from their site when you list an item and choose the shipping options.