Free Shipping & Crazy buyers all can be found on eBay

Dear eBay Queen;

I have some new shoes (without the box), some new with tags t-shirts, as well as some vintage 1980’s Barbies. I think these items can either be packed tightly into a flat rate box or maybe folded nicely and shipped in a heavy plastic shipping bag. I am considering using free shipping on these items. What is the best way to figure out ahead of time how much to allow in my starting price on eBay?

What would be the cheapest way to ship these items? How do you figure out that fine line between using a Priority Mail box versus an envelope? How much is flat rate shipping?

If I am shipping a t-shirt, would it be appropriate to just slip the shirt into a Priority flat-rate envelope? I had wondered about putting a t-shirt into a shipping bag or envelope; do you think it would get there ok? Or does it need a box?


G Hull; Lawrence, KS

Dear G:

When figuring what to start your item at you will need to add the cost of shipping, eBay fees and PayPal fees to the price of your item. You can ship light weight items (such as t-shirts if they are 13 ounces or less) in a first class shipping bag or manila envelope. I know many sellers who ship clothing in a variety of things besides a box. All of the methods you mentioned would be acceptable.

USPS has all of their pricing listed on their website. This will make it easy for you to figure your shipping costs. http://www.usps.com/prices/priority-mail-prices.htm Priority Mail flat envelopes are $4.80 and Priority Mail flat rate box is $9.80.

eBay is really pushing for free shipping, but as your parents always told you “nothing in life is free”. Make sure you add in all of your costs before you set your price for your eBay listing. Good Luck, and let me know how your free shipping experiment goes.

Dear eBay Queen;

I have a really strange problem. I sold a Red Wing Crock to someone that only lived in the next town over. She paid me with PayPal but asked if she could pick the item up. I agreed, and the woman came over to my home. She stood here and talked to me for a long time. She was very nice and friendly and she never once said anything negative about the crock. Then she went home and filed a PayPal not as described claim and left me a negative feedback. She never said that there was a problem and did not ever contact me.

What should I do?

Barbara; Gardner, KS


Dear Barbara:

This is unbelievable! Have you responded to the PayPal Claim? If not you need to do that right away. Make sure you say in your response that the customer picked the item up at your home and inspected it there. From there you have several choices:

1. Authorize a return, where the buyer will return the item to you. Will the buyer ship it back or return it to your door?
2. Escalate the claim. By doing this, PayPal will decide what will happen. They could have the buyer return it, or tell the buyer to keep it since they looked it over in person. It’s very important that if you choose to escalate the claim, to make clear the buyer came and picked up the item.
3. Continue to communicate with the buyer. Do this if you believe the two of you can work this out between yourselves.

Sometimes people do things and there is no explanation for why they do them. If this were my buyer and transaction I would respond to PayPal, and to the negative feedback she left. My feedback response would say; “Buyer picked up item, was happy with it when she left, no contact just left negative.”


Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item 310085850577 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page) Christopher Columbus’ birthday is going to be here soon. I wonder if he would have liked a figural match safe of his own head? SOLD $450.00 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item310085850577

eBay and a Few Shipping Problems

Dear eBay Queen;

After 3 years of selling on eBay, I finally have 2 problems that I am not sure how to solve. I can not believe they happened within a week of each other, and they both involve the post office. My first problem started out when I mailed a package to Louisiana over 3 weeks ago! The buyer has emailed a lot over the last three weeks. She has the delivery confirmation number, and it just shows “in-transit”. Yesterday the buyer emailed me and said she received the package, but she had to pay $8.95 for extra postage and she wants me to refund that money back to her or she will give me a negative.

I called my post office and her post office in Louisiana. I did not understand how she had postage due, when my post office put the postage on the box to begin with! After talking to both post offices I learned the buyer had moved from Louisiana to Alabama in July, and did not change her address with eBay or PayPal. The $8.95 she was charged was because the package was originally shipped Parcel Post, and it was the shipping fee to forward it to her new address. Do you think I should refund her $8.95? Am I obligated to do so?

My second problem is similar. I received a package back that I shipped off over a week ago. The label has “moved, left no forwarding address”. I immediately checked my PayPal payment and the invoice information from eBay. The address is the same as the one I shipped it to! I e-mailed the buyer, asked her if she moved, and told her the box was shipped back. She apologized, and gave me her new address. She did not offer to pay to ship the item back to her. What should I do? Should I charge her the shipping cost to re-send? Or should I just eat the cost of the shipping? It was only four dollars and some change.

JPK; Ottawa


Dear JPK;

In both cases you certainly did everything right. Your Louisiana/Alabama buyer may not fully understand what happened. I would email her, and let her know you feel really bad she had to pay the extra shipping money to receive her item. Tell her what you told me and all of the investigation you did to figure out what happened. I would explain to her she was charged the 8.95 because she chose parcel post shipping (there would not have been a fee to forward with Priority mail), and she did not update her address with eBay or PayPal. I would not refund her money, and she certainly went against eBay rules by threatening feedback. Her “you pay or I’ll give you a negative”, warrants you reporting her to eBay. That being said, if you are feeling kind and do not want to confront her, you could refund the money and not have any of the hassle.

When it comes to your second buyer, I would email her back and let her know the post office will not send it to her new address without charging you again to ship it. Offer to send her a new shipping invoice through PayPal. If the buyer is unhappy about paying the extra shipping, you should not feel obligated to do so. If she does not want to pay to have it shipped back and you do not want to pay ship it. I would refund her money.

All of us at some point and time will have a buyer who forgets to change their mailing address. I have been known to eat the shipping fees if the sale was a good one.


Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item 130141225705 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page). I have this memory of going to my Grandmother’s house and seeing an old amber candy dish full of candy. Maybe it wasn’t just like this one, but maybe it was. Fenton Amber Hobnail covered candy dish SOLD $13,154.00. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130141225705