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Any mercari sellers here? I tried to list my first item on there and am getting a strange shipping price. They claim that fed ex would be the cheaper price at 12.50, ups at 13.00 and usps is 17.00! It’s a pair of shoes, weight about 3.5 pounds. I have always shipped shoes priority usps and it never cost that much. I wondered if anyone else had this issue.
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Hi Meg, I ship on Mercari but not often items this heavy. The shipping prices used to be better but they went up. For flat rate items and media mail items I ship through Paypal and offer free shipping on Mercari. Others I just usually pick the Mercari best price for FedEx or USPS. Mercari charges you their fee (only 10%) on the total including shipping so you are actually better off with no fees shipping independently as long as you charge enough to the customer. Some Mercari sellers talk about using Pirate Ship.
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Ah, thanks. $17.00 to ship a pair of used shoes sounds crazy to me. I just shipped a pair of nikes and it was 9.50. Even without the ebay discount, it wouldn’t be that high.
I just found it odd that fed ex would be the suggested shipper. I tend to think of them for heavy things like furniture. Plus, as a customer I have never had good luck with them. Honestly, it was just a test. I have been doing good with selling shoes on ebay, and heard mercari was easier. The listing and fees are, but the shipping is wacky.
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Yes, it’s a shame too because their old rates were really good on heavier items. Mercari is strong in Japan but struggling to become profitable in the US. Also with the new requirement for weighing, amateurs are making more shipping mistakes I think.
However, your items get seen ASAP on Mercari where they can really languish on EBay. Mercari is very active for well priced items and it’s easy enough to ship PayPal. EBay’s improved their app recently but it still isn’t as fast to list. Arguably different buyer set too, lower fees, and less likely to compare prices or return on Mercari.
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I think this is typical of all these new selling apps/sites work. They are funded by venture capitalists so have a lot of cash tog grow. They use the cash to subsidize free shipping and charge almost no fees.
But at some point, they have to become a real business of be profitable, so their fees and shipping meet reality.
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Meg: There is a website that has been mentioned here on SL dozens of times through the years. It is called http://www.flippertools.com is the link.
It was designed by a former SL member. We use it almost daily to decide on various things.
It has a calculator for items you don’t know where your buyer lives, so prices by zone, it also shows best box to use and prices for USPS side by side for when you do know where your pkg. is going., You can use the Retail rates, standard commercial rates [Ebay without your top rated discount], or have it deduct for your discount. It also has a calculator for DIM Weight packages which we use several times a week when calculating what prices to build in for Free Shipping [on Etsy] for large oversize items. Just a great tool to keep on your desktop.
Plus he has other tools listed which we don’t use as much, except to see what an “Ebay Offer” was for sold items.
Give it a try, explore the various sections and he also even has a section where you can buy labels directly from him, sort of a PirateShip wanna be, but an alternative if you need one.
Good Luck.. “Keep on Truckin!”
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
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Christine, it’s the item specifics that slow me down on ebay. I was testing out mercari because it is supposed to be easier, and overall I think it is. I will ship with paypal from now on.
Thanks Mike for the link, that looks like a valuable website.
Jay, mercari makes listing easier especially if you are a mobile user. But their shipping suggestions are strange. And overpriced. I am going to use paypal to ship and just offer free shipping.
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I hope Mercari does survive. I have noticed that Ebay improved the photo loading speed, the promoted listings glitch vs. desktop, etc. I’m happy they made some changes but I still have to start on my desktop with Ebay. I hope they continue to improve and simplify the app listing but it kind of goes against their goal to add all of those item specifics.
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“Trapped at home, consumers have gone all in for fitness and exercise equipment, up 607% compared to pre-pandemic levels; toys and collectibles, up 574%; and video games and consoles, up 437%. About 45 million people have downloaded the Mercari app since its launch, which has about 4.1 million active users., with roughly 150,000 new listings a day. Users are more likely to be female, Hangad says, and more suburban than urban, with young kids.”
From another article: “The average Mercari seller in the US made $183 in April – a 50% increase over April 2019… Prior to the pandemic, Mercari had approximately 3.4 million monthly active Mercari users in the US representing all states, and that number has risen. Mercari also reached a milestone amid the pandemic, surpassing $1 billion paid to sellers since its US launch in 2014. “That’s a billion dollars changing hands between individual Americans, since we are a domestic marketplace that prohibits corporate sellers,” said John Lagerling, Mercari US CEO.”
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