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My sources tell me that very few packages are being flagged for dimensional issues and that dimensional scans are only applied in “certain cases”.
It’s not a bug and not specific to eBay. It was a recent USPS rule change to comply with the international postal union rules. International mail (letters and flats/large envelopes) can no longer be used to ship merchandise, or anything else, other than valueless documents. The minimum cost for FCI package is around $11, so that is a bummer for people selling low-cost, smaller, flatter items that could have been shipped FCI large envelope for a couple bucks.
eBay did have a related problem when they tried to implement that rule because their back-end system had no way to distinguish from international first class mail vs packages.
Stamps.com has a new program, I think it’s basically like GSP where they forward the item for you, that somehow will get you much better rates on international flats. It may be worth looking into if a lot of your business is international sales of things like postcards.
@ChristineR I haven’t looked closely using the latest rates, but historically Smart Post became uneconomical compared to other options at around 10 lbs. So the answer to your question would be whenever the dimensional weight would be >= ~10 lbs. For Fedex, around 1330 cubic inches, e.g. 11 x 11 x 11″, gives a dim. weight of 10 lbs, so that should be a good ballpark upper bound for you. Of course, the actual answer depends on other factors such as the actual weight of the package and the shipping distance.
@Mike, 1,278 cu in = 1 cu ft threshold for dim weight only applies to USPS.
Dim weight applies to FedEx Ground starting at the dim factor (which they change from time-to-time – it’s been getting lower and lower over the years). UPS ground has something a little more complicated I can’t remember at the moment.
Current dim factor for Fedex Ground is 139 which means 139 cu in = 1 lb. starting at 139 cu in.
E.g., a 6 x 5 x 5 box is 150 cu in. -> 2 lb dim weight.
I’m still doing some research on how dim weight for Smart Post works now.
>We sort of figured that is why the USPS stopped making the 15x12x12 “C”
I think you are exactly right about the formerly regional C box (and So Cal Joe probably isn’t wrong either). You’ll notice that there are no priority branded boxes over 1 cu ft now.
>And yes, love the fitshipper tool. Used it for a long time and have played “what if” many times.
Awesome, glad people are using the calculators.
Ah, and to clarify because I have a real problem naming different things “FitShipper” – do you mean you’ve been using the dimensional weight calculator on FitShipper.com (linked in previous comment), or are you talking about what I now have to call “the original FitShipper shipping calculator” on FlipperTools.com?
Currently, the “original” FitShipper and “FitShipper for Listing” reside on FlipperTools.com
And, there are some different kinds of calculators (dim. weight, postal zone, and cubic resizing) at FitShipper.com/freeTools/
cheers
Also, as of last time I checked a few hours ago, the ebay shipping calculator at ebay.com/shp/Calculator was calculating Smart Post rates w/o dimensional weight – i.e. may be completely wrong for packages over 139 cubic inches in size.
I believe I also saw some chatter on the ebay for business facebook page that calculated shipping wasn’t (isn’t?) working correctly in all cases which is why some buyers are being undercharged.
28x12x6 and 5 lbs will be billed as 39 lbs w/ 139 as the dimensional divisor:
^ That page also shows a line for “eBay’s FedEx” because, at least before recently, eBay had a different than standard divisor for FedEx Ground labels (I’m assuming they had negotiated that). I’m not sure if that divisor: a) still applies for FedEx Ground since the recent updates, b) would apply also to SmartPost. I will be running some prices and verifying that soon.
@LoveJame – FedEx Smartpost just changed such that dimensional weight now applies. There’s a calculation that converts the volume (LxWxH) into a dimensional weight in pounds. The rate you pay is based on the greater of the actual scale weight and dimensional weight (the larger value is considered the billing weight).
You can play around w/ some dimensions to see how they effect dim weight w/ this calculator:
https://www.fitshipper.com/freeTools/dimensional-weight-calculator.html
I need to check a few prices to make sure it’s still accurate as of this month, but it should give you a good ballpark of how the box size is going to effect the price either way.
Hey T-Satt,
>The thing is, eBay and Shippo were in sync with pricing before, but while eBay went up, Shippo went DOWN.
Not sure how Shippo went down; very few if any USPS prices went down.
> When both had a PFR for $6.30, eBay now has the PFR at $6.90 (which I expected based on the rate change), but Shippo is $5.83.
PFR = Padded Flat Rate (envelope)?
I just checked this and, strange…
Commercial plus (should match eBay TRS) – $6.90
Commercial base (should match eBay non-TRS) – $7.10
Shippo – $7.06?I checked and rechecked, created a new order and checked again. Not sure what’s going TBH. Maybe we’ll have to wait a couple days for everyone to shake the bugs out from this update?
I also checked Shippo’s price on Regional A to zone 8. It was $10.80 which should be the same everywhere.
>Interesting on FitShipper. I checked out their pricing, but they are a bit misleading. They show that the eBay TRS rate for PFR is $7.10, but I saw it today at $6.90, which is the same as their rates.
T-Satt – it shows eBay TRS rates in the table related to cubic pricing. The next table, “Priority Flat Rate Box Prices” only shows commercial base pricing for “eBay | Etsy | Stamps.com”. I’ll update that to make it more clear. Thanks for the feedback 🙂
Mike, I’m Josh from FlipperTools.com and FitShipper Labels (FitShipper.com). Thanks for the mention!
FYI, some of the differences between FitShipper and Shippo:
-Per Label Fee: FitShipper – 1 cent, Shippo – 5 cents
-Both offer commercial plus pricing on regular and flat rate Priority
-Both offer cubic Priority rate but Shippo marks up their cubic prices a few percent
-FitShipper has a monthly subscription starting at $5, Shippo does not charge for a subscription
-FitShipper requires you to fund a shipping account with at least $20 to start, and $20 minimum “top-up” when depleted. No big deal if you at least ship a few packages a week but I know cash-flow is tight for a lot of sellers. Shippo is pay-as-you-go as far as I know.
-FitShipper was created by an eBay seller for other eBay sellers. The eBay integration is tighter/better in most ways than any other label service that I’m aware of.
-FitShipper Labels borrows heavily from the original “FitShipper” shipping calculators that are available for free on FlipperTools.com. The ability to quickly and easily compare shipping rates to find the cheapest way to ship an item is miles better than Shippo (probably better than any other shipping label service).
-FitShipper currently only integrates with eBay; Shippo has eBay and a few others.
-FitShipper can print pretty much any type of USPS postage including media mail, First Class Letter, First Class Large Envelope/Flats. I’m pretty sure (not positive) that Shippo can’t do those.
-FitShipper allows you to copy and paste in an entire address (useful for non-eBay shipments) whereas Shippo requires you to copy and paste each part of the address individually.
If anyone has questions about FitShipper, the 2018 USPS changes, or shipping in general feel free to ask me here or contact me anytime.
T-Satt, the USPS pricing API (which where eBay gets its rates, I’m assuming) updated to the new 2018 pricing on Friday, a few days before the rates actually went into effect. This would explain the drastic price difference you saw over the weekend.
Shippo offers commercial plus rates where available, but there’s no plus pricing on regional rate, so Shippo and eBay (and all online postage vendors) should have identical prices for Regional rate.
Regular and Flat rate prices should be about 3% lower (commercial plus vs commercial base) on Shippo unless you are a TRS in which case eBay labels also offers commercial plus. Shippo also offers cubic rate pricing (marked up a bit) which can be discounted quite a lot compared to regular priority, base or plus.
cheers
There is no rule (that I’m aware of) against using a recycled priority box inside a priority envelope (if there is, please cite it). There is a very vague rule regarding the “misuse” of free priority packaging which seems to mainly pertain to using free Priority packaging for any use other than shipping via Priority Mail. USPS says you can combine priority boxes (so using more than one per shipment must not be “misuse”).
And, there’s no way to get “caught” – USPS is prohibited from inspecting the contents of priority mail without a warrant or serious concern (package is ticking, leaking, etc).
As long as you’ve paid for a priority label, I don’t think there’s any misuse going on and the risk of incurring a delay or extra charge is essentially zero. That being said, don’t do anything you’re not comfortable with. Your mileage may vary; no warranties are expressed or implied, etc…
@ryanne: yep, closes nicely.
Iirc the coupon code is tied to your eBay account and can’t be transferred.
Order your “free” shipping supplies and sell them or donate them to charity
