Aug 29 2008
Maximum Shipping Prices
If the changes seem never-ending to you, they certainly do to me as well. One of the most perplexing new changes to the eBay rules is that there are now maximum shipping amounts allowed. I certainly agree that shipping rates sometimes seem excessive, but packaging and postage are expensive. The maximums don’t allow for varying sizes of items and instead give each subcategory of item a blanket maximum.
If you look at the shipping charges table, the rates for now are only with the media items. However, I do expect eBay to start implementing something similar with other categories. I have been shocked lately to see how much some people are charging.
However, that being said, there have been many, many times that I shipped a book that could not have gone for $4. I used to sell law text books and other huge books occasionally and the postage cost was huge, and that’s even before the packaging prices were factored in. This maximum does make the site more of a player in the huge Amazon media empire, but it also seems a little silly. The market was keeping most shipping prices reasonable, and media sellers were choosing eBay because they can choose their own shipping amount and their method of payments. eBay has now severely limited both of those choices.