Ask Seller for Postage Quote

[auskywalka]

Hi folks,

I took the time to prepack an item I’m selling. I measured it & even took it to the post office to get the exact weight. I entered all of this information into EBAY when putting it up for sale. But local & international customers are told to “Ask Seller for Postage Quote”! This also puts my item at the expensive side of “Price + Postage” results because they’re not sorted properly.

I’d love to know what’s gone wrong.

Thanks for any tips.

[digital*ghost]

Because the auction has bids, it's too late to edit it and try to get some postage quotes showing, but just to try and work out what the issue was - aside from the package specifications, what did you select in the postage cost section (eg you should have had to select between flat rate postage, calculated postage, and freight - flat rate is where you need to input a price that applies to everyone in a specific region or country, calculated is where eBay fills the postage cost based on the package specs, and freight is for couriers, where postage is calculated after the sale and you have the buyer's location). 

[auskywalka]

I entered the package weight & dimensions so I must have chosen calculated.

[auskywalka]

Screenshot of my postage settings:
https://imgur.com/a/aZHhqRX

[kopenhagen5]

When I enter my location - 'postage cannot be calculated to your location'

So in the calculated section, something is not filled out or filled out incorrectly.

Unless it's a glitch with the eBay postage calculator at the moment.

But as said, with bids it cannot be changed.

You will just need to send postage prices as you get inquiries or end the listing and relist if you think it will affect the auction much.

[chameleon54]

It also looks like you may be offering this to international clients. If you have to mail it to Iceland or Cuba with tracking and insurance it could cost an absolute bomb, depending on size and weight. Does it weigh less than 5 KG. and not too big ? If so it may fit in a standard Australia Post mail satchel with the same postage cost Australia Wide.

[chameleon54]

Your current high bidder has 19 bid retractions in the last 89 bids. This is a red alert for a difficult, problem buyer. Do you have blocks in place to prevent non paying bidders and unverified accounts from buying your items ?  All up, the whole thing looks concerning to me.  Personally I would cancel the bids and auction, review / fix the postage problems including excluding international bidders, unless you are confident to mail overseas, ensure problem buyer blocks are in place ( account settings ) and try again. 

[digital*ghost]

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@auskywalka wrote:
Screenshot of my postage settings:
https://imgur.com/a/aZHhqRX

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It looks like it's been filled out ok, but when I switch my location (to calculate postage) to the US, I get this message: "This item can be sent to United States, but the seller has not specified postage options. Contact the seller and request a postage method to your location", so it would appear the services selected are not actually being used for the postage calculation for some reason - why, I couldn't really say. Do you have access to a PC in order to open up the listing and check settings via the advanced listing tool? There might be something in there that wasn't available in the mobile or app settings. 

[chameleon54]

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@chameleon54 wrote:

It also looks like you may be offering this to international clients. If you have to mail it to Iceland or Cuba with tracking and insurance it could cost an absolute bomb, depending on size and weight. Does it weigh less than 5 KG. and not too big ? If so it may fit in a standard Australia Post mail satchel with the same postage cost Australia Wide.

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The above was an example only. To clarify, I dont believe AP even offer tracking or insurance to Cuba, so you simply would not have any ebay protection from unscrupulous buyers in this instance. If a buyer from a country that is not included in the global tracking programme buys your item, there is a very high risk you will lose the item AND the postage costs.

Probably best to cancel the auction and sort out the postage now, rather than go ahead and try to sort out the problems after the auction closes.

[auskywalka]

Thanks for the replies guys. You’ve given me a lot to think about.

For a new listing is it possible to stipulate that insurance must be taken out & will be calculated at the end of the auction?