topic Re: Variable postage costs between search function & actual listing in Selling

Variable postage costs between search function & actual listing

missing-pieces-china — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 11:58:04 GMT

Has anyone noticed that there is variable postage rates on listings. When you look at a lot of the listings under the search function the postage price is displaying as a lot less. When you click onto the actual listing the price automatically increases by 10-15%. I have seen a large number of newly listed items showing up this way. There are of course others that do not. Does anyone know if this has anything to do with the new fee structure beginning in May? If so, it makes no sense as the additional costs do not equate to 9.9% FVF.

Re: Variable postage costs between search function & actual listing

davewil1964 — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 12:08:30 GMT

Some prices went up last week, but that was mainly letters (which aren't calculated). Otherwise it was only 500g parcels. But it was only 25c. Certainly not 10-15%.

And International, before somebody points it out, but that has nothing to do with the question.

Re: Variable postage costs between search function & actual listing

missing-pieces-china — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 12:18:06 GMT

No I mean that Ebay is actually automatically changing the postage costs, not the seller. When you search for an item and change the filter to newly listed a huge proportion of listings are showing the gallery image with price plus postage. When you actually click onto the listing to view it in more details the postage prices jump.

Re: Variable postage costs between search function & actual listing

missing-pieces-china — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 12:19:05 GMT

Hope what I am saying makes sense! It's hard to explain!

Re: Variable postage costs between search function & actual listing

missing-pieces-china — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 12:27:32 GMT

For example

Search the below title & note the postage costs before you actually click into the listing

ROYAL ALBERT BLUE RAINBOW TRIO music on this listing

Price $20.00 Postage $12.40 jumps to $13.50

ROYAL ALBERT OLD COUNTRY ROSE TRIO

Price $31.75 Postage $16.35 jumps to $17.55

I've seen heaps of these price differences but there is no pattern to it!

Re: Variable postage costs between search function & actual listing

digital*ghost — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 14:17:19 GMT

The items in question are listings using calculated postage, and I suspect that the search results price is postage component only, while the listing actually shows postage + handling fee, which has to be entered separately by the seller (and allows for packaging costs to be included in the postage price etc). It shouldn't be the case, in that the total should be displayed in search results.

I may be wrong, though, as I did a general search for other items that use calculated postage for the eBay satchel rates, and one seller's items show a 20c discrepancy between search results and listing P&H quotes ($7.25 vs $7.45, when I thought current AP cost is $7.15 - coulda snuck a price rise past me, though )

Either way, there is definitely a noticable discrepancy for calculated postage quotes.

Re: Variable postage costs between search function & actual listing

missing-pieces-china — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 14:52:25 GMT

Thanks for the clarification! I had no idea you could search listings based on calculated postage. It is odd that there are discrepencies though. It only shows as Standard postage in the listings. Is there an easy way to search for calculated postage listings?

Re: Variable postage costs between search function & actual listing

digital*ghost — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 15:10:43 GMT

Sorry, there isn't actually a way to search for calculated postage listings only, you can really only confirm if they're using Australia Post services, and by seeing if the postage rates change when you enter a different postcode (in the postage and payments tab, there's an option to change the postcode and get a quote for P&H to that area, I switched mine from an SA postcode to a WA postcode to check - you just have to remember to change it back again otherwise you'll keep getting quotes to the other postcode).

When I double checked, I looked in the book section because a lot of sellers use calculated there, but I would assume anyone posting the kind of items that have variable postage costs depending on the buyer's location (due to size / weight of packages), would likely use calculated, so the glitch would be relatively widespread in any category that applies to, unfortunately.

Re: Variable postage costs between search function & actual listing

missing-pieces-china — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 16:25:12 GMT

Thanks so much for the clarification! That makes sense now although the variable price glitch doesn't of course. I had seen it on so many things in the past few days & thought it weird!

Re: Variable postage costs between search function & actual listing

curraone — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 20:07:36 GMT

yes I saw this yesterday too - the postage was different when I clicked into the description and it was the seller's handling fee.

Has never happened before, usually postage shows the full amount - might be a glitch tho.

Re: Variable postage costs between search function & actual listing

davewil1964 — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 07:33:35 GMT

@digital*ghost wrote:
The items in question are listings using calculated postage, and I suspect that the search results price is postage component only, while the listing actually shows postage + handling fee, which has to be entered separately by the seller (and allows for packaging costs to be included in the postage price etc). It shouldn't be the case, in that the total should be displayed in search results.

I may be wrong, though, as I did a general search for other items that use calculated postage for the eBay satchel rates, and one seller's items show a 20c discrepancy between search results and listing P&H quotes ($7.25 vs $7.45, when I thought current AP cost is $7.15 - coulda snuck a price rise past me, though )

Either way, there is definitely a noticable discrepancy for calculated postage quotes.

That coulda been me. I add a whole 30c for handling (satchel, bubblewrap, ink, paper, gladwrap actually). And C&S satchel prices went from $6.95 to $7.15 last week.

Re: Variable postage costs between search function & actual listing

digital*ghost — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 16:26:02 GMT

@davewil1964 wrote:
That coulda been me. I add a whole 30c for handling (satchel, bubblewrap, ink, paper, gladwrap actually). And C&S satchel prices went from $6.95 to $7.15 last week.

It was you, lol.

I went looking for your items because I know you use calculated with a low handling fee, so wanted to see if that's what was definitely making the difference, but the discrepancy was 20c, which is in the ballpark but means I have no clue how the difference is being calculated or shown from search results to listing...unless only a specific percentage of the handling fee is being shown o_O

Re: Variable postage costs between search function & actual listing

davewil1964 — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 06:42:21 GMT

i suspect it is because when the listings were done the satchel postage was $6.95 and now the satchel postage is $7.15.

So the search page would seem to be batched, while the item page is live, and thus shows the new postage costs.

Re: Variable postage costs between search function & actual listing

digital*ghost — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 13:22:17 GMT

Most likely - that makes a lot more sense than what I was thinking.

Re: Variable postage costs between search function & actual listing

babylonfuture — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 13:37:17 GMT

It's been like this for awhile.

It's a bug, when the search results are compiled it ignores the table rate (variable shipping rates) postage.

At work (brick and mortar) we also have a ebay store.. have actually had a customer complain about the 'misleading' shipping.

As when you load the actual item page it reads your postcode and then does the calculation.