Question Re: Transit times for ebay purchases in Packaging & Shipping

Transit times for ebay purchases

bioscope-oz — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 04:30:07 GMT

I am in Australia. I signed up with ebay on September 4, 1999. Back in those days, and for quite some time after, buyers and sellers were in direct contact with each other via their personal email addresses. When I bought something, more often than not the seller would notify me via email that they had mailed my purchase to me. I would look at the date and then count 6 to 8 days, and the package would arrive at my home. That's right, 6 to 8 days. It was as reliable as a Swiss watch, time after time after time. Today the transit time can be anything up to a month! So what happened? Do planes fly slower these days? No! Today my packages seem to go on a site-seeing tour, from this place to the next place to the next place and so on. In reality, they should go to the nearest international airport and then to me. I sometimes think that my packages could get to me faster if they were being paddled in a canoe! Six to eight days is a short time to wait for a delivery, but knowing that I will have to wait anything up to a month, I have put up with it now for years, but I am very much getting turned off from buying, knowing there is such a long delivery time.

Re: Transit times for ebay purchases

sandypebbles — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 04:45:18 GMT

You're right, it's not 1999 any more

The estimated delivery date is shown before buying

Contacting each other via personal email addresses is not allowed

Sellers are under no obligation at all to be in constant contact with the buyer re mailing purchases

The postal service slowness (ie Australia Post) has nothing to do with eBay

You do not have to put up with anything, if the delivery date shows a month away, don't buy

And we are all in Australia here, being the member to member forum for eBay Australia

Re: Transit times for ebay purchases

countessalmirena — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 06:45:44 GMT

Ah, 1999… a nostalgic time…

Some things on eBay have improved, and some have devolved into slime.

But you can minimise those delivery times by buying from sellers registered in Australia, and who aren’t drop-shipping. Check the EDD range before buying, and you can also look through the seller’s About page and their feedback to see country of registration and any feedback comments that indicate a consistent issue.

Re: Transit times for ebay purchases

domino-710 — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 07:06:47 GMT

Looking at feedback - most items have been bought from Australian sellers.

Re: Transit times for ebay purchases

twyngwyn — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 10:09:02 GMT

Check seller’s handling time …..mine has been set to 10 days since Covid (even though I post daily) just in case

Re: Transit times for ebay purchases

*casey* — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 10:54:56 GMT

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the OP ?

but I don't think the OP's talking about handling times or overseas sellers at all.

OP's giving us a reminder of how personal and friendly eBay transactions were back in 1999 with sellers and buyers emailing each other and when parcels were almost guaranteed, at least to his/ her address, to arrive in 6-8 days.

"Today my packages seem to go on a site-seeing tour, from this place to the next place to the next place and so on"

Obviously there's been a massive increase in online shopping since then but with the cost of postage, and it's going up again soon, perhaps Australia Post could do a better job ?

You only have to look at the complaints on AP's facebook page to see how many problems occur daily and there's even some complaints from regulars in this very recent thread

https://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Selling/Here-we-go-again-greedy-AP/td-p/2649752

Re: Transit times for ebay purchases

davewil1964 — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 11:44:07 GMT

My experience is that I've never had a complaint about slow postage in over 5,000 sales. But I only sell domestically.