3BrNBBRz4UYdo+!~~60_7.JPG "chameleon54"){kind=avatar}
When we look at the wider ongoing trend from ebay, we see that tracking of all items is increasingly becoming a necessity. ( and may eventually be mandated ). This will put an end to item not recieved disputes for buyers and the problem of " online shoplifting " for sellers when buyers falsely claim they have not recieved their item.
It will also put a lot of preasure on sellers of cheap items that are currently sent in large letters. International sellers who currently use untracked large letters will see postage costs increase from around $8.00 up to 250gm. to around $22.00 with tracking. That should put an end to all of those pesky overseas buyers who currently make up 30% of my business. 
The maximum late shipment percentage is still showing on the US site as 7%, so sadly over there they have the potential to fall below standard due to eBay's "shipping metrics", but on further reflection, I am going to go ahead and presume (because that's worked great so far 
) the absence of that here is not a mistake.
Sellers have to ship at least 90% of their orders with tracking to even have a chance for qualifying for TRS over there, so I'm guessing the difference for these kinds of requirements is due to the postal options they have access to (i.e. more accessibility to tracking, at lower prices, so a rare modicum of consideration for Aussie sellers, perhaps).
Still not quite fair when factors can be unknown, but I can accept it easily enough if it just makes the difference between TRS or not.
The only way you can be defected after the changes are brought in, is if you don't resolve a request, ebay steps in, and it's closed in favour of the buyer, or you cancel transactions due to being out of stock. I've never had/done either of those, so I can breathe a little easier, for now.
@chameleon54 wrote:
It will also put a lot of preasure on sellers of cheap items that are currently sent in large letters. International sellers who currently use untracked large letters will see postage costs increase from around $8.00 up to 250gm. to around $22.00 with tracking. That should put an end to all of those pesky overseas buyers who currently make up 30% of my business.
With the drastic increase to domestic large letters coming up, I wonder (or rather suspect) AP are well aware large letters are increasingly being used to ship merchandise from online merchants, and that the demand for some form of tracking, that doesn't triple the cost of postage, is very high.
Pure speculation, of course, or perhaps even pure fantasy, but with a 250g+ letter looking set to cost a min. $5.00, more if sent priority, perhaps the inflated costs will allow a tracking add-on (that doesn't include SOD) for less than the current price of reg'd.
Still, as someone that also ships letters OS, I am forever dismayed that more often than not, my choice is $2.75-$7.40 no option of tracking whatsoever, or between $21-$27 for tracking. That's up to 10 x more. 😞
