on โ08-04-2014 09:58 PM
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.
on โ08-04-2014 10:08 PM
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.
on โ08-04-2014 10:18 PM
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.
on โ08-04-2014 10:19 PM
Hope what I am saying makes sense! It's hard to explain!
โ08-04-2014 10:23 PM - edited โ08-04-2014 10:27 PM
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
Or
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!
โ09-04-2014 12:16 AM - edited โ09-04-2014 12:17 AM
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.
on โ09-04-2014 12:52 AM
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?
on โ09-04-2014 01:10 AM
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.
on โ09-04-2014 02:25 AM
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!
on โ09-04-2014 06:07 AM
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.