I was wondering whether anyone else has encouraged eBay to modify its international postage system.
eBay's Air Mail option is plugged into Australia Post's 'Economy Air' (formerly regular Air Mail.) This class of mail now has an upper limit of 2kg, and if an item exceeds this limit, the options for listings automatically leapfrog upwards from Economy Air to 'Express' rather than offering Australia Post's 'Standard' option. If you list using Air Mail, you get an error message. This means that the automated postage quote for potential customers will be higher than the actual figure unless the international item is sent off Express anyway.
To see what I mean, take any item and start revising it. Under 'International Postage' and 'Services', the menu fails to match up with Australia Post's categories on their online calculator, and it is not made obvious that Air Mail means 'Economy Air' while 'Standard' is unavailable for no logical reason.
I've been calling eBay about this on and off, and not getting very far. Perhaps if some other booksellers were to raise the issue with them, it might be prioritised for action.
