Oh totally agree it was definitely a clever sucker punch, good for them for trying. However I wonāt be fulfilling the order since they didnāt purchase it based on the clearly defined and mutually agreed upon terms because thatās not how I do business. A nicely worded message was sent letting them know why it would not be fulfilled and offering to make the item re-available at the terms previously agreed on if they so choose.
Fair enough, you guys had struck a deal, so I do not blame you for canceling.
Iād cancel the sale if youāre not going to deal with him again. Can a cancelled deal get you negative feedback?
The person didnāt do anything legally wrong, but morally that was not coolā¦unless they didnāt realize you had to eat the additional 20%, in which case they should be understanding. To me thatās knowingly being deceptive and Dishonest about oneās intentions, and I donāt think you should lose sleep over standing your ground on that.
Now, eBay may give you a strike or punish you in some way, but thatās just a formality of ārulesāā¦whether they actually are to cover circumstances like this is another debate in and of itself.
Iād have probably fulfilled the offer to avoid suffering any negative consequences from eBay/a negative review. I would have politely but sternly told them that I will not want to do business with them again in the future for this trickery they pulled.
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They also messaged after purchasing to let me know to package the items bagged and boarded in as small a box as possible but as securely as possible since they needed to fit the box in their luggage when they fly to Singaporeā¦it was over 70 comics, some larger sized like black label books, itās not gonna be a small box 
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This happens often. The old āyour book was damaged in transitā and they show a picture not of the book I sent. I always say send it back and I will deal with the USPS insurance. 9 times out of 10 they respond, well it is not that bad I will just keep it.
My response then is āSorry that happened, remind me in the future when you want to buy another book and I can give you a discount.ā never to hear from them again.
Hey eBay sellers. I know people have been complaining about high USPS shipping fees. But I may have found a hack to save money.
I went to ship one book, I always charge 1 pound for shipping to cover my costs and it was $6.25 to ship the one book. But then I shipped two trade paper backs at 2 pounds and found it was cheaper to ship 2 pounds than one pound. So, I loaded up on a bunch of free junk at my LCS, preview books and other giveaway crap, and am adding them to my packages to make them heavier to ship at the 2 pound rate (donāt want usps weighing them and hitting me with the extra charge because it was too light)
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Iāll have to check this out. Are you still shipping ground advantage though? Or just ground (uninsured)?
I noticed yesterday I shipped two things to Texas that were the same size/weight. One cost $8, the other $6. I checked pirateship and it quoted me the same difference. Other things shipped to California and Washington Stare for $6-$7.
I know Texas is big, but could not figure out why it cost more to different parts of the state than it did east to west coastā¦which are more zones away.
Hereās a tip/gaff on my part that has hit me pretty good.
I had listed some books on eBay and Mercari. They ended up selling on Mercari. Iām usually pretty good about taking things down quickly off eBay when it sells on Mercari.
I slipped up a few weeks ago where someone bought multiple books on ebay that I neglected to take down. So I had to cancel the orderā¦and got hit with multiple demerits as a results. One for each book bundled.
I didnāt think much of it until I noticed IeBay seller fees were about 20% on my last few sales (vice 13.25). So apparently that one cancellation of multiple items put me over 2% because Iāve had so few sales. So despite having 100% feedback and no returns, Iām a below grade seller nowā¦.and penalized an additional 6%.
I should have paid attention to this stat before cancelling. I would have been better off refunding it and sending him a book for free rather than cancelling. Looking at my sales since Iāve probably loose $50 in just that one cancellation summing the 6% extra seller fees since.
Plus itās going to continue for a while. The 2% is based on the past 12 months. So Iām āfightingā against 12 months of data and sales. With the defect rate so low (2%) itās relatively easy to hit it with a few cancellations. However itās much more difficult to move the needle the other wayā¦Iāll have to do the math, but it seemed like it would take about 100 perfect sales to get back to less than 2%.
Whatās hurting me at the moment is I had a cancellation in early December 2025ā¦so I canāt reduce the number of defects until that falls outside of the 12 month evaluation window as wellā¦
So I was teetering on the edge and didnāt realize itā¦and now that one cancellation, which was probably $30 in comics, has cost me double that in extra seller fees and still counting for at least another few months.
Sorry for the rant. Just figured if people had found themselves having to cancel a sale you may want to see what that does to your seller status (if not your first offense in 12 months) and consider alternatives.
That extra 6% adds up pretty quick. Especially when eBay fees are calculated against shipping, sales tax and VAT chargesā¦
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I am using ground advantage. They seem to be incentivizing the 2-3 lb rate and sticking it to the smaller weight postage. Next time you sell a book on eBay check the 1 lb price vs the 2 lb price. You will see the difference.
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I had fallen below the 2% at one point and paid the price as well. I had to tough it out but found out itās better to cancel the Mercari sale than the eBay sale.
I sometimes play around when the weight is over 1 lbs. Iāve observed the price staying the same between 1-4 lbs on occasion, but never go down.
Is it just when something is over a lbs? Or is it also cheaper than 8-11 or 12-15 oz? 99% of what I sell falls into the less than 1lbs range.
To be honest I think it might be more expensive than 8 and under. But the rates go every 8 ounces so itās (or is it 4??) still cheaper than the 11-15.9 I believe
This is good info. I didnāt know about the extra costs for the 2% rule.
I was shocked to send a box from MN to TX yesterday that only cost $7 via ground advantage. It was 4lbs and had 17 comics in it (someone cleared out my Red Hoods). For 12oz, that would have been about $6.50. I kept thinking it had to be an error that something so much heavier and larger would barely cost any more.
Now, diesel prices are exploding, and thereās a trucker strike looming. So, things could get ugly here in a hurry. I know someone in trucking logistics, and heās very concerned. Could be another supply chain breakdown.
Start packing them with extra cardboard for protection.
Did eBay ever implement the rule that buyers could no longer request a sale cancellation (essentially putting it on the seller to cancel a sale if they request it)? As when that was put out there this is the exact situation I was concerned about. Or are buyers still allowed?
Yeah right. Media mail is even cheaperā¦and you can add several lbs for Pennies.and people still ship comics in bubble envelopes with only a backer board at bestā¦shipping books out at 5oz even though they have 11 more oz of margin to add reinforcement.
People may up the weight to save $$, but they are not adding materialsā¦people are cheap AND lazy.
True but weāre not and I know Anthony isnāt. Just speaking to the CHU crowd to save bucks and prevent them from any USPS hassles.
I donāt really cancel orders if I screw up but if customers ask for cancellations I just do it for them. Not worth the headache imo. If I mess up I try to make it right for them either by sending it free or giving them another book if their choice.
One time I sold a ReD Hood Putri book that I had looked over and thought it was perfect. Listed it at NM+. Customer bought it and when I went to pack it I noticed a giant crease on the front cover that was several inches long. I somehow missed it when not looking at the right angle with light. I messaged him back and told him I screwed up and that the book was VF- at best. Showed him pictures and told him Iāll give him a discount if he still want it.
He told me he still wants it and that Red Hood comics at his LCS is impossible to find. I ended up refunding his full amount including shipping. Charged him only $0.01. Wasnāt sure if I could still use the eBay discounted labels for a free comic so I charged him a penny.
The customer ended up being a repeat customer of mine afterwards.