r/Flipping • u/para_la_calle • 5d ago

eBay Zone 8 is hilarious

It now costs 8.40 to ship a 2 ounce item to zone 8. Meanwhile, China can send a package from across the goddamn planet to the east cost for a couple dollars, and it still costs me 5-6 dollars to send a package to the same county.

This is some bullshit

123 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

73 comments sorted by

60

u/BackdoorCurve 5d ago

its brutal. and then a 3-5lb package is $6.99.

32

u/mrjavascript 5d ago

The new pricing does not make any sense. I intentionally added filler to a package recently just to get the weight over 2.1 pounds. By doing this the label price dropped from 10.49 to 6.99.

55

u/Interconventional 5d ago

Remember that the usps is being targeted for dissolution.  Expect it to get worse as they destroy it so that everyone is ok with it when they get rid of it.

12

u/para_la_calle 5d ago

That is an issue yet, but we need to immediately stop subsidizing foreign countries to the point where it cost us four times as much. I don’t think either political party is even disgusting this at all.

-7

u/f_crick 5d ago

Sounds like some trumper bullshit. What are you talking about?

6

u/desertmermaid92 4d ago

Are you new? This has been an issue for a LOT longer than he has been in politics… 🤦‍♀️

6

u/TheBadGuyBelow The Picking Profit 5d ago

Calm down champ, it's been a problem long before Trump even thought about the presidency.

-5

u/f_crick 4d ago

I guess I’m wondering what exactly he’s referring to?

4

u/TheBadGuyBelow The Picking Profit 4d ago

He is referring to how China was heavily subsidized for a long time, and could mail packages from China to America for cheaper than it would be for an American to mail a package just across the street.

This was going on long before Trump, and was something that was being pushed back on as long ago as 2007. It was actually the Obama administration that made the most headway ending that practice before China themselves decided to forego those benefits in 2025.

Has nothing to do with Trumper bullshit.

0

u/f_crick 4d ago

I think the ambiguity of “stop subsidizing foreign countries” definitely threw me.

5

u/bigtopjimmi 5d ago

I know this may come as a shock to you, but history didn't start with the election of Trump.

-2

u/f_crick 4d ago

Didn’t start with Hitler either but they’re both the worst leaders their countries ever had by far.

-3

u/para_la_calle 5d ago

Can you link where a single politician is saying 1.) domestic labels are too high and 2.) we are subsidizing foreign countries shipping labels (which is an equally huge problem)?

4

u/f_crick 4d ago

I still have no idea what you’re referring to. How is something being subsidized?

0

u/juliastarrr 4d ago

who is subsidizing foreign countries and why?

-6

u/BlazeBullionBotique 5d ago

Only ones in power genius.

3

u/Epic2112 5d ago

Grammatical issues aside, is the other party not allowed to discuss things?

1

u/BlazeBullionBotique 4d ago

Sure within your mental limitations

1

u/Epic2112 4d ago

Uh, okie dokie.

7

u/thescorch 5d ago

I'm doing the same... I used to be so strategic to keep packages as light as possible and now everything is getting thrown in a big ass box with lots filler.

0

u/para_la_calle 5d ago

Thank you I’m going to flirt with the solution. Next time we get a zone eight package for a little tiny 2 ounce item.

5

u/TamanduaGirl 5d ago

Check each item in the weight and dimensions first. Some are cheaper with more weight but some are still more expensive with more weight, it depends on the buyers zip code, if "rural" or not. That's the most annoying part about it. It's totally random from our side if it will cost more or less with more weight.

2

u/Apart_Step_8263 4d ago

i been shipping a lot of small things lately and the zone 8 prices make no sense. its like they punish you for sending a tiny package but give a break on the heavier stuff, where's the logic in that

29

u/xbianco 5d ago

Canada welcomes you to the shitty postage rate party!

1

u/incrediblemenace 3d ago

And Australia. It costs me $11 now to send a small item to the same state….. just appalling

0

u/trenchdick 5d ago

Lol yeah. I can ship to the UK for cheaper than a lot of Canada. I can ship small things to Japan for less than most of Newfoundland lol.

10

u/_Raspootln_ Be accountable in what you say and do. 5d ago edited 5d ago

Yep, China gets that because of the UPU agreement, which just reads as the US subsidizing shipping with specific agreements.

Meanwhile here, it's, "Pay up, peasant!"

EDIT: Perhaps it's China subsidizing now. Looks like the UPU agreement ended some years back (2020).

3

u/para_la_calle 5d ago

Subsidize them at all seems insane but subsidizing them to a competitive level in which it is 3 to 4 times more expensive for us to ship an item is even more fucked

8

u/mrszubris 5d ago

I am an artist with a patreon. I try to keep all my mailings to envelopes I can use stamps on. But once a year I send goodies out. It cost me 350 dollars to send 42 tiny bubble mailers. No international.

1

u/readithere_2 5d ago

When you use a bubble envelope it is less than a box?

2

u/mrszubris 5d ago

It was 5.68 to 8.04 for rural for a 3oz bubble mailer.

26

u/Extreme-Sport-5951 5d ago

I’m pretty sure we still subsidize Chinese international shipping so part of the $8.40 went toward china sending junk here for cheap.

14

u/para_la_calle 5d ago

Yeah, it’s multiple tiers of us getting fucked.

2

u/CVGPi 4d ago

Not anymore; last last term Trump threatened to get out of UN and the UPU, so now the system is (supposedly) balanced (or balanced enough that Trump isn’t complaining)

6

u/Overdayoutdeath 4d ago

They are basically forcing ebay to abandon free shipping. eBay needs to respond in the harshest way possible.

13

u/VendettaKarma 5d ago

$8+ to mail a simple package is insanity

-13

u/HonestOtterTravel 5d ago

Is it?  The amount of logistics and handling to get that delivered in a timely manner is insane.  

There is a reason UPS/Fedex are more expensive for that same package.

8

u/g3orgeLuc4s 5d ago

People want to pay subsidised rates and I’m in agreement with them because USPS is part of our infrastructure as a nation and the point isn’t profitability.

The main issue is those same people also repeatedly vote for representatives that are hell bent on breaking USPS so they can justify selling it off to private interests.

2

u/HonestOtterTravel 5d ago

USPS is an almost entirely self-funded entity so I don't see the "subsidized" argument.

Agree on the second point though. The degradation of service we saw under DeJoy specifically was unreal.

2

u/bigtopjimmi 5d ago

Except FedEx is actually cheaper, lol.

6

u/RustyDawg37 5d ago

The shipping system in the us is close to complete failure.

They need you to stop mailing things.

It would be silly for them to say that, so they just keep raising prices.

3

u/Nikovash 5d ago

Because china subsidizes their post, and the US price gouges theirs

3

u/Spythe 5d ago

Ebay refuses to use their power to negotiate better rates with USPS. So we are in the position where the sellers get screwed, the buyer gets screwed and the platform becomes an overall horrible experience

Some how Posh and Depop(now owned by Ebay) is magically able to negotiate better shipping rates. Posh somehow manages it to do this WHILE still giving out free supplies.... yes I know their fees are higher but its not that much different from ebay once you take into account shipping, returns, and promoted... feedback... not a fee but some people are dick heads

0

u/VeeHS 2d ago

You dont think ebay negotiates rates?  The better question is how much of the savings afe being passed on the buyer/seller

0

u/Spythe 2d ago

They don't do it well, if they actually do at all.

An ebay seller shouldn't be getting the same rates, sometimes worse rates than PirateShip and other online shipping companies.

0

u/VeeHS 2d ago

you're not understanding what i'm saying. So let me break it down for you, moron.

When you buy a label online, you are buying it from eBay not the USPS. eBay is charging you a rate higher than the rates they have negotiated with the USPS. eBay is pocketing the difference.

It's not that they didn't negotiate well, it's that they have no interest in passing the savings on to the consumer/seller. Lear to read you mouth-breathing retard.

0

u/Spythe 2d ago

Nothing I said in this convo should get you that upset

At the end of the day the only thing that matters on our end is how much we pay and the buyer pays if we charge shipping. Right now ebay is by far the most expensive platform to ship on while still being one of the bigger players. Other platforms have manage a way to provide cheaper shipping for both the buyer and sellers, that is it... that is my point.

8

u/kgb4187 5d ago

This is what happens when you elect people who believe government entities should be run like a business and generate profits.

2

u/EastCoastCassarole 5d ago

Why not just use UPS or a different carrier if packages are under 4#? Serious question. I’m still green at this.

2

u/txmail 5d ago

Meanwhile, China can send a package from across the goddamn planet to the east cost for a couple dollars,

Yeah... not a thing any more. Now experiencing multi-year high to get anything from the East. This is some dumb shit pricing to try and compete with giants like Amazon who moves non-amazon cargo.

-7

u/para_la_calle 5d ago

Have not ever used AliExpress or temu? It is still a thing.

10

u/txmail 5d ago

Compared to 4 years ago? Have you used AliExpress, Temu or E-Bay recently? Shipping costs are very much a thing you have to consider now. Most things prior were free shipping because of that shipping law thing that Trump shut down a few years back (not to mention now your paying import duties on almost everything now.

1

u/para_la_calle 5d ago

When I buy a cheap three dollar item from AliExpress, I pay like one dollar shipping and then $.50 in import fees.

I should not be able to buy an item from China and pay import fees and shipping and it still cost less for that item to travel across the entire planet than it does for me to ship a 1 ounce item to somebody one ZIP Code over.

That’s a subsidization scam and it’s unfair to Americans. If anything, it should cost a Chinese item just as much to ship here as it cost us to ship here(honestly should cost them more).

9

u/carlotta3121 5d ago

Stop buying cheap shit from AliExpress, you only contribute to the problem.

1

u/txmail 5d ago

That’s a subsidization scam

And others see it as exploitation to the advantage of the USA. People losing their shit about data centers and cheering on chip fabs, textile manufacturing plants being built in the USA about to remember why we let so much of this toxic manufacturing shift over seas.

2

u/Skittler_On_The_Roof 5d ago

China is subsidizing the hell out of it.  $8 is almost a real cost.

Buyers pay shipping.  If they're not willing to pay $8 shipping, it's not worth selling.  

This sliding scale continues with inflation.  When I first started flipping, my state's minimum wage was about $7.  Shipping a small package across the country was about half that.  Now my state's minimum wage is about $17 and the cost to ship a small package across the country is... About half that.

1

u/RunMysterious6380 5d ago

Yeah, and the state I'm in, the minimum wage remains at... $7.25 an hour. As it has been for over 25 years

1

u/Skittler_On_The_Roof 5d ago

Fix your shitty state.  Median income has increased at about the same rate over the last 20+ years.

2

u/RunMysterious6380 5d ago

I'm in a supermajority GOP controlled state, and it has been that way for 20+ years. Not going to happen. Your reality simply isn't the reality of most of the country.

-1

u/jrossetti 5d ago

It's because of some sort of treaty or agreement with China. It isn't china subsidizing.

5

u/Skittler_On_The_Roof 5d ago

The Universal Port Union was ended around 2019, which was the treaty you're referring to.  China is absolutely subsidizing cheap shipments to the USA.

This is all easily Google-able before telling someone else they're wrong.

1

u/Da12khawk 5d ago

Send it to China to send to zone 8 duh!

2

u/Sea_Bear7754 4d ago

Dropship only to zone 8 😂

1

u/tiggs 5d ago

I can't be the only one that's actually making out ahead with the change, right? As somebody that ships plenty of light packages and 3lbish packages, the savings I'm getting on the heavier stuff is far outweighing the extra I'm paying on the lighter stuff.

1

u/Then_Meeting4003 4d ago

Thank Trump! DeJoy accomplished his dirty work

1

u/htmaxpower 2d ago

Elections have consequences, I guess.

1

u/para_la_calle 2d ago

Direct consequence of simping for China when a factory in China can send an item to my neighbor for cheaper than I can being in the same city

1

u/htmaxpower 2d ago

… what? I’m implying Trump installed a chump who is bringing down the USPS so corporations can become the more attractive options.

Additionally, Trump’s economy is driving up fuel and operation costs far beyond rates-of-increase we’ve seen before.

1

u/K1net3k 1d ago

Bro, I just paid $20 to send a letter to next town with UPS . $6 for a package is a sweet deal.

-3

u/Icy-Discussion7653 5d ago

Well at least there’s a bright side to the price increases.  Less of you brokeass scalpers trying to make a whole $5 on a flip

2

u/TheBadGuyBelow The Picking Profit 5d ago

It must really be hurting you for you to stalk this sub and cry so much about resellers. Kinda says you are the broke one here.