eBay's' free shipping policy

Hey
Is it my imagination or have a lot of ebay sellers fallen for the new ebay free shipping ruse. I have seeen a plethora of items with this free shipping but when I do the math, it just doesn't add up. Even if you get you full 40% powerseller discount at the end of the month, my calculations show that shipping a package at $4.75 for priority mail, would not equate to the discounted amount.

Example. Let's say you sell an ipod for $125 from a fix price listing.
Insertion Fee= $2.00
Final value fee=$5.69
Total ebay fees =$7.69

With ebay supposed discount on the final value fee for Free Shipping, at double the full powerseller discount for the final value:

40% of $5.96 = $2.28. This does not cover the shipping fee for a 1lb package, which cost $4.75. So my deficit every time this happens is $2.47.


Multiply the $2.47 by the hundreds of packages you might ship every month and you would see what I mean.


Ebay's solution is to work the shipping fee into you sale price. Well, this means more fees for them and it takes you out of the of the competitive arena because you now have to set a higher price. At the end of the day, it just doesn't seem cost effective for me. So, for those of you who love free shipping, I know you wouldn't be buying from me. Even when you offer free shipping, they still give you a low DSR. Oh well, you can't please everyone.

Don't be afraid to scrutinize and criticize. I'm a big boy. I can take it :)

Regards
Allan

I agree with you on this post, ebay is a big Money drain.

John (aka bacpro)