A certain aspect of the free shipping debate that I have not seen discussed.

frankhardy

To me, I think it is good to have free shipping when you have a relatively expensive card on Ebay (say $20 or more). However, there is a certain aspect of this "free shipping" debate that has not been discussed to my knowledge.

In my situation, I have two different large collections that I am trying to move in my store.

One is a large 1958 Topps collection, in which I will probably lose money on. Second is a mega large autograph collection of approximately 40,000 signed cards. I almost have my money back from selling on sportcollectors.net, but now I am starting to list some in my Ebay store.

Right now, I have over 350 listings from the 1958 Topps collection and I have listed over 200 from my autograph collection (with thousands more to go). Almost all of these listings are less than $10.

Right now, I have EVERYTHING listed with free shipping.

*****

Now, with all of the background info out of the way, here is my point of discussion for you guys. I would say everyone, including myself, has increased their BIN prices on cheaper items when offering free shipping (ie - a card that I would normally sell for $5 with $1.95 shipping, with additional cards bought shipped for free, is now at $6.95 with free shipping).

What about those buyers that would normally buy multiple cards from one buyer in order to save on shipping cost? In the above free shipping scenario, since the cost of shipping is included in the increased price, the buyer is not saving on shipping AT ALL. However, if I charged $1.95 with additional cards shipped for free, I could lower the BIN price and the buyer gets the shipping discount when buying multiple cards.

This is very important to me because I very well may be driving away multiple purchases. Since I have so many listings for less than $10, this is very important to my bottom line.

Since I have so many similar items (1958's and autographs) I want to encourage multiple purchases as much as I can.

Any advice would be appreciated.


Edited to say: I always ship via Ebay shipping with a bubble mailer. That means it cost me $1.64 for every card purchased. Of course, the advantage to that is that it gets automatic delivery confirmation and gets uploaded to Ebay for tracking which gets me automatic 5 stars. I am working on getting the 20% top seller discount which I should get next month.

sbfinley

Two things.

1. I have never and probably will never offer free shipping. I also ship every card, doesn't matter if it sold for $1 or $100, in bubble mailer-card saver-between cardboard with DC. I charge $3. If insurance is added I cover it out of pocket. If someone makes more than one purchase I either send a invoice with lowered shipping or refund a portion if the buyer already paid.

2. I am currently working the 58 topps set and a little over half done. Pm me your ebay id so I can check it out.

frankhardy

Glad you brought up something - I always ship with Ebay shipping with a bubble mailer. So, that is automatically $1.64 off of every card that is purchased. When most are under $10, that really eats into the bottom line.

frankhardy

<< <i>Two things.

1. I have never and probably will never offer free shipping. I also ship every card, doesn't matter if it sold for $1 or $100, in bubble mailer-card saver-between cardboard with DC. I charge $3. If insurance is added I cover it out of pocket. If someone makes more than one purchase I either send a invoice with lowered shipping or refund a portion if the buyer already paid.

2. I am currently working the 58 topps set and a little over half done. Pm me your ebay id so I can check it out. >>



Why not just set it up to where it is an automatic free shipping if buyer makes a multiple purchase. That would save you the hassle of refunding money and also the hassle of sending invoices.

jeff8877

Frank,

I never offer free shipping and don't understand why most seller's would want to...

If you offer $3 shipping for graded or $2 for raw, people are mostly OK with it. You need to do the math based on projected sales with free shipping and the ebay 20% discount on fees versus charging for shipping. In most cases, I bet you come out ahead charging for shipping.

Jeff

frankhardy

Can you still get the 20% discount charging for shipping? I think you can, but you risk 5 star's. I think all you have to do is be a top rated seller with a 1 day handling time and 14 day return policy to get the 20% discount.

jeff8877

Yes you can still get the discount charging for shipping...but you run the risk of someone dinging your stars no matter what you charge....

So my proposed analysis was assume the worst that you don't get the 20% discount when you charge for shipping...

Jeff

frankhardy

Gotcha.

Now I would be interested in the opinion of those that offer free shipping and their opinion about multiple purchases from one buyer since the shipping cost are theoretically included in the a higher BIN price.

Jakt

I read somewhere on here (don't remember where) that people have seen the best results with starting at .99 with free shipping. The only real risk one takes on that is if they are selling lower priced items. For items with a true value, the starting price is almost moot.

I've done this on most of my auctions and only got 'burned' a few times. Probably on things that would not have sold anyway. So in essence, I paid a small fee to get rid of some unwanted inventory with the hopes that I get a positive feedback out of it.

jeff8877

Frank...for what it's worth.

My opinion is your losing business by having higher prices with free shipping. If it's me and it has free shipping I would have never even considered asking for any kind of discount since you were already getting "free" shipping.

Good Luck

Jeff

JoeBanzai

I was (and for higher dollar items still will) offering free shipping. The last batch of cards didn't sell at the price I wanted, so I listed them at .99 and $1.99 shipping with combined shipping of .50 for each addiotinal card with a cap at $4.99.

I lost money on a few of the cards. Some .99 deals were had, but at least I didn't have to also eat the shipping on them. I don't know if I'll get dinged on my stars, but I am selling on eBay to make money.

Good luck!

Joe

frankhardy

<< <i>Frank...for what it's worth.

My opinion is your losing business by having higher prices with free shipping. If it's me and it has free shipping I would have never even considered asking for any kind of discount since you were already getting "free" shipping.

Good Luck

Jeff >>



I'm not saying that people are asking for a discount. They are not. What I am saying is that possibly the higher prices due to free shipping are keeping people from buying multiple cards because there is no incentive. However, what I am thinking is that if I offered a small shipping fee for the first card to cover myself and then offer free shipping for additional cards bought, it might be better because of the incentive to buy more.

I am starting to realize that this may be the better option. However, I would have to lower prices on hundreds of cards. Is there a way to do that in mass? I know you can do a lot of things all at one time, but with cards having different prices, I am not sure how to go about that.

ldferg

Can't you do a bulk update at a 'percentage' off?

al032184

FWIW I stay away from sellers who offer "free shipping" then turn around and raise the sell price, they are not hard to pick out.

frankhardy

<< <i>FWIW I stay away from sellers who offer "free shipping" then turn around and raise the sell price, they are not hard to pick out. >>



I didn't list them and then change to free shipping and then up the price. I "upped" the price originally from what I "would have" priced them at. (Did that make sense?)

MiniDuff

i did $2.00 for the first, then .50 per additional for years. i decided to try full free to see what it would do for sales, hoping it would encourage multiple buys. i sell many registry commons. the change resulted in a marked bump in sales. i price roughly .50 higher than i did before, so i take a hit on single sales and many of mine are under $10. im going to keep free for now due to the better sales.

mtcards

I have never offered free shipping and never will. Free shipping is just that, but when you offer it and someone expects a certain level of shipping, it can lead to problems in todays ebay world. For instance, a non machineable PWE is 64 cents. I have sent hundreds of these out via sportlots budget shipping and have NEVER had one lost or damaged. But I guarantee if you sent a card in a PWE on ebay "free shipping", some nutbag would complain about it.

frankhardy

I ship via Ebay shipping with a bubble mailer that way nobody complains. It also gets uploaded automatically with a tracking number. That is one reason why my margins are so small.