Ebay As A Seller And Small Funds Purchases With Free Mailing

Should eBay let sellers have a minimum purchase amount for buyers so as to cover costs and that would also allow for cheaper pricing on some listings?

No. eBay is a business ,having another 500,000 listing under stamps would just jam up the listings . Also tell me those $1.00 sales wouldn't increase the work load in the compliant dept . If someone didn't receive their $.50 order of stamps and needed help ,I would have to decide to hang up the phone on their complaint or just tell them to suck it up and don't buy again from that clown and dismiss the complaint .

eBay needs to tell sellers and buyers ,your on your own for $5.00 or less purchases . Don't call us .

So free mailing could be on the nose because buyers keep purchasing under $4 lots at only at 1 per invoice. Costs to mail , 50c for stock card, glassine, cardboard stiffener, $1.10 stamp, the time it takes, getting to the PO, plus the sold stamp.

It looks like it comes down to free mailing or not really.

Would hate to see free mail go but.....

One full time dealer who sells on eBay as well, listed the opening for all lots as $0.99 plus shipping. Buy multiple lots and the shipping would be combined and adjusted. Then eBay pressed for "free" shipping from sellers. Eventually the dealer went with "free shipping" on each listed lot but raised the openings to $2.99 for every listing. Buyers still purchased many items together, but because shipping was "free" they got no shipping price break but the dealer made more money on the built in cost of "free shipping" at $2 per listing.

Me, the built in "free" shipping is wise but screws the buyer; however, to minimize the screwing, after so many purchases a dealer adjustment (discount) could be applied to drop the cost of shipping on the buyer. Such as a dollar per listing purchased beginning with the third item makes the buyer feel better and the dealer able to cover the minimum expense of sending out one or two small (inexpensive) lots.

But the bottom line in business is there is no such thing as "free."

When I started selling on eBay, I offered free postage. I then switched to charging at cost. I didn't notice any drop-off in sales. You and I may add up the price of the goods and the postage, but, as I know from the many people who pay for things without waiting for a combined invoice, lots of buyers don't. For the stamp collector selling stuff, the likely use of old mint stamps also covers the cost of the strengthened manila envelope etc.