Ebay Global Shipping Program Swindle

eBay's Global Shipping Program has made it virtually impossible to afford buying items from overseas, especially the US and the UK.

I'm increasingly being asked sums ranging from around $18 US (which is already expensive, especially given the high US dollar at the moment) or more to ship items which cost only a few dollars.

I've tried negotiating more modest postage rates with the sellers on an individual basis, but in most cases it doesn't work and I get responses such as "I am not allowed to send items by any other means than the Global Shipping Program" or "I'd be banned from ebay if I did that."

It seems that most UK and US sellers are doing so well that they simply don't care if they sell their items.

I put that proposition to one US seller, and he replied that he needs the tracking provided by the Global Shipping Program to cover him in case the item was lost. I replied that, since the item itself (an Irish penny) cost only about $3.80, it would not be a major catastrophe for either of us if it were to be lost in the mail. He did not even bother to reply.

I'm sure people all over the world must be thinking much the same thing.

Is there anyone here who would pay $45 for, say, a $2 stamp?

Am I particularly stingy?

Example from today's listings:

Unfortunately, ebay is just short of forcing the GSP program down all the seller's throats. ebay even had an offer recently to sellers to have 100 free listings per day for a set number of days if they used the GSP program. A lot of seller's have been duped into the program by not reading the small print when there's been an "update" to accept and a number of novice sellers have joined the program in the belief that they would be protected. It's a complete farce on ebay's part and most experienced sellers are avoiding the program like the plague. I will never ever use the GSP program as it's pretty easy to mail things overseas - it's not that difficult folks.

The "horror stories" of mailing things overseas by some folks and ebay's claims of ease are roping the newer sellers in, but if you are one of the buyers overseas, remember that the seller never actually gets that money from the inflated shipping and customs fees. It goes directly to ebay and Pitney Bowes. The sellers in the GSP program are mostly clueless as that what the shipping and fees are to the overseas buyers. They don't know until a buyer tells them. So, to a large degree you can't blame the seller. Once in the GSP program it's really, really hard to get out. I don't think ebay will even allow a seller to modify an invoice from the GSP program. But you sure can blame ebay.

Overseas buyers - make sure before you bid that the seller is not part of the GSP program. It's the only way to steer clear of it. Make sure the shipping amount is clearly posted in the listing either in the shipping section or description.

Excellent advice there, Battlestamps.

'I don't think ebay will even allow a seller to modify an invoice from the GSP program.'

One seller told me that and, to be honest, I didn't believe him.

I think it's incredibly ironic that ebay, which opened up the international trade in collectibles and made it affordable for humble folk like myself, is now effectively lumbering that trade with a ball and chain. How long can this go on before people all over the world start ignoring ebay, knowing that the shipping charges are going to be way too high?

The day will soon come when, if you say to someone, "I bought it on ebay," they'll reply, "I didn't know you were rich!"

I sell in Canada, the USA and UK on ebay. I know nothing about a "global shipping program" and do not want to know about it. I set my S/H as appropriate.

ebay doesn't care about us, and the current crowd running the show has no interest in dancing with the person who brought them to the dance in the first place. ebay wants to be Amazon, and sell or fulfill for a bunch of small- to medium-sized companies.

The famous U.S. department-store magnate, Marshall Field, is supposed to have said that "the customer is always right" and told his clerks to "give the lady what she wants." That's fine when it is your stuff, and your profit or loss. ebay is trying to please buyers by adopting those same mantras, but they are doing it with our stuff. (We don't sell stamps on ebay, but we do sell antiques there, which is fairly analogous.)

What worries me, as a seller, is that this may be contributing to the very evident decline in the number of buyers in the last year or so. Clearly, people are using ebay much less than they used to, and this would certainly deter people hoping to get a bargain. After all, what good is a bargain if the postage is ridiculous?

As a buyer, however, I'm benefiting from the decline in traffic. I haven't had to compete against anyone else to win an auction in a long time. I get everything I bid on. This was not the case even a year ago.

The downside is that, with fewer people bidding for my items, I have less to spend on other people's!

In short, ebay seems to have entered a downward spiral and, wherever the causes of the decline are to be found, the GSP is not helping.

As an exercise in Critical Thinking, let's start from:

1) ebay is out to do what is best for ebay;

2) ebay has consistently done a very good job of doing what is best for ebay;

3) the GSP program is almost certainly what is best for ebay.

The only interesting questions are 'how?', and 'why?'

As an ebay outsider (a handful of purchases, and no sales) my guesses include:

1) forcing all shipments to be tracked will decrease the disputes & the 'negs';

2) forcing all shipments to include an insurance expense will, for self-insuring ebay, provide another stream of revenue.

ebay is probably making a well-researched non-bet that most 'lost' shipments were, in fact, delivered.

Therefor, charging a high GSP price that guarantees delivery will create a new, profitable revenue stream for ebay.

3) increasing traffic thru the GSP program will allow ebay to negotiate stiffer discounts from the carriers, further fattening their markup.

Is there a downside?

To a first approximation, some/many of the 'micro' sales will not be made.

OTOH, some/many of those items will be sold in larger lots (ten items instead of one, to meet the GSP cost threshold).

In the end, ebay knows its revenues (listing fees, etc) from all of those small lots, and can easily compare that to the fat (and fattening) profits to be had from the GSP program.

My bet is that ebay has, once again, correctly done what is best for ebay.




Really?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I think the above is all nonsense. You can't change the ebay business model in the manner suggested without alienating almost everyone who has bought and sold on ebay in the last 20 odd years. It's a case of trying to dress mutton up as lamb.

It doesn't make sense for ebay to drive away potential bidders in this manner.

Here's a good example of an auction where bidding would have been deterred by the high shipping cost.

Only two people decided to bid. I did not, but I would have done if the postage had been reasonable. I feel sure that there would have been others.

If one or two more people had taken part in the auction, it would have been truly competitive and would probably have ended in a sale of $15-$20.

The seller loses of course - having got a paltry sum for what looks like a pretty good '37 penny.

Cjd has hit the nail on the head. ebay has been for awhile trying to be Amazon 2.0 and has mimicked a lot of the same methods Amazon has taken in the past. ebay has huge warehouses it acquired a few years back in a multibillion purchase they use to fulfill orders for large third-party sellers.
Frankly, ebay doesn't need us and they know it well. Frankly, ebay could drop the stamps category altogether and the stock prices wouldn't budge either way and that's all they care about.

The sellers and now the international buyers just have to be aware of the various pitfall traps ebay places that solely benefits ebay. It's a constant challenge and always be aware when ebay makes a "change" in anything. Read the small print and don't accept updates until you find the devil in the details. However, I must say despite all the warts of ebay I still find it the best market for me to sell. I learned long ago that you have to ignore ebay's bells and whistles and do what is right for your buyers and yourself. The service a seller provides is the key to success.

Battlestamps, if they did drop the Stamps category, it would probably be a good thing in the long term, because all the stamp collectors would be forced to explore the many alternative auction sites that at the moment don't get many visitors.

I must admit I never buy stuff from Amazon (not for 15 years anyway), so I don't understand the references to that site here. Has it turned into an auction site since I last visited?

By the way, research which is available online indicates that ebay traffic is down 33% in the last year alone.

I don't know how the particular researcher reached that conclusion, though, because presumably only ebay knows for sure and it would be keeping information like that as confidential as it possibly can.

If I recall correctly, the suggested reason was that it was because ebay has dropped advertising through Google. I have noticed that not as many ebay listings come up in my search results as they used to.

It is also misleading to suggest that ebay does not need so-called 'micro' sales. The same people who buy small things often buy big things too. But without small things to tempt them to join the site and develop the habit of participating in auctions, they're not going to notice the big things in the first place.

The reality is that the market for 'big' things is already well-catered for. If I wanted a very high grade stamp or coin, for example, there are quite a few places I would look before I would even think of looking to see what's on offer on ebay.

In fact, the only reason most of my online buying revolves around ebay is because most of the money from my sales ends up in my Paypal account, which can be used conveniently to buy stuff from the same site.

Fortunately, more and more stamp and coin dealers are accepting Paypal, so my options in that respect have widened a great deal recently.

Amazon doesn't have auctions, but ebay has moved more and more to buy it now sales and heavily promotes the sale of new commercial goods.

Isn't it the sellers who are moving to BIN sales because of the fall in traffic which is starting to make auctions unviable?

US & Canada ebay forces non-Store sellers to list auctions with BIN as an additional option. BIN alone attracts a fee.

ebay is not crossing its fingers hoping that you will buy a coin or a stamp. They want you to buy a stackable washer and dryer, or a television, or [fill in the blank]. It will take a long time, but that is where they want to go. Fixed prices for consumer goods. You can be half as big as Amazon and still make enough to buy your kid the GI Joe with the Kung Fu grip.

Well, they've got their work cut out for them then, because those of us who live in big cities can get things like that anytime we want at regular stores.

I always saw the advantage of ebay as that it made it possible to get things you couldn't get at regular stores.

Big-city shopping might come part way there on selection, but will likely miss big on price. For better or worse.

Some ebay seller will be willing to cut margins razor thin, and ebay still wins. The seller is running on a 3% margin, but ebay isn't the seller.

Anyway, to get around to making the point I actually intended to make all along but never did, shouldn't goods below a certain value be exempt from GSP obligations? In other words, shouldn't the goods need to be above a certain value before it kicks in?

It only deters buyers and harms sellers.