eBay sales tax

[John Linden]

The eBay shipping system does offer discounts on shipping to sellers. This includes USPS, Fed Ex and UPS. The discount can be as high as 15%. The rates are much less expensive than going to the Post Office or FedEx to pay for the postage. But the shipping companies seem to increase the cost of shipping on a regular basis. In prior years, I used USPS to ship from Northern California to Southern California. The rates were very reasonable. No longer. I now ship FedEx Home Delivery via eBay. Less expensive than USPS especially since the last rate hike by USPS.

Shipping to Australia is just expensive -- no way around it. And the International PayPal fees are 4.4%. I don't know how to get around those issues. The value of PayPal is the seller can trust the payment. But the shipping costs are just high. Using light weight packing and having the seller pack the box at no charge to the buyer are the only ways I know for a seller to help lower the cost of shipping overseas. If there are other good ideas out there, I would interested to hear them.

John

[Spencer Harris]

The eBay shipping system does offer discounts on shipping to sellers. This includes USPS, Fed Ex and UPS. The discount can be as high as 15%. The rates are much less expensive than going to the Post Office or FedEx to pay for the postage. But the shipping companies seem to increase the cost of shipping on a regular basis. In prior years, I used USPS to ship from Northern California to Southern California. The rates were very reasonable. No longer. I now ship FedEx Home Delivery via eBay. Less expensive than USPS especially since the last rate hike by USPS.

Shipping to Australia is just expensive -- no way around it. And the International PayPal fees are 4.4%. I don't know how to get around those issues. The value of PayPal is the seller can trust the payment. But the shipping costs are just high. Using light weight packing and having the seller pack the box at no charge to the buyer are the only ways I know for a seller to help lower the cost of shipping overseas. If there are other good ideas out there, I would interested to hear them.

John

If you're using USPS fixed rate shipping (Priority or Priority International) look at the 9.5" x 12.5" padded envelopes as a substitute for their fixed rate cartons. Oftentimes parts will fit in the large padded envelope which is around 40% less than a medium flat rate carton - domestic. International rates vary depending on the destination, but typically similar savings. Some POs have the padded envelopes or they can be ordered free from USPS website.

[Doug Darrah]

Pitney Bowes struck up a deal with E-Bay on March 2004, it was a huge win - win for Pitney through their Marketing VP that worked for months prior to close the deal unfortunately a nightmare for E-bay customers as refunds were to be taken care of through E-bay....and the craziness continues today, both great companies at one time, the Nasdaq /NYSE tells the rest of the story.

[John Linden]

Spencer: I noticed I am receiving more things in the USPS plastic bags. Now I know why. Thanks for the good advice. John

[Mervyn Hyde]

The eBay shipping system does offer discounts on shipping to sellers. This includes USPS, Fed Ex and UPS. The discount can be as high as 15%. The rates are much less expensive than going to the Post Office or FedEx to pay for the postage. But the shipping companies seem to increase the cost of shipping on a regular basis. In prior years, I used USPS to ship from Northern California to Southern California. The rates were very reasonable. No longer. I now ship FedEx Home Delivery via eBay. Less expensive than USPS especially since the last rate hike by USPS.

Shipping to Australia is just expensive -- no way around it. And the International PayPal fees are 4.4%. I don't know how to get around those issues. The value of PayPal is the seller can trust the payment. But the shipping costs are just high. Using light weight packing and having the seller pack the box at no charge to the buyer are the only ways I know for a seller to help lower the cost of shipping overseas. If there are other good ideas out there, I would interested to hear them.

John

John, the shipping to Australia is more costly, but the rates charged can vary a great deal, depending on the source country, who does the packing and their chosen profit margin. The use of 'stock' packing boxes can mean a small washer or a decal gets packed in a medium box with additional costs of postage. And our greedy government adds 10% to the total cost. Until recently purchases under $1000 were exempt but now even a $5 purchase attracts their tax. The use of padded envelopes and smaller satchels is to be encouraged.

[chris romney]

While this is slightly off topic, The Registry classifieds has it's own "Pack 40". Many days I have to go to page 10 before I can find a new classified ad. This is partly due to the way our sight is set up, but mostly due to the fact that we have the same professional parts sellers selling the same overpriced parts taking up all the space. Many of these ads are 4-5 years old. The market has spoken! If it were priced correctly, it would have sold. Either lower the price or take down the ad. Personally, I would be in favor of a limit on how many ads any one individual can have at a given time. Currently, there is one person who has 310 ads up, which is frankly ridiculous. In my opinion a limit of 50 or so would work well. If you've priced your parts correctly, they will move and you can rotate in new inventory. Just my $.02.

Chris

[Paul Hatfield]

This is an interesting thread to me because I no longer use Ebay for selling. Costs are simply too much IMHO.

I prefer to sell my reproduction of original 356 generator/fan belts in the Classifieds here, and I do ok when the ad is fresh. Once the ad is a couple of days old, the response drops way off. Renew the ad and sales go back up.

So generally from my experience, selling things works well here, as there are no costs involved.

[Martin Benade]

I agree with a limit of the number of ads.

[Vic Skirmants]

While this is slightly off topic, The Registry classifieds has it's own "Pack 40". Many days I have to go to page 10 before I can find a new classified ad. This is partly due to the way our sight is set up, but mostly due to the fact that we have the same professional parts sellers selling the same overpriced parts taking up all the space. Many of these ads are 4-5 years old. The market has spoken! If it were priced correctly, it would have sold. Either lower the price or take down the ad. Personally, I would be in favor of a limit on how many ads any one individual can have at a given time. Currently, there is one person who has 310 ads up, which is frankly ridiculous. In my opinion a limit of 50 or so would work well. If you've priced your parts correctly, they will move and you can rotate in new inventory. Just my $.02.

Chris

You can say that again!!

[Bruce Smith]

Chris - Click on Date at the top of the ad listings then click on it again. You'll get the classifieds reorganized with the newest posts first.

[Daryl Bruhl]

Death and taxes-is what it is. Sellers have always been able to add sales to there listings if they wanted to. Now ebay has a list of 32 states they will be collecting tax from. Sold item to WA and tax was added this weekend also sold item to NJ which is on list no tax added. So it depends which state you live in and if they are complying.
One great thing about ebay is you can find all most anything you are looking for. It took me 4 years of waiting to replace my broken favorite NLA coffee cup I had purchased from a MT fly shop 30 years ago. Enjoy 63 super 90 SoCal

[Adam Wright]

One great thing about ebay is you can find all most anything you are looking for.

Amen to that. When I was looking for Spyder metal I called everyone, and I mean everyone looking. They all said "good luck, there is none".

Found doors and other metal on ebay, guy found them in his attic from when he had the car in the 70s. It's also a great source of entertainment, my brother and I routinely find cars that we would never buy, but we can dream, laugh, and talk about it. Like this one I thought hard about last week.

[Mike Horton]

This court decision, effects other, than E-bay. I recently ordered one of those BOGO specials from Kano, for 2 aerosol cans of Silikroil, and they, too, had to collect the taxes. With shipping, the total bill, was almost double, the advertised price.

[chris romney]

Due to the Supreme Court decision, most "mail order" retailers will be collecting sales tax. Last year I received a retroactive tax bill from Summit Racing for DynaMat I had purchased from them prior to the Supreme Court decision. I had to cut a check to the State of Washington for the 10% sales tax. Merry Christmas! I'm not sure exactly what the threshold is in sales per state, but once a retailer is over it they will be forced to collect sales tax.

Chris