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Ebay - flat shipping rates help needed?

I opened an Ebay store and I would like help with Flat Rate shipping. I've been looking at a few other postings online for guidelines and want to make sure I am doing right. I don't want to over charge people YET I don't want to lose money. Know what I mean? For Videos I saw one power seller had it set at: $4.85 with only shipping media mail. Books were about the same but for larger books it would go up to $5 or more. I also plan on posting toys, clothes and such. Can you please share what you flat rate shipping rates are? A friend of mine mailed me a bunch of poly bags. She too sells on Ebay and she said mails a lot of things in those. So I have a lot of those. I also have a bunch of used envelopes and stuff I've collected from trading books, CD's & DVD's online.

Public Comments

1. $4.85 for media mail is over charging. It takes about 15 days to get, when you could use a smaller flatrate shipping box and ship it for $4.60 and have it to them in 2-3 days, unless shipping to an APO then it takes about 7. You could fit about 3 dvd's in the flat rate shipping box I am speaking of. Now for books, you could fit a smaller book in that same box. For the same price. If you want to ship lots of books or DVD's, you can upgrade to a larger flat rate box for $8.60. Insurance, delivery confirmation, and tracking are all added to that initial $8.60 Flat rate is the best way to go because It's cheapest. Although you could get away with mailing a dvd, or something small like that by putting it in a padded envelope and mail it for cheaper and it would be just as fast as priority mail. Basically your cheapest and best way to ship is a flat rate priority box if you are shipping quantities or larger and heavier items. Or first class for single DVD's or video games, and maybe small books. I can't tell you how much I appreciate sellers on ebay using flat rate shipping. order candles from one lady and she can fit up to 12 8oz in a flat rate box and 6 22oz. It makes me very happy, because a lot of people wont do that so they can make money off the shipping.
2. Some flat rates are just that: Flat rates. No matter where in the USA you ship: it's the same. A DVD shipped from Florida is the same price as a DVD shipped from Oregon. Why? Same weight. Flat shipping only works IF you know HOW Much the item weighs AND then you have to do some "pretend shipping". For example, to ship a 1 pound teddy bear from Michigan to Ohio might run $4.00 The same bear shipped from Michigan to California might run $5.00 So if I "flat rate " ship this bear to anywhere in the US: I need to set my Flat Rate at no less than $5.00 I sell on Ebay and have been selling there since 2001 so if you have any questions: I'd be glad to answer them. Just send me an email to the email link on my Yahoo Answers profile. Take care!
3. I would REALLY recommend you buying a postal scale!! I have a store on ebay, and I bought one, off of ebay that weighed up to 55 lbs for relatively inexpensive!! I undercharged on shipping a few times, now with the scale, I can print postage off of paypal, and you get FREE delivery confirmation when you print from paypal!! You will get good feedback because you won't overcharge!! You will be able to go to usps.com and estimate shipping before you list your item!! My postal scale was the best $15 I spent!!!!!!!!!!!