since the changes in rates, has your Priority shipping gone down? Or do people pay for it anyway? I've stopped listing it on my auctions. In my email I give the quote for "media mail" and say I'll give the Priority rate upon request.
Am I overestimating sticker shock? I sure don't ship by Priority much at all anymore, and it used to be maybe a quarter or third of my shipping.
posted on January 24, 2001 06:43:17 AM
I have done the same as you...stopped listed it directly in the auction, but do offer it upon request. I estimate maybe 20 percent of my customers have used it over the past year, but I haven't had anyone ask for it since rates went up. For my own purchases, I now avoid booksellers who ONLY ship via Priority, and I suspect other buyers may be feeling the same. I had three separate buyers yesterday explicitly thank me for offering Book Rate, and I've never had that stated to me before.
posted on January 24, 2001 07:10:18 AM
I'm taking the Priority rate out of most of my auctions (I've always given an exact quote for both rates), but still quoting both in my EOA email. I think it remains to be seen how much of an impact the new rates will have. I hope I can stick with not adding on any packing/handling fee, and it is very much to my advantage when someone wants Priority - so I will continue to put it in my EOA for that reason.
posted on January 24, 2001 07:27:26 AM
Some people ask for it if they need it quickly; otherwise I do not use it for books.
Multiple options only make things confusing for bidders.
posted on January 24, 2001 08:23:50 AM
I sell mainly books, videos and Cd's. I still include priority mail prices and media mail prices in my ad's. So far I really haven't seen a difference for items under 2 pounds. Over two pounds they normally chose media mail before the rate increase as well as now. Under two pounds it's about 60/40. For video's I've added first class - $2 for MM, $3 for FC and $4 for PM. Most people will choose either MM or PM. Very few have chosen FC even though in most cases the time frame is the same as priority.
The biggest problem I am having is providing a good quote for shipping as Bound Printed Matter can be close to half of Media Mail for a heavy books if the customer lives in the same zone as myself. I'm not interested in giving quotes by zip codes as it is too time consuming. Yet I really don't want to charge someone 6.50 and have it end up being 4.00 for BPM. How are others handling this?
I guess this is why big book sellers charge a flat rate but they also have a larger volume of sales to even out the differences.
posted on January 24, 2001 08:35:09 AM
I give fixed price for media and priority in both my auction and the EOA. Buyer can choose whichever they like, most opt for media.
posted on January 24, 2001 09:06:38 AM
I don't use Media mail, or the old Bookrate, but recieve it from what I buy. With all the super slow delivery time for Priority, it surprised me, when I bought something from half.com, and it came in 3 days, whereas it used to take much, much, longer, and my own Priority mail is taking a week and sometime longer to get anywhere in the U.S.
posted on January 24, 2001 09:10:18 AM
marlenedz: I don't think this has come up for me yet. I rarely ship anything that would cost over $4 "media mail". At the Post Office they just give me whatever rate is cheapest but it's typically only pennies.
posted on January 24, 2001 09:23:39 AM
I've actually had the requests for priority mail go up - I don't know if it was because the last few batches have been more collectible books.
I did have one set of 9 books that I quoted a $5 media mail rate for - it ended going th bound printed matter rate of $2.23. I offered a refund to the bidder, but they turned it down.
posted on January 24, 2001 09:35:38 AM
Major impact here. I used to send over half of my books in priority flat rate envelopes.
I stopped listing that last auction round due to sticker shock. Am offering bidders a choice, but it's sometimes a pain to get everything calculated. Most of the lots I shipped were over 2 lbs and flat rate was a good deal overall. Most folks are taking book rate when I cite the rates.
