I did not authorize "Free shipping"

[RazzmatazzComics]

I hear ya. The thing is everyone in every state gets a different answer from whomever they speak to that day at the PO. I've been informed they prefer the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy. If you are asked at the counter what's inside, you reply "books". And it's all good to go. The best way is to print your own labels from your computer at work or home and then just drop the package off. They really do understand they are eligible since ads are outdated an invalid, but they need the actual wording of their PO Manifesto changed, and I heard that takes a lot of time, effort, and act of Congress.

You just have to worry about that one PO employee out of 10,000 that's having a bad day and decides to take it out on someone else by adhering "to the letter of the rule", instead of common sense.

[aardvaark777]

Just a curious question for example how do you set a flat rate for a Palo PROC album with slip case via USPS as there is no UPS place close by here. Closest is 45minutes away one way. First it's oversize so it will not fit into a flat rate priority box. Second shipping weight is about 7 lbs. Zone one is not to bad at $9.50 Zone 8 to ship the same package is $24.45. So how is it possible to set a rate that will cover both and also so it will not appear to be fee avoidance if the package is being sent to zone 1?

[RazzmatazzComics]

Just a curious question for example how do you set a flat rate for a Palo PROC album with slip case via USPS as there is no UPS place close by here. Closest is 45minutes away one way. First it's oversize so it will not fit into a flat rate priority box. Second shipping weight is about 7 lbs. Zone one is not to bad at $9.50 Zone 8 to ship the same package is $24.45. So how is it possible to set a rate that will cover both and also so it will not appear to be fee avoidance if the package is being sent to zone 1?

Yup. And what if I sell a $500 slabbed comic with free shipping and 3 different listings for $1.95 comics plus shipping, to the same buyer? Surely I am allowed to tell them to wait for an updated invoice from me so I can cancel the shipping fees out for the other 3 listings, and include the additional 3 comics in the same box with the slabbed comic for free, also?

And what if I sell a $60 slabbed comic plus shipping? I am going to ship that in a box for extra protection. The weight is not negligible, so depending on the zip code of the buyer, I can either overcharge or undercharge in my listing. Not being able to charge by zip code is a huge factor in BidStart's ability to grow as a viable business for collectibles other than stamps.

[turtledragon]

I must apologize to BidStart, I misremembered their response when I opened this topic. I had read elsewhere of buyers altering an invoice, and mentally substituted "buyer" for "seller" in their response to my query, as quoted by Mark. BidStart did NOT suggest that the buyer had changed the invoice.

I blocked the seller simply because he had not responded in any way to my request that he forward the proper shipping fee.

The problem seems to have arisen from the fact that the form provided for specifying combined shipping rates has no provision for 'ad infinitum' listing: {eg: $0.x for every additional y items.}

I am now in contact with the buyer, and am removing the block.

Thanks,

jno

[Mark]

This creates several major problems for me.

If you have text regarding shipping within your item description, buyers will simply ignore this, since it's not needed, because shipping is always handled by bidStart automatically. So even if you have erroneous shipping information within your description, while you should try to remove this information, it wouldn't be essential. Buyers will see the shipping information in the shipping section, which is where they know to look for such information. Additionally, when they go to checkout they'll see the correct amounts, which is what they expect.

Currently, the main collectible areas we focus on, promote, advertise, etc. are stamps, postcards and coins. Other collectibles, such as comic books, are certainly welcome to be listed, but you won't see many sales if you're not active in selling your items here, such as promoting your items, using User Newsletters, etc.. That's why you won't see sellers in these categories who don't put in an effort here selling many items, regardless of how many items they have listed. It doesn't have anything to do with our shipping options.

In general, there are two different approaches to shipping. You can go with a calculated approach, or a simple set amount approach. Just because Ebay has a calculated option, doesn't mean this is the best approach. The majority of items on Ebay, including non-stamp and postcard items do not use calculated shipping, and with good reason. Buyers prefer a simpler approach, where they can immediately see what the shipping cost is, and what it would cost to ship additional items. We believe that having a calculated approach is not conducive to increasing sales, is not needed here, and will not be added. If you look at Amazon for example, whose third-party marketplace is the same size of all of Ebay (and is 3X larger if you include their own Amazon.com sales) they believe in the same thing, and do not offer calculated shipping. And the items they sell vary in weight far more than just comic books. If it were true that not having a zip code based shipping option is a problem for preventing growth, Amazon wouldn't be the largest online marketplace.

Keep in mind that there is a very big difference between not having a calculated shipping amount, and not being able to take the weight of your items into consideration. As I noted previously, we do offer additional shipping options for non-stamps, with the express purpose of making this easy to take into account. Again:

For example, if you list single comic listings at $2.95, and listings for 3 comics (in one listing) at $3.95, you can set up your additional shipping rate within the comics category to simply be the base rate, minus (for example) $2.45. That way if a buyer purchases 2 single comic items, they'd pay $2.95 + $0.50, but if they purchased 2 (3) comic items, they'd pay $3.95 + $1.50 shipping, etc.

All of your items already take their weight into consideration, since you have higher shipping costs for heavier items. Using the above method would easily allow for you to take weight into consideration for additional items as well.

You've also noted that you want to encourage buyers to purchase more items. Allowing a buyer to see what the additional shipping cost is, for example, if you use something simple like 25c per each additional item - is exactly what encourages buyers to purchase additional items from you. They can see that they're receiving a discount on additional items, and very easy know what they're shipping costs will be, even before they add the items to their cards. Stating something such as "Wait for us to send you an invoice for a discount" provides no information to the buyer, and they have no idea what the cost of shipping will be, and are not encouraged to buy additional items.

Also, just to note we don't simply guess what works or does not work regarding shipping, we have 8 years of experience, and have researched, and experimented with various shipping options to determine what results in the most sales, and is the easiest process for buyers and sellers.

-Mark

[Mark]

The problem seems to have arisen from the fact that the form provided for specifying combined shipping rates has no provision for 'ad infinitum' listing: {eg: $0.x for every additional y items.}

As previously mentioned, there's two different methods of additional item shipping costs. One is, charge X cents for each additional item, and one is a table rate. If you want to use a simple X cents for each additional item, which we recommend, you may want to consider something such as $0.10 per each additional item, as opposed to a table rate of $0.30 for 4-6 items, $0.60 for 7-9 items, $0.90 for 10-12 items, etc. Or of course you can use a table rate as well, just make sure you set enough rates for what you want, and set one last large amount.

As bidStart, we aim to provide enough shipping options and features to provide sellers with a wide variety of options, to include most practices. There's always more options that could be added, but it's important to ensure buyers have a consistent shopping experience when using our website. With thousands of different sellers, the more types of shipping options added, the more confusing it becomes for a buyer.

-Mark

[Mark]

And what if I sell a $500 slabbed comic with free shipping and 3 different listings for $1.95 comics plus shipping, to the same buyer? Surely I am allowed to tell them to wait for an updated invoice from me so I can cancel the shipping fees out for the other 3 listings, and include the additional 3 comics in the same box with the slabbed comic for free, also?

This is easy to do with the options we already provide. In the 'Shipping Promotions' section you can set up a promotion such that (for example) spend $200+, receive free shipping. Take a look at the many available options we provide, and determine which are right for you. But you do need to use the options we provide.

-Mark

[RazzmatazzComics]

Thanks for the quick replies, Mark.

I read your response a few times and there are still some unanswered questions...

1) What do you suggest for international shipping? I'm talking about the entire world, not just Canada. I don't see how flat rates would cut it, unless I studied all the different options and costs for every country. And what would be the point? By the time I earned my international shipping degree, the options and prices would probably have changed again. Can we use a "wait for an updated invoice" in these scenarios?

2) It seems I have been awarded no points for actually caring about not overcharging buyers on shipping, and not undercutting BidStart on FVFs (fee avoidance), by making shipping fees higher. Can I at least get a pat on the back for caring?

3) Local pick-ups. Can we use a "wait for an updated invoice" in this scenario?

4) Cross category selling.... How would a shipping model work in these cases? If someone sells a 30 lb. train set and 4 baseball cards, 3 stamps, 2 comics, and a partridge in a pear tree, can we not include all these small items in with the train set with no additional shipping fees for the small items? Can we use a "wait for an updated invoice" in this scenario? (I never said the partridge was still alive, nor did I state the actual size of the tree. )

5) I will be looking into the shipping model/promotion options. I will be making changes, but sadly they are going to result in higher shipping costs than what I have now. I still don't know how I can get accurate shipping costs without knowing what zone the buyer lives in beforehand. It's different shipping to Philly or New York, versus shipping across country to LA or Vegas. From what I've seen most sellers do, they just have the highest rate listed in their shipping model to cover the furthest zip code. But that does mean overcharging on shipping to nearby zip codes. What are your feelings on this?

6) Multiple shipping options.... USPS (priority, parcel post, media, flat rate boxes, etc), UPS (ground, overnight), FedEx... Is it possible to give preferential buyers a choice?

7) Bulk changes. Why are there no bulk changes available to sellers? Especially the item description and selling price? Is it expensive for Bidstart to implement this feature? Is it in development and coming soon? Are you dead set against it? What's the story on more user friendly bulk change options?

You posted.....

"Currently, the main collectible areas we focus on, promote, advertise, etc. are stamps, postcards and coins. Other collectibles, such as comic books, are certainly welcome to be listed, but you won't see many sales if you're not active in selling your items here, such as promoting your items, using User Newsletters, etc.. That's why you won't see sellers in these categories who don't put in an effort here selling many items, regardless of how many items they have listed."


The bold part of your statement is disconcerting. It gives off the impression that BidStart really doesn't care about anything but stamps, postcards, and coins. I thought I read in another thread that comics and cards were now a part of the BidStart focus. Does BidStart plan on incorporating comics and cards into its "main area of focusing on, promoting, advertising, etc"?

I wouldn't be asking these questions if I didn't really care. I hope you understand that. My hope is for you and this site to one day be the most successful online marketplace of all. Thanks again for your time and assistance.

[Mark]

Like I noted before, Amazon, the world's largest marketplace, including third party sellers (like Ebay) uses the same non-calculated shipping approach we do. Obviously they wouldn't be where they were if this type of shipping approach did not work. We believe it does, and it's what all of our sellers on our website uses.

The aim of shipping costs on bidStart is not to have the buyer charged the exact cent the actual postage costs are. It's to create an environment where as a seller you can sell the most items, and buyers have a seamless and easy approach to shopping. We've seen that this is the best model for that, and what buyers want to see. You can always come up with lots of different 'what if's' and special case scenarios, so there's not really any point in addressing each and every one, since there would always be more.

We have thousands of sellers, many of whom sell many other items besides stamps and postcards, and they're able to easily do so with the shipping options we provide. Look at the options we offer, and within those options create a policy which will work best for you (not perfectly to the penny for the actual postage cost).

I think what you should do at this point, is take a look at all of the features and options offered on the Shipping Details/Discount page. Most of your questions can all be answered yourself be reviewing the available features. For example, your last question about free shipping on a $500+ purchase can easily be handled using the Shipping promotion option. Likewise, your issues with cross-category selling isn't an issue at all - you can set up different discounts for different categories. And again, keep in mind you're already taking weight into account with your per item shipping costs, which means you can easily keep that in account as I explained before, since you can set up the additional item shipping costs to be based on the individual rates you've already set.

All of the main categories as shown on our homepage, are the collectibles we focus on. However, when you're not listing stamps, postcards or coins, if you put absolutely 0 effort into selling here, and simply import items from another site, you won't see sales here. This was directed toward the couple of big comic book sellers you were referring to. That's why they don't have sales here. You on the other end are putting in an effort, and you'll likely see far more sales than other comic book sellers who put in zero effort. The first step to getting more sales would be to correct your shipping costs. Taking advantage of our User Newsletter feature is also very helpful, especially when you're in a category such as comics. It's not that we don't care about comics, that's certainly not true. We've just been in stamps, postcards and coins a lot longer, and there's already a strong buyer base for these items here.

Just to note, I certainly understand why you may want to take an approach where you always charge the buyer the exact amount of postage costs. However, since we are a marketplace, home to thousands of sellers, we do need to offer a limited base of options to avoid confusion among buyers. We also apply our extensive knowledge, research and testing to determine what works the best, and results in the most sales. Sometimes this is counter-intuitive, but it's the ability to gain that knowledge that has lead us to where we, and our sellers are today, compared with the thousands of marketplaces that have come and gone over the past decade.

-Mark

[bobstew617]

I thought, as a buyer who has been on this site for a few years (over 700 positive feedbacks), I would add my "two cents" to this subject. I deal with sellers both who have a flat fee and others who start with one fee but "add" an extra shipping amount for every subsequent item purchased. It is my personal opinion that I would rather pay a higher flat fee than a lower fee with additions. It gets complicated when you start to figure how much the shipping, for one, and to me, it also discourages buying a lot of small lots. If I am going to pay a higher flat fee, I am going to make the best use of it.

I certainly understand a seller charging an amount for shipping that covers the cost of postage, and even for materials, but I especially don't like it when a seller charges a low amount for an item but adds an additional amount per item for shipping. What is my true cost in purchasing the item?

BOB S in Orlando

[RazzmatazzComics]

Mark , I've done as you suggested.

There is something I wonder about. When buyers click on an item, they see this....

Save On S/HOn items in select categories from this seller.
Save $2.50 off S/H on Additional Items.
Different Discounts apply in these categoriesSpend $125.00+ and receive Free Shipping!

I get the impression that I would only save $2.50 TOTAL on shipping for additional purchases. Is it possible for that line to read, "Save $2.50 off S/H on EACH Additional Item."?

I realize it says, "each", when you click on the link for category info, but not everyone may do that or even notice it.

Thanks.

Bill