eBay manager Brian Burke discussed annual shipping-carrier rate increases during a podcast on Tuesday. He indicated eBay would post the new rates by the time of the podcast airing, though they hadn’t appeared on the Seller Announcement board as of Wednesday evening.
He said one of the annual concerns about the annual rate increase is when the new rates would be implemented into eBay Shipping for those who purchase postage through eBay. “The answer is they will be implemented the minute… well, probably not exactly the minute, but as soon as they are released by each carrier.”
Burke, along with co-host Jim “Griff” Griffith, discussed when the new rates would take effect. “I’m always nervous though, putting actual timelines out there,” Burke said, while Griffith said in the past they went live one second after the new rates took effect. “Everything is ready to click so that there’s no discrepancies in what the shipping calculations are for labels,” he said.
“I think what we can fall back on is that we’ve been doing this now for how many years, having to update this,” Griffith added.
You can keep an eye out for the promised post on the eBay Seller Announcement board.
Update: eBay announced the shipping update on Thursday.
“by the time of the podcast airing, though they hadn’t appeared on the Seller Announcement board as of Wednesday evening.”
Because they are busy counting their new MILLIONS.
Every time shipping rates increase, eBay gets an automatic bump in earnings, since they (illegally) keep a VIG (ala Costa Nostra) on shipping fees.
They simply have NO TIME to post things – they are busy doing a Scrooge McDuck – diving into the new found piles of money.
Interesting since USPS hasn’t said anything about the temporary rate increase from October. I’m guessing it’s going to become permanent but will it be more than that? I guess we’ll find out soon.