Posted by The other day I had a sense of deja vu when eBay sent me an email announcing that they would be changing the default shipping rates to discounted shipping rates on October 1, 2026. I searched my email and found a similar email they had sent on April 17, 2024. In the email from 2024, they had a link that allowed you to opt-out of the change, which I used. The latest email also had an opt-out link, which I used (again).
It appears that they are trying again to get all sellers to pass on the shipping discount to buyers. It’s hard enough to make a profit on eBay. Sometimes the shipping discount is the only profit on a sale. This only applies when a buyer pays calculated shipping costs. It does not apply to fixed rate and free shipping. The discount can be as much as 40%. That much of a rate reduction could lead to more sales on eBay. But it feels like another way for them to squeeze profits out of sellers.
At some point eBay will stop giving sellers the option to opt-out and only allow us to use the discounted shipping rate. When that happens (probably next year), some sellers will need to raise prices. That would lead to reduced sales, which eBay is trying to increase, by having sellers pass on shipping discounts. I normally sell my refurbished Xbox controllers with free shipping. This year the shipping price for an Xbox controller increased by a dollar. The sweet spot for a refurbished model 1708 controller is still under $30. Because I can’t raise the price above $30, the profit on my last two controller sales was only $5 each.