USPS Holiday Shipping Rates Catch Up To Pirate Ship, Mercari, Etsy & More

Liz Morton
Liz Morton


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Many USPS label providers had previously announced their customers would be spared from 2024 holiday rate hikes for most packages under 21 lbs, but it appears the postal service may have changed the terms of their Negotiated Service Agreements with little notice, causing confusion for online sellers using these services.

eBay

eBay originally announced on October 1st that most zone 1-8 shipments under 21 lbs would not have USPS holiday surcharges added, but then posted an updated announcement on October 21st advising surcharges would apply for those packages, effective October 27.

eBay Updates Sellers On Holiday Shipping Carrier Surcharges
eBay shares good news on UPS, FedEx, & USPS peak season holiday rate hikes - if you print labels through the site, some surcharges won’t apply!

While it was short notice, it seems that was likely not eBay's fault - and credit where it is due, they took action to notify sellers of the change quickly after USPS apparently updated NSA with the new rates.

Other platforms have followed suit, with some doing better at communicating with their customers than others.

Mercari

Mercari sent out a notice to sellers a few days ahead of the change and also updated their help and policy pages to provide a chart of the holiday rates.

Pirate Ship

On October 1st, Pirate Ship showed the same information that eBay had announced - saying most shipments under 21 lbs would not be impacted.

But that page has been updated some time in the last week to say most services and locations will be affected.

Importantly, aside from the "updated this week" note (which was also on the page on October 1st), there is nothing to indicate the information was edited - which is especially confusing since they left with "starting October 6th" language when the reality is that these surcharges were not in effect at that time.

It's not clear if Pirate Ship sent an email announcement to customers to information them of the change, but if not, this quiet page edit isn't exactly transparent.

Etsy

I was not able to find any proactive announcements from Etsy to sellers about USPS holiday surcharges, but at least one seller on Reddit noticed a price discrepancy when shipping orders from over the weekend when the prices would have changed, pointing to this update being a likely explanation for the difference.

I am currently fulfilling our orders from the weekend and there is a $0.30-$0.35 difference between what the sellers paid versus what they're charging our shop. It's the second time I've had this issue in a row.

I know USPS prices can fluctuate (sometimes in our favor instead), regardless it's usually by <$.10. I spoke with a customer service representative, and they suggested that I check the package dimensions and weight on the listing (I have the profile set to "calculated") and label presets.

I humored him and confirmed that my settings are accurate, and they responded that they'll put in a ticket with their shipping department, but when I asked about follow up he said they don't contact sellers. I am very frustrated that I waited on hold for an hour for zero resolution. I know it doesn't sound like much money, but I typically get quite a few orders (on a product with already slim margins) over the weekends, so it will add up.

Etsy also didn't tell sellers about the zip code-based USPS changes that were implemented in September, so it's disappointing but not surprising if sellers received no announcement about the holiday surcharges too.

Etsy Sellers Confused By USPS Priority Flat Rate Variations Due To Zip Code Based Rate Hike
Sellers confused by USPS Priority rate variations as Etsy failed to advise of zip code based changes to negotiated rates through the platform.

Are you seeing USPS increases across the board across marketplace and third party label providers since last week? Let us know in the comments below!

Shipping

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Liz Morton is a 17 year ecommerce pro turned indie investigative journalist providing ad-free deep dives on eBay, Amazon, Etsy & more, championing sellers & advocating for corporate accountability.


Recent Comments
Avatar PlaceholderMksowaYesterday
They need to fix a very broken system full of nasty attitudes. The patrons no longer matter.
Avatar PlaceholderMarty_JYesterday
Was just checking to see if it would post without creating an account but….
eBay seller since 2022
Just started selling about a year and half ago

800 items sold 99.7 feedback

Recently I went away for family things for 30 days set my acct to be away … got back with items not received cases opened

I wasn’t able to revise existing listings post new listings OR refund the buyer from my eBay funds …

The items were caught up in recent wild fires but ended up being delivered late. I had to beg the buyer to let me pay them off of eBay to close the case because it was on hold and I wasn’t able to refund them from my eBay acct etc…. So luckily they obliged and I did … but ever since then my acct must be strikes as high risk because funds have been on hold 3 days after delivery since then indefinitely might I add… I get the run around everytime etc etc FINALLY I got someone saying it’s temporary it’ll be back to normal etc. these r all reps from escalated departments… one lady told me that with my history and feedback I’ve proved beyond doubt that I’m reliable seller and shouldn’t be on hold she put in for a appeal never heard back got the run around for another few months… they keep telling me I’ve been chosen for the new update they r rolling out total BS … do you believe that sellers will stay on eBay with these holds ? No they will simply go to another platform … they r 100% making money on the holds and use any reasoning to tell you basically no and keep profiting…. The get around is creating a new acct… these cases were closed without eBay having to step in and might I add I lost $$ and its been truly frustrating esp since I’ve built the acct up but I know I can do it again.. when they tell me its going to happen to all accts I just mention how my brother just opened one n now has immediate payments they don’t know what to say I don’t think they really even know.,, its sad n scummy but I see a class action lawsuit coming honestly ! I don’t know💬 if I forgot anything but well written thanks for the information. Have a great one!
Avatar PlaceholderJkvinyl32 days ago
As many have already quoted - us sellers now can not charge for packaging. I will be £500 a year out of pocket.