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"The newest gimmick I've noticed on E-bay lately are outrageous shipping costs. At first glance, very cheap software, until you realize some are charging up to $20 to ship one disk -- first class, not even priority."

Anyone who does not check shipping charges on eBay is a fool. In fact, anyone who doesn't check everything, from feedback to comparable items in past auctions is a fool.

The USPS is the shipping of choice for typical eBay sellers. You can get free Priority Mail boxes in sizes up to 12"x12"x9", free flat-rate tyvek envelopes, tracking, and insurance, all at good rates, and the shipper is right there.

You can buy postage and print labels on line. The whole bit.

I've been shipping items via USPS Priority Mail, Global Priority Mail, and otherwise for a long, long time. Of all the packages I've shipped, not a single one has gone missing, and only one has been damaged. I don't even bother with insurance any more.

Best deal, though, is the free boxes (shipped to you directly, also at no charge) and the online postage and label buying. If you're willing to pay a small fee, someone will come and pick up your day's shipments. One price covers as many packages as you have. You don't even have to go to the darned post office.

USPS is the eBayer's friend.

If you're willing to pay a small fee, someone will come and pick up your day's shipments. One price covers as many packages as you have. You don't even have to go to the darned post office.

I've noticed lately than if you are shipping by Priority Mail (probably Express as well), that you can go online to schedule a pickup and they don't charge. I think the small pickup charge you mentioned for parcel post or first class is only $12.50.

I only sell one or two items a week, and I still bring the packages to the post office myself -- I don't mind going there as long as I can just drop the box in the slot and don't have to stand in line. The way ebay has shipping, label printing, and insurance capabilities integrated into their system works really well.

Thanks for all that excellent info, MM!

I'm so tired of hearing people slam ebay. If it was such a bad deal, the market would kill it off. But the volume just keeps growing and there are thousands of people who have been augmenting their incomes there for years. As a buyer, I find ebay to be extremely competitive with a selection of items unmatched anywhere else. While it's very difficult for sellers to get a decent price on some categories of goods (such as original artwork, for example), there are many categories that work out just fine for buyer and seller. Sellers who pad the cost of shipping can generally only get away with that on high ticket items. If you're buying a solid gold mint condition vintage Rolex for $14K, you're not going to care that shipping is $50.

USPS is the eBayer's friend.

Damn smart of them, I say. Surely, they've seen business go down as a result of the proliferation of computers, a lot of people pay bills online. That's a lot of unsold 37 cent stamps unsold to deliver mail a few miles, in many cases.

eBay has created an opportunity for really big postage fees, and it's savvy of the USPS to want to grab this market. They need to come down hard on counter employees who give crap to eBay package shippers.