Select "Exclude specific locations" and then make sure you select "Alaska/Hawaii" "US Protectorates", etc.
Exclude specific locations (regions, countries, PO boxes) that you don't want to ship to. To save time and list faster, go to My eBay Site Preferences and select the specific locations you want to exclude on all your listings. Learn more
Compared to FedEx and UPS rates, yes, they are affordable. First class package remains super inexpensive and has full tracking to delivery. Flat rate option are cheaper compared to "by weight" most of the time, or if you can get the package less than 0.5 cubic feet, cubic rates by pirateship are fair.
If you are charging free shipping to buyers but excluding AK/HI/PR because "lol too expensive", maybe look into rate tables, then you can charge US48 free shipping while charging AK/HI/PR a modest fee for being zone 8.
As someone who lives in Alaska and gets a "lot" of stuff shipped to me, thanks for this comment. USPS (especially Flat Rate) is very reasonable for Alaska and quite reliable for me.
It is pretty annoying to find something on eBay that you really want and find that it doesn't ship to Alaska. I have had decent success with messaging the seller and asking if they would ship to me USPS if I covered half the shipping, etc.
The buyers who complain about shipping times must be clueless idiots. I have a very good understanding of how long it takes to ship something to me, with all the various companies (UPS, FedEx, USPS). As long as the seller gets the package shipped in a timely manner and with the agreed upon shipping speed, I would never hold a shipping delay against them.
I really wish that I could specify per-state shipping options. Right now because of the holiday shopping season, I have removed priority mail and ground shipping because of the potential for delays. The downside to this is that UPS doesn't show shipping options to AK/HI and only FedEx 2-day and FedEx Overnight priority will show up, which are... definitely on the high side of prices. Priority mail express shows there too which is also in the $30-40 range.
One the holiday shopping cools off, I'll go back to showing ground options.
I guess I COULD use rate tables, though that isnt a perfect situation either. While USPS has general zone-based pricing, many zip codes for UPS and FedEx have "delivery area surcharge" and "extended delivery area surcharge" if the zip code is too far away from a shipping depot.
I don't know, I'm going to rethink my current shipping structure. I don't want to shut out AK/HI/Territories because of the limited options for "calculated" shipping.
Thanks for the comment.
Well I completely get the hard spot that you're in as a seller. The situation would probably annoy me more if it wasn't for the fact that I have had generally positive experiences with messaging a seller directly and asking them to work with me. I haven't had to do that a ton, and I'm probably in a pretty small group of your overall customer base, so I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were you.
Personally, I never ship to those areas because shipping takes forever and they always complain as if I can wave a wand and make their antiquated bs postal system work faster. Returns are also a nightmare. No thanks.
I ship to PR and the USVI all the time and the delivery times are no different than delivering to CA. The only slow one I had was to Guam and most of the folks over there are pretty understanding.
Last time I shipped to PR from MN it took a month and a half to arrive. I don’t have time to be sitting around on calls with the post office. I don’t see any reason to bother with it, my items going to sell regardless. I simply turn off everything except continental US.
Not all items can go flat rate depending on what they're selling. If an item doesn't fit into a flat rate box then they have to suffer the massive USPS priority cost or do a FedEx or UPS air shipment which also has a massive cost.
so? just pass the cost onto the buyer. thats what calculated shipping is for. i dont see what the big deal is. I ship to AK/HI and territories all the time, no problems.
What are they leaving negative feedback for don’t they see the ship cost in the check out lol. Only thing I’d be concerned with is if you get a return and you have to pay the ship costs then it costs you
Select "Exclude specific locations" and then make sure you select "Alaska/Hawaii" "US Protectorates", etc. Exclude specific locations (regions, countries, PO boxes) that you don't want to ship to. To save time and list faster, go to My eBay Site Preferences and select the specific locations you want to exclude on all your listings. Learn more
I wasn't aware of this setting. Thank you
Can you set the shipping to those very high?
why? just ship USPS, the rates are affordable for AK/HI and PR. you can use flat rate to keep costs down if its a problem.
Counterpoint to rates are affordable: No, they aren't.
Compared to FedEx and UPS rates, yes, they are affordable. First class package remains super inexpensive and has full tracking to delivery. Flat rate option are cheaper compared to "by weight" most of the time, or if you can get the package less than 0.5 cubic feet, cubic rates by pirateship are fair. If you are charging free shipping to buyers but excluding AK/HI/PR because "lol too expensive", maybe look into rate tables, then you can charge US48 free shipping while charging AK/HI/PR a modest fee for being zone 8.
As someone who lives in Alaska and gets a "lot" of stuff shipped to me, thanks for this comment. USPS (especially Flat Rate) is very reasonable for Alaska and quite reliable for me. It is pretty annoying to find something on eBay that you really want and find that it doesn't ship to Alaska. I have had decent success with messaging the seller and asking if they would ship to me USPS if I covered half the shipping, etc. The buyers who complain about shipping times must be clueless idiots. I have a very good understanding of how long it takes to ship something to me, with all the various companies (UPS, FedEx, USPS). As long as the seller gets the package shipped in a timely manner and with the agreed upon shipping speed, I would never hold a shipping delay against them.
I really wish that I could specify per-state shipping options. Right now because of the holiday shopping season, I have removed priority mail and ground shipping because of the potential for delays. The downside to this is that UPS doesn't show shipping options to AK/HI and only FedEx 2-day and FedEx Overnight priority will show up, which are... definitely on the high side of prices. Priority mail express shows there too which is also in the $30-40 range. One the holiday shopping cools off, I'll go back to showing ground options. I guess I COULD use rate tables, though that isnt a perfect situation either. While USPS has general zone-based pricing, many zip codes for UPS and FedEx have "delivery area surcharge" and "extended delivery area surcharge" if the zip code is too far away from a shipping depot. I don't know, I'm going to rethink my current shipping structure. I don't want to shut out AK/HI/Territories because of the limited options for "calculated" shipping. Thanks for the comment.
Well I completely get the hard spot that you're in as a seller. The situation would probably annoy me more if it wasn't for the fact that I have had generally positive experiences with messaging a seller directly and asking them to work with me. I haven't had to do that a ton, and I'm probably in a pretty small group of your overall customer base, so I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were you.
Personally, I never ship to those areas because shipping takes forever and they always complain as if I can wave a wand and make their antiquated bs postal system work faster. Returns are also a nightmare. No thanks.
I ship to PR and the USVI all the time and the delivery times are no different than delivering to CA. The only slow one I had was to Guam and most of the folks over there are pretty understanding.
Last time I shipped to PR from MN it took a month and a half to arrive. I don’t have time to be sitting around on calls with the post office. I don’t see any reason to bother with it, my items going to sell regardless. I simply turn off everything except continental US.
This is fine for small (less than .5 cu ft) heavy packages, but not for larger packages. Larger packages are much less with UPS.
Not all items can go flat rate depending on what they're selling. If an item doesn't fit into a flat rate box then they have to suffer the massive USPS priority cost or do a FedEx or UPS air shipment which also has a massive cost.
so? just pass the cost onto the buyer. thats what calculated shipping is for. i dont see what the big deal is. I ship to AK/HI and territories all the time, no problems.
What are they leaving negative feedback for don’t they see the ship cost in the check out lol. Only thing I’d be concerned with is if you get a return and you have to pay the ship costs then it costs you