I’ve been selling a bunch of stuff on ebay this past week. To both clear away the clutter and to help fund my upcoming trip to NYC. And as I usually do with my auctions, I just sort of guesstimate the shipping cost. And then I try to add on another buck or two to cover ebay and paypal fees. (unless I’m purposely doing a free shipping auction)

So I had this small Fossil crossbody purse that I bought at their outlet store last year. It was a fairly inexpensive purchase, and it’s ended up being something I just don’t use. So I listed it on ebay with a starting price of $8.99 and shipping price of $6.

Of course I had hopes that it would sell for more, but let’s just say it wasn’t one of my big ticket items.

Annoyance #1: Someone actually had the audacity to email me and ask me if I would give them free shipping on the item. Are you kidding me? I would like to actually make money on this transaction lady. I replied that I could not offer that since I didn’t know what the final sales price would end up being.

The person who ended up winning the auction actually got it for $8.99. I guess no one else was interested in it. Ok fine.

So I take the purse to the UPS store to ship it USPS Priority. I like to send my ebay stuff Priority because I know it will get there in 2 days. And as a person who frequently buys from ebay, I know how nice it is to get stuff fast. In the past I’ve always taken my stuff to this little gift shop in Jenks that has a post office set up in the back. There’s never a wait like at the actual post office and they are so nice. Well now that my company moved out of Jenks and into Tulsa the closest place to mail is a UPS store right across the street.

Annoyance #2: The UPS store charged me over $12 to ship that little purse priority. I could have shipped it UPS ground for just over $11. But for a dollar difference I would rather send it priority and know when it will get there. If you’re doing the math you have just realized that I made no money on that sale. After paypal and ebay fees I made nothing. It may have even cost me money. I mailed two other similar items and walked out having spent $30. I was quite annoyed.

Lesson learned: The UPS store will no longer have me as a customer.

I sent Thom to the post office today to mail two other items I’ve sold. One was going to Tennessee and one was going to Canada. Canada! He also had to purchase bubble envelopes to send them in. The grand total? Less than $7. On the one hand I’m a bit remorseful that I charged that lady in Canada $10 shipping. I really had no idea how much it would cost so I was protecting myself. On the other hand I’m all… well at least I made some money back from those other auctions.

I’m sure everyone is shaking their heads at me and telling me I should have known how expensive the UPS store is. I really didn’t. I honestly didn’t think they would upcharge me. The Bleu Door gift shop never upcharged me! I’m actually considering driving all the way back to Jenks from now on to mail my ebay stuff. I’ll gladly use up my entire lunch hour to avoid being ripped off.

and these are the things that grind my gears (line stolen from Family Guy)