Tactics when selling on ebay

I use different tactics, depending on what I'm selling. Keep in mind that in most cases you will want and/or need a tracking number, so the minimum cost for US postage on a package is $3.95 for priority mail, plus $.50 for tracking delivery confirmation. For a letter with delivery confirmation, the minimum postage is $2.79, because you can't just add a $.50 delivery confirmation to a $.39 stamp.

So that's your starting point for costs.

IMHO, you're best off to only charge the actual shipping cost. I think it works out well, because people are willing to bid higher on the item if they feel like you're not ripping them off on shipping charges.

Special situations:
A) Item is large/heavy/fragile. I sold a mountain bike on eBay and I figured that only people physically nearby would be interested. But I didn't want to exclude anybody, and I also didn't want to waste a bunch of time figuring the shipping cost in advance. So, I just wrote "Buyer can pickup item in person, or pay actual shipping costs." As it happened the winning bidder was 1,500 miles away and the shipping cost was nearly $50. Very glad I didn't just guess, because I would have lost money on a bad guess of $20 or $30.

B) Concert tickets. The couple of times I've sold concert tickets, I've listed "FREE SHIPPING" knowing that it'll cost me $4.50, but that the high demand should make it worthwhile. NOTE: I think this tactic only works with sports or concert tickets in very high demand.

Banicmanic's Point of View