Q: I fail to see how avoiding an $8-$10 charge for shipping insurance on an $800 vintage guitar is going to make a difference in a buyer's decision. I have always required insurance for international transactions and my customers have never complained at all. They consider it a no brainer. A lot can happen in shipping. Most of my domestic customers choose to purchase insurance when it is offered.

A: As a seller you are still able to insure your items. Check with your shipping carrier for insurance options, contact a third-party shipping insurance provider for insurance coverage, or purchase shipping insurance on eBay when printing your shipping labels directly from the site. To help cover the additional expense consider folding the cost of insurance into your handling fee or item price.

Q: When a seller uses a shipping service and pays for that service, it becomes the shipping companies responsibility for the item. For any person, eBay, sellers or buyers to expect a seller to be able to control what happens to an item once it leaves the sellers hands, is unrealistic. How does adding insurance to shipping and handling charges affect a sellers listing status in reference to what eBay considers reasonable or excessive shipping?

A: While it is the shipping company’s responsibility to deliver the item to your buyer, the shipping company is accountable to you not to the buyer. It is your option how you manage your relationship, risk, or exposure with the carrier and you have options as to which carrier you choose to safely deliver your goods to your buyers.

With respect to listing status if you are thinking about excessive shipping, Trust and Safety will look at excessive shipping on a case by case basis. If you offer reasonable shipping in a category that typically has higher shipping rates due to item size, weight, handling, or insurance you should not be negatively affected.

Q: But why no optional insurance? The way I see it, it was good for everyone. Yes, the buyer is already guaranteed to get the product if they pay by PayPal, but some like the peace of mind of an added layer of protection over what they already have. If the intent was to eliminate "Not responsible for items" from listings, why not just eliminate that over taking away something everyone could benefit from?

A: By removing optional or required shipping insurance, we are adjusting to help meet buyer expectations for ecommerce and aligning with industry standard practices. In most circumstances, buyers do not expect to pay for the cost of shipping insurance. This change also reflects the industry—and eBay—standard practice that sellers are responsible for their items until they are safely in their customers' hands.

Q: Can sellers NOT buy insurance as well? For UPS where insurance is always included, will that still be allowed?

A: Not insuring your items is completely optional. Sellers are responsible for getting items to the buyer. If you choose to insure your item you have the option of (but are not obligated to) folding your cost into the item price, or handling cost.

Yes, UPS included insurance will be allowed.

Q: I sell mostly via auction, not fixed price. Often times, I do not know what the final price will be. I cannot, therefore, predetermine what the cost of insurance will be when I am creating an auction. While it is easy to include the cost of insurance in a fixed price listing as a handling fee, it is not possible to do this with auction format.

A: If you list with Auction-style format you can choose to fold your insurance cost into your handling charges. You’ll need to estimate the value of the item and check with your shipping carrier or third-party insurance provider for approximate cost of coverage.

Shipping insurance is generally priced in tranches based on desired coverage (i.e. 50.01 to 100.00 = $2.15, 100.01 to 200.00 = $2.60, etc), so exact item sale price estimates are not required in order for a seller to determine the cost of insurance.

Cheryl
Seller Marketing and Communications
eBay