EBay shipping. What am I missing?
 

OK, I've been selling on Ebay for a few years now and I'm confused as to how sellers can offer free shipping on items that they sell for less than the cost of shipping. Not to mention what their net profit will be after Ebay fees.
Here's just one example to give you an idea of what I'm talking about: A seller offered and sold a Time/Life Fix It Yourself book for $4.36 with free media mail shipping. Media mail starts at $4.63, so right away they're in the minus for .27 cents. Now figure in the ebay fee of @ 14%, that's .61 cents. So they sold and shipped the item for a loss of .88 cents.
What am I missing?

Ebay gets a deal on shipping with USPS. If you sell now, international shipping is default. You have to opt out if you dont want to participate.

Yes, I realize that, they pass the savings on to the seller so you can make a bit more by using USPS, that's what Ive been doing, but I've also old media, and there is no discount for media mail. Some of these listings just don't make economic sense, especially now that they send a 1099K form after you sold $5000 in 2024, $2500 in 2025, and then $600 for 2026. So now on top of the ebay fees, you'll be paying federal tax on your sold items.

I have seen a place that did that. I even ordered a book from them and had to return it because the listing was wrong. The place that I ordered from was essentially a used book store. I assume they have their own special deal on shipping. But I would think that would be hard to get a deal that was cheap enough.

Interesting.