Hi:

I too have found that Free Shipping has helped sales. My experience is that even though an item doesn't have free shipping and the flat rate charge is low and even makes for a total less than the free shipping item - yep the free shipping item sells every time. My momma told me nothing was free but I guess on eBay free does make a huge difference.

My only problem is that many of my items have a price point low enough that adding just a little to the price to begin to cover shipping will show up right away. But I've decided to change the way some of those items are sold - grouping like sets of stamps together -- selling stamps in year sets etc to get a higher price point and that way I'm able to add on "free shipping".

For what ever the reason it does generate better sales. But those of us in a small item category just have to be creative in bundling material for sale to make the free shipping attractive. All of my tests for the free shipping have pointed big time to the fact that if it isn't free shipping it most likely doesn't sell if there is an identical item with free shipping.

There are always new ways to market and this is the latest I guess so have to figure out how it fits within the business and go with it. I sort of like the free shipping as I don't have to worry about combined shipping and having to add money to pay for shipping when they purchase a lot of material and go over what was charged for postage under flat rate combined.

Garry