I feel so dumb- I’ve been overpaying for shipping

★★★ signal-strong r/etsysellers · ↑ 56 · 💬 39 · 2026-02-28 · kw: buy box price · open on reddit ↗

Tool

Etsy

Issue

Etsy mobile app shipping label pricing is $2-5 higher than browser version for identical packages; seller overpaid ~$2-5 per label for months due to app bug showing incorrect rates.

Cost

$2-5 per label (unstated total impact, but seller indicates months of orders affected)

Recommendation

Use desktop browser instead of mobile app for purchasing shipping labels; alternatively use Pirateship.com which charges $3 less than Etsy browser rates

Date context

as of 2026-02-28; multiple commenters report ongoing app discrepancy

extracted with

anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5 · 2026-05-08

Body

Just posting this to see if anyone else has made this mistake, or hopefully will prevent it from happening to someone else! I’m in the US! When someone orders $35+ or more and gets free shipping, they’ve usually added enough products that the weight and package dimensions are overestimated. (This is because they can order different quantities in the listing but I can only enter in one weight, btw) So sometimes it’ll look like shipping will cost $10+. When I’ve gone to purchase a label in the app and correct the weight and dimensions, the cost goes down, but not to the typical $5ish. I’ve been buying labels around $7-10 in this case!! I literally just realized this yesterday. If I use the web browser and correct the package info, it shows the correct (around $5) shipping price. Woe is me!! I feel so dumb for not catching this earlier!

Top comments (9)

[score=50] Tanytor

I feel like all the shipping options are over complicated in general so don’t feel bad for missing one thing like that

[score=8] Financial-County-622

I’ve noticed that for a few weeks even though the price showed higher in the app it’s been charging me the lower price that the website shows. I think they match again now though. Anyone else notice this or am I crazy.

[score=12] DuckDuckMoosedUp

Another reason why as a seller, do not do your Etsy business on the app. Using the desktop browser makes things so much easier. Apparently from what you're saying, also cheaper because there's a shipping bug on the app?

[score=4] coofwoofe

Yeah I did this for over a year before noticing. You're not alone! It's all part of figuring it out

[score=3] Xolaris05

Ahh the perks of being not that knowledgeable in etsy 🤷 thank you for the heads up btw

[score=4] freeman1231

I just learned after like 30 orders I can use Etsy prepaid labels… with a huge discount. I didn’t know because it’s not on the phone app… only when you are on the browser.

[score=4] busbanana

Another tip - Etsy consistently charges $3 more for the exact same label, weight, etc than Pirateship.com charges me (except for USPS ground)

[score=3] rutilated_

I’ve been exclusively using the app / my phone and I haven’t noticed this at all. I’ll have to double check now though. :/

[score=3] Miserable-Reward8096

I literally just figured this out as well. I had been using the app for everything almost. The other day when I went to put in the dimensions and weight and all of that, suddenly the cheap option was gone. I normally spend anywhere from the $1.83 to $2.90 on shipping and the only option the app was giving me was almost $6 to ship a $4 vinyl sticker. I logged into desktop and put in the dimensions and it brought me back the normal/cheaper option. That's also when I quit offering free shipping unless they paid 35$ or more bc I just can't afford to.