Just a word of caution. A seller on Ebay using the name “thedigitalauction” is charging $12.90 to ship an N scale engine. That is 2-3 times what most shippers charge. BEWARE of his shipping costs.
As long as they plainly post it, I have no sympathy for anyone claiming to have been ripped. Some people try to skew things towards more shipping and/or handling, because eBay does not charge a comission on shipping and handling. I don’t fault them. When bidding you should figure on what the total cost will be.
“Shipping charge” does not have to have any relation to the actual “shipping cost”. They are charging for the effort to ship the item, not the postage. Many eBayers do the same, as eBay does not collect a fee on the shipping; they get more for their auctions this way.
I bought a battery for my digital camera, only $1.70; the shipping was $6.95. The actual postage? $1.50. But I didn’t mind, as a similar battery by the camera manufacturer was around $30.00 - plus shipping.
Bob Boudreau
You would be surprised at how many people think that the box, packing, and other materials should come out of the cost of the item. Everyone wants it for free but if you try to buy it from them they want a million bucks
A reasonable recovery is acceptable. But boxes are FREE from the post office, and Priority Mail is generally cheaper than anything UPS and Fedex offer, at least in the US.
I’ve sold enough differnet stuff, I kno whow much is costs to ship items. Therefore I do not bid on items which list crazy shipping charges. And there’s always the ones that go WAY out of line simply to avoid eBay fees - sell a $30 item for $5 but have $30 shipping charges - since you only pay fees on the auction amount, not shipping charges. When found, they try to shut down these auctions sinc ethey violate the ebay terms and conditions, but they never get them all
I charge what the post office charges me - and I’ve still had ocmplaints, saying my $3.95 is too high, but they’ll pay it anyway. Of course I never hear back from these dopes when they receive their package and…oh look, it was $3.95 to ship…
–Randy
Boxes aren’t free up here in Canada. I wonder if the shipping charge includes INSURANCE as well. A lot of Ebayers won’t ship an item unless it has INSURANCE on it as well. It protects them as well as the buyer.
I also never bid when shipping is obviously too high. The main reason is that if you returned the item for a refund, you are out the shipping, and the seller still makes a killing. As stated above, if you returned that $5 item, the seller still walks away with $30.
I agree as well, I don’t ship anything of value without insurance.
I don’t know what post office you are serviced from but here in Fredericksburg, VA the US Post Office sells boxes and most everything else for shipping. To top it off they are more expensive than if you purchased them from Staples or Office Depot.
When shipping something I’ve sold on Ebay I give the shipping cost up front so the bidder knows in advance what they will be paying for shipping. I also state that if they want insurance it will be an additional cost.
When you add the cost of the box, bubble wrap, packaging tape, and lables into the shipping it’s easy to spend $9-$10 to ship from cost to cost.
Only thing I have to say to someone that is crying about the cost of shipping is that they should have asked the seller about it before making a bid. It’s your choce!
Bill
He would most likely be referring to the fact that Priority boxes are free. The only problem is that those boxes don’t always satisfy my shipping requirements.
I always set a limit for my bids that includes shipping. If the shipping is not shown I email the seller for an amount. High “shipping cost sellers” do not get my business. Packing materials usually are not free and time to pack is a reasonable cost to expect a return on, but there are limits.
TARP
If the seller is operating as a business (hint: does he have a “store”), he needs to cover his costs of shipping which would include the packing materials and labor to pack AND take to the post office. I never have a problem with the sellers who list their TOTAL shipping charges and I take those shipping charges into account when I bid.
The post office both sells boxes and gives them away free. The free boxes are the Priority Mail boxes, the other ones are for different services. The PO is promoting the use of Priority Mail by giving away the boxes and keeping the mailing costs reasonable.
Several months ago, when e-Bay announced that they were going to change their fee structure, there was a lot of speculation that e-Bay would include shipping charges in their final valuation fees. There was a lot of agreement that including shipping charges in the final valuation would eliminate overcharging on shipping to avoid listing fees. Unfortunately, e-Bay chose NOT to include the shipping charges, so it’s still a matter of doing your homework if you want to avoid getting “stung”.
I buy and sell on e-Bay, but I am not trying to run it as a business. The items I sell are items that I no longer need or want. If I know someone locally who can use an item, I am just as likely to give it to them as to sell it on e-Bay. I use Priority Mail often because it is reasonably cheap and the boxes are free. I rarely charge for any handling unless the item needs special packaging. (I once sold a designer mirror to a buyer in Canada for $0.99. Insured shipping was $20 (!) which included $2.00 for special packaging. I used styrofoam sheets to sandwich the mirror and bubble wrap for shock protection. I re-used packing materials I had on hand or saved from packing I received. The $2.00 was just a little extra for all the additional work involved. I figure I still lost money on the sale! LOL)
It still comes down
i simply do not bid on anything that doesn’t list a shipping charge to canada . i got burned on a couple of my early ebay purchases by someone wanting $10 shipping and handling and then i got the item in an envelope with a regular stamp on it , or $15 for shipping and handling on a boxcar kit where all they did was wrap it in brown paper and mail it . both of these were listed with no shipping charge .
at least if the shipping charges are shown up front i can decide if i want to pay too much for shipping or not [:)]