eBay seller acknowledges shipping profit.

Exactly. Do you have favorite sellers Sodude? Are you willing to buy from a new dealer because that dealer has a good reputation with others you know? Good business practices will always draw in more customers. So no, I never cheat a client and my firm has an excellent reputation. Do I believe, however, that every single transaction should be overseen by some corporate or governmental big brother to make sure its "fair"? Absolutely not. Capitalism means its both the buyer and seller's duty to educate themselves before entering into a transaction. We all screw up, we all make bad trades starting with baseball card trading when we were young. We learn and get better.

Btw, who would you propose be the judge of every transaction Sodude? Who would have the time and expertise to, in their infinite wisdom, be able to ensure every economic transaction was "fair"? Last week I bought a bunch of WL halves for $7.80 a piece. Was that fair? How about the dvaravati coin I bought for $37? How about my gas for my pickup I paid $3.52 a gallon for. Are all of those fair, or did I get cheated? This is the slippery slope, WHO would judge the "fairness" and WHY would they want to? The only ones wanting to are people who cannot succeed in the free market so wish to use the government to make up for their deficiencies. Myself, I simply believe the free market makes up for transactions, rewarding sellers who trade ethically with more sales, and forcing education upon buyers who buy without educating themselves.

 

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I have a hard time understanding the complaints about shipping charges. When I buy on e-bay I am only concerned about what the total cost is. if an item is $5.00 plus a $100.00 shipping, the cost is $105.00 to me. It the item is $5.00 plus $100.00 for a vacation fund, the cost would still be $105.00 to me. My only thought is do I want to pay $105.00.

 

I disagree.

As others have noted, shipping & handling isn't just the amount the shipper pays to USPS or UPS to have an item shipped. It can also include packaging, insurance, labor, etc. The shipping expense on two items of identical weight and size can vary greatly, depending on the durability and the value of the item in question.

Since it really isn't very difficult to calculate what the total cost is when you're bidding, I don't see why it's a problem. Heck ebay even shows the S&H charges on the screen when you place your bid, and they add it into the total when you using Buy-it-Now, so it's really hard to miss. They even make it possible to sort by price using total price (price + shipping).

The ONLY thing I don't like about shipping fees on ebay is that ebay will not refund those fees unless you invoke buyer protection for an item not received or SNAD. So free shipping is a little more confidence inspiring in that regard. (If a seller knows they will have to eat the original shipping expenses on normal returns, they may be less likely to send questionable items.)

While I don't like that their final value fee policy that includes shipping results in more revenue for them, I do have to admit that it was very effective in curbing the shipping expense abuses that were occurring before the policy change.

 

Not only does eBay charge fees on the shipping costs to combat this annoying selling tactic, but they also changed the way items are shown. Items with "free shipping" are given a higher "priority" if you will. Let's say you are selling a listing titled "morgan dollar" with a BIN. If there are 20,000 other sellers with the same listing, the ones with free shipping are more likely to be shown given that the search options are left as best match. In addition, listings with free shipping along with several other constraints make the seller eligible for discounts on final value fees.

The seller the OP is referring to is one that is more than likely a laggard to modern etiquette and I would avoid just to save myself from having to probably "resolve an issue" with.

SOURCE: I ran an eBay store for a few years (not related to coins).

 

just my 2 pennies - i am in the middle of selling a collection on ebay and i always charge $5.99 because i always ship a flat rate box that is $5.80 after taxes and $.19 for gas. people complaining about 5-6$ shipping fees need to realize it doesn't cost $1.50 to ship a box anymore.

 

When I buy on eBay, I always decide how much I am willing to bid based on the cost of the item plus shipping/handling. If I am willing to pay $100 for an item, I really do not care what the shipping/handling costs, as long as the total cost is less than $100, it gets to me in the agreed upon timeframe and in the agreed upon condition. I know this is not a popular opinion and there are also ethical issues involved, but this is simply a way for me to reduce stress when buying on eBay.

 

And how does one account for the costs associated with shipping supplies such as envelopes, Saf-T-Mailers, packing peanuts, bubble wrap, packing tape and self adhesive labels??

 

I know of exactly zero online retailers that offer free shipping regardless of what you purchase.

 

LOL! You are just soooo bad!!

 

I'm in the exact same boat...I look at the total cost. If the total cost is acceptable to me, I couldn't care less how it is divided up.

 

When an item catches my eye on eBay I always check the shipping charge before I bid

 

ebay charges you 10% on the shipping that you charge ...

I was charging $1.95 shipping, my actual cost is $1.93 or so I thought.....I'm really loosing 18 cents + time + shipping supplies per item.

This is just 1 of the reasons I no longer offer 1000's of items on ebay.

 

FeeBay used to be a good place to sell just about anything, with the only consideration being shipping expenses. Now, I only sell things on FeeBay that I can't sell otherwise, or where the selling price on FeeBay will be enough to offset their fees.

 

So charge $2.25 and make a dime profit instead.

 

Personally, I don't think that ebay should be able to take a percentage of s/h or postage costs. It generally does one of two things.... either it makes the seller take out of his/her pocket to pay for part of the s/h costs or it forces a responsible seller (responsible to his/her business and bottom line) to either start putting a higher percentage than ebay takes from this to the s/h costs to mitigate it or contributes to the seller having to put that 'loss' they will incur into the purchase price, thus padding the price to cover it. Basically both those scenarios I think are onerous to the seller because they are, in my mind on the more unethical side if you are talking about what you have to do to run a business. Sort of like a store upping the prices by a certain percentage before advertising a discounted price on the item(s).

 

I agree with you...but the problem is, it's eBay's site so it's their rules. There was a time when they did not take a percentage out of S/H...and when sellers started to realize that, they began to pad their S/H costs and lower the item cost to avoid paying eBay fees. So, eBay altered their policy to stop that. I'm sure eBay would have eventually decided to get a cut out of S/H...but it probably wouldn't have happened so soon if sellers hadn't abused the system.

 

How about a reality check? Ebay is in business to make money, period; they don't give two whoops in hell about buyer OR seller. Google and Amazon are about to eat their lunch, and they've had several top executives bail out. The trend will be MORE fees, not less. And for the time being, they're at the top of the heap, no one can touch them for eyeballs and depth of merchandise...

 

And by the way, eBay is about ADVERTISING, not selling. Let's say your total fees are $3 for something you've sold. Try running a newspaper ad (that has potential to reach 20 million people), with PHOTOS, for crying out loud, and NO LIMIT on the words in the description...for $3. The smart seller writes a listing that suggests more can be bought, more reasonably, once contact has been made by the buyer, in the process of buying "this one." What happens afterward is really none of eBay's business, and they seldom know about follow-up sales.

It's a phenomenal way to advertise your specialty. Give up a little on the front end, and make a ton of money on the back end.

 

After being so pissed about this Final Value Fee on Shipping and Handling, it just occurred to me that I get a discount on postage when I let eBay generate the label.

I haven't determined what that percentage amounts to but on the next shipment I'll make a point of figuring it out. It's possible that it's close to being a "push".

 

I think you are absolutely right. When you factor in how many people are reached by their ads...it is actually not that bad of a price.