eBay shipping costs

If you feel that strongly about it, file a complaint with eBay. I assure you that you will find out what those words really mean as opposed to how you are interpreting them.

 

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For starters you KNEW shipping was $2.50 and agreed to that when you bid.

There are many angles to look at here. If I see a guy with a feedback of 10 with 1 small item listed and shipping is $10 I don't even bother (not that I would but it's an example).

Now you have people running thousands of auctions and in many cases they are actually PAYING someone an hourly rate to package and ship these items. In that case S and H makes a lot of sense. These sellers are selling to make a profit. Not break even.

My selling usually goes in spurts. My shipping is usually way cheap or free. Why? - because I sell what I list and get a lot of repeat business by keeping it as low as possible.

My latest "big" purchase cost me $650. The guy I bought it from sent it for free as I've dealt with him for years. I looked at what it cost him to ship and it was OVER $13. He always ships to me for free but I have spent thousands with him in the past several years.

Bottom line is that you factor in your shipping costs with your bid. If its high bid low and hope but if I bid $7.50 on that coin in my mind it would be a $10 bid.

This is also why I rarely sell rolled coin. It's just plain expensive to ship and I'm not going to eat it as a seller for a few bucks profit. At that point I may as well just spend what I'm selling.

 

Well I have to agree that some sellers charge ridiculous shipping amounts. Ive seen one over 26.00 to ship a nickel!
What I do is figure the shipping cost into how much I want to pay for the coin and I try to stay away from 5.00 and up.

What burns me up at ebay....

If Im on ebay canada, and Im in canada, and the seller is in canada..why the heck is all the money in U.S and I have to pay an exchange rate?

 

I dunno Twiggs. Probably cuz we're all down here and ebay NEEDS the money.
Don't get too upset though we still all love you down here.

Group hug?

clembo

 

Actually, there is one site-- Amazon.com -- where this is how it works. (Other than the "absorbing the USPS" part.) If you're looking for a used book or CD on Amazon that is available through its affiliated sellers of such items, you get the price including a fixed and regulated amount for shipping. Amazon makes it a condition of using their site to charge a fixed price for the shipping, no more and no less. Their site, their rules.

I believe, though I have not had any occassion to find out for sure, that combined shipping under this model indeed does not apply.

I'm surprised that eBay has not attempted to force this model into their system; perhaps they understand how many sellers (and perhaps buyers) they would lose.

As has been noted above, I agree that there's the letter of the law when it comes to eBay policies, and then there's what actually happens. And our local Post Offices are indeed becoming more strict about regulations; still friendly but strict. I do wonder whether junk mail was subjected to the same weight, thickness, et al baloney that we mere First Class Mail users were; based on the number of credit card solicitations I contnue to receive, I doubt it...

 

Well, I bought some lots of cheap coins from someone on eBay, and paid TWENTY dollars for shipping six or seven coins. I got them all in the same three dollar envelope and sent her an eBay letter about this, but she never replied. I left neutral feedback saying this, not at all in a rude fashion. Instead, I got this back:
Call me cheap...

But looking at her "Feedback left for others", this is nothing new when things don't go her way.

 

That one you might have had a shot at winning if you had filed a complaint with eBay. However, the seller clearly states what she charges for S&I and even specifies the combined shipping rates. You knew, or should have know how much the shipping was going to be.

 

I just gave a 5 for a coin I won on Sunday and received on Saturday. He shipped it on Monday. I could not expect more from him, but boy do I wish I had your post office. I am lucky to get priority mail 3 days after it has been mailed.

 

Get this - on tuesday I received the little registered card telling me I needed to sign for it. Needless to say I think they would still be looking for it, but when I dropped it off I told them I received a registered letter on Monday. Still took them 20 minutes to confirm what I told them.

I can't help about your mail, but remember this - you have a contract with a seller, who he decides to sub-contract with for shipping is his choice. So if he chooses bad you need to let them know - so in this case if you are happy with 6 days then make it a 5. But even if it is the USPS if it takes 10 days ding the seller a star. If the seller contacts you for the ding(and I keep hoping one will with me) explain to them that you signed a contract for the item with you - and it took you x days to get it to me. Tell them they should complain to your shipping company - maybe it will help them improve. It's tough, but you need to hold the seller responsible for getting you your item. Not anyone else. Let me tell you what - people you owe money too will not forgive you when the post office looses the letter(the ol' checks in the mail is what they think) - so like them I hold the sellers responsible for who they sub-contract with.

REMEMBER this is my opinion only.

 

Personally, I would rather NOT pay extra for shipping that would get it to me that fast. I have better things to do with my money than to pay extra just to get it faster and all of the shipping I know of that can deliver that fast are significantly extra. Roughly speaking, that policy has saved me well over $3000 ($2 X 1500).

 

A lot of us don't have multiple shipping options. Where I live, there is the USPS, and thats it. I could drive 28 miles one way to visit a UPS or Fedex store, but why? Just my thoughts.
Guy~

 

Acutually - it would not cost you anything, unless you do not take shipping into consideration when bidding on a coin. Is that a gotcha or not - notice the face. There use to be one seller who only used UPS or FEDEX, but even then the shipping was reasonable. So I imagine if you liked his coins(and the price enough) you would not mind the shipping cost in relationship to the total cost. I actually think at this point I could give every seller I won a coin from all 1's and they would not care, nor would it change how they ship, nor would it significantly impact their average star rating. Sigh! But it sure is fun discussing.

 

Our local post office readily admits not all first class mail gets delivered as it arrives to the post office. I have had mail sit on the shelves for 3 days (delivery confirmation tracking) before it was delivered.

a 5 for shipping? right price, right packing needs and shipped the first business day after I make payment.
Us rural people are used to infrequent UPS, and FEDEX, so I cant fault a seller for lazy(?) mail carriers on my end....

 

Wow

WOW, This thread has really taken off since I logged in last night.

On my seller account, I charge $5 for a generic raw or slabbed Morgan, Walker, etc. value under $100 That will include a padded #000 mailer and signature confirmation, 1st class. I start alot of them off at .99 no reserve. Insurance is usually optional on low value coins.

High dollar coins? $9 USPS Priority w/ signature confirmation and the 1st $100 in insurance, buyer pays additional ( required ) insurance based on final selling price. We will also change to Priority mail on multi coin packages and just charge weight plus $1.00 per item handeling, YES HANDELING. We no longer accept paypal over $250 due to commisions.

On .99 items? I start them at .99, $2.00 shipping, 1/2 off after evary item, to a max of $5 shipping. Yep, thats right, I use shipping to make up the ebay fees and paypal costs and commisions. 9 out of 10 folks buy less than 5 items ( common coins ). No other way to do it. You cannot sell .99 items and charge .51 for postage. You would go broke.

We have an actual employee do all our shipping. Keep in mind however, that coins are something I just started selling, basically to help feed my own collection ( addiction / hoarding / what ever you call it ).

I generally sell my own manufactured product, and have been a power seller and ebay member since 03. In that case, we charge actual USPS Priority rates, get our supplys for free, ship from our bay, and only charge actual rates, all costs and fees are built into product price.

 

Seller's have every right to factor that into their shipping fees. As long as you know exactly what you're paying for s&h before you buy/bid and you've factored it into the final price of the item, why does it matter? Sellers have every right to factor it into the shipping price as it is a legitimate expense. It's unreasonable to expect us to be able to factor it in to the "auction price" when it is, in fact an auction and we don't know exactly where it will end!

Who doesn't?

So you think bubble mailers cost $.01? Only a fool would ship an expensive coin in a regular 3.75" x 6.5" unpadded envelope (btw even these do not cost $.01 and they cannot be insured). I guess my point is that if you know exactly what you're paying before hand, who cares? Admittedly there is a line between reasonable and unreasonable. $8 for first class mail uninsured? I'll still buy it and pay additional insurance (if the coin's value warrants it). $20? No I won't buy it. I will instead report it to ebay for fee avoidance.

 

One thing I have noticed in this thread is that you can tell the difference between buyers and sellers.
Also it seems like a lot of people are standing up for ebay, which we all love to hate. I don't agree with outrageous shipping charges, but it's also not unrealistic to try and recover some of the listig/final value, and paypal fees. they can eat up profit in a hurry.
I think it is as simple as, if the shipping seams to high, don't bid. But, if you pay a little more for shipping you should at least expect a decent mailer or box. If I payed $3 or $4 shipping for a coin that came in a basic envelope I would not use that seller again.
My buying and selling is about 50/50 so I can see both sides of the issue.

 

I just got an announcement with my mail yesterday, that the USPS is going to be hosting eBay seminars in our area. They know what side their bread is buttered on. Perhaps they are way ahead of you already!