So I was paying for a Booker T/Carver & saw the more items you might like tab, on it was a nice silver bank commemorative ending in a few minutes with no bids. What the heck, I thought. I like Exonumia, so I bid & win it. I'll admit that I did not go to the rate calculator to check shipping as I normally do, but never expected the response I got when I inquired about first class shipping. Me-Dear *****, Hello seller, I was wondering if you could quote first class shipping? The parcel post rate on the invoice seems quite steep. no worries either way, beutiful token. Reply-Dear *********, Sorry, the shipping is what it is. There was a cushion there to cover what I wanted the coin to sell for and then my e-bay fees are a bit less. I don't think the overall price is out of line. I have watched many sellers, and they all do the same thing. I have seen very small items with $28.00 dollars in shipping. Thank you, ***** Thoughts, similar stories? Honesty is the best policy, so if i'm wrong you can say so. I wont post the link, but will say the shipping was 1.5X the hammer price of the item.
You need to look at the S&H before you bid,But thats to late and I would hit them hard on the stars and when I leave feedback make sure I say something about the high shipping
I hate it when sellers do this and typically ask for combined shipping AHEAD of auction close or Buying it Now. BUT, bottom line, it is your responsibility to recognize the excessive shipping and either send an email ahead of time or not bid.
I think at least 75 percent of eBay sellers charge way too much for shipping and it's one of my biggest recurring complaints, but that being said you need to pay attention to what it is before you bid. The seller is justified in charging you the listed price since you agreed to pay that when you bid. One time there was a coin I wanted and the seller had it at 99 cent to start with $6.95 or something like that to ship, and I sent him a message and said I liked the coin but I wasn't going to pay that much, so he came back with a different shipping method at much less and I bought it. It was nice of him to work with me, but I asked before I bid, not after. But in your case, if it shows up in a regular envelope with a stamp and he charged $5, give him a low score on shipping charges, but don't give him negative feedback because he did what he said he'd do. That's how I see it.
Agreed. My error completely. Just would have rather heard "No, sorry" than the overly candid "it's ok to gouge because others are doing it" Reminds me of the Ioffer seller that was selling slabbed estate sale 6 packs with PCGS/NGC guaranteed to be worth 5x the current offer price & ended up with 5 home slabs all MS70 full of bag marks & fingerprints + a frosty PCGS 2008 roosevelt dime. It's a shame that as a society we've reduced ourselves to stealing a dollar today over earning a return customer with many dollars.
That's nothing new. In the '80s when I started making large (for me, at the time) mail order purchases, I would almost always get stuff that was overgraded, had problems, or was outright bait-and-switch. I was never a repeat customer for any of those outfits. Fortunately, I reconnected with a local dealer I knew as a kid and he was able to sell me a lot of decent stuff for a decent price.
Well, I do have a few trusted sellers. But they all have their niche, & sometimes other stuff appeals to me. I've been hitting Proxibid quite a bit lately, & adjust my bidding to accommodate the buyers premium & generally end up getting free shipping because of the volume I've been getting. Unfortunately, I've tapped the savings a bit hard so I'm back to buying one coin at a time for a while.
Here's a good example of a gouger: $7 to ship one coin, and if you want insurance it's $12 more. Someone actually bid on it, probably because with the silver value it evens out, but I would never bid on this on principle. Ebay now charges sellers a fee based on the sale price plus shipping, so I don't know why sellers keep doing this, except that they think if they have a low starting price more people will look at their listing and maybe they won't notice the shipping charges. This guy says the shipping is priority, but what's the hurry? How many of us want to pay more for our coin just so we can get it faster? I don't. http://cgi.ebay.com/1947-UN-PESO-MO...551?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2563d054df
I don't know what it is, but it seems that people on ebay would rather pay .01 for an item with $20 shipping than pay $19 with free shipping. I don't understand it, but I see it all the time. Now that ebay charges sellers fees for shipping you would think it would end, but I guess scamming the last minute buyers is a common practice. I used to give free shipping on almost all my auctions and just add the price into the starting bid, but things seem to sell more often when I lower the price of the item $2 and charge the $1.75 shipping
If other sellers gouge on shipping doesn't mean that he should gouge on shipping. How much was the shipping cost???
I seen an auction a few weeks ago on ebay and cant remember what the coin was or but the coin was worth so much and it had a real low bid so i look at the shipping charges the shipping charges and the price equaled what the coin was worth That alone kept me from bigdding on it
Yep - I agree with that. If I see unreasonable shipping I skip the item even if the total would be the same. I used to search ebay all the time, and now maybe once a week or so - this is just one of the reasons.
I completely agree. I always add the shipping price to the amount I am willing to bid. But, when the shipping is unreasonably high and the seller can't give me a good reason (and IMHO his reason is not a good one)...I would hit him hard with stars. He might even get a neutral feedback including a comment about outrageous shipping and how I will never buy from him again.
As long as item arrives as described I will leave a generic positive feedback. I will howeverI will ding them on seller rating. & most likely wont pay or bid from my phone again as shipping is hard to view.
Since the seller was dumb enough to state in writing that he is trying to avoid higher eBay fees, why don't you forward a copy of the communication to eBay? Chris
I've tried it both ways - low price with reasonable S/H; and high price with free shipping. I've found that most times the high price and free shipping works best. Just list at 5% less than what you need to cover your costs and expected profit.
