OK, what is with these ebay sellers (slight rant)...

[PeterB]

... who have inflated shipping/handling charges? I see an item I'd like to get, buy-it-now of $3, but the calculated S&H is $12.15 USPS Priority. According to the seller, the item will weigh over a pound. She tells me that she is charging $2.75 as a "handling fee". Somehow I am still not seeing this adding up to $12.15...

[Grateful11]

They don't pay fees on money brought in on shipping charges. Many sellers make their
money on their shipping and break-even or lose on the item. If the total of shipping and
item is decent I don't worry about it. eBay has been cracking down on sellers charge too
much for shipping.

[The Grim Ninja]

I agree. I try to charge a fair price for shipping. The only exception is when it's a small item and everyone else is doing $.01-$.99 plus $4-5 shipping. It's kinda hard to list your item for $2.50 or so in those cases.


But, some of the items I've seen do have ridiculous shipping charges. I see it especially for memory and other such cards. They'd be $6 tops (actual) via Priority Mail, but they're charging $15.

[martin]

$8.95 for Flat Rate Priority Mail box. Plus $2 handling charges. Does not seem unreasonable to me. Then again, I sell on eBay, NOT making my money on shipping. But, I'm not interested in losing money on shipping because customers want it delivered for less. You can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, and hopefully that's enough.

[ho'ard]

[quote martin]$8.95 for Flat Rate Priority Mail box. Plus $2 handling charges. Does not seem unreasonable to me. Then again, I sell on eBay, NOT making my money on shipping. But, I'm not interested in losing money on shipping because customers want it delivered for less. You can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, and hopefully that's enough. I agree. With 10 being extreme gouging, this seller is about a 1 as eBay sellers go.

[PeterB]

martin, if it were a flat rate box, I'd agree. I'm not trying to be unreasonable. But when the shipping is three or four times the cost of the item itself, I do think there's something strange going on...

[ho'ard]

[quote PeterB]martin, if it were a flat rate box, I'd agree. I'm not trying to be unreasonable. But when the shipping is three or four times the cost of the item itself, I do think there's something strange going on...
The rates are all right there at http://www.usps.com

What do you think should happen-- should the seller charge more for the item?
Should they take a loss on shipping when they're already making pennies on a $3 item?

[The Grim Ninja]

One issue is that, for me at least, whenever I do an online shipment to California, it's automatically going through the max number of zones plus it gets calculated as 'over 1 cubic foot' even if it isn't, so the rates are always $10+

The new USPS Rates are ridiculous. (Especially when they aren't applied evenly). There's no reason a 1lb 2 oz item in a 9x6x3 box should cost $9 to ship. So, whenever I get that figure, I put it in a flat rate envelop with extra padding and call it a day. (Yes, this has happened several times before).

[PeterB]

[quote h'][quote PeterB]martin, if it were a flat rate box, I'd agree. I'm not trying to be unreasonable. But when the shipping is three or four times the cost of the item itself, I do think there's something strange going on...
The rates are all right there at http://www.usps.com

What do you think should happen-- should the seller charge more for the item?
Should they take a loss on shipping when they're already making pennies on a $3 item?
The rates do not jibe with what this seller is charging for shipping, unless-- as martin suggested-- the person was using a flat rate box. If they were using a flat rate box, why would they bother telling me that the weight will be over a pound? (Oh, a couple of other details I forgot to mention: 1) the item itself isn't that great-- otherwise why would it be selling for only $3? and 2) from looking at the auction, I very much doubt that the weight will actually be over a pound.)

[voodoopenguin]

I really do not understand why people seem to get upset over shipping prices. Anyone with sense looks at the price of the item and the stated shipping price, adds them together and then decides if it's worth it. What does it matter to you if the shipping is high and the item is low or v.v. If you don't do the sums before bidding then more fool you.

eBay do not like losing out on potential charges but it's up to them to deal with it and they often do clamp down on the more obvious but then again many of these cheapo items come from China and they use PayPal so the eBay group get the charges for that and the extra charges because of the change in currencies. Let them worry about it.