How Much is too Much Shipping Charges- Auction Houses

[ibuysportsephemera]

I recently won an auction from one of the on-line auction houses. I have done business with them many times before and always seem to be shocked at the excessive shipping that they charge. I have complained in the past and usually gotten a slight reduction. I am at the point where I will probably stop bidding with them because the shipping is such a ripoff (IMO). It is a shame because I really like their items.

My recent winnings consisted of 17 single or double page newsletters and 3 smaller programs. I ship stuff like this every day and can usually fit it into a USPS flat rate envelope or a well packed #4 bubble mailer. The total cost of priority mail should be no more than $5.05 to $6.50 from where they are shipping it from. They are charging me $15.95 for shipping plus $3.00 for insurance (which they always charge). So on $80 of winnings I am paying $18 in commission plus an additional $18.95 for USPS priority mail. Between the shipping and juice I have to budget almost an additional 50% of my bid.

Does anyone think that this is excessive or is this pretty much what everyone else charges?

Thanks,

Jeff

[chipperhank44]

I've experienced the same thing. I just budget the high shipping into my bid. If I'm willing to pay $300 for an Item, I assume that my shipping will be $25. So if the juice is 20% and my shipping is $25.00, my highest bid is $225-$230. I agree it is ridiculous, but you're never ripped off if you account for it and bid accordingly.


The $25 shipping assumption is for cards, paper, etc. Obviously I'd budget higher for a game used bat or something heavy/large.

[keithsky]

The whole problem with the shipping costs I find with auction houses is you don't know what they will charge for shipping till you get the invoice. It's easy to say just allow for it but you never know. I have won a single autographed bat from different auction houses for around 100-150.00 or so and prices ranged from 8.00 to 25.00 for shipping so there is to wide of a range to try and figure what it's going to be. Some houses are good if you ask them to lower it others not. I find it's just another way to make a few more bucks off ya. Granted there is cost for a guy to package it but with a 20% sellers fee and 20% buyers fee there should be enough there to charge a reasonable amount for shipping. On a 300.00 item I had one place charge me 35.00 for shipping my item. Never bidded again there. You can try and guess what it will be but chances are it will be way more than what you figured.

[chipperhank44]

Yeah, I agree. Shipping is all over the place with auction houses. The best you can do IMO is to assume an exorbitant amount. If they charge you less, that's a win. If they charge you an exorbitant amount.....at least you accounted for it.

Trying to get a pre-auction shipping estimate is impossible, so you're really at the mercy of your own educated guess.

I guess my rationale is: It's much harder to be disappointed when you assume the worst...

[ibuysportsephemera]

Thanks for the responses guys...to be clear, I do assume the worst when bidding.

I am more curious if all auction houses do it and at what point you get so fed up that you stop bidding with that particular house.

Jeff

[jcmtiger]

This comes up almost every time an auction ends. I guess you have to expect high shipping charges on most auctions. Bidders probably make out better when they buy high priced items.

Joe

[ibuysportsephemera]

Burn me once, shame on you, burn me twice shame on me. Last night, I won a $15 program from Mears. They are charging me $14.95 (including $2 of meaningless insurance) for shipping. I think that I will stick to eBay going forward. At least the shipping costs are advertised and there is recourse for items that are not as described.

Jeff G@rf!nkel

[keithsky]

What gets me about the 2.00 insurance they charged you is insurance is FREE with UPS, FEDEX up to 100.00 and now the PO up to 50.00 with them so the 2.00 is a total ripoff. I would contact them and complain that they are ripping you off since your item only cost 15.00 there should be NO cost for insurance.

[earlywynnfan]

I'll let MEARS defend themselves on this one, but I must share that I was speaking about shipping insurance with another company this past summer, and they said that their insurance company makes certain shipping policies mandatory, including postal insurance. Now, obviously some common sense would help, but we all know that there's way too little common sense out there.

Ken

[perezfan]

It's quickly getting worse, across the board (with Mears being especially high). Mears uses FedEx as its primary carrier, but you can request USPS for certain shipments. Using USPS typically knocks off maybe 15 - 20% of their original shipping quote.

Regardless, it's very clear to me that many of these Auction Houses are using shipping/insurance as a "profit center". Even when I account for exhorbitant shipping, the actual charge far exceeds all expectation.

The one exception I'd like to note is eBay Seller, Bob McCann. His shipping charge is always reasonable, and I've noticed he actually lost money on shipping, for the last couple of purchases I've made.

[Exhibitman]

It is a complete rip-off and has caused me to rethink making bids on low price items with AHs, because between the vig and the shipping it adds a huge percentage to the price. I won a $125 card in the most recent Legendary auction. Legendary billed me as follows:

Sub-Total: $125.00
Buyers Premium: $24.38
Shipping: $16.46
Total: $165.84

$16.46 to ship one PSA-graded card worth less than $150! They claim it is $13.50 to ship via Fed Ex Ground [they won't just mail it to me because the post office is supposedly unreliable], $2.50 'handling' [materials I suppose] and $1.46 for insurance.

Let's start with the shipping charge itself. I happen to be a Fed Ex business customer so I have access to Fed Ex Ground's website calculator. I can ship an 8 oz package [2x the weight of a single PSA card packed in a bubble mailer with stiffeners] to Legendary from the delivery address at my office using a 12 x 9 x 1 box with a declared value of $150 for $11.48. WTF?!?!? How is their big shipping company rate worse than my little vendor single item rate? What's even more galling, I can make the same shipment through the mail for under two bucks w/o insurance, under $5 with insurance. And have been doing so for years with virtually no losses.

For the next round of stinkum on the rose, let's talk insurance. Rather than insuring to value on a per-item basis, any normal business would purchase its own inventory policy on consigned items. As a vendor, all shipments are covered up to an overall policy limit that I can choose, with a small deductible per claim that I can also choose, meaning that I don't even have to buy separate insurance. Even worse for me personally, I have my own shipping insurance from CIA with my card collection insurance so I am paying twice for coverage.

In my humble opinion one or two things is going on: shipping is a huge profit center and/or since it is an entirely externalized cost, the AHs just don't give a damn what it costs since it is all coming out of the buyer's pocket.

FWIW, after I gave Legendary the above info they offered to shave $2 off the bill. Thanks. Now I can get a small coffee...

Now, let's compare with the single card I won in the recent Love of the Game auction:

Sub-Total: $500.00
Buyers Premium: $90.00
Shipping: $8.95
Total: $598.95

That's how you get repeat business; way to go Al.

[GoCubsGo32]

Here's my rant ON MEARS:

I found MEARS Auction online, and saw some cool items. I registered to bid, agree upon "terms and policies". I end up winning my item. I got my invoice and was blown away with the added chargers. I understand the buyer's premium, but I'm really confused about the shipping.

I won ONE photo 4x4 inch, and shipping is $12.00 + $3.00 insurance?!?! No where on the website did it mention prices or them adding insurance to shipping. In addition, they said, there's no delivery confirmation for items shipped? What kind of shipping service cost $15.00 without delivery confirmation included?

I probably would of not bid on the auction had they mention the price of shipping and that they added insurance. Since my item I won, wasn't very expensive. So, my questions is...

When I registered for the website to bid, I agreed to terms and policies, but no where does it state shipping cost of any kind or shipping service. The only thing mention in their "terms and policies" for shipping that was mention was that it takes (5-7 days) for them to ship it out. Nor on the auction page did it mention any price for shipping or type of service at all. The question is are you still obligated to pay for their shipping rate?



Ga.ry Scame.horn

[ibuysportsephemera]

As I mentioned in the post that started this thread, I have had to call Mears to get the shipping reduced in the past. I just paid for my program from the current auction and will not be bidding with them in the future.

Reading GOCUBS post, it really makes me wonder what these AH's think with the excessive shipping charges. This was his first experience with Mears and will probably be his last. It makes no sense to me???

Jeff

[HRBAKER]

AHs in this hobby are in a pretty enviable position. For the most part no matter what they do (or are suspected of doing) people keep doing business with them. Why would we expect anything to change? Because it the right way to run a business? Other businesses do things right bc they know if you get a sh**ty meal with sh**ty service you won't be back. The people involved on the AH end on this hobby for the most part I don't believe operate under that premise - with good reason.

[Runscott]

.....

[sycks22]

I gave up on Legendary when they were going to charge me $34 to one PSA card for $700. I have dealt with them in the past about dropping the rates and waiving the insurance, but they weren't having it. Sad they threw about a lot of business over poor customer service.

[packs]

From an August Auction House purchase:

Sub-Total: $30.00
Buyers Premium: $5.70
Shipping: $13.91
Insurance: $3.00
Total: $52.61


Shipping and insurance amounted to more than half of what I paid for the card.

[keithsky]

To me as the auction house writes there description there isn't any reason they can't put some ballpark figure for a shipping cost. Basicly it only cost about 8-10.00 to ship a baseball just about anywhere in the US so use that. Even put the word Approx. so they are covered if it is a little more but at least you know where they are coming from. If they put 20.00 then bypass it and don't bid if you think it's a ripoff. The only reason the cost would be more would be the insurance. A 50.00 Pete Rose ball for insurance isn't going to be the same as a 5000.00 Babe Ruth ball so as a buyer you know it's going to definitly be more than the 10.00 for shipping. At least the AH gives the buyer an idea what it will be instead of after the auction when you get the invoice they hit you wil a 25.00 shipping and insurance for a Rose ball. I'ts scarry to get that invoice to see how much they will hit you for for your winning. Seems kind of simple to me but what do I know. That way with a ballpark shipping cost in the description the buyer has a idea and the AH doesn't get buyer complaning about there surprise shipping cost they give the buyer.

[thecatspajamas]

I can pretty much guarantee that any AH would rather deal with a shipping complaint from a buyer who participated in their auction rather than not hearing any complaints because the same bidder did not participate in their auction because the AH warned them ahead of time that the shipping cost would be exorbitant. I'm not saying that having a hidden sky-high shipping price is a good business practice either, but generally speaking, it's not good to drive away potential customers before you have all of their money.

[smotan_02]

In the last REA Auction, the auction house covered all shipping and handling charges. I got the lot for a great deal and that was a very nice surprise. I've always been hesitant to do business with them (due to their realized prices), but definitely more likely from this way forward.

I also just won a legendary lot and was inversely surprised by the high shipping charges. It will also reflect my future bids (if any).

[GoCubsGo32]

It's pretty shady, to say the least. Not to mention, I tried contacting them about shipping cost days before the auction ended and they never got back to me. So I contacted them about the item a few days later and they were very fast to reply back. :rolleyes:

[Exhibitman]

Clean Sweep provides an estimate on shipping with every lot. It isn't totally accurate but it does help to have it there to consider.

[Republicaninmass]

Legendary adds their own insurance, as well as 2.50$ to every sale

[joyce02]

I just got 2 football helmets from VSA Auctions.

They charged $23.17 for postage which isn't too bad considering the helmets are a couple of Giants gamers and they are located in Minnesota and I live in New Jersey.

[btcarfagno]

They use an outside service. Was just told that the amount to ship A SINGLE PHOTO is $55.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tom C