Quote:
Originally Posted by alanu
Most of the problem in that case seems to be that your DVD starts out being worth only $7 since you have to ship it in any case.
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That's correct. If the item for sale is a known price (like a DVD), the seller has to reduce the price to include shipping for the item to move; Otherwise the buyer won't touch it for $13 if he can get it for $10 at Best Buy.... that doesn't mean the item is now worth $7 (only in Ebay land). Now the seller has already paid the insertion fee, now they pay a final value fee (I believe 9%), plus extra $.80 for delivery confirmation & then Paypal fees. By the time the meat is picked off the bone... it's really not worth selling on Ebay (like Leon mentioned earlier). That's why I don't have a moral issue with listing the item for a penny with a higher shipping cost to minimize Ebay's fees. Ebay hits an item twice with fees (before and after a sale) and passes them along to the Seller. The Buyer pays the same costs regardless of how it's listed, the Seller pockets more and Ebay takes less from the Final Value Fee.
I'm just now seeing this first-hand from a Seller's perspective since I just started selling some extra items I had in storage. It's probably better in the long run, in my case, to have a garage sale or just donate it for a very small tax credit.