How does e-bay get away with charging the seller for shipping costs?

[bcbgcbrcb]

I never realized that this was happening before as shipping cost for baseball cards/photos is not very significant. Recently, I have been selling more large memorabilia items on e-bay, a lot of times, the shipping cost is close to equaling the final selling price.

I am just reviewing this month's e-bay invoice and see that I am being charged the same 10% seller fees for shipping charges as I am for final value fees. I am making nothing on these shipping charges, all goes to USPS, FedEx, etc. Doesn't seem fair to me, I'm sure that e-bay has everything done for legal disclosure but does this make it LEGAL?

I'm sure many legal action cases have been brought against e-bay for this so why try to "reinvent the wheel" but can anyone provide more insight on why this is right for e-bay to do?

Not that I would ever want this to happen either but auction houses do not charge their consignors a portion of the shipping costs that the buyer of that specific item incurs. What's the difference?

Looking forward to everyone's responses.

[EvilKing00]

People used to carge less for the product & more fro shipping. Example, i could put a $35.00 T205 card up for sale asking $20 and make the shipping $15

[Leon]

Originally Posted by EvilKing00

People used to carge less for the product & more fro shipping. Example, i could put a $35.00 T205 card up for sale asking $20 and make the shipping $15

I don't think that is his argument. They are charging a fee on someone else's service (USPS).

[bcbgcbrcb]

Thanks for the reply, Steve. I knew that would be the reason brought forward. Sellers still do that, maybe they too don't realize that they are being charged the same fees for shipping as sale price of the item.

As a buyer, I have used this practice to my advantage on several occasions by buying from someone local and picking up the item after I win the auction for free. Hard for the seller to refuse having me pay just the sale price and no shipping charges (they would then be admitting that what they were doing is unethical), they really lose out then. I have gotten $10.00 items for .99 that had $15.00 shipping charges attached, like you said, so no one else bids on them because the item is not worth it. Sometimes, you have to be a little smarter than the system....

[irv]

I'm curious, is this E-Bay's Global shipping service or is it any form of shipping a seller decides to use?

I have, for a while now, refused to purchase cards from anyone who uses Global shipping as their fees are are way out of line!

I also can't understand the benefit(s) of using it or the need as I have seen everything from "Free Shipping" to as low as $3.00 dollars.

Global is usually around $16-$17 dollars even if the card(s) you won are $1-$2 dollars.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by EvilKing00

People used to carge less for the product & more fro shipping. Example, i could put a $35.00 T205 card up for sale asking $20 and make the shipping $15

Actually it was much worse than this. Using the same $35 item several people would list it at $.01 with $34.99 shipping to avoid paying eBay fees. eBay really had no other option but to charge for every aspect of the transaction to keep from getting screwed.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by bnorth

Actually it was much worse than this. Using the same $35 item several people would list it at $.01 with $34.99 shipping to avoid paying eBay fees. eBay really had no other option but to charge for every aspect of the transaction to keep from getting screwed.

Well they do have other options. It was against their rules to overcharge for shipping. All they had do do was enforce their rules. This is just greed and punishing honest sellers instead of just dealing with the dishonest ones.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by rats60

Well they do have other options. It was against their rules to overcharge for shipping. All they had do do was enforce their rules. This is just greed and punishing honest sellers instead of just dealing with the dishonest ones.

Adjust your rates accordingly, nobody is being "Punished." I offer free shipping on all items and figure what I need into the price. This is mountains out of molehills.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Adjust your rates accordingly, nobody is being "Punished." I offer free shipping on all items and figure what I need into the price. This is mountains out of molehills.

They raised the prices on honest sellers because of dishonest sellers, I would call that punishing. All you are doing is trying to pass that on to your buyers. In the end Ebay is still collecting on shipping, because shipping is not "free."