OT: Two out of Three eBayers ...

[Michael B]

Originally Posted by whiteymet

Just got cards sent in a plain envelope with one 55 cent stamp. Was charged $3.00 as per the listing!

I don't care if they send it to me for $3 but not just one stamp. Overcharged by $2.45

I would have to disagree. There is a cost for the packaging, time to package the item and time to take it to the post office. Those all have value. It is not a 'postage charge', it is shipping and handling fee. Every seller I look at has it in their listings. I take that into account. Additionally, I have never had a seller who did not combine postage on multiple items. If I had an item I was shipping in a #10 business envelope and it cost less than a dollar I would probably not charge $3.00, but I would also not charge 55¢ either. It is fine to say that you do not charge for shipping. Ebay rewards sellers that do that. However, they are not selling an item for $7 that cost them $5. They would lose money all the time. I would suspect that many of them are pricing their items with a fair profit after fees and shipping costs.

[sbfinley]

Originally Posted by Michael B

I would have to disagree. There is a cost for the packaging, time to package the item and time to take it to the post office. Those all have value. It is not a 'postage charge', it is shipping and handling fee. Every seller I look at has it in their listings. I take that into account. Additionally, I have never had a seller who did not combine postage on multiple items. If I had an item I was shipping in a #10 business envelope and it cost less than a dollar I would probably not charge $3.00, but I would also not charge 55¢ either. It is fine to say that you do not charge for shipping. Ebay rewards sellers that do that. However, they are not selling an item for $7 that cost them $5. They would lose money all the time. I would suspect that many of them are pricing their items with a fair profit after fees and shipping costs.

In this scenario it's less about the cost of someone's shipping, time, and materials than about their lack of care. I buy hundreds of signed cards at SCN to round out sets and have no problem with PWE's if it's announced up front. I'm not buying the condition, I'm buying the signed card. It's honestly fair however, to expect anything over a $2 shipping charge to include at least a bubble mailer. If it's worth it a seller to charge $5-$6 for a single cheaper card for "their time and materials" sure - if I really want it I'll pay for it and have. But if you charge more than $2 for shipping and then out a PWE that's just cheap and lazy. If you are on eBay you're also going to open yourself up to dishonest people saying they never received the item.

[toledo_mudhen]

Asa seller I do free shipping and just calculate a modest shipping cost into the BIN or Starting bid price - this is for US Addresses only tho. Normally as a buyer I also tend to look for sellers with Free Shipping. I can see how there would be all kinds of discrepancy for items that need to go to Canada.

[glynparson]

I read the terms ahead of time and then pay what they charge me. I don’t try and negotiate after the deal that doesn’t seem fair to me. Simple addition and subtraction was never difficult so it isn’t hard to subtract the shipping cost from what I am willing to pay.

[MULLINS5]

I've been selling off my hockey cards and memorabilia and after three weeks of Canadians not paying, griping about shipping costs, negotiating after auctions on the shipping, etc, I ended shipping to Canada.

I buy a fair amount of cards from Canada and never, ever complain about the shipping because it was agreed upon prior to bidding/purchase. I understand maybe being a little perturbed paying for a particular service (Priority) and it arriving in the mail with a stamp - but that's not the case here as the OP is looking at postage he paid vs postage the seller paid.