OT: Excessive shipping - does ebay care?

[Cozumeleno]

Many sellers use the postage tool and print their own packages online. Why couldn't eBay simply deduct the amount of actual shipping paid and not take a cut on that? So if you charge a buyer $6 for shipping and the actual cost you pay is $5, eBay would only get a cut of the extra dollar. This would help keep sellers from charging excessive amounts.

If you DON'T use the automated shipping, then eBay could still just take a cut of everything. That's still technically wrong, but the current system isn't fair to anybody. This would at least make it fair to the many sellers that use the printed labels and it would also incentivize sellers to use them.

[Jantz]

Does Ebay care about excessive shipping fees? I can't answer that question, but I know it hurts sellers.

Recently bought a modern card from a seller with 4 feedback who wanted to charge $6 to mail a single card.

I knew his high shipping fees would kill the bids on this card and I was right. I won the card for .99 cents.

What irritated me was when he sent the card in a plain white envelope & postage stamp, basically pocketing the rest of the shipping fees.

Seems no one else is willing to buy from him due to his excessive shipping fees. He is listing cards from week to week starting them at .99 cents and not getting any bids.

[ALR-bishop]

You got the card for $ 6.99. I assume you felt getting the card for that price was worth it to you. To me the bottom line is always how much am I willing to pay to get the card, however the price breaks down

Plain first class mail letters are risky but I understand why sellers do it that way on less expensive cards....to save or make money.That is ok with me as long as the card arrives as advertised. If not I expect a refund. I am willing to send a photo of the damaged card, or send it back at seller's expense

[D. Bergin]

Ebay has their head up their ass with their priorities. Driving off all the good sellers and then encouraging fly by nighters to list as much stuff with their cell phones, mobile apps and 3 word descriptions as they can get away with.

Out of 2 of the last 3 items I won on Ebay.

I didn't get gouged on shipping charges but one of the lots (a group of about 30-35 1940s era boxing programs, tickets and credentials) was delivered as "Contents missing from package" by the Post Office. Not the fault of the Post Office. They were stuffed into a plain white 10x12 envelope, no tape reinforcement, just licked closed to the adhesive, shipped media mail and a half-assed taped copy paper shipping label that was flapping in the breeze. Only thing left in the package was a half a piece of backing board.

Sure I got a refund, but a collection that survived together for about 75+ years now sits destroyed at the bottom of a USPS sort table somewhere between California and Connecticut.

2nd was a large poster, shipped in a gift wrapping tube. Not a shipping tube.........a gift wrap tube. That was a fun adventure to get out of the package........and then when finally I pull it out, I find it's a horrible large photo reprint with a guage in it. My fault I guess. When I went back to look at the description the word "Reproduction" was hidden in the "Item Specifics". Unfortunately no clue to this in the massive 5 word description or the blurry camera phone photo they provided in the listing. No worries I guess, it was cheap and I can just pin it up in my attic space............but I didn't get gouged on shipping I guess.

This seems to be the norm lately.

I would gladly take a little gouging if these people could just get their stuff to me safely. This is coming from somebody who sells a LOT more on Ebay then he actually buys on Ebay.

Ebay has managed to piss off both good buyers AND good sellers with their wonderful business strategies.

[unamuzd1]

Excessive shipping? Try clicking the "You won!" button in an email and getting this gem...



Okay, so it was a typo when the seller went to combine shipping, and it got fixed within 2 minutes of me sending message to let the seller know... but I about keeled over when I saw my total!

[Jewish-collector]

My apologies for the stupid question, but why can't sellers just always do free shipping and just add their shipping fee to the starting price or BIN price ?

[savedfrommyspokes]

Originally Posted by Jewish-collector

My apologies for the stupid question, but why can't sellers just always do free shipping and just add their shipping fee to the starting price or BIN price ?

If you are looking to buy just a single card from a seller at a time, than free s/h is a great idea.

However, as a collector, I try to buy as many cards from one seller at a time in order to minimize my s/h costs. So I look to sellers who charge a set fee (say $3) to ship no matter how many cards are purchased or free s/h once a quantity/$ threshold is achieved. I typically do not buy multiple cards from the free s/h sellers as I do not enjoy paying the embedded s/h cost on each item.

As an example, I find a free s/h seller offering 20 cards I am considering for a set I am building. Typically $1 cards, the free s/h seller offers them for $2 each in order to cover their s/h. My total (with free s/h) for these 20 cards is $40. I find another seller with the same 20 cards being offered. However, this seller offers a $3 s/h cap and sells the cards for $1 each. My total with this seller is $23.

I am surprised when sellers who offer lower priced cards (commons) using the free s/h format. It works great for single card purchases, but what seller prefers to sell just one card at a time when they could be selling 15-20 at one time.


In regards to excessive s/h charged by sellers, ebay is not going to police their own rule about excessive s/h as they do not pay out ebay bucks on s/h, the ebay bucks are earned only on the cost of the item itself. You would think ebay would be encouraging sellers to not offer free s/h as they end up paying out more in rewards to the buyers when free s/h is used. In addition, TRS still pay 9% on the s/h charges and do not receive their 20% FVF discount on s/h FVFs. So it is certainly to eBay's benefits to allow higher s/h based on the rewards that do not have to be paid and the discounts on fees that do not have to be offered.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Jewish-collector

My apologies for the stupid question, but why can't sellers just always do free shipping and just add their shipping fee to the starting price or BIN price ?

It's fine with BIN prices. If you are running true auctions it's a lot trickier.

[Jantz]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

You got the card for $ 6.99. I assume you felt getting the card for that price was worth it to you. To me the bottom line is always how much am I willing to pay to get the card, however the price breaks down

Plain first class mail letters are risky but I understand why sellers do it that way on less expensive cards....to save or make money.That is ok with me as long as the card arrives as advertised. If not I expect a refund. I am willing to send a photo of the damaged card, or send it back at seller's expense

That is how I feel as well.

I was willing to pay around $7 for the card.

His $6 shipping was factored into the final price, so my max bid was only $1.05. If someone were to have bid higher, then they would have won the card.

[egbeachley]

Originally Posted by Cozumeleno

Many sellers use the postage tool and print their own packages online. Why couldn't eBay simply deduct the amount of actual shipping paid and not take a cut on that? .

Because there is always someone who finds a way around it? Offhand I could use Priority with confirmation for $6, print first class online, then add regular stamps to the package. Not a whole lot of work to save 50 cents per package. It adds up.