Free Shipping on eBay..... Or Maybe Not

[steve B]

Unless it's really changed you can charge for insurance on Ebay. But it must be stated as being part of the shipping and handling, and you can't abandon responsibility for the item arriving if someone doesn't pay for insurance.

Adding additional charges after the auction ends isn't allowed, and I'd report someone who insisted on it. After completing the purchase of course.

For the few things I've sold that were expensive enough that insurance made sense I paid for the insurance myself. Charging the extra couple dollars on a $600 item just seems petty to me.

Someone who actually ends up paying extra to ship something - That's a thing I might work with them on. IF they were new. Lots of people just aren't familiar with the postal regs for packages and different rates etc. Like if it;s more than 1/4 inch thick it's a package. But if it's less than 3/4inch and not going priority you can't get delivery confirmation no matter what the Paypal click and ship allows. Or that anything with advertising can't be shipped media mail. But of they've been selling for some time or are a full time shop it's on them to get it right.

Steve B

[U240robert]

Some do charge a handling fee to make up for an auction.
In some cases it's also to get around the ebay system of paying
seller fees.
I knew of a dealer that would sell commons very cheap, say '63 topps at a $1 in NM condition. But on the page it would state a $4 handling fee for a $5 total.
So from a buyers perspective it all comes out the same but the dealer makes more money off of it since he didn't have to pay as much to ebay in fees.
Ebay was/is trying to crack down on this.

[Brendan]

Originally Posted by U240robert

Some do charge a handling fee to make up for an auction.
In some cases it's also to get around the ebay system of paying
seller fees.
I knew of a dealer that would sell commons very cheap, say '63 topps at a $1 in NM condition. But on the page it would state a $4 handling fee for a $5 total.
So from a buyers perspective it all comes out the same but the dealer makes more money off of it since he didn't have to pay as much to ebay in fees.
Ebay was/is trying to crack down on this.

Edited to point out eBay's lack of intelligence.