I recently put a bunch of old “Globe Publications” books on ebay. These are the kind of small books you see in supermarket checkouts. “How to Win at Bingo” “1000 Cat Facts” etc. One buyer bought the majority of them, and wants to combine shipping. I never expected any of these to sell, much less to one buyer.
I intentionally did not offer combined shipping. Most went for the minimum $.99 bid, and carried $2.00 or $3.00 shipping. This is just to make it worth my while to deal with this, otherwise the stuff was going in the trash. What are my obligations? What should I do?
Your obligations are exactly what you laid out in your auction. If you don’t want to combine shipping, you certainly don’t have to. Personally, since you’ll likely toss them all in one box, I would do it.
IANAL, much less a contract lawyer. I don’t think you have any obligation to combine shipping, since each was listed individually with its own shipping charges, and you never offered to combine it.
That said, if I were you, I would agree to combine the shipping. It’s a lot less hassle for you to throw them all in, and ship, one box versus many. I’m sure you could hold him to the $2-$3 charge for each item if you really wanted, but I’d just throw them in a single box and charge him the actual shipping cost.
You’re certainly well within your rights to not combine shipping. Can’t argue with that.
However IMO, you should 1) combine the shipping, 2) chalk it up as lesson learned for not stating it explicitly in the auction description, 3) move on with your life.
(My perspective as a seller with 3000+ items sold & 100% feedback.)
If you are inflating your shipping charges to offset the fact that your items sold for 99¢, that is against eBay policy and could result in negative feedback or a buyer reporting you for it.
I would charge the seller the amount it actually costs to ship them all in one package. And if I were the buyer, I’d be pissed off as hell if the seller insisted on shipping each item individually and charged me $2 shipping for each one.
I think that you should combine shipping. Yeah, you won’t make money on the shipping like you thought you would, but on the other hand you are saving a LOT of time and energy by putting them all in one package.
Next time, just put “I don’t combine shipping” on your listing. Or list the price you want to sell the things for, rather than trying to make it up on shipping (as a buyer, I really hate that). The buyer probably wouldn’t have bid if he knew you didn’t want to combine.
Yah, I guess I will ship them off with combined shipping. But part of shipping is the hassle you go through, packaging, driving to the post office, waiting in line, etc.
As far as the guy reselling them, the cover price of these things is like $2.00 so, so they didn’t exactly hit the jackpot…
Like I say, I hate to throw good things away, so I put them on up. Credit my New England Stepmother!
But aren’t you allowed to charge more than just postage? Boxes, packing tape, bubble wrap, gas to go to the P.O., time in linee, that stuff isn’t free.
If someone charged me $10 for shipping, say, a DVD, yeah that is excessive. $4? Not so much.
Actually, it would seem as though a reasonable fee were being charged to cover handling. You do know boxes and envelopes and gasoline and time waiting at the post office are not free, correct?
And in fact that isn’t the issue at all. In fact, the items cost me nothing. If I had known this would happen, it wouldn’t have been worth all this to me, the stuff would have been in the trash.
He didn’t. He jacked up shipping to cover his hassle level; presumably, the shipping charges were clearly identified in the postings. If not, then yeah, he’s a dick.
I’d offer to meet him halfway, or maybe a little more than halfway, were I the OP.
Assuming he bought 10 of your items, which you said would cost 2.50 each to ship, and it will cost you .50 per item to ship them combined, I’d offer to ship for $1.00 per item or something like that.
I wouldn’t combine the shipping charges. You neither stated you would nor did the buyer ask before they bid. This should be a lesson learned for the buyer, ask the questions before you bid.
That rule was put in place not for situations like this. It was implemented more because people selling, for example, a camera for $5 and the shipping would be $150. They did this becuase ebay doesn’t (didn’t?) charge fees on the shipping cost, only the final sale amount.
So, ebay is just protecting their own economic interests, so they aren’t cheated out of fees, big time. Understood. Otherwise, buyer beware, caveat emptor, etc.
Anyway, I am not trying to be a dick, just trying to get a reasonable re-imbursement for my trouble.
Sure, shipping and handling includes the cost of shipping and handling. There’s time costs and postage to be paid.
But where there is only one buyer, and where combining would lower the costs for both postage and handling (one big box is presumably cheaper than 10 smaller ones), and the OP doesn’t want to combine the items because then it wouldn’t be worth his while, well, I can only conclude that “Shipping and Handling” doesn’t just include shipping and handling, but also includes an extra “something”.
Why else would Shipping and Handling costs not go down at all when there isn’t as much shipping and handling to be done?
If the OP had said “well, I’ll pass on the postage and packing materials savings, and a small deduction for the labour” I’d have more respect for his use of the term “Shipping and Handling”.