I had always suspected the postage charged by Ebay vendors was excessive, but usually threw away the packing before I remembered to check. I just bought a dress from someone in California, she included a bill of lading that said the postage was $5.73, but the post office only charged her $4.74.
So is this practice considered normal and acceptable?
I don’t know about acceptable, but it’s pretty widespread. Keep in mind that some people do include the cost of the shipping materials (tape, box, bubble wrap, whatever) in the postage cost as well, which can make it a little bit higher than just the cost of postage, depending on what they used. And then some people are just overcharging and skimming off the top.
Ebay does not charge a commision on the postage fees so they are often inflated.
That’s been going on since the beginning. Guess what? Many large companies do the same thing. That’s why it’s called Shipping and Handling.
I occasionally sell on eBay and I “overcharge”. But, as what MsWhatsit said, part of that is going towards bulk costs of bubble wrap, tape, etc, and part is that it’s really difficult to find the cost of package without making a 2nd trip to the post office or buying a scale – neither of which i’m inclined to do for such low volume. It’s just usually easier to over estimate (and sometimes i’ve been wrong and dinged). And usually the winning auction bid will somewhat decline correspondingly.
A lot of sellers to grossly overcharge for shipping because eBay doesn’t take a cut out of those fees. It’s annoying, but pervasive.
I overcharge and skim it off the top. This is to make my job easier and the bidder’s job easier, too. In my auctions, I’ll clearly state “Shipping will be $10. Please bid accordingly”, obviously keeping the shipping charge semi-reasonable.
Then I don’t have to worry about packing it, measuring it, weighing it, getting an estimate, then coming back to the winning bidder to get an exact payment before shipping it.
It’s easier for the bidder because they know exactly what I charge to ship it, and they can adjust their bid according to my stated shipping cost. I’ve never had anyone complain, and I almost always make a buck or 3 from my shipping.
I’ve done some selling on eBay and the postage thing makes me crazy. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve packaged and weighed something, then gotten it to the post office and been charged a totally different number. Sometimes less, sometimes more. For awhile, I was charging a flat $5 fee for postage (since most of what I was selling was clothing) but I had loads of complaints about that from buyers - ironically, when I started charging exact shipping costs, they were usually higher than $5.
It’s hard too because occasionally you will get someone who buys more than one item from you and wants shipping costs combined - if up to a pound costs $x, you’d list each item as having $x shipping, but if you throw them together in one box, doesn’t hit the two-pound mark. To ensure that the buyer isn’t getting skunked, you’d then have to refund them part of the shipping costs… I wouldn’t mind that if the opposite didn’t happen so often, where I’ve undercharged shipping and ended up paying out of pocket. Now I am at the post office and discovering that shipping costs $2 more than I thought… do I go home and tell the buyer he needs to send me $2 more before I ship, do I ship it and invoice the buyer for the extra $2, or do I just mail the damn thing and eat the costs?
Some sellers WAY overcharge on shipping - I have seen CDs selling for one cent, with $19.99 shipping costs :rolleyes: but, yanno, I just don’t buy from those sellers. If it’s Joe Average Seller (or Joe Average Buyer, if I am the seller) I figure the shipping costs will even out over time.
Yep, this is the key.
If you have an item that you think will sell for $25, and will cost $5 to post, it can often be worthwhile making the postage, say, $10. This means that the item might go for less (say, $20 instead of 25) as people take the cost of postage into consideration when bidding, but now you’re only paying eBay commission on $20, and keeping $5 postage for yourself.
It is considered normal. As long as they aren’t super excessive, I don’t even blink when I see a case like yours. When I sell on ebay, I estimate my shipping by weight and using the postal estimates on their website, but my scale is not exact and sometimes I get to the post office and it’s a little more or less. Plus I figure in things like boxes, bubble wrap, tape, etc. Say I estimate the item is going to cost 4.35 to ship, I will charge say $4.99.
I always look at the shipping costs when I bid on something. Most people are a little over, but some people are completely out there and will try to gouge you. I have seen things like $20 shipping for something that should cost $5. E-bay supposedly does not allow this, but I have yet to see a hard and fast rule that is enforced.
The super stores are usually better about this than the individual sellers, as they usually can ship right from their business and have all the equipment to weigh and print their shipping labels right there. Then they shouldn’t overcharge, IMO. However, keep in mind that the charge is for “Shipping and handling” so many will say the extra is for handling. It does take time to carefully pack and ship stuff so a little overage is acceptable, IMO but double or triple the cost is not.
It depends on the vendors. Some will look up an exact price for the weight and size of what they’re shipping, while others will estimate an average cost over a number of items. This appears to be what is done for one of the small companies I worked for has done, and essentially it is a bit of a ripoff for those who pay more than they needed to and saves the person who buys something heavy a little bit. However, if they’re giving you the shipping price up front, they’ve more than likely made a rough estimate as to how much it’d cost on average to ship the item.
What annoyed me the most when doing eBay sales were the customers who’d complain about having to pay shipping. Uhm, hello! I’m sending you a relatively heavy item that has to be wrapped well because of its delicate nature. It’s going to cost me a significant amount to send this to you, and you’re getting the damned thing for MUCH cheaper than if you bought it in a reputable local shop. If you can’t afford it or thin that it costs too much, then maybe you should do the work to make your own. (These items were relatively easy to make as long as you had any aesthetic notions whatsoever or could follow instructions. Buying them in a shop that specialized in them would run you 3-5 times the amount we were charging, but there wasn’t much in the way of overhead besides packing materials and time spent.)
I’m a long time eBay user (100% as a buyer) and your example is really nothing to get upset about. A difference of less than a dollar is nothing. Keep in mind that the seller also has to pack your goods in something, spend time in packing and getting your package shipped, etc. A dollar is nothing. I’ve been in many auctions where the shipping/handling charge was quite egregious, but still nothing to be upset about as long as the shipping cost was known to you up front. When you bid on eBay, factor in the total cost, which includes shipping/handling. If the total cost to you is too high, don’t bid. Many sellers do skim off of eBay when they post ridiculously high shipping along with a low selling price because their fee to eBay is off of the selling price.
Yeah, excessive shipping charges are as old as eBay. Some aren’t too bad and are often rounded up to the nearest $10 figure just so the seller doesn’t have to bother getting an exact price. Other times they just seek to make extra profit from the shipping. Still other times you’ll find items selling for $1 with the entire cost of the item including shipping built-in to the shipping charge – a way for sellers to avoid paying higher insertion and final value fees. This last is against eBay policy, however, but it’s still pretty common. eBay can’t police every auction, after all, and some sellers rely on that.
I just don’t deal with sellers who charge excessive S&H fees. It’s unlikely my lack of business is a problem for them, considering how many are still able to sell small items with $40 shipping tags on them, but I certainly won’t encourage the practice by bidding on items by such sellers.
The way I see it, when someone places a bid, he/she is agreeing to pay the stated shipping fee regardless of what the actual shipping cost turns out to be.
And some items take many hours to disassemble and pack. Why shouldn’t I include the value of my time in the “shipping cost”? Especially if I provide an option to pick up the item locally, in which case the buyer obviously won’t have to pay the shipping.
I never buy from a seller that overcharges for shipping even if the price of the item is cheaper.
There’s something about this that strikes me as dishonest and it makes me question the honesty of the seller.
I just laugh when I see the item selling for $5, and the shipping is $10. How dumb do they think people are? Of course if it works for you, go for it. But there’s usually enough sellers that it’s not necessary to deal with someone like that.
eBay shows shipping cost (if available) right there in the search results next to the current price. They obviously realize that it’s an important factor in determining whether or not to bid on an item.
I also noticed last time I sold (a couple months ago) that they tell you right there in the “shipping and handling price?” area to consider the cost of packing materials and whatnot when you are setting your shipping price.
I have a client who sells stuff on his Web site (not from eBay - this is his own business) and he has us calculate in a flat fee for shipping on every item PLUS the actual UPS cost. He’s either using incredibly expensive packing material or not making enough profit on each item at the sale price so he needs to make up for it in shipping. But people buy his stuff so it works out for him I guess.
But there are cases where the shipping being more expensive than the item can be perfectly reasonable.
Remember, the post office doesn’t charge based on value, it charges based on weight. If i sell you a 5lb doorstop for $5, chance are it will, in fact, cost more than $5 to send.
If the shipping cost is clearly stated in the listing, how is it dishonest? The only reason I can see that they end up paying less in eBay fees, but if eBay doesn’t complain, I don’t see why the buyer needs to.
And sometimes a $5 item actually costs $10 to ship, esp. if you include the cost of packaging material. Even the smallest box costs a couple of dollars if purchased from an office supply store.
I ran an eBay store for a liquidator. We added $3 to the estimated cost of shipping for every package ($5 for some more expensive electronics) to ensure he’d make a profit (we started the bids rediculously low) and to ensure that I’d get my commission ($2 for every item sold; $1 for every item posted). If a business is running an eBay store, they’re going to add their costs to the shipping price.
However, I do get mad when I pay a decent price for shipping on an item and then discover that they sent it media mail (which is, I believe, one of the slowest shipping options available). If I pay $20 for shipping, I want it there within a few days (a week at most), not 10 - 14 days later. I have filed a complaint with eBay over that shit.
~Tasha
Yes, even on corporate sites such as Amazon, you’ll run into stuff that costs more to ship than it does to buy in the first place. I was looking at framed football posters for my brother for Christmas, and one of them cost $15 to purchase, but had a $20 shipping fee, I assume because it costs a lot of money to safely ship a glass frame. If an item on eBay is clearly very heavy or will require complicated or expensive packaging, I have no problem with high shipping/handling fees.
<nitpick>
Package size can also determine “weight” via the Rule of Cubing. If a package is large but light, its dimensions will be used to calculate a “cubed” or “volumetric” weight that more or less amounts to “the average package of this size would weigh this much.” This does not work in reverse; whatever value is higher between standard and cubed weight is what is used to determine shipping cost.
</nitpick>
I can agree on the vague feeling of dishonesty though in some instances. I allow for a certain small overhead to be applied to handling, but there are some cases where it’s just blatant. A small item – a CD, for example – slipped into a bubble envelope with a stamp slapped on it and sent regular lettermail by a seller who charged you $15 to ship is an example.