# Shopping Site Where The Catch is Shipping $$$
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-site-where-the-catch-is-shipping/834335
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 22, 2019, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-site-where-the-catch-is-shipping/834335 "2019-05-22T04:55:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@molten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/molten)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2019, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-site-where-the-catch-is-shipping/834335/1 "2019-05-22T04:55:25Z")
Are there any general electronics / musical instruments / whatever shopping sites where they price much lower but the catch is high shipping? (eBay does this for example)
---
### Author:  [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2019, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-site-where-the-catch-is-shipping/834335/2 "2019-05-22T19:49:17Z")
[Wish.com](http://Wish.com) does this. It’s noticeable if you order from Ali Express, which has many of the same goods coming from Chinese manufacturers. Shipping that’s free to minimal on Ali Express costs several dollars on [Wish.com](http://Wish.com).
---
### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2019, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-site-where-the-catch-is-shipping/834335/3 "2019-05-22T21:03:48Z")
Back in the early days of e-Bay, where everyone had their own little store, shipping costs were always the big GOTCHA.
---
### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2019, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-site-where-the-catch-is-shipping/834335/4 "2019-05-22T21:33:32Z")
When I used to sell stuff on eBay, I always started my auctions at $0.99 and used the shipping calculator plus a couple-three bucks for handling (a.k.a. my time to take stuff to the UPS Store). If the auction went unexpectedly well, I’d usually trim out the handling fee, figuring I’d covered myself.
---
### Author:  [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2019, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-site-where-the-catch-is-shipping/834335/5 "2019-05-23T12:11:55Z")
I’d put Amazon in there too. You either pay them $100-something a year or pay for shipping. The third option is to add stuff to your cart & wait until you have enough in there to get free shipping, which means you don’t get what you want in a timely manner.
---
### Author:  [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2019, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-site-where-the-catch-is-shipping/834335/6 "2019-05-23T18:15:28Z")
I don’t think you can reasonably put Amazon in this category. Yes, they charge for shipping, either per-shipment, annually, or by making you wait and buy more stuff, but they charge a lot less than most sites, and because they operated in such volume, even the per-shipment charge is less than it would cost you to ship that box the same distance.
I don’t think it’s a _catch_ that it costs money to physically move goods from one place to another.
One exception: third-party used-book sellers on Amazon. Many of them are priced at almost nothing but charge ~$4 to ship a paperback. It does _not_ cost $4 to ship a paperback in the US, so they are actually charging below market on the good and above market on shipping.
---
### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2019, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-site-where-the-catch-is-shipping/834335/7 "2019-05-23T19:12:25Z")
> [@molten](#):
>
> Are there any general electronics / musical instruments / whatever shopping sites where they price much lower but the catch is high shipping? (eBay does this for example)
eBay is not supposed to do that anymore. If you catch a seller doing that, report them.
---
### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2019, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-site-where-the-catch-is-shipping/834335/8 "2019-05-23T19:45:37Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> eBay is not supposed to do that anymore. If you catch a seller doing that, report them.
I don’t think that eBay really cares much about shipping charges as long as they are clearly spelled out on the item’s page.
A lot of general sellers offer free shipping and since those are the people I almost always buy from, that’s good. Even the “99 cents from China” people do free shipping most of the time. (Which we’ve often wondered about here.)
Some one-off or very low volume sellers charge a bit. Mainly since they don’t have a shipping contract or whatever that brings the price down to make free shipping feasible.
Most complaints about eBay sellers shipping rates is you pay for a high rate but it gets shipped by a cheaper method.
Regarding Amazon, there are some affiliate sellers that play this game. You go to the “other sellers” page and see someone it for far less than many others. But if you are at all alert you will notice that the sellers are sorted by total price and the price+shipping isn’t as good.
While this ordering is good, in some places Amazon just shows the lowball price and you start clicking before realizing what’s going on.
(Now if only eBay were to adopt this sorting in their listings by default. I’m tired of clicking on the order-by-price-plus-shipping option.)
---
### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-site-where-the-catch-is-shipping/834335/9 "2019-05-23T19:55:14Z")
> [@ftg](#):
>
> I don’t think that eBay really cares much about shipping charges as long as they are clearly spelled out on the item’s page.
They indeed do. Because it is "fee Avoidance ".
if you have a item that sells for say $50, then charging $1 plus $50 S&h avoids eBay selling fees.
> **[eBay fee avoidance policy](https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/selling-practices-policy/avoiding-ebay-fees-policy?id=4354)**
>
> Avoiding eBay fees is not allowed, whether intentional or not. Sellers attempting to avoid eBay fees create risk for themselves, and a poor experience for buyers.
\*Avoiding fees can include things like making offers to buy or sell outside of eBay, requiring the buyer to make additional purchases, or charging excessive shipping charges. \*
---
### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2019, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-site-where-the-catch-is-shipping/834335/10 "2019-05-23T20:14:33Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> if you have a item that sells for say $50, then charging $1 plus $50 S&h avoids eBay selling fees.
> [eBay fee avoidance policy | eBay](https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/selling-practices-policy/avoiding-ebay-fees-policy?id=4354)
> \*Avoiding fees can include things like making offers to buy or sell outside of eBay, requiring the buyer to make additional purchases, or charging excessive shipping charges. \*
That may have been true in the past, and the section you quoted may be a holdover from back then. But currently [eBay’s selling fee](https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4364) policy is:
> [@](#):
>
> We charge a final value fee when your item sells.
>
> This fee is calculated as a percentage of the total amount of the sale. The total amount of the sale is the amount the buyer pays, including any shipping and handling charges. Sales tax isn’t included in the calculation.
---
### Author:  [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2019, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-site-where-the-catch-is-shipping/834335/11 "2019-05-23T20:14:37Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> They indeed do. Because it is "fee Avoidance ".
>
> if you have a item that sells for say $50, then charging $1 plus $50 S&h avoids eBay selling fees.
> [eBay fee avoidance policy | eBay](https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/selling-practices-policy/avoiding-ebay-fees-policy?id=4354)
> \*Avoiding fees can include things like making offers to buy or sell outside of eBay, requiring the buyer to make additional purchases, or charging excessive shipping charges. \*
Last I heard eBay started charging sellers a percentage of the sale price _including_ shipping to discourage that very thing.
---
### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2019, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-site-where-the-catch-is-shipping/834335/12 "2019-05-23T20:22:30Z")
> [@control-z](#):
>
> Last I heard eBay started charging sellers a percentage of the sale price _including_ shipping to discourage that very thing.
Maybe you are right, but certainly that used to be a big issue.
---
### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2019, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-site-where-the-catch-is-shipping/834335/13 "2019-05-23T23:06:11Z")
I remember Monoprice going from the go-to place for various low-cost cables and cords to hardly worth checking because they jacked up their shipping rates to ridiculous amounts. Still worth checking out for some of their self-branded electronics or if you need a bunch of things but no longer the place to buy a cheap HDMI cable from.