Thread: Venting About Auctions. Feel free to join me.

Originally Posted by ats200

So why do I hate high shipping costs? I pay $10-$15 for shipping and it shows up in a flat rate box or media mail which costs about $3-5. A bit unreasonable if you ask me. So now instead of complaining, I just wont bid on an item with anything over $7 in shipping - there's just no way it costs that much if it's not international and no one ships UPS or FedEx.

If you pay $10 for shipping & it arrives in a $3 box . Doesn't that simply mean postage & handling cost $7. ? How is that an issue ?

Originally Posted by onimaru55

If you pay $10 for shipping & it arrives in a $3 box . Doesn't that simply mean postage & handling cost $7. ? How is that an issue ?

because flat rate boxes are free and postage is ... $5. it's easy to figure out.

anyone who charges a handling fee through eBay doesn't deserve to have an account. it's ridiculous.

Originally Posted by ats200

because flat rate boxes are free and postage is ... $5. it's easy to figure out.

I see.
In Australia a $3 box costs $3. & then they charge us for postage. You have it good over there.

Originally Posted by ats200

because flat rate boxes are free and postage is ... $5. it's easy to figure out.

anyone who charges a handling fee through eBay doesn't deserve to have an account. it's ridiculous.

Sorry coming to this thread a little late. I agree to a point.. if it is a single or even 3 razors ( you can fit 3 well packaged razors in a small flat rate box depending on the width of them ) you can have USPS send you a package of 25 boxes for free and then print out the labels via paypal and then put them in your mailbox to be picked up. In rural areas though postal theft from boxes is higher than one might expect and it can be a 15 or 20 mile drive to a local post office ( longer if your in the backwoods of Montana) so I don't see it being unreasonable for them to charge an extra 4 or 5 dollars handling for a tank of gas.

Also it use to be that sellers charged large shipping fees because Ebay didn't include that in their calculation of fees.. now they charge their sellers fees based on total cost including shipping to try and stop this type of issue since there were a lot of people starting auctions at .99 and then charging 200 bucks for shipping so they got to keep all the money and were charged a fee for just the 99 cents.

Originally Posted by Troggie

so I don't see it being unreasonable for them to charge an extra 4 or 5 dollars handling for a tank of gas.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely understand this concept and I can see why some people do charge this. It's just not something I can agree with. You know going into the auction that that will be a cost to do business. Why make the buyer pay a fee for your gas? Either keep the item or make a little money and sell it, but you're going to have to drive to a post office.

I don't go to a retail store and say "oh yeah but you'll need to knock $15 off of the total because I had to drive all the way out here and I still need to drive home."
(this example has a bit of a different concept, but it's essentially the same in the way of someone paying for another's inconvenience)

Every business makes its customers pay its costs of operating. They wouldn't be in business very long if they didn't.

On ebay if you charge $6.00 for priority mail small box with delivery confirmation. Here is the breakdown. Ebay gets 9% of the 6.00 or .54 cents, then Pay Pal gets 26 cents. So that means you net 20 cents to pay for packing, tape, printer ink, etc. This only assumes that you can have the nice PO person pick up at your home, which I do.
What makes it look better is that Pay Pal transfers the $5.00 they charge for the printed postage and do not upcharge it going the other way. So, without looking at the details a person might think " this is great, I just made $1.00 on the shipping" Of course, not true.
And if you, say, combine shipment but the person pays too soon and you give back the $6.00 from your Pay Pal to their Pay Pal, it costs you 80 cents, cause Ebay and PP always get theirs.

Just as the first post said....set a limit. I try not to pay over $20 for a vintage razor. So far I have gotten a Genco, a Torrey, and a razor marked Pollart[made in Solingen(don't know anything about these but the blade was pretty)]. I paid fewer than $20(shipping included) for each piece. Don't know whether those are good deals. The blades aren't pretty but I bought them to put some elbow grease into them. I am knew to razors. Hope to have pictures up to get advice soon. But I am happy and I have the sand paper and polish to clean them up.

Ebay charges a final value fee and when you include pay-pal transactions you're looking at approximately 10% the seller has to pay out of pocket for every item sold. This is why you sometimes see very expensive shipping on exotic items with a low starting bid or buy-it-now price. Since the shipping cost is not included in the final value fee the seller clears more money. Hence why you see items with $75.00 shipping and a $10.00 price tag.

what gets me the most about auctions is when people put up the crappiest pictures ever, then reference the pictures. I saw one razor that said "engraved on the blade with "XXXXX," as seen in the second picture." Not a single picture was anywhere close to focused. This isn't me speaking as a photographer critiqueing someone's art and saying 'oh, its poorly focused and the color palette is off.' This is me saying 'if I took my glasses off and stood across the room, I'd have a better chance of reading it than I do from your picture.'

shipping really doesn't get me too riled up, cuz I've had some stuff that the actual cost for me to ship was about the same as the final selling price. Like a Coronet that I sold for 39.99 to someone across the continent. my shipping charge was 35.99 and I made no money on that. I always round up and add $2 to the actual cost for shipping something. like if it actually costs $2.45 to ship, I round up to $3 and add 2 for a total of $5 shipping and handling. I don't think its too unreasonable considering there's the cost of the package, the cost of my time taking it to the PO, etc. but yea, shipping straights is dirt cheap. no way it should be more than $5