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

Originally Posted by 96firephoenix

what gets me the most about auctions is when people put up the crappiest pictures ever...

I've seen half a dozen auctions in the past couple weeks that didn't even show the blade, just five or so photos of the closed razor, maybe with a close up of the tang markings.

I've seen the same thing. I think it's mostly people who are noticing razors are selling pretty well and have little knowledge on what buyers need to see to make a decision.

I've seen quite a few razors that had great potential not sell because the photos were horrible. Of course sometimes people will take a risk to get a bargain. I've even had a few occasions where I ask for more pics and the seller just insist that everything is fine. "my husband takes the photos and I just run the auctions, he wont be back until next week. Everything is perfect."

Originally Posted by ats200

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.

Why should the seller have to take that cost?
Every business has the cost of doing business, but that money is coming from somewhere: the customer.

Btw, shipping boxes are not free in my country. Neither is the packaging.
And I don't send out anything without covering for shipping insurance and signed-for delivery.
All those things have to be covered for. And since I am only having those costs because someone is buying something from me, that person is going to pay for it.

In any business, the buyer is paying for the COB.

Originally Posted by Bruno

...Every business has the cost of doing business

...And since I am only having those costs because someone is buying something from me, that person is going to pay for it.

One could argue that you only have that cost because you have decided to sell the item

Recouping the actual shipping cost is a given.
For a business, I have no problems with them getting all their expenses covered. (gas, man hours et al.)
For a private person doing the odd sale, not so much.
Sell it at a price that makes you willing to part with it, if not, keep the thing.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Why should the seller have to take that cost?
Every business has the cost of doing business, but that money is coming from somewhere: the customer.

Btw, shipping boxes are not free in my country. Neither is the packaging.
And I don't send out anything without covering for shipping insurance and signed-for delivery.
All those things have to be covered for. And since I am only having those costs because someone is buying something from me, that person is going to pay for it.

In any business, the buyer is paying for the COB.

Unless the seller has made a mistake (which doesn't let him out of selling for the price and shipping in the auction), the buyer of course pays all his outgoings - just as he does in any other kind of business, where they may be much higher than on eBay.

Although the eBay policy (which he has undertaken to obey) doesn't say anything about including ing something for his time and trouble in the sales and handling charge, there seems to be an unwritten assumption that a dollar or two is permitted. What is certain though (and sellers know it) is that most of these overheads must be recouped in the selling price, not shipping, just like retail businesses do. If he doubts whether competitive bidding will ensure that he covers his expenses, he has the options of setting a reserve, a high "Buy it now" or a high starting price.

Policies forbid the seller to charge for time spent in the post office or fuel to get there, or to make a separate charge for insurance. He can include insurance in the dollar or two mentioned above, but that just means he can't include something else, notably a contribution to his unearned income fund.

Those are the policies sellers undertake to observe, when selling anything on eBay. If the auction details (or the weight of the package and/or postage marked on it when received) indicate that he had his fingers crossed behind his back at the time, it is a useful argument that they were probably crossed for things less detectable.

There is no such thing as divided or shifted responsibility in an auction. The person who registered, holds the account and decides who gets to know the password, is responsible, even if she claims her husband took the pictures or her daughter posted the auction. I've gambled on bad pictures, and mostly won. But it is no gamble except of your time and trouble, if the pictures clash, visibly or not, with the title or description. "Chipped edge as shown in the picture" clears the seller over anything you could reasonably call a chip, even if the pictures don't show it. "Excellent condition, as shown in the picture" (invisibly) means that the buyer has a SNAD case if it isin't excellent.

We can't know how many items a large seller is taking to the post office, if they aren't collecting them, or whether a private individual is going that way anyway. I once won an appeal against refusing to complete a transaction, from a seller who charged three to five times what others did for identical micrometers. I had one of my own, imperial rather than metric, so I knew the weight. He "justified" this by pleading the forbidden fuel, time and parking at the post office. But Google Maps and Street View showed one 0.6 miles or three minutes from his home, with an almost empty free carpark right up to their door.

We should always assume the best of people, in the absence of evidence to the contrary. But when the evidence starts to come in, we shouldn't assume we have seen all of the worst there is.

I can see why people think shipping costs are crazy on eBay but I think of it like this.

When I have a razor sent to me for honing the return shipping (in the UK) is about £7-10 all in. Why?

It's £5.50 for the registered and insured post. If the person sent me the blade in a padded envelope, that's how I return it so that's £1 plus a bit for some bubble wrap. I make no charge for my time.

If the blade came in a box it's the same £5.50 plus the cost of a box (about £3.50) plus the bubble wrap.

If I ship something abroad it's more again, maybe £8-9 for the shipping plus the box or whatever.

If it's an expensive item that needs more insurance it's more again, maybe £15 for shipping and insurance plus materials on top.

And this is me having a post office close to the office. If I had to take 30 minutes out of my day, pay for gas and maybe parking as well (lots of local councils in the UK charge for parking at the local shops) the costs would quickly add up.

Say I had an expensive item to ship. £15 for the shipping and insurance, £3.50 for the box, 50p for the bubble wrap, plus a couple of quid for parking and the same for gas and maybe a bit for my time and that's £25 easily.

When you break it down like that it doesn't seem unreasonable, but when you see it in the auction you think "£25 for postage?!? He's having a giraffe!"

I used to think that until I did some shipping of stuff myself!

Originally Posted by Stubear

I can see why people think shipping costs are crazy on eBay but I think of it like this.

When I have a razor sent to me for honing the return shipping (in the UK) is about £7-10 all in. Why?

It's £5.50 for the registered and insured post. If the person sent me the blade in a padded envelope, that's how I return it so that's £1 plus a bit for some bubble wrap. I make no charge for my time.

If the blade came in a box it's the same £5.50 plus the cost of a box (about £3.50) plus the bubble wrap.

If I ship something abroad it's more again, maybe £8-9 for the shipping plus the box or whatever.

If it's an expensive item that needs more insurance it's more again, maybe £15 for shipping and insurance plus materials on top.

And this is me having a post office close to the office. If I had to take 30 minutes out of my day, pay for gas and maybe parking as well (lots of local councils in the UK charge for parking at the local shops) the costs would quickly add up.

Say I had an expensive item to ship. £15 for the shipping and insurance, £3.50 for the box, 50p for the bubble wrap, plus a couple of quid for parking and the same for gas and maybe a bit for my time and that's £25 easily.

When you break it down like that it doesn't seem unreasonable, but when you see it in the auction you think "£25 for postage?!? He's having a giraffe!"

I used to think that until I did some shipping of stuff myself!

Absolutely, and if you were a refurbisher of grand pianos, you could probably shift the decimal point a place on all of those. Selling goods or services privately, you can charge for those any way you want. But the eBay seller has pledged himself, as a condition of using the service, to add some of them to the sales and handling, and either include the others in the price or do without.

Even nowadays, when we have the opportunity to order search results by price plus shipping, the price is the first thing to meet many a buyer's eye. Excessive shipping (even if the total is the same) is an attempt to steal some false competitiveness against more honest sellers.

Originally Posted by ats200

I've seen quite a few razors that had great potential not sell because the photos were horrible. Of course sometimes people will take a risk to get a bargain.

It's definitely paid off for me. I got a nice 6/8ths Henckels for a few bucks. Picture was too blurry to tell anything except the rough blade shape and that most of it was still there. Didn't even know it was a Henckels until it showed up.

Well, it's like I said in my previous post, people are charging so much for shipping because the final value fee (the money the seller has to pay ebay for selling) does not calculate shipping costs. So it makes perfect sense to sell exotic items with a hefty shipping cost and a low final value fee.

Originally Posted by HNSB

The objective of eBay should not be to win an auction.
The objective should be to get an item that you're happy with for a price that you're happy with.

This is a perfect answer......We all like getting items at "a steal" but you simply need to watch the shipping and bid/buy at a price that you want that includes the shipping and handling fees.
Sellers sell to make money, not just for ha ha's.