Disturbing Ebay Trend

[DaGamingMonkey]

It always ends up costing me more to ship then I charge. I ship priority mail. Get the supplies to ship for free but it's usually 4.95 to send a game. Plus 75 cent tracking. Max ebay will let you charge for games is 4. Gets there fast though and never have to worry about it getting trashed on the way there.

My gripe with buying is when shipping is high and I get some lame excuse for a package in the mail a week or 2 later and it's damaged.

[Chickensuit]

I think the market decides the final price either way (high shipping or no). When I look at auctions, I am constantly totaling up the price + shipping. It's not generally a surprise what shipping will be. They have to disclose that, so just don't bid more that you are willing to pay, shipping included. As a rule of thumb, it's pretty accurate. I have sold items on ebay and listed them as free shipping and have gotten close to the same amount that I would have gotten if I had posted shipping charges. I think most people are looking at the overall price they are willing to pay, and place their bids accordingly.

[Octopod]

I think the market decides the final price either way (high shipping or no). When I look at auctions, I am constantly totaling up the price + shipping. It's not generally a surprise what shipping will be. They have to disclose that, so just don't bid more that you are willing to pay, shipping included. As a rule of thumb, it's pretty accurate. I have sold items on ebay and listed them as free shipping and have gotten close to the same amount that I would have gotten if I had posted shipping charges. I think most people are looking at the overall price they are willing to pay, and place their bids accordingly.

[Hobie-wan]

Ok. But to be fair, what about MY extra cost of shipping (I always send money orders), or MY drive time to the post office? I understand this is why people prefer to use Paypal and credit cards. But there should still be some kind of trade-off.

I don't agree with you there. If you go purchase something at the store, you've probably spent gas, bus, or train fare. If you're using cash you might have had to make a detour to an ATM or you bank, if you're using a credit card, you might have a yearly fee or interest to pay. Do you think the retailer should knock off a couple of bucks in that case too because of the expenses you incurred getting to the store and giving them your money?

I think most shipping and handling is reasonable on most of the items I pick up on ebay. The ones that piss me off and I avoid unless the item is dirt cheap are sellers where they want $10 to ship a single game/DVD/whatnot. Unless that item is a dollar or two, I just skip it. I did just get a PCE game from Japan yesterday that the seller got screwed on shipping, but it wasn't my fault. I paid $23+4, but the game was sent EMS so they ended up spending nearly half what I paid on shipping.