[WWI] ot: Ebay shipping costs

[Scottrik]

>because many people they are simply crooks and they have very low
>prices and very big postage i always ask before i bid



The inflated shipping costs, and why you're seeing more of them, are a dodge
around paying e-Bay fees. Say you list a 1/72 kit for $5 with a $20 shipping
price you have effectively listed the kit for $20 as it will only actually
cost $5 to ship Priority/Confirmed within the US, and you would insert
language to the effect "higher overseas". By doing so you only pay e-Bay's
"insertion fee" on a $5 item AND no "reserve fee" when you've effectively
created a $20 reserve on your $5 item. Then when the auction is over, even
if it "only" sold at the opening price you only pay the transaction fee
(calculated as a percent of sales price) on 1/4 of the "real" selling price.

Ideally, buyers are well-informed and rational and bid prices that create a
shipped total in line with a total price they'd be willing to pay for the
item by  reducing their "real world" top price they'd be willing to pay by
the $15 (or whatever, just using my example) postage "overcharge". Where
this starts to come off the tracks is when the buyer doesn't carefully read
the listing, but if the shipping price is quoted in the shipping price
location and the buyer doesn't look at that (or ignores it) it really isn't
the seller's fault. That said, I've certainly seen sellers hiding the
information elsewhere in the listing, using much smaller fonts, etc in an
effort at subterfuge and this is, of course, truly dishonest.

This in by NO means to say I agree with the practice(s), but there is
absolutely NO way anyone can in good faith leave negative feedback if the
price(s) were identified upfront in the listing. Exceptions to this would,
of course, be if the seller specified a postal service "level" and sent it
by cheaper means (claimed in listing to ship "Priority" and shipped via
"Third Class" or "Parcel") OR if the item was, indeed, damaged enroute.

Scottrik