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This makes me mad. It reflects badly on all eBay sellers I believe, even the ones who aren't over charging. I'd show the auction, but probably not such a great idea. You can take my word for it can't you?
I looked at his auction for a small instruction manual for a certain piece of equipment. It's small, not heavy like a book. It would ship for around 1.00 or so 1st Class. I would probably charge 1.50 or 2.00 s/h to ship it, were it me.
This bloke wants $15.00. Add to that that this one is torn, wrinkled, ripped and taped up for a 9.99 opening bid. For a torn-up little booklet he is hoping a customer will shell out a minimum of $24.99. Madness.
OK, if I were desperate I may consider the 9.99, even for a torn up one. IF I were desperate.
But he can stick the $15.00 shipping up his tail pipe.
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thats nothing
I came accross a Item I was looking for yesterday .99 opening bid 125.00 s&h
(other sellers are charging 8-10 s&h on the same item )
so I checked his other item laptop .99 opening 650.00 s&h computer monitor .99 opening 250.00 s&h I think there where 5 items alltogether all witth the same price statagey
Im not a fan of netcopping but I did report him and ebay nuked the auctions , I do see where he relisted with high opening and resonable shipping
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This is a pet peeve of mine.
I just think that if you can not make your profit on the item instead of the
shipping....
Get out of business.
I consider it the most prevalent and dispicable fraud on ebay and in the mail order world in general.
Your mileage may vary.
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I had a similar situation with a seller that was listing high tech equipment that I buy for resale who was also dumb enough to put in his auction description that because of the Ebay fees he was doing a $10 "Buy It Now" with a $350 shipping and handling fee.
NARU'd faster than a speeding bullet.
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I usually shop and browse in a narrow range of niche categories that relate to my theme.
Most s/h charges are what I consider reasonable. Postage plus something for materials and handling.
I ventured into some additional categories as a shopper recently and it was a real eye opener.
With some low cost common items, it seems they list and sell at 99 cents, which does little more than cover eBay/PayPal fees, add $6.00 for profit and postage and promote the heck out of their websites in emails and flyers in the package including discounts for first purchase on website. These were 2000 to 5000 feedback sellers with 99.8 type ratings.
This approach seems the standard within their categories (computer cables, mouse, etc.)
Elsewhere I found the usual $20. items w/$5.00 s/h have now routinely become $10. items with $15. s/h.
So much sells with only one bid or at fixed price that it seems anyone who used traditional pricing would never even have their item looked at because 25 other listings for the same/similar item are posted with s/h loads and/or are being used as advertising to attract customers to websites.
Interestingly enough, a reporter writing about the recent PeSA meeting commented that the reoccurring theme he heard was that large volume sellers now view eBay as a place to find customers that they hope to convert to their website.
Flyers enclosed in shipments include "Questions - visit my website" "Need tech help- visit my website" "20% off your first purchase at my website" I can't imagine how anyone could sell new items in these categories and hope to make any money on just eBay sales. Plus, the sell through rate is not high.
I use to buy small oriental rugs for resale at the flea market and followed that category for a while. $10. starting prices with $69. to $89. s/h fees were the norm with less than $15. being the actual delivery cost.
It's a jungle out there but my niche area has been more normal until just this month. The largest catalogue/online seller in my niche is now using eBay.
They sell at full price in the catalogue, offer there full range plus sale and clearance items at their website and are now liquidating last Christmas and other stale inventory on eBay. Oh joy, as last year I purchased their liquidation stuff from their website earlier in the year and sold on eBay at full price for Christmas.
Since they have many items produced exclusively for their operation, sell good quality and constantly cycle in new stuff, this gave me a great source for interesting items at low cost which I sold out of at full price to very appreciative eBay customers. (And my inventory plus freight costs were around 35%) My only hope is that they sell out soon and I'll be the only retail source come Sept.
I think the message is becoming clear. New common stuff is not easily sold on eBay for profit. Preowned, NOS, liquidation, custom and rare will still be profitable but common is best sold to attract customers to your website.
Small sellers like myself just have to stay flexible and we can live on the crumbs that big operations won't bother with but we have to watch what does sell at a profit and consider other venues and/or a website (maybe mine will finally be up by Christmas- I won't say which christmas)
I know, when buying, to look at the item, then the s/h and finally the offering price but I can't imagine what kind of general impression eBay is giving the casual shopper who doesn't understand the game and becomes frustrated with the loaded shipping fees. Not to mention the mandatory additional $5.00 handling fees and $1. seller self insured fees that are appearing.
Soon your going to have to hire a guide for shopping on eBay like those needed in middle eastern or north African bazaars.
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Not to mention the mandatory additional $5.00 handling fees and $1. seller self insured fees that are appearing.
As a seller that DOES self insure, that decision is a matter of simple economics, profitability, & a bennie for my customers.
They can buy from someone that is buying "insurance" from the PO at the $1.30 per $50 "sometimes we pay" coverage.....or they can get it from me at the rate of $1 per $100 and it GETS paid in case of damage or loss.
The biggest difference between self insurance and the alleged insurance from USPS is who's pocket the money goes into......I simply got tired of filling the PO's.
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I fully agree with you Ken.
It's the mandatory $1.fee on $2. or $3. unbreakable items that I see as padding the cash flow while avoiding eBay fees and offering lowball prices.
Keyword here is mandatory.
They are taking a valid concept of sometimes using insurance and the valid option of self insuring and turning them into a required payment and profit center.
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shipping is bonkers I have figured people don't like to think a whole lot so I just make it very easy flat rate for the whole shibang: shipping, dc, ins, a pretty box too. no worries It sooo bugs me that even walk in stores are charging for incedentals I don't wanna pay more for extra sweet and sour sauce.