More shipping thievery
BBN
Posts: 3,761 ✭✭✭
Does it really cost $5.50 to ship a raw half dollar? This doesn't even include ins.!!! 
This happened to me yesterday when I won an auction. He later sent the shipping info to my email and said $5.50 and an extra $1.10 for ins. is optional!!!! I'm blacklisting this chap although the coin looks good on the scan.
This happened to me yesterday when I won an auction. He later sent the shipping info to my email and said $5.50 and an extra $1.10 for ins. is optional!!!! I'm blacklisting this chap although the coin looks good on the scan.
Positive BST Transactions (buyers and sellers): wondercoin, blu62vette, BAJJERFAN, privatecoin, blu62vette, AlanLastufka, privatecoin
#1 1951 Bowman Los Angeles Rams Team Set
#2 1980 Topps Los Angeles Rams Team Set
#8 (and climbing) 1972 Topps Los Angeles Rams Team Set
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In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
I live outside U.S, but it usually cost only $10-$20 per a package.
He did have the s/h posted. So I looked up all his auctions and each had a $6.00 s/h cost. So the story goes "Buyer Beware".
There are many honest sellers who do charge actual shipping cost. You just have to look a little closer.
on another note....and one most all non thinkers wont like...the costs of shipping is either at a loss or a profit....if you want to stay around a while it better be at a profit............so lets see
1) stamps....say 50 cents each due to weight...and this is an average
2) small bubble envelope...say 50 cents each
3) aquisition of the above....i would send for a cab and let him go shopping at walmart for the stuff and let him pay for his own gas,tires insurance and his profit ....if i did 10 packages a week ...id buy a 5 week supply....in my "hood' it would be about 35 dollars....thats.......70 cents each
4) id pay my next door neighbor`s kid to come over and address items and pack once a week for an hour at $ 6 per hour ...thats 60 cents each
5) once a week id call the cab back to take the 10 items to the po....since he would have to wait in line and do all the mailing stuff ....he would charge me about $ 35 dollars....thats $3.50 per item
so lets see..50+50+70+60+3.50= $5.80.......gezz if i was charging $5.50 id be losing money on every transaction
i guess thats why i have been in business for 30 years....own all my real estate ( 9 stores ).....and its all paid for.....along with my house .....3 cars...and everything i have ( including a huge coin collection).....i would be charging 6 dollars....those guys doing it at 5.50 are losing money which is something sucessfull people dont so
just my 2 cents
gregg
out of rockets ...out of bullets...switching to harsh language
Figure the S/H into your bid. If you don't know what it is, don't bid.
For the seller, sometimes the only profit (if there is one) comes from the S/H fee.
Here is an example of a 2002 silver eagle I sold from a roll (unit cost $7). I listed it for 0.01 and $3.00 S/H. It sold for $7.50 + $3 = $10.50
$0.30 ebay listing fee
$0.38 ebay sale fee
$0.60 PayPal fee
$0.18 padded envelope (100 qty)
$0.60 postage
-------
$2.06 expenses
$7.00 product
$9.06 TOTAL COST
So profit was $1.44
On a 1999 PCGS MS69 Eagle (unit cost $48) sold for $51 + $5 S/H + $2 Insurance
$0.65 ebay listing fee
$2.03 ebay sale fee
$1.84 PayPal fee
$0.18 padded envelope (100 qty)
$2.36 postage
-------
$7.06 expenese
$48.00 product
$55.06TOTAL COST
$57.00 Income
$ 1.94 Profit
But since he wanted insurance I had to drive 7 miles to the post office (@ IRS $.33 per mile) and wait in line for 20 minutes.
And I'm not even in this for a profit, just liquidation.
My posts viewed
since 8/1/6
As far as taking a taxi to wal-mart call office depot they'll deliver free
The USPS will pick-up at your house or office every day free.
Of course if you wanted to you could call a limo!
You claim to be in business but if you screw your customers you won't be for long.
Why not make your profit on the coin not on the S/H
As a seller, I hope buyers realize this too, and take the price plus s&h fees as the amount of money they're willing to pay for the item. If the s&h fees aren't listed you should contact the seller for estimates; and can figure out approximately the cost depending on how close you live to the seller.
Proof Dime Registry Set
my hotels
Coin was grossly overgraded and may have only been a fine-VF.
Postage was $3.95 and I paid extra for insurance.
The coin arrived with a total Post Office charge of $1.90 which included insurance.
It cost me $1.90 to return it, so I am out $5.25 plus $1.90, total $7.15 to look at this guys overgraded coin.
He, on the other hand, got to pocket $3.35 and gets to sell the coin again.
He left me positive feedback already and I am considering NEGGING him for his little scam, but since it is a matter of grading, don't feel it would be fair of me to do so.
I NEVER bid on an auction with $6 or more postage and handling.
I agree completely!
$6.00 is NOT a lot for shipping. It's poor sense to think this is somehow a profit for the seller.
The shipping cost shouldn't be set relative to the selling price of the item. This only makes sense if the item is a "loss leader"...meaning that though the seller loses money on it--which must be supported by other sales--it somehow benefits his business in the big picture to sell it that way. On ebay, the only benefit for that I can think of might be increased business exposure or boosting feedback through numerous small transactions.
Shipping cost must cover time, materials, etc. Unless you have access to the seller's business records, you are simply assuming the worst about a person. Do not assume that every seller has the same business costs.
If you want to buy a $0.99 coin for $0.99, then support your local coin shop, rather than buying on ebay.
If the shipping charge is not stated in an auction, then ask first or don't bid.
1956Quarter: you might want to check ebay rules. I don't think sellers are allowed to explicitly charge for ebay fees, though this might be different since it involves paypal.
??????As far as taking a taxi to wal-mart call office depot they'll deliver free>>>>>>>
......if that is the case thanks for the stock tip......i am shorting office depot as we speak........please dont tell me that you think all those "zero interest " cars people have been buying are really interest free...lol!!!
>>>>>>The USPS will pick-up at your house or office every day free>>>>>
even when it comes to insurance and the forms you have to fill out????not!!!!
>>>>>Of course if you wanted to you could call a limo!>>>>
i used the cab example to prove a point....time is money......people have 3 very important assets...family....money and time....most value their time the least........i trade my money for time all the time...and if you think about it ...even the poor ole floor sweeper who has 100 dollars to his name has more money than time when he is on his death bed
>>>>>You claim to be in business but if you screw your customers you won't be for long>>>>>
now you peepd your brain wave status.....as i said " for 30 years "...and in fact last year over 350,000 people bought from my stores last year......and i wish it was only 340,000....as a small % always wants something for nothing !!!!!!
here is a business iq test for you ( there is a 50/50 chance f you getting it right so....unfortunately 95% get it wrong )....if you answer it right then you should understand sellers covering their costs of shipping
DOES AN INSURANCE COMPANY WANT TO PAY OUT 1 BILLION A YEAR IN CLAIMS OR 2 BILLION A YEAR IN CLAIMS???
.
.
.EHHHHHHHHHH
.
.
.
I THOUGHT YOU`d GET IT WRONG...insurance companies work on margins...lets say 3% for example...when you said 1 billion they would make 30 million.....but the answer is 2 billion where they can make 60 million
alright here is an easier one for you..............if a seller spends 6 dollars to ship and only charges 5 how long will it take him to set up a "fullfillment dept ".......and make it a profitable ( or at least breakeven ) facet of his business
.
.
..
.mmmmmmmmm NEVER....and you shouldnt of said a year.......you shouldnt of cut econ 101 class
ttyl
gregg
out of rockets ...out of bullets...switching to harsh language
1 guy makes 30 an hour ....another makes a million a year.....both go buy a great looking golf shirt for 60 dollars
both get home and open the box and find a big hole in it....what do you do??????
i know you bring it back..........but the guy who makes a million a year tosses it in the garbage
you see it would take an hour to round trip the shirt`s return....for the 30 dollar an hour guy its a good return for his time
the million dollar a year guy......well lets do the math........million a year is 500 per hour..........1 hour lost time = 500.......mmmmmm better to take the 60 dollar loss now than tack 500 to the loss
so into the garbage it goes........
gregg
ps actually you put them in the rag drawer not the garbage
out of rockets ...out of bullets...switching to harsh language
*******************************************************************************
I was going to say, "you use the shirt for a gun-cleaning rag or something comparable"....but I see you beat me to it.
GSAGUY
If a perceived high shipping cost ticks off large numbers of bidders, that's bad business.
The difference between a profitable or losing eBay sale often comes down to one underbidder. If your "reasonable" $6.00 shipping charge scares off that one guy, you could easily lose multiples of that on the final bid price.
Although I do disagree with those sellers who really inflate price of shipping.
And for the sellers who do this for a living, I especially have no problem with them charging an additional fee for such things. Ask yourself if you'd go to work and work for free--not me!
Hosing someone on shipping is bad business and wrong, but for people looking to pay only shipping and insurance, I think they are too hopeful and should not be angry if someone adds a little for misc. items including time.
WANTED: I need these coins
Always looking for PCGS buffs, 1917 SLQs, and pre-1933 GOLD.
Check my want list above!!!
The assistant at $15 to $20 per hour can return the shirt and get his drycleaning.
WANTED: I need these coins
Always looking for PCGS buffs, 1917 SLQs, and pre-1933 GOLD.
Check my want list above!!!
Office Depot does deliver for free! Yes I know nothing is free. However thay also price match so if Wal-Mart price is lower, the delivery is actually free. As a local govermential official, part of my job is to make sure I'm getting the lowest price-all considerations included-.
Yes I knew the insurance question--the hard way-- Several years ago we had a bill in the Texas Legislature dealing with Fire Dept grants. The Insurance lobby killed it for that very reason.
BTW I got a A in econ 3101
I don't mind paying a reasonable price for S/H/I, but I was recently charged $5.30 for shipping that cost the sender no more than $0.55 to send. He charged me insurance but didn't insure it.
As far as staying in business I guess your right, McDonalds is still in business but if you ever saw them make their hamburgers at their plant in Cohoes, N.Y. you wouldn't eat them.
>>>>monsterman, being a succesful businessman in other facets of life doesn't necessarily qualify you as a successful eBay seller<<<<<
you have got to be kidding...did you really say that???? do you really think like that ????thats like me going to my human resource guy and saying...." why in the heck did you hire that guy........just because he was a straight A student at harvard doesnt mean he is smart "
think about your logic here!!!!!! the fact is being a sucessful businessman in other facets of life does indeed qualify you...in fact it says a lot about a person...................thats like saying where ever you work.....your your annual eval means nothing....and if you think that way i guess there will be no promotion for you!sorry
gregg
out of rockets ...out of bullets...switching to harsh language
<< <i>thats like saying where ever you work.....your your annual eval means nothing >>
It does, indeed, mean something. If it's good, it means one is an excellent ass-kisser.
Russ, NCNE
You missed or ignored the main point of my post, which is this:
Ebay is populated by many individuals who are not businesses, and who charge actual shipping cost (or less). Because of this, reasonable or not, many eBay bidders expect cheap shipping fees.
If your $6 of "good business sense" shipping scares away one underbidder, it could easily cost you far more than that in a lower price realized for your auction. Your auction is only as good as your best underbidder.
Recently when I've auctions ending both Saturday and Sunday, I'll tell my Saturday winners that I will ship any Sunday winnings free. Obviously I lose a bit on shipping the Sunday auctions, but that's a loss I'm happy to take if it means they won an auction where they otherwise may not have even bid.
But, you're right there's no chance I'll be promoted. I keep failing my annual evaluation. I guess I'm too strict of a boss.
I don't object to paying a few extra bucks for shipping, if that is mentioned up front, so I can factor it into my bidding. You could sell me a coin for for a dollar, plus $399 shipping. I wouldn't complain, if the coin happened to be a certified MS Saint. It's the bottom line that counts.
If I know....KNOW.... the s/h costs before I bid then why in the world would I complain if I bid and win?
Personnaly I have paid, more than once, 50% or even 150% of the purchase price for what I received. I knwe this up front and agreed.... no problem. Heck if I thought it was too much I wouldn't bid.
Seems reasonable to me.
1-Dammit Boy Oct 14,2003
International Coins
"A work in progress"
Wayne
eBay registered name:
Hard_ Search (buyer/bidder, a small time seller)
e-mail: wayne.whatley@gmail.com
Just because someone charges you 6 dollars for shipping and the actual postage was only 1 dollar, doesn't necessarily mean they are making 5 dollars off you or trying to cheat you. There are many times shipping supplies involved, their time and gas to drive to the post office, etc. So if the seller has to spend 50 cents on a bubble envelope, spend 35 minutes round trip in heavy traffic to go to the post office, his gas to drive there, etc........how much is he really making on postage for the time and aggrevation involved??
Would the buyer be better off spending 6-8 dollars in gas and possibly another 10-12 dollars in parking to drive to a coin show to buy that same coin?
Dragon
And we can make logical arguments all day long in response to outcries about "high" shipping, i.e. bidders should just figure the shipping into their maximum bid amount. But the fact remains that "high" shipping ticks off a number of bidders (e.g. the title of this thread) and reduces the number of bidders.
As a seller, it seems to me the ideal amount to charge for shipping is the one that puts the most net money in my pocket.
If I thought I'd net more money by giving bidders a $1 rebate for the privilege of letting me ship to them, I'd do that too!
Everything works out fine if you keep the coin but if you don't want to keep the coin this is where shipping may make a big difference.
If you paid $400. ($399. coin $1. shipping) no problem. But if you paid $400. ($1. coin $399. shipping) things don't work out the same.
Joe.
it doesn't matter who's entitled to what. it's all a market.
i could set up a general store right next to walmart and tell people all day long that i deserve to make this much profit on this and that much on that, but money talks - and it would be walking right past me to walmart.
if a seller wants to charge $50,000,000 for his "time" in shipping and item, that's up to him. if some guy thinks he's entitled to $7 for shipping, fine. if the next guy wants $3, fine. Those rates will all be reflected in the final auction price.
there are some pretty astute people on these boards and many of them dealers. i myself am a very loyal customer if i find a seller that treats me right. i think most dealers would agree that losing a couple dollars in shipping while making $40-50 per transaction (and pleasing a customer who may return) is not necessarily a bad thing.
here's an econ101 quiz to try:
1. if you want $7 for your time and the next guy wants $3 for his time - who do you think's gonna get the business?
2. if the cost of a business input rises (ie. property taxes for an apartment or freight for a retailer) how much of the cost is passed on to the consumer?
2 Cam-Slams!
1 Russ POTD!
it means you're an excellent ass kisser.
russ, you took the words right out of my mouth. anyone who would disagree with that statement has obviously not experienced the real world. i've found that career advancement has very little to do with hard work and skills and has everything to do with knowing the right person.
i would question the "wisdom" of anyone who tried to equate a person's success with their objective marketable skills.
2 Cam-Slams!
1 Russ POTD!
$0.65 ebay listing fee
$2.03 ebay sale fee
$0.60 PayPal fee
$0.18 padded envelope (100 qty)
$0.60 postage
So profit was $1.44
that's better than 19% return on capital - many business would kill for that kind of return. as a matter of fact the bank only pays me 2% interest on my capital - and i have to use my own TIME to go and claim it!
2 Cam-Slams!
1 Russ POTD!
huh?
a cab? neighbor kids? why not charge them for your time in creating the listing? i mean, you could have been making money in that time. why not storage? i mean, you could have been storing precious gems in the space those coins were occupying - you know, opportunity cost and all. and you did have to go through all the trouble to call the cab. and don't forget the man-hours involved in accounting for all of these costs.
hell, you may have been scratching off a million dollar lottery ticket instead of writing that listing - i think it only fair the bidder should pay for that lost opportunity...
ooh, by the by - you owe me $145 for the time i just spent correcting your economics and $4 for wear-and-tear on my keyboard.
2 Cam-Slams!
1 Russ POTD!
i would question the "wisdom" of anyone who tried to equate a person's success with their objective marketable skills. >>>>>>>>>>>>
now there is a rocket scientist for ya!!!......words of wisdom..yup!!...........dude....i dont know where you work but please tell me ....because companies have what we call "corporate culture"....and who you are is what they are........and i really like to short companies that employee people that say things such as you do!!!!!!!
ladies and gentlemen....the betting window opens!!!!!!!!
here is the bet ( i make bets every single day of my life....i bet on me getting the right employees to run my companies )...so here it is...
who do you think has the best chance to be sucessful at anything..ebay.....accounting.........running a store.......running an office........rubbing a trucking company.....bulding a chair.....anything
a) a straight A graduate from harvard
or
b) a person whop would say this >>>>>>>> i've found that career advancement has very little to do with hard work and skills and has everything to do with knowing the right person.
i would question the "wisdom" of anyone who tried to equate a person's success with their objective marketable skills. >>>>>>>>>>>>
well who did you pick?????????
fish..........the point is ...and get this life line......it paramount to being a success.......and if you want to be successful you better use it!!!
*************WHATS PAST IS PROLOGUE***********
now fish....about the math.......let me slow down for you and i`ll take it out of a sentence so you can " to the math " easier
>>>>>>>ooh, by the by - you owe me $145 for the time i just spent correcting your economics >>>>>>
10 items per week
5 week supply
35 in cabbie cost going to the store
35 divided by 50=.70 cents
***********GOT IT THIS TIME********************
and another thing......you peeped another hole card ( aka freudian slip.....be carefull human resource guys catch these things all the time ....so if you have ever wondered why they didnt call after the interview....now you know)
>>>>>>>>>>So profit was $1.44
that's better than 19% return on capital - many business would kill for that kind of return. as a matter of fact the bank only pays me 2% interest on my capital - and i have to use my own TIME to go and claim it!>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
lets see now
1) product aquistion time
2) product listing time
3) customer email question answering time
4) customer notification time
5) packing material aquistion time
6) postal time
7) driving for any of the above time
8) gas exp
9) auto wear and tear expense
10)............geez i could go on and on
but you get the point
between listing and all of the above AND SOME i could see you could do maybe 6 transactions an hour if your good
i``ll slow down for you fish
40 hr week
50 weeks a year ( 2 are for vaction :-)...lol you`ll need it!!!
2000 hours X 6= 12000 x $1.44 = $17,280
MAN YOUR KILLIN `EM.....WHY DIDNT I THINK OF THAT........IF YOU WERE REALLY GOOD....YOU WOULD MAKE LESS THAN 9 BUCS A HOUR
****************news flash***************
dude.........your in deep do-do!!!!......BUT I KNEW THAT FROM YOUR FIRST STATEMENT
out of rockets ...out of bullets...switching to harsh language
a) a straight A graduate from harvard
or
b) a person whop would say this >>>>>>>> i've found that career advancement has very little to do with hard work and skills and has everything to do with knowing the right person.
a "straight A graduate from harvard" that was as naturally intelligent (which would likely be totally unrelated to the fact they went to harvard and got straight A's) as you're building him up to be would know the second statement to be true. so the answer is impossible to tell from you given information.
you don't need to slow down for me. i'm an econ major and financial analyst. i can go round and round with this, but this is the the most concise i can make it. don't feel bad if you can't follow - this stuff's not for everyone...
in capitalist competitive commerce, there are natural market forces that govern trade - you don't make them, i don't make them, they're naturally occuring. these expenses you've mentioned are all valid expenses. however, they are never completely "eaten" by either the seller or the buyer. the amount passed on to the consumer is determined by the elasticity of the market.
now, by your thinking, an apartment landlord receiving a notice of higher property taxes would simply pass 100% of the cost to his tenants in higher rent exclaiming "it's an expense, and if i don't pass it on i'll be losing money". whether or not he can pass those costs to his tenants is determined by elasticity.
consider a neighborhood where there are few vacant apartments, and few other options for tenants. the landlord can pass a higher percentage of those increased costs to tenants and they most likely will stay and pay the higher rates. local tenants will likely consume the same amount of rented space (inelastic market). note that even in this situation 100% of the costs will not be passed on to the tenants unless the market is "perfectly" inelastic (meaning that there are no possible substitutes, including other apartments, buying a house, or moving out of the area).
now consider a neighborhood with an abundance of apartments, cheap housing, and possibly a poor local job market (elastic market - consumers are very sensitive to increases in price). the landlord will only be able to pass on a very small portion of the increase to tenants, and the unallocated amount will simply cut into his profit. the tenants have many options including competing apartments, buying a house, or simply moving away. a tax hike in this situation would likely cause the low-margin apartments to be abandoned by the landlords and increase the demand for private residence.
now, you may stick to your guns and expect your tenants to pay all of your marginal increases - but it ain't gonna happen. you would watch all of your tenants move out into their abundant substitutes and, without even realizing the economic law in effect, would lower your rates to stay competetive. if the rate is lower than your break-even point you would simply shut down. but in any case you can't dictate what the market will bring - it all happens thanks to god's most wonderful creation, economics.
now, i'll let you apply what you've learned here to Ebay. I think everyone here will agree that Ebay is a very elastic market. not only are there a plethora of sellers but there is also the option of not using Ebay at all, and simply going to your local coin store. buying directly from the mint or online stores is another option. quitting coin collecting altogether is yet another option.
now, couple that with the fact that coin dealing is a small margin business and yes, there will be a lot of sellers who simply cannot do business on Ebay and stay profitable. the large coin dealers enjoy economies of scale in their selling (their butler can take 500 packages at once to the post office, or the neighbor kids benefit from an "assembly line" packaging of your product) and can charge reduced shipping rates.
i've bought hundreds of items on Ebay and had them shipped to me for usually between $3-$5. many times i've paid less for shipping than what the rate on the package stated that the cost was - not including their time, expenses etc. sure, after all their expenses for shipping that package to me are calculated, it would probably be in excess of $20. they were able to pass along $3-$5 of it. the rest was absorbed as a cost of competing in an elastic market. jives pretty well with the laws i laid out, huh?
if you feel you can't possibly compete in this market, you best stay out - or be driven out.
if you feel that a seller deserves to be compensated for every calorie of effort expended in shipping that item, fine. so are you telling me that you'd bid on an auction where the final price would be $15 above all other auctions for the same item? if so, you've shattered 300 years of economic theory!
i can send you graphs and diagrams at your request, and invite you to compare these notes with some of your straight A harvard economic grad students.
of course all of this is moot as supercoin's responses were all completely accurate.
2 Cam-Slams!
1 Russ POTD!
you are exactly right in what you said and also with your comment of a thumbs up on super`s
........alrighty then
gregg
out of rockets ...out of bullets...switching to harsh language
Whatever it is monsterman does, it allows him to collect the coins that dealers are trying to scrabble a margin out of in today's (elastic? inelastic? ...highly competitive...) market. Sounds like more fun to me!
In other words, don't let your kids grow up to be coin dealers.
LOL
Greg
And yes, he does look mean, I have to go re-read my posts to see if I was polite. Mr. Monsterman, Sir, from here on out.
Gregg Bingham
Position: Middle Linebacker
Team: Houston Oilers
Years: 1973-1984
Career: The inside linebacker is the guy on defense who seems to "mix it up" on every play. His job is to meet the ball carrier on every run, blitz the quarterback or drift into coverage on every pass. He's an integral part of every defensive snap.
None was more effective at that for the Houston Oilers than Gregg Bingham, a gutty linebacker from Purdue who manned the middle in Columbia Blue for twelve seasons. Selected in the fourth round of the 1973 draft, Bingham was the only Oiler draft choice that year that panned out.
He wasn't particularly big at 6'1" 230 lbs. He wasn't exceptionally fast. He wasn't exceptionally strong. What made Gregg stand out was his uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time. His 21 career regular-season interceptions are a testament to that. Bingham led Houston in tackles in every season but one.
Gregg started his Oiler career during the awful 1-13 season. Plugged into the new 3-4 defense of Bum Phillips the next year, Bingham swiped four enemy passes and helped shut down some of the league's best rushers. In 1975, Gregg intercepted four more while the team built a 10-4 record. With Robert Brazile now at his side in the linebacking corps, the Oiler defense was third in the AFC in fewest points allowed.
Bingham scored the only touchdown of his career during the 1977 campaign, a year that saw the Oiler defense lead the AFC in fumbles forced and fumbles recovered.
The next two years were, of course, the ones remembered so fondly by Oiler fans. At age 27, Gregg was in his prime. Bingham continued to stick his hat in the pile as the Oilers rode into the AFC Championship game two years in a row. Although he didn't intercept a pass during the 1978 regular season, Bingham picked off two tosses during the playoffs. He'd do the same the next year to Denver's Craig Morton in the Wildcard game.
Gregg had one of those motors that never stopped. "To keep him out of the game, you'd have to cut his head off and hide it," admired Phillips.
Still, he never received the All-Pro or Pro Bowl honors you'd expect of someone who played so well. On defense, the accolades went to guys named Bethea, Culp and Brazile. At his position in the AFC were guys like Jack Lambert, Nick Buoniconti, Randy Gradishar and Willie Lanier. Bingham's feats were often overlooked.
As the Oilers' fortunes faded, Bingham weathered the storms as he always did, with hard-nosed consistent play. A fractured hip during the 1982 exhibition season caused him to miss two regular season contests, the only two he missed in his entire career, snapping a string of 134 games (in fairness, he would have missed more games were it not for the players strike that year).
Gregg retired after the 1984 season as Houston's all-time leading tackler at 1,970. In a league where free agency and salary caps send most players packing within a few years, Bingham's franchise record may never be broken.
But at least he isn't too big or too strong
1. Anyone can charge whatever they want for shipping. Gregg's observations/calculations are fine for him. Someone else may mail 100 packages a day and the numbers come out differently. But, it seems to me that there is a "norm" on eBay, and if you are going to charge more than the norm, you should indicate the price in your listing. The norm is somewhere around $$2.50-$3.00 plus insurance for a slabbed coin, and somewhat less for a raw coin. As a buyer, if I bid on an auction that did not specify shippig (bad idea, and I almost certainly wouldn't---but if I did. . .) I would be a little upset if the seller announced a shipping charge substantially more than this.
2. Somewhere in this thread someone said that the $1.44 profit represents a 19% return on capital. This is a rediculous statement unless your time is worth nothing to you! As Gregg has pointed out, there is time involved in all this. Saying this is a 19% return on capital implies that you put a zero value on your time. Let's say you value your time at $30 per hour (about $60,000 per year: a relatively modest amount for a successful business owner). Let's say it takes you 1 minutes each to list the item; invoice the item; pack the item; ship the item. Forget about the time to drive to the post office; stand in line at the post office, dtc. This four minutes (which is a pretty optimistic time estimate---it normally takes most of us longer, certainly for the packing and addressing part) represents $2.00 of your time, so all the sudden you $1.44 profit turns into a $0.56 loss---or, another way of looking at it is your $30 per hour turned into $21.60 per hour.
just my two cents worth!
Pete
mike - yeah i would agree that if you're dealing with high-end coins that additional costs would be less elastic. a rise in shipping prices would not cause a drastic drop in the quantity of high-end coins demanded. if you paying $20,000 for a coin, you would likely pay $20 shipping as quickly as you'd pay $5. the supply of high-end coins is low and the demand is also relatively high, which works in the seller's favor. i'm picturing the supply-curve shift in my mind.
i'm not trying to get nasty monster, just explaining that no one person controls any aspect of the market. sellers that charge more for shipping are affecting their quantity demanded - and in a very elastic market the rise in price would greatly lower quantity demanded.
if one seller thinks he can raise prices and not suffer a drop in quantity demanded he's wrong unless it's an oligopoly (a few sellers) or monopoly (one seller).
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<< <i>now you peepd your brain wave status >>
What does "peepd" mean? Brain wave status? What the heck are you talking about?
<< <i>I THOUGHT YOU`d GET IT WRONG...insurance companies work on margins...lets say 3% for example...when you said 1 billion they would make 30 million.....but the answer is 2 billion where they can make 60 million >>
Well, all businesses work on margins. Anyone who'd read your poorly worded question would assume that the income the company had was fixed and the larger claims payout means that they're losing money against the same amount of income. You didn't say anything about holding the volume of business constant against the income, and paying more claims doesn't necessairly mean more basis for a profitable margin.
Think about it: the insurance industry paid record claims after that hurricane tore through Florida in the early 90's. Were they jumping for joy? No--they paid in response to claims to cover their customer's losses. They didn't increase their income by paying more claims, and therefore lost money that year.
.B ekiM