Learned a lesson today.....

theump · September 24, 2007 3:36AM

Never bid on an EBAY auction that doesn't have a listed shipping price. I won an auction for a three coin modern comm set which cost roughly $180. The auction said the shipping figure would be emailed. The shipping turned out to be $15.50! $15 f'ing 50 for shipping a $180 item. I have won $20 gold double eagles and not paid that much for insured shipping. Can you say fee advoidance? Needless to say I am not paying that.

Russ · September 24, 2007 3:42AM

Whenever I encounter an auction I'm interested in that doesn't state shipping costs upfront, I eMail the seller and ask.

Russ, NCNE

theump · September 24, 2007 4:16AM

I stumbled across the auction with less about 3 minutes left. I didn't notice the lack of shipping until after the auction was over.

Cladiator · September 24, 2007 4:18AM

Juft think of it as paying a buyers percentage at any of the other auction houfes. Don't fweat the little things man.

theump · September 24, 2007 5:20AM

When I bid on an auction, I know what I am getting myself into. Charging $15.00 for a $180 auction is wrong, especially if it is not disclosed.

doh · September 24, 2007 5:25AM

I agree, $15.50 seems a little excessive, but how big is the box? First class USPS with insurance would be maybe $5-6 of it. The rest I'm sure is some BS "handling charge." I've seen people charging $24.95 or $19.95 for shipping, that ticks me off the most: any shipping charge ending in a ".95" is not legit...it's inflated.

JRC · September 24, 2007 5:41AM

<< I stumbled across the auction with less about 3 minutes left. I didn't notice the lack of shipping until after the auction was over. >>

And your upset about what? Regardless of the time left in an auction, It's YOUR responsibility to find out the particulars BEFORE you bid, not after.
This is exactly why e-Bay has to come up with rule after rule, to protect buyers from themselves.

<< Needless to say I am not paying that. >>

You deserve all the negative feedback you will surely get.

notwilight · September 24, 2007 5:46AM

<< Needless to say I am not paying that. >>

i'm not siding with the seller as I agree that this is too high an by not disclosing it they are purposely planning to charge high shipping and pad the sale price. Probably more padding than fee avoidance. But i bet you end up paying it or close to it. Buy from reputable sellers who disclose shipping. --jerry

Barbercoin · September 24, 2007 6:20AM

<<i'm not siding with the seller as I agree that this is too high an by not disclosing it they are purposely planning to charge high shipping and pad the sale price. Probably more padding than fee avoidance. But i bet you end up paying it or close to it. Buy from reputable sellers who disclose shipping.>>

Excellent point to remember.

mrpotatoheadd · September 24, 2007 6:25AM

<< any shipping charge ending in a ".95" is not legit...it's inflated. >>

If you pay me by check or money order, I charge $1.95 for insured shipping to US and Canada addresses. I'm curious- how, exactly, would that be considered "inflated"?

19Lyds · September 24, 2007 6:28AM

I think the OP should be grateful that the shipping wasn't $19.95 or worse yet $24.95!

Welcome to the school of Hard Knocks!

Just pay your tuition and move along..................

notwilight · September 24, 2007 6:32AM

<< that ticks me off the most: any shipping charge ending in a ".95" is not legit...it's inflated. >>

As a seller I know I can't make all the people happy all the time but I thought I'd pursue this a little further. It is a longstanding business practice to end prices in .99 or .95 to make them seem lower to the buyer. Most if not all of my competition on ebay does this and so do I. So you're saying you'd rather see $5 for shipping rather than $4.95?

notwilight · September 24, 2007 7:22AM

Bochiman, sounds like you are interpreting his comment to say that he expects the shipping charge to be what you would pay at the PO to the penny. If so then I want him to think about the cost of shipping materials. I buy padded envelopes by the 500 lot but they still cost. Labels and a label printer. And I can't possibly hope to recoupe the hours I spend shipping every week at a reasonable labor rate. But I do know that gas is $3 a gallon and I'll be headed to the post office again in a few minutes. Oh yeah, insurance....and I'm sure I forgot other shipping and handling costs.

If he wants these real costs put in the sale price of the item rather than shipping I say that he must be an ebay stockholder and wants them to get an adder on sellers' handling costs.

--jerry

Cgb · September 24, 2007 7:24AM

Ouch thats a bummer.

I always check the shipping before I bid

GFourDriver · September 24, 2007 7:28AM

<<<Can you say fee advoidance? Needless to say I am not paying that. >>>

You sound very much like the guy that sent me this ebay question last night....

<<Why do all the other bidders have an *** in their names? They arnt shill biiders are they?>>

Bidders that go off half baked on ebay without knowing what they are talking about are the biggest pain to sellers. Because of people like that I send all my packages priority, signature confirmation, insured. I sold a coin last night that sold for $304. and charged $9.25 for shipping, my actual cost......$11.85

19Lyds · September 24, 2007 8:38AM

Don't forget about PayPal. EBay charges a Final Value Fee but PayPal takes a piece of everything, including shipping, starting at 3%! So of that $15.50 shipping, PayPal, if used, got $0.47!

Thats one reason I don't calculate the postage because, true, it comes out correctly, but it doesn't take into account the fee's associated with PayPal which a lot of bidders and buyers expect!

Russ · September 24, 2007 8:46AM

<< any shipping charge ending in a ".95" is not legit...it's inflated. >>

I will immediately lower mine to ".94".

Russ, NCNE

Hugegut · September 24, 2007 9:03AM

Don't shoot your seller yet. Did the commems come in their display boxes? A little 3 lb package mailed from here in Boston out to the west coast will cost $10.55, add $300 insurance plus signature confirmation and you're up to $17.25! You can use a flat-rate box and it'll be $8.95 (ends in .95 by the way) but even then you're talking $15.65 with the insurance etc.

doh · September 24, 2007 9:19AM

As a seller I know I can't make all the people happy all the time but I thought I'd pursue this a little further. It is a longstanding business practice to end prices in .99 or .95 to make them seem lower to the buyer. Most if not all of my competition on ebay does this and so do I. So you're saying you'd rather see $5 for shipping rather than $4.95?

That "long standing business practice" is a marketing trick to get people to buy something. Why not just charge what the actually shipping is? Why do you have to trick them? I'm not talking to this one particular individual, I'm talking to everybody. I don't charge for "gas" and "my time driving to the post office." Anytime you upcharge on shipping, it's dishonest. There are no ifs ands or buts about it. Black and White.

And yes, not everything that ends in .95 is inflated (flat rate boxes). I was making a generalization and as we all know, "All generalizations are false, including this one."

Russ · September 24, 2007 9:26AM

<< And yes, not everything that ends in .95 is inflated >>

All my shipping amounts end in ".95", and year to date I'm in the red on shipping to the tune of $1238.17. In case you don't know what in the red means, I've paid out $1238.17 more in shipping expenses then I've received in shipping charges.

Russ, NCNE

mozeppa · September 24, 2007 10:05AM

Russ I feel your pain...

I always ship free and insurance too.

but that just me... the sale price is usually way more than necessary to cover shipping.

i'm just one that doesn't feel it necessary to turn a buck on every turn of the crank!

then again ...i don't really sell that much.

Russ · September 24, 2007 10:17AM

My problem is that I use fixed price shipping that includes insurance, and all too frequently I under-estimate the selling price. OTOH, when it sells for more than estimated, it's more profit so it balances out.

Russ, NCNE

Kaelasdad · September 24, 2007 10:40AM

Im not surprised at a charge of $15.50, most of my items go out priority and its at least $6.90 not counting the packing materials, the time, the gas, etc. Now add on insurance/delivery confirmation/signature confirmation, and even a little item goes for over $10. I recently sent off a gold buffalo and it cost me $16.00 for that little 1 ounce coin, but if i had decided to go cheap and send it First Class instead of Registered, it might have cost me $800 if you know what I mean.

CarlWohlforth · September 24, 2007 10:50AM

You're not paying! You agreed to do the deal by bidding. You failed to learn of shipping costs up front. I think you will not learn your lesson unless you do the right thing and live up to your agreement, pay for the auction, give positive feedback when the item is delivered and move on.

TennesseeDave · September 24, 2007 10:53AM

My wife bought 2 items about a month ago that cost a total of $ 11.00 and the seller didn't combine the shipping charges and we paid $19+ for the shipping.I was pizzed,but paid it anyway and told her to pay closer attention from now on.The seller had over 600,000 feedback.

GFourDriver · September 25, 2007 1:04AM

<<<You're not paying! You agreed to do the deal by bidding. You failed to learn of shipping costs up front. I think you will not learn your lesson unless you do the right thing and live up to your agreement, pay for the auction, give positive feedback when the item is delivered and move on. >>>

Exactly! Man up and move on.

mcmxi · September 25, 2007 1:54AM

Why don't you post a link to the auction so we can see what it says abou shipping?

Deadhorse · September 25, 2007 2:27AM

It could be worse. I once bid on a dutch auction of 10 ounce silver bars, back in the good old cheap days. I won all 10 for around $53 each.

Shipping was listed as $5.40 with insurance included for any amount, one or all. He then tried to charge me $54 to ship them all. We went around and around with him threatening feedback retaliation. I had to get eBay involved and he finally got very reasonable when they contacted him. I agreed that he couldn't ship all of them at that price with the weight around 7+ pounds plus insurance but that was what he listed. I let him off the hook and paid him the exact shipping costs, around $19 or so. The real hassle was that it took nearly a month to finally receive them after all the emails and squabbling. We both gave positive feedback after all was said and done.

This is a perfect example of why I should have contacted him first regarding buying the entire lot.

Aways check shipping before bidding. In this case, even though it was listed, I knew it was way too low. A quick message to him could have saved all the extra work. Ounce of prevention and all that, you know.

Learned a lesson today.....

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