Damned e-Bay

[Justin B.]

They made such a deal about lowering insertion fees I remember it made a news sound-byte here.  After reviewing at the new fee structure, however, I would have preferred they kept "screwing" me on the insertion fees as the selling fees went up about 3.5%!   [smiley=furious3.gif]  Golly, gee, I save a f^&@*(ng nickle when I list something but then owe them another $3.50 if it sells for $100...  Guess I'll have to start padding some of this stuff back into the shipping and handling - oh, then PayPal will get a few cents more, and they're owned by e-Bay!  Can't win...

[Bob_Roller]

I've got a couple of co-workers that are high volume eBay sellers, and they also are not real happy with the new fee schedule.

Kinda looks like the 'good old days of eBay' are gone, for the time being at least.

Shipping costs are my biggest complaint with a lot of eBay sellers, and one of the biggest reasons I don't do too much business on eBay anymore.

[Justin B.]

I have bought from some e-Bay sellers that state in their description to pay very close attention to the shipping and handling for the item when bidding.  Let's say that an item has a fair value of $20 plus $5.00 shipping/handling.  Seller lists for $.99 with S&H of $15, the bidders read and understand the cautionary statement in the description and the high bid winds up being $10 - the totals are the same and final cost to buyer is the same, but not as much fees.  I have no problem with this as I always look at in items price as cost+shipping and bid accordingly.  The problem comes in when a couple of newbs (usually) don't heed the warning (or don't pay attention to the S&H charges), bid the items cost up to the "fair" market value, then bitch and moan about the astronomical handling charges.

I may start doing something along these lines myself.  It's pretty discouraging to have to sell a small item for way more than it's really worth to keep from "paying" somebody to take it after all of the fees are taken into account!

The moral of the story for buyers is, "Add price+shipping as your price when bidding..."

[Bob_Roller]

Checking shipping and handling costs are one of the first things I do before bidding, that and have a good idea what the average price has been on eBay, as well as what the item would cost to purchase it outside of eBay in a retail location.

It's amazing to watch an item sell for, at times, several times the cost that you could get it for locally, plus add the shipping and handling costs to it.

[nhmaf]

Yes, the news coverage up here the other day was that many sellers (and buyers) were going to try to voluntarily boycott
ebay this week to protest these fee increases.  Also, the fact that the new policy removes the ability for sellers to leave feedback about buyers was considered counterproductive and likely to remove an impediment to badly behaved buyers.

someone somewhere in some corporate office felt that they needed and deserved a bigger slice of the pie.  guess they have long since forgotten who brung them to the dance to begin with...
 

[NC Steve]

Thanks for the discussion of Ebay fees, guys.
Like lots of folks, I buy and sell quite a bit there, and always feel like I've gotten ripped whenever I make a sale. I forget the exact figures, but with the last Guzzi parts I sold it seems like between the insertion & listing fees, Paypal fees, and final value charges, I was out 17-18%: too damn much!

I never realized that Ebay's fees weren't also based on the s&h charges too. I've seen scads of items for sale and thought "that dude's crazy" on the shipping fees, but now it all makes more sense. In fact, even though 10+15= 25 just like 20+5 does, and I too include s&h in my total high bids, I know I've subconsciously passed on a few deals because it seemed like I was getting screwed on the shipping charges.

Now I've seen the light, though...

[Justin B.]

Steve, yeah, like I said though, I have bid on items where the seller purposely drew the potential bidder's attention to the S&H.  I may start doing that as a protest.  The news here today was opposite than that of a few days ago and instead of spouting releases from e-Bay's propaganda department they mentioned the possibility of a protest boycott by sellers.  I have refrained from re-listing anything this week, we'll see what shakes out...

[Bob_Roller]

When I was looking for PIAA 40 driving lights for my '81 R65, I was watching two sellers, one from Hartford, Connecticut, and one from the Los Angles , California area.

The seller from Connecticut had a handling and shipping charge of $15 to the Phoenix area, about 2800 miles, and the seller from Los Angeles was charging $35 for shipping and handling although it was only 375 miles.

Needless to say I went with the seller from the east coast !!!

[Justin B.]

I would have went with whoever had the lowest total price, even if it was the one with $35 S&H...

[Bob_Roller]

The seller from Los Angeles had a price of $130 plus shipping, and I got the lights for $70 plus shipping from the seller from Hartford.

[NC Steve]

I would have went with whoever had the lowest total price, even if it was the one with $35 S&H...

I will too from here on out.
Theoretically speaking, a buyer might even get a better overall deal from a seller with  low item price and sky-high s&h fees.

If you never have, look at digital cameras or laptops sometime, and see the huge s&h fees.
Like I said, that's always turned me right off but now makes sense.
I guess a seller moving lots of these is just trying to make a buck without Ebay & Paypal taking up to 20% of his $$$!

[Justin B.]

PayPal will still get their cut, unfortunately...