Ebay Shipping Question

[maciec]

I have been buying off of eBay for quite some time now using my dh's account. Now that I have started to establish my own account I have a burning question..........Why do people charge a handling fee? This just boggles my mind. I cannot understand what there is to handle about a cd or a shirt or an italian charm! It's like people are jacking up their shipping costs so that they get the amount that they want for the item. Why not just start the bidding at the lowest price you are willing to accept for the item? Why aren't people fair and use the shipping calculator? I just don't get it and as you can tell I am really frustrated because of it!

Ok, I am done. Thanks for letting me vent

 

[disneysteve]

maciec - I agree with you 100% but be warned that many folks do not. When I list an item on ebay (which I've been doing for nearly 7-1/2 years now), I base my starting bid on several factors: what I paid for the item, what the item generally sells for, what fees ebay will charge me for the listing, what shipping materials will cost me, what my time is worth, etc. Then once the auction ends, I charge the customer the final bid plus the actual postage.

Many people, however, start their auctions low to attract bidders. But to protect themselves from selling the item too cheaply, they tack on a vague "handling" fee. Some say it is to cover the cost of shipping materials - envelope, bubble wrap, etc. Others say it is to compensate them for their time. Some probably do it to evade ebay fees since fees are based on the final bid, not the amount the buyer ultimately pays. Many people feel it is okay to make a profit on shipping. Personally, I don't agree. I think the profit should be made on the item itself.

My advice - don't bid unless you know exactly how much shipping will be and what that price includes. If actual postage is $3.95 and the seller is charging $5.00, find out why BEFORE bidding. If you aren't happy with the answer, shop elsewhere. Ebay is a great place to shop (and sell) but it is definitely "buyer beware."

 

[disneychrista]

Handling fees can cover MANY things, packaging materials, time and effort to list on ebay etc. Personally I do not want Ebay to take a cut of these things, so I add it to the shipping and handling fee.

As a buyer on ebay, I always look at both the bid price and the shipping and handling to figure out my cost. I would rather buy the item for $10 bid plus $5 shipping then $15 bid and $3 shipping.

And using the calculator does not prevent the use of a handling fee, it allows you to input handling fee thay is added to the shipping.

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by disneychrista
Handling fees can cover MANY things, packaging materials, time and effort to list on ebay etc. Personally I do not want Ebay to take a cut of these things, so I add it to the shipping and handling fee.

I understand this and I think that makes sense from the seller's point of view. The problem is that there is no way for the buyer to know if the fee is fair until the item is received and then it is too late to do anything about it.

Asking the total shipping charge in advance let's you know how much you will pay, but it still doesn't let you know if the seller is jacking up their profit by adding the handling fee. If I pay $5 shipping and the box arrives with only $3 postage, I feel I've been ripped off for $2.

Even though the total paid would be the same, I'd rather buy an item for $10 plus $3 actual postage, than $7 plus $6 shipping and handling if the latter choice arrived with only $3 of actual postage on the box.

Just my opinion, which I know is not widely shared . My wife and I almost never buy anything mail order from catalogs or Internet because of the shipping charges being so outrageous. The exceptions are 1) collectibles that are not available elsewhere and 2) online prices that are so low that even with shipping the cost is still less than we would pay locally.

 

[vjc715]

We are ebay power sellers ..... Prior to selling on ebay, I too never understood why sellers charged a handling feel UNTIL we started selling.

First there is supply costs....we bubble wrap each item, use bubble wrap envelopes, packing tape, peanuts, boxes when necessary, paper, ink cartridges,etc. All you do is have to price these things per month and you would be suprised how they all add up! Our bill for all these items to wrap cosmetics are approx $300-400 per month.

If we did not wrap our items 100% securly to ensure non breakage, buyers would complain. If the buyer didn't buy insurance....and their item wasn't packed with TLC and damaged by the post office ....buyers would complain.

Now....if we incorporated the amount of packaging materials in our selling price, ebay would get a chunk of it. When an item is sold, ebay takes a certain percentage of what the item sold for. We believe that when listing an item, the item cost listed is just the item cost. We believe it's not fair that ebay gets a chunk of our shipping/handling costs. If you do order items from a catalog, homeshopping, store for home delivery, there is always handling incorporated.

Also....for some sellers, they have to drive their packages to the post office and wait in line. We use stamps.com to print our postage, but it also costs us a fee. Nevertheless, we still have to drive to the post office and drop off the packages. We obviously can't leave them in our postal box because it's too small, we can't leave them out front of our house due to someone possibly stealing them or the items getting melted. And we are not home, for the postmaster to personally knock on our door to get the packages due to us being at our jobs.

With all this said.....we are powersellers with over 2100+ unique feedbacks and over 3000+ total feedback, with 100% feedback. A rare find. It's because we DON'T do what alot of sellers do which is GROSSLY overcharge for shipping/handling. And we also don't overcharge buyers when they buy multiple auctions. We offer discounted shipping per additional item. We do not believe in ripping off our customers.

My biggest tips to buyers.....if you feel you do not agree with the auctions cost of shipping/handling terms at the time of bidding on the auction...DO NOT BID! If the envelope says that you paid $2 or $3 over than the actual shipping cost, realize there is ALOT more involved than you will ever realize until you sell yourself.

 

[Figaro]

Hi, maciec!

One of the great things about eBay is that there is almost always going to be another something coming along that you want to buy. I don't buy from anyone who charges more than a dollar for handling and prefer to buy from people who put "actual postage cost" in their description. I've never had a problem waiting for a seller to come along with an item that meets my criteria(smile).

A dear friend of mine has been selling on eBay since very early after it started and she has never charged (in over 4,000 sales) anything other than the actual cost to mail the package. All of her boxes come from grocery/liquor stores and all of her packing material is from the discards from companies. Heck, one of the local shops calls her whenever they have a lot of peanuts, bubble wrap and foam so that she can go in and pick it up.

Because she does this and has a great reputation, many people check back on her list of items frequently because they like doing business with her and she has a nice group of repeat buyers.

 

[maciec]

I didn't think about the Ebay fees .... Point taken.

I do pass on those auctions where I believe that the shipping and "handling" is unfair.

There is a lot more that I would like to say, but for fear of being flamed I will hold my opinions to myself.

I agree with some of the things that you all have said, but there are things that I don't agree with.

Thanks for sharing your opinions and I will take everything you all have said into consideration.

For someone just starting out with the selling aspect of Ebay I just want to be fair to my customers and be a good Ebayer.

 

[CheapMom]

In general I don't care what the shipping/handling is as long as I am paying $XX.XX for the item total. However, when I see a really high shipping price with a .01 starting price or a realy low buy it now price, I pass, because that is clearly fee avoidance which is unethical.
It really does add up: the postage, packing materials, time, eBay, PayPal fees, and travel to the post office or UPS. I wouldn't be disenchanted with a seller charging around $2 over actual shipping.

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by CheapMom
It really does add up: the postage, packing materials, time, eBay, PayPal fees, and travel to the post office or UPS. I wouldn't be disenchanted with a seller charging around $2 over actual shipping.

Again, I understand that my opinion falls in the minority, but the hope is that when you sell an item on ebay (or anywhere for that matter) you are making a profit over what you paid for the item. I feel that part of that profit goes to cover expenses like materials and auction fees. When you go to the supermarket, they don't charge you extra for each bag you use or a rental fee for the shopping cart or a surcharge to pay by credit card. All of those expenses are worked into the item prices. I choose to do the same with my ebay auctions. I've been selling since May 1997. At my peak, I was running 100 auctions at a time and grossing over $2000/month so I do have a reasonable amount of experience. I've gotten great feedback so doing it the "actual postage" way can work just fine also.

And just to be clear, I don't have a problem with a small, reasonable fee. But the only time you can tell if the fee was reasonable is after you receive the item.

 

[Cinderpals]

I charge for bubble wrap, bubbled mailers, tissue paper etc... My handling fee never quite covers the expense of shipping most items, but I too buy things on ebay and end up paying much more for S&H than I'm willing to charge. Now, if I can just charge for those darn Paypal fees!!

 

[cdrn1]

I bought some wine glasses on ebay and the seller charged $10 shipping, which I knew in advance of course, and figured it was because she needed to carefully wrap them for shipping. Well, when they arrived, I found she had paid $5 to ship and they were in their ORIGINAL home interior packaging (so it had cost her nothing to package the item) and one of the four goblets was broken!!! When I emailed her she said she would refund my money if I sent the remaining goblets back! Which would, of course, have cost me $5!!!! I don't mind paying a modest handling fee provided the item comes well-packaged; this was sure not the case.

 

[Ilovestitch]

When you sell something, you have to pick from a list of shipping options. First class, priority, etc. and you put choose a method and put in a dollar amt. for shipping. For example, I'm selling something and at the bottom of the auction it automatically says
"Shipping and handling:
(within United States) US Postal Service Priority Mail: US $3.99"

So buyers can actually tell how something is being shipped before bidding. If a buyer thinks shipping is too much, then they should just hit the back button and not bid. When I sell something, I usually make shipping as low as possible to attract more bidders.

If you really want to talk about overcharging on shipping then go to disneystore.com. It costs $7 to ship an italian charm from them!

-Steph

 

[LisaZoe]

I can't speak from a seller's perspective since I haven't sold anything on eBay... but am definitely considering it for the future. However, as a buyer, I always (now ) check the shipping charge before I bid and include that in my decision on my highest bid. So far, I have not bid on any auctions that require an interested bidder to contact the seller for S & H charge. So far, I've mostly bid on Disney pins. Since these don't require the kind of care in packing that fragile items would nor are they heavy, I don't know why a seller could not list the S & H fees for domestic shipping. (I can understand needing to have international bidders check for charges first since those could vary.)

One thing I've been doing is looking at shipping fees for similar items. If one auction seems to be a lot more than other similar ones, I don't bid on it. I have no problem paying someone for their shipping materials and time spent packing/mailing my purchase but I don't want to pay a lot for S & H just so that seller can start the auction with a 1 cent bidding price.

 

[vjc715]

I have to agree with LisaZoe, who has the cutest princess! At any rate, it is my suggestion you DO NOT buy from a seller that does not post their shipping in the auction. And check to see if other sellers are selling the item, and how much shipping they are charging. It's important sellers do not GROSSLY overcharge for shipping and they are competitive with other sellers.

Last but not least, always check the sellers feedback. If they have some negatives, check to see what the negatives say. It's true you can't please all the people all the time, so they may have been unfair to the seller.

Ebay also offers sellers to put a shipping calculator in their auction. This is not the "actual" shipping cost either. Ebay has incorporated with that shipping calculator for us sellers to add additional costs to the calculator. So...don't be suprised if you put in your zipcode, give you a shipping amount and when your package arrives it's different than what you paid.

(lisazoe - you will find that selling on ebay can be a very lucrative side venture. Feel free to email me if you have any questions. I know I sure could have used the help when we started!!! We sell cosmetics, however, I do know gently used kids clothes do well on ebay. And it's amazing what other "stuff" you may even have around the house people would buy. Mind you, people go to garage sales to put things up on ebay. That's why I think Ebay is the way to go! Like any business, it does take a lot of work to initially get things going. Taking pictures, making the listing, invoicing people, packing items, weighing everything (we have a scale), etc. But we have done VERY well on something we were just starting out doing as fun!) GOOD LUCK! I'd gladly give you suggestions or what has worked for us! We've been doing this for years now with 100% feedback and over 2800+ feedbacks!

 

[CheapMom]

When you go to the supermarket, they don't charge you extra for each bag you use or a rental fee for the shopping cart or a surcharge to pay by credit card.

Have you ever shopped at a really cheap grocery store (Like Aldis) They don't give you bags but you can buy them for 10 cents each, they used to charge you a depostit of a quarter for use of a shopping cart, now you pay the quarter for the cart- but don't get it back. And they don't take credit cards.

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by vjc715
At any rate, it is my suggestion you DO NOT buy from a seller that does not post their shipping in the auction.

I have to disagree with this one pretty strongly since I have never listed the shipping charge in my auction listing and I've been quite successful and collected plenty of great feedback. What I say is "Buyer pays actual Priority Mail postage/insurance. Never a handling or packing material fee."

The reason I don't list the postage in the auction listing is that I don't want to have to pack up every item before I list it because if it doesn't sell then I've wasted my time and would have a bunch of packed up items taking up space. As soon as an item gets a bid, I pack and weigh it so I am prepared to tell the winner how much the postage will be. I also will pack it if anyone writes to ask about postage.

So I don't think you need to avoid auctions that don't list postage IF they state that you will pay ACTUAL postage only. If there is any kind of handling fee, I would agree that that should be clearly stated in the listing.

 

[vjc715]

Guess I should have been a little more clear in my explanation. There are sellers out there that do not list their shipping costs....meaning they make NO mention of what it's going to cost to the buyer. They make no mention of cost, they make no mention they are paying "actual" shipping costs, etc. They either make you email them for a quote...and if you are lucky, they email you back!

For example....I emailed a seller who had okay feedback. I asked what shipping would be for their item, and included my zip code. I heard nothing...The item was going to end in 2 days which was plenty of notice. The last day the item was up...I still heard no word. This was a hard to find item, therefore I decided to bid and I won. Which was totally my fault. The shipping was $15 for a bottle of perfume!!!!! $15!!!!

That is what I mean if the seller doesn't list shipping costs in their auction. Although...even if the auction says Buyer pays actual shipping, I would still email the seller and ask how much. Depending upon how they ship, can make a big difference in how much you "think" something costs. Especially if the item is heavy.

If you happen to be shipping everything Priority shipping, your box, tapes and labels are provided free from USPS. Most of our items that we mail do not exceed the 1lb limit. On our auctions that we use Priority boxes and tape, then charge 25 cents over the actual Priority shipping charge. We very well can't charge $3.85 for shipping a lipstick...hence us having to get all the packaging supplies we do.

We DO NOT prepackage items due to buyers usually buying more than 1 item at a time in our auctions, and offer a substantial discount for multiple purchases. Due to not having to provide another box or envelope.

Also...in response to a post in regards to their friend getting free shipping materials....we go through tooo many padded envelopes per day or boxes just the right size to ship foundation, etc. It would be a sellers dream to get them for free though! If we happend to sell about 10 items per month, the thought might be feasible.

This topic will always be an ongoing debate amongst buyers/sellers and will sellers and sellers. Check out the ebay message boards under the shipping topic.

My closing thoughts are whatever happens to work for the seller is what they should do. It is their business, and they can determine what is right for them in the long run. Obviously other sellers do not have a handling charge and also are successful.

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by vjc715
There are sellers out there that do not list their shipping costs....meaning they make NO mention of what it's going to cost to the buyer. They make no mention of cost, they make no mention they are paying "actual" shipping costs, etc. They either make you email them for a quote...and if you are lucky, they email you back!

I agree with you there. I think the seller should give some indication of how the item will be shipped (first class, priority, ups, etc.) and if the buyer will pay just actual postage or also a handling fee. Ideally, it would be nice to have the exact shipping amount in the listing but that isn't practical for reasons already stated.