quote:Originally posted by Rick Bradford:quote:I know what you're saying here, and I don't disagree, but truthfully there's no way to know in advance how much it will actually cost to ship a package to any given location, unless you use a priority mail flat rate envelope or box and it's staying in the US, or a global flat rate envelope (which you can't use for all countries).
The "Everywhere Else" countries, of course, can vary a bit but I haven't run into any serious rate differences yet (although I bet it's possible).
I guess my view is (a) people like to know up front what the S&H is and, (b) it seems like it'd be a whole lot easier to get eBay on your side in the event of post-auction gouging if the listing itself gives you what you need to fight it.
Mind you, it's not that I'm telling anyone what they should do! This is just my view as a buyer.
Rick, if you use France as your standard you may be making a big mistake. Just my humble opinion, but France is one of the cheapest places I mail to. Try Slovakia, or Thailand, or Japan, China, even Australia ... or Russia etc. I mail to a LOT of different countries (I lost count at about 75 different countries a while back) and believe me, at least for the stuff I mail, France is cheaper than many.
I don't have a problem giving a shipping quote if someone emails their zip code or country while the item is still active - I can get back to them very quickly with that info. The problem I have is with giving a fixed price S & H amount when I don't know where it will be shipped yet.
The calculators don't always work right, I've read horror stories about sellers taking baths because of it.