Shipping charges---ebay says UNFAIR???????

Bill Cobb spent a good chunk of the keynote address at eBay Live in June addressing this.

.01 for an item and $20.00 to ship is excessive. Items like that hurt the marketplace he said, and I agree.

You can probably Google the video of his speech and listen to it. You will hear they are very committed to stopping this.

If you wanted to charge $7.95 with say $12.05 shipping they probably wouldn't be able to stop that.

Here is an audio version of the eBay Live 2006 keynote:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=%22eb...+keynote&btnG=Search

At the bottom of that page you'll see a link to a video version of the keynote on AuctionBytes.com

Will be intersting to see if any action is truly taken and to what degree.

from stores forum on ebay http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000326...=0&mod=1154017492120

quote:

eBay's 2 largest sellers (both with FB well over 300,000) eforc*** and everydays*** always have 6-9,000 auctions with BIN prices of $0.01-$0.02 listed...and they list that many penny BIN auctions every day of the year
...
When eForc*** lists all those $0.01 BIN items on O their starting price is much higher--a minimum of $6.99 on ) compared to $0.01 here.

After reading this thread I was looking on ebay for a toy box for our girls and found one starting at .99 with a shipping fee of $119.00. Now, I don't know how much it costs to ship one of these things but I have shipped an amp and an accordian (not together) and they cost less than $50 to ship via fed ex. I also shipped a tailgate for a 1950's Ford and it cost $56.

From those who went to Live, did Cobb give any methods as to how they are cracking down?? Is the community suppose to hit that controversial and sometimes misused button at the bottom of the listing? I would hate to think that I am responsible for doing that but I know that ebay used to rely on itself for policing when it was in infancy. But now that things have exploded and we see listings like this daily, what are the ethics?

Marcia

I do hear your argument california. I do not like to be told how to run my business either.

But I am more miffed, irked, etc. at how ebay points their fingers at OUR store items as the cause for the decline of ebay's MAGIC (what IS that anyway??) and takes a HARD line basically against stores and yet I still find folks with high shipping fees that are so obviously avoiding fees and it just make us sellers look bad quite frankly, like we cannot be trusted.

Marcia

See... I understand why sellers do the high shipping fee's. I mean as is, it is very difficult to sell on ebay with their high fees and overhead. Initially I don't think people sold for 0.01 and charged $200 for shipping.

It's cause and effect... if they are going to continue to increase their fee's... people are going to find ways avoid them.

People sell online and people buy online because the sellers have a lower overhead and the customers can save money. If they continue the hike up the fees then there isn't any difference from buying online compared to going down to the street and buying exactly the same thing.

Like commerical real estate has market standard in order to lease out a store front... if their rates are too high no one want to get it. Not that they don't want to... but they just can't afford it. I guess ebay feel they can control the market and do as they please... same as paypal.

I wanted to put my 2 cents... granted I know everyone know this already

The thing is it's eBay's sandbox. They can make whatever rules they like.

quote:

.01 for an item and $20.00 to ship is excessive. Items like that hurt the marketplace he said, and I agree.

Of course, that all depends on what the item is. It's certainly conceivable that a penny auction could be for something that costs $20.00 to ship. The cost of the item has nothing to do with the shipping.

The excessive shipping that really should be stopped is stuff that's extremely obvious. I can't imagine eBay is going to waste their time ending auctions because they think the seller is charging two dollars too much for shipping. But the guy charging $30.00 to ship a memory stick? Yeah, that's an easy one.

One of the arguments I like is that if people would quit buying from those sellers then they'd quit doing it or they'd go away. But that won't happen because (a) a lot of people only worry about the total dollar amount and if that amount is a good deal, and (b) too many people don't bother to read the complete listing before bidding.

quote:

Of course, that all depends on what the item is. It's certainly conceivable that a penny auction could be for something that costs $20.00 to ship. The cost of the item has nothing to do with the shipping.

I totally agree - here is a good example of an experience I had. I had an old laser disc player that for some reason I could not get to work. It would power up and the LCD would light up and physically it looked to be in perfect condition. It was complete with the box, manual, remote control, everything. I got an estimate from a local repair shop to fix it which was about $50.00 to $100.00 depending on what it would take to repair it. It wasn't worth it to me to spend the time or money to do this. I listed it for a penny as an item for repair and not in working condition assuming it would be worth something to someone who knew how to fix these things. I just couldn't bring myself to simply trash after contemplaing doing so for such a long time. I compared the same model to used but working condition laser disc players already listed on eBay selling for $300 to $500.00. It was taking up space and I just wanted to get rid of it as I had no use for it. It didn't sell as a live auction so I went ahead and listed it in my eBay store for a penny (like I said I just wanted to get rid of it). The item sold within an hour after relocating it to my store. One of my shipping options was express delivery for $50.00 which was an estimate based on my own experience of selling items of a similar weight - it crossed my mind that it may actually cost more for this option since it was quite heavy but I didn't think anyone would actually choose such an expensive method for a penny item (I DID offer several other cheaper options). I was wrong and the customer chose the express shipping option, paid immediately, and sent me an e-mail thanking me for listing it so cheap because he was positive he would be able to fix it since his electronics knowledge was extensive and he had success in the past reparing laser disc players (He went into more detail than I really cared to know.) The actual express shipping cost ended up being $52.50. The sale of this item actually cost me money out of my own pocket but I was just glad to get it off the shelf. After the transaction was completed this same customer complained to eBay about the excessive shipping costs. Did I already say it cost me MORE to ship the item for the option HE chose and the postage tag on the package clearly indicated that ? Did I already say I offered several other much cheaper options ? I received a warning e-mail from eBay regarding the transaction. A few days later the same customer who purchased the item from me listed it in new working condition (I assume he repaired it) and charged $50.00 for Priority delivery - not express! You bet I reported it, and received a standard form-letter e-mail from eBay indicating they would investigate but could not divulge the results or action taken due to privacy issues. The auction ran the course and the item sold for $350.00, $100.00 over the price he listed it for. I had no issue with that as I assumed someone would purchase it with the intent of repairing it and reselling it. It was the whole thing about him agreeing to the terms and him complaining about it when the actual cost of shipping was more than he paid. He never left me feedback of course and I didn't leave any for him either because there was no way I was leaving him positive feedback and you KNOW he would retaliate. I am sure all of this was more detail than any of you cared to know, but it's a good example of why someone may list an item cheap and the shipping may be expensive. I think a good example of excessive shipping cost abuse would be sellers who use product like new popular DVD's or CD's priced at a penny or 99 cents to lure customers into their stores when 90% of the product they sell is electronics or some other type of merchandise, and they charge $12.95 Priority shipping when it costs less than a third of that. That is a blatant example of abuse and I'd like to see them start with that if they feel they have to regulate shipping cost abuse. How about $19.95 to Priority ship a 100-Pack of blank DVD's or CD's with an incredibly low selling price ? TWO 100-Packs can be shipped in a flat rate Priority box for $8.10! In the end, I think it's a customers choice to decide if they want to pay such a high shipping cost (for those who actually read the ads and pay attenton to the details). If you don't agree with the excessive shipping, shop somewhere else, right ? Obviously eBay is going to take a stand on this issue and in the end it could result in a better market place for all of us, but if they feel they have to regulate it the excessive abusers are quite obvious and way too easy to identify. I've rambled, ranted and raved enough for one day. Just wantd to share my thoughts and experience with you guys and gals. Hope every one has a great weekend !

i just wanted to let avantegardeince know that i read your whole post and found it very interesting!! (in case you thought no one cared! )
that's the worst when someone acts like they're happy and then they complain behind your back. just not nice to do! but at least you know you did nothing wrong! (sometimes that's all we've got, ya know! )

Avante, thank you for your very interesting post.
Selling on ebay I only charge $1.60 over actual shipping cost. 60 cents for delivery confirmation and $1.00 for me just in case I make a mistake on weight when packed. I want to purchase Marx train cars and every time I see the shipping for an 8 oz car is $8.00 I cringe and pass over the seller. But there are people that will still buy just because the total doesnt look so bad.

Recently, I had 3 items ended for shipping charges. All suits (heavy items shipping at $8.10 flat rate box). One item was adding $1.90 handling charge. Wow! a whole $1.90.

The men's suits were at $12.95 each. Now, if they ship at $8.10 a piece great BUT if they combine shipping (only one will fit into a flat rate box) that would be another $8.10.

Sooooooo, on the men's suits I was charging $4.85 over to cover potential combined shipping and my handling costs. Oh, but that was too much. Lol, could be someone had a bug up their bottom and reported the listings for fun. It wouldn't be te first time. Or it was just eBay being eBay.

Either way. my account was credited and the eBay rep I spoke with apologized for the error.

My account was noted. Just in case, of future incidents.

Yippie, lol.

PS - Still plenty of .01 w/$45 shipping listings out there!

quote:

Originally posted by wayoutwest:
Will be intersting to see if any action is truly taken and to what degree.

from stores forum on ebay http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000326...=0&mod=1154017492120

quote:

eBay's 2 largest sellers (both with FB well over 300,000) eforc*** and everydays*** always have 6-9,000 auctions with BIN prices of $0.01-$0.02 listed...and they list that many penny BIN auctions every day of the year
...
When eForc*** lists all those $0.01 BIN items on O their starting price is much higher--a minimum of $6.99 on ) compared to $0.01 here.

With the new store fee's coming into play..

Alot of the stores are going to fold.

Any item in a store under 25.00 is not cost effective.

NOW...what should be interesting is this factor. The big boys selling items for .01 (and yes, eBay knows bout them and I'm sure they've been reported to the hilt)

It's been intimated that those kind of stores that have the type auctions as Steve notates above...that they don't pay the same fees as we normal sellers and some pay no fees at all to eBay.

This is going to be interesting to say the least.

Peace, Donna

quote:

Originally posted by Magie Noire:
Sooooooo, on the men's suits I was charging $4.85 over to cover potential combined shipping and my handling costs. Oh, but that was too much. Lol, could be someone had a bug up their bottom and reported the listings for fun. It wouldn't be te first time. Or it was just eBay being eBay.

Either way. my account was credited and the eBay rep I spoke with apologized for the error.

My account was noted. Just in case, of future incidents.

Yippie, lol.

PS - Still plenty of .01 w/$45 shipping listings out there!

You know what my vote is...Reported. And that would fall under the category of for the fun of it..wouldn't you say?

EBAY doesn't have time to sit there looking for items nor do I believe they have any staff sitting on computers looking for them or have special tweaks that point them to violations. (If so, how many auctions would've/could've/should've been closed in the last 10 years?)

EBAY relies on their "community" to police their site and have for a lonnnnnnnnnng time.

Right?

Peace,
Donna

Although I agree that eBay doesn't have the right to dictate how we run our businesses, I do agree that infalted shipping prices do need to be controlled. Consider the sellers who make all, or most, of their profits through shipping charges. They can list an item for $.99, charge exhorbitant shipping rates, and still make money and their $.99 listing strategy could give them a competitive edge over those of us who charge reasonable product and shipping charges. Shoppers who search by price will see those $.99 items at the top of their search lists every time, making the system unequitable for those of us charging a more reasonable price for their items.

It will be interesting to see just how eBay monitors this practice and the results thereof.

quote:

Originally posted by Suthrnjewl:

quote:

Originally posted by Magie Noire:
Sooooooo, on the men's suits I was charging $4.85 over to cover potential combined shipping and my handling costs. Oh, but that was too much. Lol, could be someone had a bug up their bottom and reported the listings for fun. It wouldn't be te first time. Or it was just eBay being eBay.

Either way. my account was credited and the eBay rep I spoke with apologized for the error.

My account was noted. Just in case, of future incidents.

Yippie, lol.

PS - Still plenty of .01 w/$45 shipping listings out there!

You know what my vote is...Reported. And that would fall under the category of for the fun of it..wouldn't you say?

EBAY doesn't have time to sit there looking for items nor do I believe they have any staff sitting on computers looking for them or have special tweaks that point them to violations. (If so, how many auctions would've/could've/should've been closed in the last 10 years?)

EBAY relies on their "community" to police their site and have for a lonnnnnnnnnng time.

Right?

Peace,
Donna

Yeah, I was reported. I know, I was. Whatever, lol. I'm still happy, livin' life and havin' a great time. Ya, didn't bring me down. Ya lil' darlin' out there in, 'I have nothing better to do other than report honest sellers' land.

Anyway, I'm shifting away from the auction format to Fixed Price listings. Saving auctions for items that have the greatest potentional to 'bid up'. Even then, I have a pretty good idea of what they end up bidding up to.

You better sit down for this one. Ready? I stopped accepting money orders. That's right, no more. Oh, maybe by request. I am sick to death of waiting on slow paying buyers, late paying buyers and deadbeat non-paying bidders. I hate to say it but 98% of them pay with money orders. The last couple of weeks did me in for money orders. I'm sick of the bull. Anyway, I only accept PayPal at this time. Edited all of my listings to block buyers without a PayPal account. So far, so good.

I started the FP listings and the PP only 48 hours ago. Within this time, I've sold $178.92 for 7 items. Not too shabby for a $7.00 investment. I do a 90 day closed listing search before listing at the FP, and then average it.

For instance, I listed a black, crepe polyester, Ann Taylor dress for $39.99 w/$6.65 shipping. Normally, I would auction it starting at $20.00 hoping it would bid up. Not anymore. I dunno, I stuck up a Jones New York wool pant suit for $35 w/$8.95 shipping. Maybe I could have gotten a lot more and maybe not. All I know is this, I sold it on its first listing within 24 hours of it being listed. That's my kind of listing folks. Another thing to consider is this, with FP listing, I'm not a slave to specific days and ending times. I'm free...mwahahahahahaha!

Yes, okay, it's official, I'm goofy, lol.

I found with my clothing ID (thats coming out of summer retirement soon) that FPL is the way I go for the most part. I will have some items up for auction..but in the long run, I found that with clothing a person wants to buy and to buy now.

You sell the same way I do with my clothing.

90 days search and then average for FPL.

With some exceptions of course..I know the Olga nightgowns can go high so I start those at what I want for the item and then let them go from there. Same thing...I have a Masters golf shirt.

Here's an identical nightgown that I have and will be putting up for auction..I fully expect to get that much if not more so I'll start it similar to this price and just let the winner be the winner. I have a peignor set thats a red Olga and that should do really great and a couple more Olga's that should get bout the same price as the one below, too.

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-OLGA-BABY-BLUE-FULL-SWEEP-G...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I wish I had the time to research more in full vintage clothing...cause I know that I've seen so many items out there and then researched the item..then kicked myself in the arse for not grabbing it. Specially the prices that I buy stuff at...which is similar to your costs..dirt cheap!

And yep..that's what I like bout FPL, too. I schedule the auctions as I go along and I'm done. No researching for best time, day of the week and more.

I have a great four piece Anne Klein classic cut suit set that I can't wait to put up for auction. I paid 2.00 for the entire set and it was in a dry cleaner bag, too. Freshly cleaned! Can you believe it? <smile>

I still accept money orders and personal checks. I've always said to each his own but you're correct in stating..I always have to wait longer for those payments. There is a higher incident of NPB with accepting mailed payments. And this year I was thinking of cancelling out the mailed payments on clothing and tangible items..but then again, some of the sweetest repeat customers have paid by mailed payments.

Be goofy..Life is too short to be serious all the time, right?

My best,
Donna

Just for us money order payers....I am one. I cant use paypal anymore because of some dumb *ss last January so now I rely on having to pay by check or MO. I won 2 items last Sunday, paid by MO on Monday and got my items on Saturday. The MO only took 2 days going first class mail. One from CT to VA and the other CT to OK.
Okay... so as a former ebay seller, I know I am in the minority with paying so quickly, but there are a few out there. I had to wait forever on some payments coming by mail as well.
~Steph

I sold another $71.97 FP listings (3 to be exact) this morning. An item that's in demand (popular) priced right...sells! I love it!

Ive sold $250.80 (10 items) (excluding shipping) in like 2 1/2 day with FP listing.

Unless I think I have a hidden treasure that's going to bid into the stratosphere, auctions are a thing of the past for me. Fixed priced listings are wonderful. I should have done it long, long ago. Once you let go of the it might bid up, I should see if it bids up mentality you're free. Also, most of these sold the first time out and with in 1 to 1 1/2 days of being listed.

That's a great turn over. Try it!

------------------------------------

megnsamsgrace,

You're one of the few, fabulous buyers I will be missing out on. In fact, I just switched to PP immediate payment because a buyer purchased a FP (BIN) listing and the proceeded to tell me when she would pay. Of course, her payment date isn't the same as my payment terms. I'm really tired of these buyers. I feel there are enough buyers out there who have money in the bank or a PP account, who CAN pay right away. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe not. I'll find out.

Oh, one last thing, a buyer emailed me last week informing me she couldn't bid on one of my auctions because she didn't have a PP account. She was very polite and really wanted the suit she was watching. I told her, no problem. As long as she understood she had to pay with a postal money order within 7 days. She paid with a postal money order in 9 days. Close enough. Okay, I'm outta here.

Ebay primarily said this for international buyers.
International buyers ( like myself ) get ripped off alot in shippingcosts ( highest that i recieved as invoice once was 10 times ( no kidding ) actual costs.
Shipping should be no more then 2 or 3 times actuall costs, you can still manipulate the system with taxes & insurance

p.s. if your looking for ways to cut costs, compare different ebay sites with eatch others, i myself have selling manager pro from taiwan www.tw.ebay.com( totally free whole year through ) selling manager at ebay.co.uk & ebay.com.au , a chinese ebay store at www.ebay.com.cn ( totally free whole year through ) all you have to do is get a translationsite sutch as www.babelfish.altavista.com and it works perfectly.
offcourse ebay employees say you shouldn't do that, why do they say that? coz then there missing profit.
pro stores are totally free on the polish ebay site as well, unfortunately i haven't found a free translationsite yet to translate polish into english, but chinese ebay store works just fine, only problem is that you cannot send store-emails & all, but most people ignore those emails to, they can subscribe you as favourite seller & then they would still recieve emails through ebay from your listings regularly & all, only bad side = that it takes you about 1 day or so to set everything correctly with translationsite, but when set no problems. ( but to do this you have to be a ebay addict i guess ( like me ) )
but it saves me 15 bucks per month on selling manager pro & 2 bucks a month for store ( on ebay.nl stores only cost 2 bucks a month ) so totall off 17 bucks i save ( selling manager is free on most sites )
i wouldn't say that ebay is expensive on fees & all, they charge almost nothing more then 1 buck per listing, ( if u play it smart )

I've heard that Canadian sellers are being targeted for their high shipping costs. What ebay fails to realize (and didn't research) is that Canada Post fees are high! To ship something just over 2 pounds it costs over 14.00(US). Something just 1 pound costs just over $6.00 and that's without charging handling. I have to put "please note: seller does not inflate mailing costs or charge handling" on my auctions and hope that people believe me. So until ebay and Canada Post can figure out some sort of discount, I'll keep losing money through passed over sales or have my auctions pulled.

they'll only end them if other people report it, ebay personal themselves don't go checking stuff, coz they don't have the time 4 it, they only act upon reports. if your buyers are satisfied, you have nothing to worry about, if a buyer thinks that your shippingcosts are too high & reports it too ebay then they can check & if they agree then they would end your listing.
if your honest you have basically nothing to worry about
2 times actuall shippingcosts is fair, shipping insurance 2 times actuall is fair, 2 times taxes is fair, when your a powerseller then your making enough profit like that.
put in your description clearly how your shipping & other costs are build up, most people would understand that, don't understand why some people have trouble with this? the main reason why ebay said that they would end listings that have to high shippingcosts was to increase international sales, upon the many reports they have recieved from international buyers that the seller was charging to high shippingfees for them...

What gets me is that if ebay wants to do something about that, then why do they still charge people a lower amount for auctions that start under .99? Make the cheaper rate for listings that start under 9.99 instead. Greedbay is something else.

ebay wants to advertise as being a site where you can get cheap stuff, the lower the startingbid is, for buyers it may seem cheaper. Quality stuff is another matter. When i buy something, i buy quality. i usually buy from my favourite sellers list, every time i make a successfull purchase, i add that seller to my favourite sellers list and when i am searching for something then i search for that item from my favourite sellers list first and if they don't have it, then i buy from some-one else.
Me personally don't look for cheap items, but for quality items, but others usually look at the price. and the lower you start, the lower it may seem for the buyer.