THE SHIPPING SCAM & Show It All. Please BRING IT ON ! Let's Talk I Want To Know...

At eBay I think that's called fee avoidance. The thinking is that low minimum bid + high shipping charges = lower listing fee (and final value fee, too, maybe?).

Some customers don't mind if the overall price is still good and some will steer clear because they resent the shipping charges.

I'm pretty sure it's against eBay policy but there's no way they can stay on top of it. You might wander around the eBay forums for more input there as well.

As far as mentioning it in your listings, that's probably a sticky area. No doubt, you can make a point of clarifying your realistic shipping charges but you may be on shaky ground if you go accusing fellow eBay members right in your listings.

My two cents, anyway.

How about something like this... Please feel free to help change/edit.

No Outrageous Shipping Fee's....
At Direct2UWholesale we remain Honest! We only charge you exactly what the Postal Carrier Charges us.
No Handling Fee's...
We figure things like tape and cost's into our starting price as honest sellers do.
No hidden Fee's...
Unfortunately there are sellers who do this. It is what eBay refers to as Fee Avoidance... and eBay is working very hard to provide buyers with a new tool called “Show It All " so that the customer will be able to view the true Total Fee's prior to bidding.
What is fee avoidance?
This is a trick some sellers have chosen to use. They avoid higher listing fees by starting their auctions very low or below their own costs. They in-turn place some outrageous fee somewhere else usually calling it a handling fee, and sometimes they add these costs too shipping. Most of them are adding it to both.
We don't rip off the Customer or eBay...
At Diect2UWholesale we treat the customer the way we want to be treated. Honesty, Integrity, and Customer Service is our Standard. We take care of the customer.

Well, I spell out my policies in the shipping info section, and just leave it at that. I don't try to politely expose the other guy.

It sucks, though. There have been times when I have wanted to point out my competitions bad prices or bad feedback or bad whatever. But I just try to take the high road. Now I think that I am getting a good reputation, I'm seeing a lot of repeat business and bigger sales, and I feel like business is really taking off.

But anyway, this is what I suggest:

No Outrageous Shipping Fee's!
At Direct2UWholesale we remain honest! We only charge you exactly what the Postal Carrier charges us. No handling fees, no hidden fees.
We treat our customers the way we want to be treated: with honesty and integrity.

And then maybe you should encourage the customer to shop around and compare total prices - item price plus shipping.

Without knowing "how much" over actual shipping it is hard for me to say if this is fee avoidance. I can tell you that you will offend alot of HONEST sellers with your post. I see you have only been around a few months so I will let you slide.
First of all you are by no means supposed to work your packaging costs into your starting price, though you are to include your Insertion Fee, projected FVF and Paypal fee's. As far as the low starting prices that is an EBAY SUGGESTED selling practice. They feel that a low starting price generates more interest which leads to more bids, people always want what someone else is bidding on!
I would estimate that 90% of sellers charge some sort of handling fee, that is business plain and simple. The same way you pay more to have a pizza delivered than if you had picked it up yourself.
I am a VERY honest seller my userID is moonshadow1313 if you want to check my feedback so good that I have OVER 40% repeat business!! I get approx. $1.00 for packaging and depending on the item that has to cover plastic sleeves or bags, cardboard, bubble wrap, Press n' Seal, envelopes, boxes, trip to Post office, but most of all for my time. Alot of work goes into selling (photos,listing,inventory,etc,etc,etc) and I don't think it is asking too much to want to get a few cents per transaction to pay yourself, especially to those trying to make this a full time gig.
Now I'm not saying that there aren't plenty of scammers out there taking advantage but you need to be very careful what you say especially in your listings. You would basically be telling your customers that anyone who charges you a packaging fee is dishonest and ripping you off and THAT is dishonest. You still charge it, you just put it in your start price where as they put it in their shipping. And yes it should be fair charging someone $20 to ship something that costs $5 is ridiculous.
If I were you I would avoid putting any of that in your listing. You could just simply say "Lowest shipping prices on ebay, Shop around and see" and if your competition is charging outrageous shipping your listings should speak for themselves. I'm not sure why your sales dropped so drastically, after christmas is actually a really busy time. People didn't get what they wanted and have money. You might try branching out and selling different things. You wouldn't believe the mish-mash of stuff I sell. If you can afford to drop your start price you would be surprised how well it works.
TO CAKES: by not pointing out your competitions faults you are not only taking the high road (good for you) but you also saved yourself from getting kicked of ebay! It's called bid interferance and a VERY BIG no,no!!
Sorry I know a bit long winded but I hate it when people give me short answers and don't explain their reasons. Good luck

Moonshawdow

I appreciate your responce. Long is good and what I asked for. I see where your coming from and you make some strong points. I'm only going to argue on one. A handeling fee is something a drop shipping company, or a trade assistant would charge. When you check out at Home Depot they don't add a 10 cent bag charge for each sack, or tack on a 1.00 cashier fee, or say "oh that box has some of our tape on it we need to charge you another $2.00 .50 cents for the tape and a $1.50 for the employess labor that applied it... Overhead fee's are figured in to the cost of business and added in to the price of the item before it ever makes it to the shelf. Same thing at the Flea-Market. eBay should not be different just because the item is on the web -vs-the shelf.

quote:

Originally posted by Direct2UWholesale:
Moonshawdow

I appreciate your responce. Long is good and what I asked for. I see where your coming from and you make some strong points. I'm only going to argue on one. A handeling fee is something a drop shipping company, or a trade assistant would charge. When you check out at Home Depot they don't add a 10 cent bag charge for each sack, or tack on a 1.00 cashier fee, or say "oh that box has some of our tape on it we need to charge you another $2.00 .50 cents for the tape and a $1.50 for the employess labor that applied it... Overhead fee's are figured in to the cost of business and added in to the price of the item before it ever makes it to the shelf. Same thing at the Flea-Market. eBay should not be different just because the item is on the web -vs-the shelf.

Any mail order company (which is essentially what we are when selling on eBay) charges a Shipping AND Handling fee, not actual postage. That's why you pay $3.95 per book when you order one online from a company instead of the $1.66 or whatever it would cost to send it media mail (which most of them do). Check out any online seller - order something from Sears or Penneys or whoever. A small handling fee is to be expected, is entirely honest and should not be objected to by any reasonable person. Spell out the fees in the listing and there is NO dishonesty unless the S & H fee is outrageously high in light of postage costs.

quote:

I'm only going to argue on one. A handeling fee is something a drop shipping company, or a trade assistant would charge. When you check out at Home Depot they don't add a 10 cent bag charge for each sack, or tack on a 1.00 cashier fee, or say "oh that box has some of our tape on it we need to charge you another $2.00 .50 cents for the tape and a $1.50 for the employess labor that applied it... Overhead fee's are figured in to the cost of business and added in to the price of the item before it ever makes it to the shelf. Same thing at the Flea-Market. eBay should not be different just because the item is on the web -vs-the shelf.

I disagree. It depends on how you price your items. I shopped at a grocery store that DID charge for bags. I could bring my own and save money - I liked that.

Overhead fees rack up the prices on everything.

I price my items based on the cost of that item. I absorb the cost of boxes and shipping material because I use free boxes 95% of the time, and my shipping material is very cheap.

I charge exact shipping and I add a 50 cent handling fee to pay for Priority delivery confirmation. If I were to absorb that handling fee into the cost of my items (as overhead) I would have to raise my prices. Customers that make combined sales would end up spending more money in the long run.

And eBay loose's $ on what is called Fee Avoidance. I don't think we will ever agree on where business costs should be placed and that is okay. It's what makes this world go around

I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but I certainly don't think that charging for delivery confirmation is fee avoidance.

Whether or not you include your shipping expenses in the price of the item or within your shipping charges, you still have to charge for it if you're trying to run a business and keep it afloat.

dmh is right -- any mail order company has to cover their shipping expenses.

It's very easy to look around on eBay and see who the perpetrators of fee avoidance are. And if they can argue that they can break down their shipping charge into actual expenses, then that's probably still reason enough to avoid them because they clearly need a new business plan.

For instance, I sell comic books. I notice other eBay sellers who charge Priority Mail rates (or Priority Mail prices for Media Mail) for one comic book and that seems excessive to me, but only that. However, if they listed a single comic for 0.01 and charged $10.00 that would clearly be fee avoidance (whether that was their intention or not).

Direct2U, I actually think your description info in the second post sounds pretty good but there's still that possibility of it causing you trouble. It may make you a target for those who know you're talking about them. Keep in mind that eBay seems to make a lot of blind decisions based on the reports of members.

quote:

Originally posted by cakethings:
I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but I certainly don't think that charging for delivery confirmation is fee avoidance.

Oh, no, not at all. You must cover your actual expenses, more or less. I've recently started paying for shipping through PayPal and PayPal automatically charges 0.14 for Delivery Confirmation. I like having DC on every shipment so I've upped my shipping charges to make the difference. It's an extra 0.15 (I rounded up), which is nothing. And all of my customers who buy multiple things will only pay the 0.15 once on their combined invoice.

Point being, there's a huge difference between legitimate shipping fees and fee avoidance and many people can immediately see it.

Like Rick I'm a Pay Pal user and only pay .14 cents for Delivery Confirmation. And it has been factored into my starting costs.

quote:

Originally posted by Direct2UWholesale:
Like Rick I'm a Pay Pal user and only pay .14 cents for Delivery Confirmation. And it has been factored into my starting costs.

But then, if a person buys more than one item from you, aren't you overcharging them for delivery confirmation?

There is a formula for figuring in true costs. Anything extra the customer pays we give back. I have issued refunds for as little as .50 cents. If it's not earned honestly it's stealing.

I charge flat-rate shipping, but I almost always have the lowest shipping cost on my items.
I figure paypal and ebay costs/fees into my shipping, but as I said, I'm still usually the lowest shipping with comparable products.
I take a lot of pride in this, and don't hesitate to let it known to my customers/potential customers. And it works well for me. I'll see items of mine bid higher than the seller offering the same item buy it now, at a lower cost, simply because my shipping is $5, $10...or even $30 cheaper than the competition.


I say stick with it...my sales have slumped after christmas as well, but are fairly consistent, none-the-less.

Btw, what's your ebay site? I'd like to see what you offer

direct2uwholesale

Alright...I'm finally going to throw my two cents in.

A couple of years ago, I used to charge nothing, not a red cent above the shipping/delivery confirmation. No handling fee's. Nada!

Hubster thought I was crazy to not charge an additional "handling" fee as he saw how much time I put into my auctions. My best female friend in the world is a CPA and she stated..Donna from a purely business view, you gotta start charging a handling fee. It's the way business is done. Your time is worth money. The time it takes to research an item, design the ad and answering emails, your final value fee's to eBay and Paypal fee's.

Nike.com, CrateandBarrel.com, EddieBauer.com etc all have the fee worked into the flat fee and so should you. Do you question them when you buy from their sites? No, you don't. You just pay it and happy when the item comes.

Luckily, I have some great postal employee's that knew me from my many visits to the post office and they knew my business was eBay. (before the days of picking up at my door) One day it was quiet in the Post Office with no customers but myself and the postal workers were having a ball talking to me. Finally one of them said...Donna, when you sell items, what's your handling charge..I said, Charge? Exact shipping plus delivery confirmation. What about gas back and forth to the post office? What about tape to reinforce our priority mail envelopes and labels? What about all the time you spend answering emails and more? Your time is worth money. What about your fee's?

Well, finally it sunk in and I had one of those light bulb above the head moments...BAM!

Yep, MY time is worth money. I'm not saying my charge is exorbitant. It's not like my buyer is spending 10.00 to ship a tshirt. But if you buy that t-shirt from me on eBay...know what? You're shipping charge is clearly stated on the auction as $5.00. (Priority shipping + Delivery confirmation via Paypal at .14). And to me the seller? Delivery Confirmation is worth it's weight in gold. And .14 is a bargain! Especially with all the scammers around nowadays...delivery confirmation is a necessity.

The rest goes to line my pocketbook and pay FVFs to eBay.

Now to the discussion of your competition, the paragraph and getting your auctions to BRING you moolah!

Rick, you're right..it's called fee avoidance with eBay and is a reportable offense. However, you have to remember that eBay turns a blind eye ALOT of times.

I think the paragraph would bring you attention that you might not want to have from your competition.....negative attention.

The flip-side of the coin. It's a intelligently worded paragraph and if bolded would make a statement to those considering buying from you.

Now your auctions versus your competition.
The problem as I see it is this..think on it.

With the shipping costs now shown in the searches...how can you GRAB the customers to look at your ads to SEE your paragraph and not go to the lower priced auctions with higher shipping?

Sub-titles? That's more moo-lah that you'll be spending. If you had an eBay store, the sub-title (which isn't search enabled unless buyers choose the in-depth search) is pennies and might be worth the cost if you can 80 character get your words to BRING the customer to your auction.

A regular eBay auction? I know a subtitle on that type of auction is throwing money away.

Have you considered the Buy It Now Auction?
My thing with this is...If I want something on eBay, I very rarely wait around for an auction..I look for Buy It Nows and grab it.

Your competition has three different types of auctions up and running. So he must be successful at each type of auction or he wouldn't be running them. Right? He's running auctions to bring them to his buy it now auctions. Plus, he has a store which help him out too.

Here's a link of items similar to yours (and including yours)

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbr...prchi=&fsop=1&fsoo=1

Click the above link for an quasi-example of what I'm talking about. Many different and successful ways of selling your specialty. It is always wise to keep an eye on the competition, not to copy them. But to see how they are successful doing certain things that you might not thought of implementing. Think on which works best for you and fly with it!

Now I've bookmarked your site so I can come back and buy one of those Tinker Bell items for my daughter...but in order to buy, I have to make money and it's that time of the day..to get started working.

Peace,
Donna

Suthrnjewl
Posted February 02, 2006 05:40 AM
Quote
Alright...I'm finally going to throw my two cents in.

Very eloquently said...and an Excellent post.
I appreciate your research and suggestions.

Just for the record I do include these cost's although I apply them to the starting cost of the item and avoid the use of the term Shipping Fee. I pay eBay there fair share. I expect a shipping fee from the eBay seller who is having the items he's selling drop shipped from another state or country. Example... I bought a Hard Drive for a lap top on eBay. The seller is here in the states the part I ordered was shipped from China. I feel the fee is for the time it took him to place the order on my behalf with his supplier, a connection I would not otherwise have access to.

My beef is with the sellers who start the item at a penny and sock it to the customer somewhere else... shipping & handling fee's. They don't have to pay the higher listing fee, and they take all the attention with there low price. They are ripping off eBay and they are creating an untrustworthy market place reputation for eBay. When I talk to new eBay users the first words out of their mouths are always... and I repeat always " by the time I paid the shipping and handling I could have gotten it cheaper at the store "

I would like to see buyers get honest postage fee's with NO padding of the cost's. Then the customer can look at the total cost of the item and decide if it's a good enough deal for them to want to bid. Instead they take a look at a cheap auction then see the outrageous fee's and 1/2 off them walk away from eBay completely.

Sellers should protect the eBay market place. We get the advantage of excellent advertising which we could not afford in private business. We need to protect our reputations and our customers. This is our store and no one will want to come in and shop if they think there getting ripped off by sneaky postage & handling scams. Professional sellers need to ban together and make this an honest market place. It's in our own best interests.

Agreed 100%

quote:

Originally posted by Direct2UWholesale:
Suthrnjewl
Posted February 02, 2006 05:40 AM
Quote
Alright...I'm finally going to throw my two cents in.

Very eloquently said...and an Excellent post.
I appreciate your research and suggestions.



My beef is with the sellers who start the item at a penny and sock it to the customer somewhere else... shipping & handling fee's.

True Dat!

quote:

I would like to see buyers get honest postage fee's with NO padding of the cost's. Then the customer can look at the total cost of the item and decide if it's a good enough deal for them to want to bid. Instead they take a look at a cheap auction then see the outrageous fee's and 1/2 off them walk away from eBay completely.

I wish I could say they'll wake up and smell the java brewing..but they aren't. I've been with eBay <cough cough> since 97 using my hubsters ebay ID and well, it was a much better place to sell AND buy. More wild, wild, west mentality but you knew what you were getting. I don't think eBay will begin roping in the ones that are throwing the auction/bin curve off.

quote:

Sellers should protect the eBay market place. We get the advantage of excellent advertising which we could not afford in private business. We need to protect our reputations and our customers. This is our store and no one will want to come in and shop if they think there getting ripped off by sneaky postage & handling scams. Professional sellers need to ban together and make this an honest market place. It's in our own best interests.

You're gonna have to find a whole LOTTA people who want to give up a whole LOTTA their time and sit reporting ebay avoidance over and over and over. This would have to be a very, VERY concerted effort on a very large scale.

For the record? I do agree with you...wholeheartedly.

Take care, Donna

Diversify.
Carry other related products. Get more exposure.

I want to voice my 2 cents!

I do feel that charging a shipping & handling fee, within reason, is 100% honest & 100% essential in keeping the profits where they belong... in your pocket.

Let's be realistic... we sell on eBay to make money. In my case, as much as I can maximize from each sale. I don't work to fatten eBay's pockets, though I help to do so. I work to provide my product as described & offer the best pre & post sale service that I can. That being said, a handling fee has to be charged in regards to the shipment. If I tack it onto my starting price, I don't feel that it actually is. My starting price, since I sell clothing, covers my time to find the items buyers want, spot cleaning, wrinkle removal for pics, pics, photo editing, site maintenance, emails, invoicing, buttons to replace, seams to sew, products I have to throw out because of problems, cost of item, cost of listing, cost of selling... that all goes into my start price.

Shipping & handling is anything POST sale. I charge handling to cover shipping supplies, ink for labels, tape for packages, boxes for large orders that can't go USPS, cost of the person who does the shipping, all items are checked for wrinkles & freshened up prior to shipping, delivery confirmation, time at post office, time to & from to the post office, gas & so on. All these cost are associated with the post sale work or handling of the item. I don't think I should have to pay out of my profits to mail an item. Nor should I pay eBay a percentage of my costs that wasn't related to the buying of the item or sale of it. I will pay them a fee based on those two things, but not the shipping expense.

If I want to save the handling fee Sears charges me for ordering a child's t-shirt, which only costs them about $1.20 to mail & they probably charge a set cost based on $ amount spent, I go to the store to buy it to save the fee. If someone has something I like on eBay, I am willing to pay for them to get it to me. I don't think they should eat that cost because I happen to live in another location & can't pick it up. I factor their shipping & handling in with price of the item & determine if the item is worth it. Any smart buyer knows this.

I have an opinion of sellers who bash their competition in their ads, and you probably won't like it. By bashing them, it seems to make you look like not so nice & honest of a person. I sold in real estate many years & the first thing my trainer taught me to do on a listing presentation is to NEVER down talk the man or woman going up against you for the job. 9 out of 10 people will not hire you based on the fact that it makes you look dishonest. If you have a good product, service & price, let those things speak volumes for you. Focus your energy on bettering your business, increasing your profits, giving good customer service & so on... stewing over what the competitor does that you think is dishonest, does nothing to further you along the path to successful business dealings. It HINDERS growth & tarnishes your business image nearly 100% of the time. Buyers must think the other seller is offering a product at a reasonable enough rate or they wouldn't be buying it. If they can't add up the total for themselves, well, then they deserve to be ripped. My point, who cares who is ripping as long as you are good with yourself. Let that scammer get his in good time. Chances are they don't have alot of repeat business & that too will put you under.

But, for those not charging a handling fee, fine. If you want to give away your money, that's your deal, but to say anyone who charges anything but the actual cost of shipping, is ripping people off, well that is just plain BS. Not unless it is blatant fee avoidance. Whole different issue.

I say the proof is in who can make it on eBay. I am not in this to break even or make others rich. I am like Donna in this. Once upon a time long ago, in a naive land far gone away, I too only charged actual shipping. Then I got knocked over the head by dwindling profits. I thought being knocked over the head was the reason for my being in the dark, but then I realized I was actually sitting in the dark. After paying eBay fees & absorbing all the costs associated with shipping people their widgets, unlike my competitors, there wasn't money left to pay my light bill. So, the power company decided I should be without. Only then was I forced to see the "light" and have done so ever since. I was actually losing money because the market dictates starting prices for items, not me & my expenses. If all my competitors are starting at $14.95 & $8 to ship, then my $18 & $4.50 for shipping isn't as appealing to buyers. The buyer expects to pay shipping & handling. They care about a lower, reasonable starting price. Especially if they search from lowest in price to highest. That means your buyer sees 50 like widgets before ever reaching yours. Not too wise & you will end up the way I did, broke & in need of seriously re-thinking my business plan (which has to be done on a regular basis according to the demands of the market. Sometimes monthly). Save yourself the trouble & follow the lead of those sellers who are doing well. They MUST be doing something right.

I feel the least bit guilty for charging handling fees to handle the shipment of peoples items. They must feel it is within reason, or I wouldn't have such a good repeat buyer business. Not to mention, hubby & I can both work from home selling used clothing on eBay. And make a good living while in our pjs, if we wish.

Dear Michelle~
I agree with you 100%! I too wasn't charging enough for shipping at first, and also listing my items for dirt cheap, and I sold a lot, but soon figured out, I was losing money, so I had to charge a handling fee also to cover for all those things you mentioned in your post. The buyer that doesn't sell stuff on eBay, really doesn't realize what's all involved in this, I think folks want garage sale prices, who doesn't, I don't really like paying shipping and handling when I buy stuff either, but hey, if I want it I have to pay it. My sales have gone down some since I've been charging more for shipping, but I heard one lady say, the folks that are under charging for their products & shipping charges too, will soon be out of business and the folks that have done there homework and figured out what they have to charge to cover all the cost of selling on eBay will be the folks that are there for the long haul and the other folks will be out of business if they do not take notice of the fact they are losing money by only charging .99 cents for an item and $1.00 to ship it, it looks good, but they probably won't be in business very long.
One other thing I like to mention, paypal charges you a fee on the total amount; selling price and the shipping price you charge, I think I'm correct? And I don't really think this is right, but if I want to use Paypal I have to pay it whether I like it or not? I'm not saying rip people off, but I figure what the actual cost is to ship the my item I've sold and I add the listing fee from eBay and the final selling fee and then what Paypal charges me, and I sell my products for a very fair price, and I also might mention I take a lot of time and great attention to packing these items with nice boxes and paper that I purchase myself, but if I didn't charge the extra for the eBay fees and such, I would have to pack it up and go out and work a real job, I would love to be able to give my stuff away, but it just really isn't the way to do business and I'm trying to establish a full time business!
I have also learned the hard way to not buy from sellers that do not list any shipping amount or shipping calculator; my son bought a computer monitor once, he won the bid for $15.00, the seller had nothing listed regarding shipping charges and when we received the invoice for the monitor the seller was charging $100.00 to ship the 15 inch monitor, I learned real quick to not shop with sellers that do not post their charges, I always state what I charge for shipping, so the buyer knows what they are paying and there is not surprises, at first I use to guess and have actually lost a lot of money, now I weigh everything and try to give a fair price.
Thanks my two cents for today...

I use the ebay shipping calculator with my handling fees included so my customers can see how much it will cost them. My fees are modest, just enough to cover ebay, paypal fees and cost of shipping materials.
Michelle and Midge, you are right on!!!

I have started adding at least one dollar to my shipping for a handling fee. When I started on Ebay, I used to recycle boxes from Walmart and beg for bubbles and peanuts. But now I package in new/clean boxes and pouches. It is part of the professional image that I wish to project. I purchase packaging, rent a post office box and I have to drive to the post office. All of these expenses have required me to tack on a handling fee. About once every 6 weeks I will offer my product with free shipping. It upsets my competition but it goes over well with my customers. My business is successful because of repeat customers and I do my best to keep them happy and feeling like they are dealing with a competent and honest business person. I don't feel guilty about the handling charge.

I don't think anybody has a problem with adding actual costs such as packing materials, tracking, etc to your s&h charges.

What drives me up a wall though is the people (and there are a lot of them) that will list an item at $0.99, and then charge $15-20(!) to ship something that actually costs about $3.00 to ship.

Although I'm not as concerned about EBay not getting as large of a fee for the listing (they're not in any danger of going out of business any time soon), I still find this to be a dishonest way of listing, and I refuse to shop with any of those sellers simply for ethics reasons.

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What drives me up a wall though is the people (and there are a lot of them) that will list an item at $0.99, and then charge $15-20(!) to ship something that actually costs about $3.00 to ship.

This is exactly what I was referring to when I started this discussion !

I don't have an issue with the sellers who charge a buck for shipping and handling, although for me it is overhead and included in the starting price of the auction.

The issue I have is with the wreckless sellers that start the auction @ $00.01 - $00.99 When you know darn good and well the wholesale price is way above $1.00. These sellers destroy the market! they put honest hard working people out of business. Then when they realize thier not making $ they dissappear. eBay's upcoming new tool ( Show it All) is going to put the sqaush on this practice. I personnaly can't wait. To those who practice this shady selling practice.... NOW WHAT

What feature is this you are talking about? Can't you see on your search the start price & the shipping cost at this time? If common sense can't tell you that something that is only 99 cents has a shipping fee of $15, that you pay $15.99, something is wrong. Any buyer can figure that one out.

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What feature is this you are talking about? Can't you see on your search the start price & the shipping cost at this time? If common sense can't tell you that something that is only 99 cents has a shipping fee of $15, that you pay $15.99, something is wrong. Any buyer can figure that one out.

It's called buy it now. It is a tab to click that will show the customer all hidden costs.

I'm not going to respond to the rest of what you wrote. It appears to be an attempt to slam a person or make them feel stupid. I'm sure someone else will fill you in and being willing to share some examples of how unknowing buyers get ripped off all day long on this scam.

FYI... SELLERS STICK ADDED HANDELING, PROCESSING, AND WHAT IS CALLED HIDDEN FEE'S IN ALL KIND'S OF PLACES

Why are you screaming & getting so rude with me? You do not know me. I was being civil in what I thought was an adult discussion. Stating my point, just as you have the right & have done. There is no reason to take anything personal. If you are so worked up over this discussion & feel justified, go right ahead. I still think it is wrong to diss the competitor in your ad. You should have a little confidence in the way you do business & let the scammers get what they deserve on their own.

I simply asked what the show it all feature is? I thought we had that in a search already. Maybe I am wrong. i have been wrong before.

I buy on eBay & am very aware of sellers who charge 99 cents for diamond earrings & charge $19 to ship it first class. But, I choose not to do business with those people because as a consumer & thinking person, I know better than to deal with shady people.

My point is, why do I care what the seller charges for fees ,processing & so on if I agree to the total price & terms clearly shown for me to read, then that is my issue. I don't charge hidden fees and if you don't & have a product worth buying at a price that is fair, why worry about the scammers? I don't see how a buyer is unknowing on eBay. If you can't read, you have no business buying on eBay. If you can read the terms eBay makes you agree to before bidding, you can read the ad & add the costs up & make a logical conclusion bases on the seller's terms, price, shipping & so on, you don't need to be on eBay. If you agree to those terms by bidding & not actually read the terms, you, my friend, would be what is called a sucker & have no business buying on eBay.

While I see the examples you show for your product, I can easily see that 1 cent plus $7.99 for shipping is $8 (one seller I see starting at 1 cent). Personally, I can't see a profit at that cost. They have paid for a gallery pic & buy it now. Maybe they like paying eBay & paypal fees. But,I can't find the hidden fees you refer to . Obviously, the shipping is a little higher than yours, but not much more since you charge $6.66. I would laugh at that seller & feel sorry for him, as he is actually loosing money! Don't be mad. He will go out of business soon enough.

I also see other sellers starting 2 to 3 times higher in price than you do & still getting bids with only $6 in shipping charges. I think the market can handle those prices as well. It comes down to good listing times, attractive listings, good customer service & so on.

Michelle many buyers / shoppers on eBay don't take the time to read thuroughly. Then they scream and hollar when they get ripped off. In turn they hate eBay and don't come back. That is just the tip of the iceberg.

I don't use the statement I posted in this discussion, but I use one that was suggested and it has resolved the issue I was having.

Once a discussion is posted the statements can't be removed. So what started out a few weeks ago has since been addressed and adjusted.

Show It All is a feature that the eBay leaders discussed in the last eBay Town Hall meeting. This is a huge serious issue for many sellers and buyers and it has eBay's attention. It is and does happen daily that a seller will use super small letters/ attempting to hide there $45.00 Whatever fee. There are lot's of honest sellers and that is not who we're referring to. This is a few bad apples that turn buyers off and the buyer is left with a real bad taste in there mouth and never shop eBay again, meanwhile the honest business people who sell that same product suffer a loss because the shopper who wanted is no longer shopping.

There are so many angles on this issue. I personaly feel the steps eBay is making will reduce the occurance of this type of transaction and allow the honest sellers to do what they are here for.... Make Money

quote:

Originally posted by attire4less:
While I see the examples you show for your product, I can easily see that 1 cent plus $7.99 for shipping is $8 (one seller I see starting at 1 cent). Personally, I can't see a profit at that cost. They have paid for a gallery pic & buy it now. Maybe they like paying eBay & paypal fees. But,I can't find the hidden fees you refer to . Obviously, the shipping is a little higher than yours, but not much more since you charge $6.66. I would laugh at that seller & feel sorry for him, as he is actually loosing money! Don't be mad. He will go out of business soon enough.

I guess they figure that what they can't make up for in profit they will make it up in quantity.

What I don't understand about the Show it All feature helping, is that right now when you do a search, the price and shipping price are shown in the results.

Is it going to show the actual cost plus the markup. For instance, I typically mark up my auctions by $4.50 on top of the calculated shipping because I typically ship items over 25 pounds. I do that to cover shipping supplies and any miscalculations. Will this feature show that I added $4.50 to the calculated shipping?

Starting price and shipping cost show on the search page. Hidden charges / fee's do not show. The customer has to go in and search up and down to see if and what the catch is.

There are honest sellers out there that have the auction show everything / all details clearly. The auction is as stated. Then then are those who don't... they hide, lie, cheat, and steal. The problem is bye the time the buyer fiqures it out they get mad and displace the anger in the wrong direction.

Bottom line every and anytime they think eBay they think over priced postage and handling rip off and they go to Wal-Mart or the Mall not eBay. That's when everyone looses. If all buyers knew this was an honest enviroment we would have more customers then we could handle. As it is buyers know how easy it is to get ripped off, over-charged on hidden fee's, spoofed, phissed, and scammed. I rarely shop on eBay for that exact reason.

eBay wants to clean that part of there reputation. If they can't or won't stop the sellers who do this then they will make it so the customer can see it all. Thus the feature name SHOW IT ALL !

Their reputation

OK, that makes sense. One more question though.

How will they guarantee honesty? Is it all going to be calculated shipping?

For instance, let's say I charge 14.99 for shipping and claim that 13.99 is my actual postage cost when in reality it's 6.99. How will eBay know?

Joe that is a very gould question. I will see if I can find a direct answer.

I have tried to get a direct answer on Joe's ? While I'm waiting for more 411 from eBay here are some informative links....


the last eBay Town Hall
transcripthttp://pages.ebay.com/townhall/archives.html

Listen to eBay's last Town Hall

http://pics.ebay.com/aw/pics/commdev/TownHallTranscript

more information on eBay Express another Hot Topic at this paticular Town Hall
http://www.express.ebay.com/