Shipping Costs on eBay

I know most of you wont care about this but if even one person agrees with me, my rant is worth it.

Here’s the scoop. There are a pair of shoes on eBay that I want to bid on but the shipping is $45. That’s domestic, priority shipping folks. Not overseas, not overnight, just regular USPS priority shipping for a pair of shoes that would fit in a flat rate box and mailed for $9. Even if you incorporate ebay fees, shipping *materials, and $5 for their *time, we are talking at most $20. This really chaps me because even if I don’t bid, someone else will and the seller will just keep on doing what they are doing.

Now you may ask how much are the shoes worth and what is the starting price? The starting bid is $1 and these are brand new Doc Martins and they are selling for over $100 at Zappos so if you could get them for $10 bucks plus $45 shipping is it worth it? Yeeee…..NO!!!!!!! No it is not!!!!!! Because you are allowing this immoral and unscrupulous seller to continue to gouge buyers on shipping and to go against eBay policy. Yes, eBay has a policy against this and they even have a tool where you can report the item and note that the seller has inflated shipping but the fact is, eBay doesn’t really care unless the (I have heard) shipping is inflated by $100 or more.

Why do sellers do this? Because the amount the seller is required to pay eBay is based on the final selling price of the item, excusing shipping costs. So lets say ebay charges (for ease of description) 5% and a seller has a pair of shoes he wants to sell. If he sells them for $40 and charges actual shipping of $10, the seller will keep around $38 of the $50. If the seller sells the same shoes for $10 and charges $40 for shipping (and ships first class for $6), the seller will keep $43.50.

Wow 2 days in a row on the soap box. Sheesh, I hope I dont start to like it up here.

*Note – The time and cost that a seller would incur to mail a pair of shoes domestically is next to nothing. After they get free boxes mailed to them free from the USPS, they can print the postage on line and schedule a free pick up from the USPS. You can literally run an eBay store right from your house and never have to leave if you don’t ship overseas.