Just purchased at item and paid $5 (£3.20) postage, didn't pay too much attention about where the item was coming from but it arrived today with a 60p stamp. If I allow 40p for envelope and card holder that still represents a 300% mark-up. I know people use the postage to cover fees - but that is still a bit steep.

Card and postage anomolies...

$200 card bought - $6.95 p&p
$74.99 card being watched - $37.00 p&p

I've also been watching two cases of cards from the USA. One has $70 postage attached and the other, $165

Ebay should be watching this. I believe there is a section to complain about extortionate postage rates, but I don't think it covers overseas.

Ebay don't care as long as they get their cut/percentage of the sale .I reported a seller who after I won auctions decided the cards had to be sent registered mail at three times the price of his advertised rates even though he did not offer registered as an option on the auction page .

Ebays only response to me was to "work it out" with the seller and that he could register a non paying ebayer strike against me if I did not pay .

To be fair to my seller he has said that $5 was for overseas and will refund $3 - But I had to ask!!

First class rates have gone up for overseas. It starts at $3 for 1 oz and is like $1 more per OZ. That weight must also include the packaging.

As far as the $165 above for a case. That could be express or priority and those come with some form of tracking. First class does not come with tracking.

Why is tracking important. Well the buyer can claim to have never revived the package and if the seller doesn't provide some kind of tracking showing it was delivered then the seller has to refund the money and the cost of shipping and they lose out on the product. That's why most people doesn't ship overseas and if they do make sure to ship insured and with tracking.

Also it doesn't pay for a seller to over charge on shipping due to the new rating system Ebay has in place. The seller would be asking for problems with ebay and could end up being hit with loosing seller status and ranking in listing visibility.

Now sellers are allowed to charge handling charges. Shipping overseas is not cheap and is very time consuming for the average person or even small business who isn't set up to handle it. Also shipping overseas can add up to 20 to 1 hour or more to the normal shipping time. For example. I have to take the item to the post office and wait in a long line. Now I am 8 blocks from the post office and this has taken me up to 2 hours before when there is a really long line. If a seller wants to take that time and put it in their handling costs, they should be able to with out the buyer freaking out.

Point is simple. If you agree to buy something you are agreeing to the stated shipping costs as well as the price. You should keep that in mind when buying something, I always do. You should also not dock the sell rating points if they stated their shipping prices ahead of time before you agreed to buy the item. If you don't want to pay for the stated shipping costs, try and work something out with the seller BEFORE you agree to buy the item.

My wife recently asked me to buy a Memory Box on ebay for our son, to store his old photos, etc. The box was about $65 and the shipping was about $ 28 !!!

Man, those prices do seem steep. I refund quite a bit depanding on what is bought and where it's shipped to. Plus I combine shipping on multiple items purchased. Hope everyone also remembers that Ebay now gets fees for shipping costs too. I think it's really lame and had to increase my shipping fees because of the fees Evil Bay charges me on shipping.. Always check shipping costs before buying.. The feedback really doesn't matter because if the shipping doesn'tmatch to the penny they leave low feedback. International shipping on most packages costs me $4.56 and I charge $4.95 because of the heavy duty bubble padded envelope. With Fee Bay Fees I lose money with every shipment and still get sellers leaving low feedback because the postal tag doesn't show $4.95... I know I've strayed a little from Hammer's thoughts but I do agree totally with him and the other comments posted..

Though perhaps not true in Hammer's case, one thing to consider is (as an example), I use a third party insurance for shipping. It means the postage may say $3, but I may also have paid $2 to the company (as an example) directly that does NOT reflect on the stamp.

Everyone's points on this are very good.

I especially agree with MrBlueofnyc on the international shipping. It takes a lot of extra time to make it happen. And I'm just out of my house, not a physical store.

Ebay charges the sellers fees on the shipping costs now like TWS pointed out. Which has to be factored in as well.

Now for a different example. I get the same drops in feedback scores over shipping charges just like everyone else does. If I charged exact then they still wouldn't be happy. But think about this: When you order from Amazon and pay shipping, or Wal-Mart online, or any other big company and you pay shipping. You're not paying actual shipping there either! They take huge advantage of the buyer worse that most ebay cases people complain about.

I find it intresting that you say it takes so much time to ship overseas. When i do packages to America it is the same as doing them in the UK. They just put it on the scales, tell me how much it is and slap some stamps on, takes a couple of minutes.

Does it work diffrently in America?

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
I find it intresting that you say it takes so much time to ship overseas. When i do packages to America it is the same as doing them in the UK. They just put it on the scales, tell me how much it is and slap some stamps on, takes a couple of minutes.

Does it work diffrently in America?

Wolfie

Don't forget the customs declaration!!

John

Shipping fees on eBay are ridiculous. When they started implementing that I starting to list all my items with free shipping (within the US). I used to start my auctions at $0.99 but because of the free shipping, I was forced to raise my starting bid prices.

Its a shame to see an item with a large shipping charge, then receive it and the postage actually costs less. However, I take into consideration the cost of the supplies included (i.e. bubble mailer, top loader, etc.)

quote:

Originally posted by JOHN LEVITT:

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
I find it intresting that you say it takes so much time to ship overseas. When i do packages to America it is the same as doing them in the UK. They just put it on the scales, tell me how much it is and slap some stamps on, takes a couple of minutes.
Does it work diffrently in America?

Wolfie

Don't forget the customs declaration!!

John

Oh man! Customs Declarations is another thread that should be discussed! Unless it's a gift or declared at less than $25 they hit the buyer/receiver for Service Charges in the UK. I've had a few packages returned because the Service Charge was so high.. Everything is now sent with a very low value.. Tough though when it needs to be insured..

I have wanted to buy a few sketches from a big ebay seller, but the shipping to Australia is $33!

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
I find it intresting that you say it takes so much time to ship overseas. When i do packages to America it is the same as doing them in the UK. They just put it on the scales, tell me how much it is and slap some stamps on, takes a couple of minutes.

Does it work diffrently in America?

The difference in the US is you can post things from home easily. With international you have to go a post off and wait in line to post most things. Lines tend to be long and it takes time to drive to and from the post office. Its a big in-connivance and filling out those stupid customs forms are a pain in the, well you know.

Its just a lot more work to post.

quote:

Originally posted by TWS:
Man, those prices do seem steep. I refund quite a bit depanding on what is bought and where it's shipped to. Plus I combine shipping on multiple items purchased. Hope everyone also remembers that Ebay now gets fees for shipping costs too. I think it's really lame and had to increase my shipping fees because of the fees Evil Bay charges me on shipping.. Always check shipping costs before buying.. The feedback really doesn't matter because if the shipping doesn'tmatch to the penny they leave low feedback. International shipping on most packages costs me $4.56 and I charge $4.95 because of the heavy duty bubble padded envelope. With Fee Bay Fees I lose money with every shipment and still get sellers leaving low feedback because the postal tag doesn't show $4.95... I know I've strayed a little from Hammer's thoughts but I do agree totally with him and the other comments posted..

If you use the shipping system ebay offers you dont have to pay a fee on the actual cost you spend on shipping but if you use a 3rd party to ship through then you pay the fee on the full shipping you charged.

quote:

Originally posted by MrBlueofnyc:

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
I find it intresting that you say it takes so much time to ship overseas. When i do packages to America it is the same as doing them in the UK. They just put it on the scales, tell me how much it is and slap some stamps on, takes a couple of minutes.

Does it work diffrently in America?

The difference in the US is you can post things from home easily. With international you have to go a post off and wait in line to post most things. Lines tend to be long and it takes time to drive to and from the post office. Its a big in-connivance and filling out those stupid customs forms are a pain in the, well you know.

Its just a lot more work to post.

Bingo. I hate, and I do mean hate waiting in line at the Post Office. I honestly believe that $5 is too little to charge for 1st class international because of the hassles to ship.

quote:

Originally posted by Andy28:
I have wanted to buy a few sketches from a big ebay seller, but the shipping to Australia is $33!

Could be the cost to ship them with tracking, priority mail is the way to ship international with tracking other than express. Those prices are expensive.

I know a lot of seller who stopped shipping over seas because of all the money they were losing due to people saying they were not getting their stuff and Ebay/Paypal refunding the money. So they lost out on the money and the product.

One of the factors in increased postage costs for e-bay purchases is the fact that starting sometime earlier this year the e-bay folks began taking a 9% cut of the shipping fee as well as 9% of the final transaction cost. Most all of the e-bay store owners immediately jacked up shipping costs by 10% (and sometimes more) to offset things.

I've only mailed things to Canada, but that became more expensive earlier this year as well. The postal service in America is on the edge of bankruptcy and raising domestic rates is really unpopular, so it would seem that they raised the international rates instead under the impression that it would help the cash flow with minimum bad publicity. (my opinion, anyway).

quote:

Originally posted by MrBlueofnyc:

quote:

Originally posted by TWS:
Man, those prices do seem steep. I refund quite a bit depanding on what is bought and where it's shipped to. Plus I combine shipping on multiple items purchased. Hope everyone also remembers that Ebay now gets fees for shipping costs too. I think it's really lame and had to increase my shipping fees because of the fees Evil Bay charges me on shipping.. Always check shipping costs before buying.. The feedback really doesn't matter because if the shipping doesn'tmatch to the penny they leave low feedback. International shipping on most packages costs me $4.56 and I charge $4.95 because of the heavy duty bubble padded envelope. With Fee Bay Fees I lose money with every shipment and still get sellers leaving low feedback because the postal tag doesn't show $4.95... I know I've strayed a little from Hammer's thoughts but I do agree totally with him and the other comments posted..

If you use the shipping system ebay offers you dont have to pay a fee on the actual cost you spend on shipping but if you use a 3rd party to ship through then you pay the fee on the full shipping you charged.

You still get hit with shipping cost fees from ebay unless you offer free shipping.