Recently, I've had knock-backs from sellers because they are tied to eBay rules. These include:-

No consolidation of purchases from the same seller because each item has to be paid for immediately.

No consolidation from the same seller because the card is being put up on offer at a reduced price.

The reason I bring this up is that postage costs seem to be one of those "pull a figure out of the air" prices. I've seen an autograph card from the USA signed by the same actor with postage of $2.62, $3.30, $7.99, $13.17, $13.30, $16.24, $16.62 and $17.28 to name but some. Would it be so hard to put two cards in the same envelope? What is eBay gaining out of this? All it means is that I either get one of my great friends in the USA to buy for me, or I don't purchase. Here's an example of the cost of a card I've just purchased.

1 item
$49.99
Shipping
$18.37
Import charges
$18.22
Order total
$86.58

This is why consolidation of postage is so important.

I've just had 4 cards sent to me from the usa for the price of a couple of stamps on a white envelope.

Postage is not very much between the UK and the USA it's the crazy rules that sellers have to abide by that makes it so.

quote:

Originally posted by Graham:
No consolidation of purchases from the same seller because each item has to be paid for immediately.

The one thing I'll say on this is sometimes try to do the "Add to Cart" function on immediate payment required listings when you're looking to buy multiples items. As a seller I have all my listings set for immediate payment required (as the non-paying eBay buyers have become completely out of control), but I also have it set it automatically combine shipping. So if a buyer adds everything to cart first, they'll get the combined shipping. If they just click "Buy It Now" for an item, then they'll be forced to complete checkout to purchase it. So I had to add a little message to my listings to direct buyers to use "Add to Cart" instead of "Buy It Now". But that may only work if a seller combines shipping and has it set to do so automatically. I'm not sure if there's a "Request Total" option when you add multiple 'immediate payment' listings to cart.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
I've just had 4 cards sent to me from the usa for the price of a couple of stamps on a white envelope.

Postage is not very much between the UK and the USA it's the crazy rules that sellers have to abide by that makes it so.

It because it's not the postage, it's the Buyer Protection. The white envelope is fine. The padded envelope is fine for a few bucks more. But all parties have to know each other and be willing to accept the small risk.

If push comes to shove, even having postal insurance on it becomes a problem, if you actually have to make a claim. As many have found out the hard way.

The Buyer Protection angle is why eBay attracts the mass buyers, and the sellers have to follow the rules for the biggest market exposure. eBay can dictate anything it wants and it does, because both buyers and sellers complain, but they don't leave.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
I've just had 4 cards sent to me from the usa for the price of a couple of stamps on a white envelope.

Postage is not very much between the UK and the USA it's the crazy rules that sellers have to abide by that makes it so.

It because it's not the postage, it's the Buyer Protection. The white envelope is fine. The padded envelope is fine for a few bucks more. But all parties have to know each other and be willing to accept the small risk.

If push comes to shove, even having postal insurance on it becomes a problem, if you actually have to make a claim. As many have found out the hard way.

The Buyer Protection angle is why eBay attracts the mass buyers, and the sellers have to follow the rules for the biggest market exposure. eBay can dictate anything it wants and it does, because both buyers and sellers complain, but they don't leave.

Lord knows I try all the time to keep my stuff off of ebay as much as possible, but its a necessary evil.

quote:

Originally posted by Logan:

quote:

Originally posted by Graham:
No consolidation of purchases from the same seller because each item has to be paid for immediately.

The one thing I'll say on this is sometimes try to do the "Add to Cart" function on immediate payment required listings when you're looking to buy multiples items. As a seller I have all my listings set for immediate payment required (as the non-paying eBay buyers have become completely out of control), but I also have it set it automatically combine shipping. So if a buyer adds everything to cart first, they'll get the combined shipping. If they just click "Buy It Now" for an item, then they'll be forced to complete checkout to purchase it. So I had to add a little message to my listings to direct buyers to use "Add to Cart" instead of "Buy It Now". But that may only work if a seller combines shipping and has it set to do so automatically. I'm not sure if there's a "Request Total" option when you add multiple 'immediate payment' listings to cart.

Yep, tried that. Added to cart, all from the same seller, but the message comes up that I can't request a total for items that require immediate payment. I contacted the seller who has chosen to do nothing about it, so the sale is no more.

I've just been offered a card at a very good reduced price. I can't pay because the seller hasn't put a postage price up, therefore eBay says they don't sell to the UK. Again, I can't request a total because of the immediate payment clause. It's all very frustrating.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
I've just had 4 cards sent to me from the usa for the price of a couple of stamps on a white envelope.

Postage is not very much between the UK and the USA it's the crazy rules that sellers have to abide by that makes it so.

It because it's not the postage, it's the Buyer Protection.

Oh yes i am well aware of the buyer protection rules. I can understand the seller wanting to protect themselves when selling a pricey item but sellers have gone blanket coverage on all their sales charging high postage for a low value item which just results in no sales.

All of which does not answer Grahams question.

I have just bought 7 cigarette cards priced between £12.50 and £19.00 each (BIN) from a UK seller. I used the basket option and for all 7 cards I paid £1.95p postage despite the fact that each item it was stated that postage was £1.05p per item. The seller advertises that for each additional purchase only 15p postage is charged. He has set up an automatic system whereby as soon a a second card was added to the basket the reduced shipping fee was applied. In addition he also had a 20% discount offer if more than 5 cards were purchased and again this was applied automatically. Using this method I was effectively able to buy 7 cards for the price of 6. It also meant that I did not have to ask for an invoice.

I have come across this facility before with other UK dealers eBay accounts where they have a lot of single cards available. I assume this facility is offered by eBay at perhaps an additional charge?

regards

John

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
Oh yes i am well aware of the buyer protection rules. I can understand the seller wanting to protect themselves when selling a pricey item but sellers have gone blanket coverage on all their sales charging high postage for a low value item which just results in no sales.

All of which does not answer Grahams question.

Ok, so I'll throw out a few possible answers, which may have to do more with the sellers than eBay itself. I buy straight from sellers I know and I get a range of different packaging and shipping prices out of them, having nothing to do with any rules. So some of the ideas belong to the seller, not merely eBay.

First off, if you deal with a disreputable seller on eBay, they may overcharge shipping and blame eBay. That goes without saying, and when you see it, you stay away from them. If they play those games with shipping, there will be other things wrong with their items. Bet on it.

Now, its called shipping AND HANDLING and some sellers do a good job and some sellers do the minimum. Some think they should charge you for the PO visit. Some charge you for the penny sleeve and hard plastic and padded envelope. Some tape the cards between two pieces of a carton and throw them in a white envelope with two stamps. As long as the cards get to me undamaged, I really don't care. I don't mind paying another $7 - $10 for a nice package either, but I do mind it when I pay for it and get that envelope. I have one seller who waives all shipping fees. Maybe its in something else, but it sounds good. I also know one seller who sends out the cards before payment. Get that on eBay.

Another reason, you may not be their best customer. If the seller is any kind of a businessman, the better customer gets the better service. Nobody should get bad service, because they may become a good customer, but your $10 purchase is not getting the same treatment as somebody's $500 purchase. Once a seller thinks you are a pain, they don't even need you as a small buyer. So let's blame eBay rules.

Finally as to consolidation, some sellers don't trust you. eBay certainly doesn't trust you. If a package with one item goes astray, it limits the damage. If a package with multiple items goes astray, its potentially a lot more money. Unless the seller wins the claim, he is out those cards. It's a lot harder for a buyer to claim five packages went missing, than for him to claim one package went missing. And the seller can always blame his desire to limit his losses on eBay rules, which may in fact be there.

Now I'm talking just about domestic mailing. The international shipping has to be much worse because you are dealing with multiple postal systems and the risks are greater. Sellers and eBay can set all sorts of restrictions on global shipping and there is nothing you can do about it but pay, or don't buy.

I'm sure there are other reasons people can think of for inconsistent shipping fees and rules, but I'm headed for the corner deli now. One guy charges me $2.50 for my egg and cheese and the other guy charges me $3.00. I don't know why, they look the same.

I have noticed that up until recently when you did a Buy It Now on ebay, the seller would send you an invoice and you could pay 5 days later. Within the past 2 years or so, that has changed. Buy It Now forces you to pay immediately. A new Ebay rule ?

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
I have noticed that up until recently when you did a Buy It Now on ebay, the seller would send you an invoice and you could pay 5 days later. Within the past 2 years or so, that has changed. Buy It Now forces you to pay immediately. A new Ebay rule ?

There is an option when selling for each item to opt for "Immediate Payment" or not on Buy It Now items. If you've suffered a few non-paying buyers or those that just vanish, then a lot of sellers, myself included, will opt for immediate payment just to avoid the time-wasting numpties.

As you all know E Bay and their shipping charges are my pet hate
I have been under the impression that BIN is a pay it when you buy and that there has been no alternatives to it With most of my purchases I try to pay straight away being auction or bin.
For combining I have never had any problems with the cart, only drawback you have to agree to purchase before you can get your total
I have just been in contact with a seller who has two shipping prices on a $3.60 card two different shipping charges depending wich one you click on to
$73.00 and $32 NZ
The sellers reply is that is what E Bay says it is and they feel comfortable with that so sorry there is no other way
This is blatant making money out of shipping being either the seller or E Bay
Lately I have got the feeling that there are a lot of smaller sellers out there that as E Bay are setting fees for everything that they can hide their exorbitant shipping charges behind E Bays grab for everything ( My Opinion Only)
But in saying that there are also sellers that will come to the party
As we cannot do with out E Bay and other platforms are not safe unfortunately we have to deal with E Bay
I am not a seller but there is so many shipping options out there that we will never get our heads around them we have to make our own decisions.
Do we need that card so badly that we have to pay someones exorbitant shipping cost
Or can we tell them without being rude to stick it owing to too expensive shipping costs being theirs or E Bays costs

quote:

Originally posted by Hedgehog Witch:
There is an option when selling for each item to opt for "Immediate Payment" or not on Buy It Now items. If you've suffered a few non-paying buyers or those that just vanish, then a lot of sellers, myself included, will opt for immediate payment just to avoid the time-wasting numpties.

Thankyou for pointing that out. I've been selling things on eBay for years and hadn't noticed that change. I'm guessing it is 'Immediate Payment' by default unless you untick or tick the appropriate box. It explains why several buyers in recent months didn't wait for me to send them an invoice so I could adjust the shipping costs but just immediately paid for the items and paid over the odds for shipping. Note, I gave them partial refunds as I always try to avoid charging more for shipping than necessary.

Looks like I need to go through my current listings and see what they are set to.

The option is under where you put your price, under "Payment Options". There's the part that's default for payments managed by ebay, and then there's a box to tick under that line, to "Require immediate payment when buyer uses Buy it now".
If you have both a starting price and a BIN then you can't use that option, so it's for BINs only.

As to postage. If the seller is using one of a couple of the ebay Global Payments options then the seller is NOT making any money out of postage and likely doesn't even know how much postage the overseas buyer has paid as that part is all handled and calculated by ebay. If the seller offers free postage to domestic customers then they won't get any postage fees to send it to the GSP depot for overseas buyers. If they charge say £4 for domestic postage then that is what they will get to send an overseas package to the GSP depot. The daft inflated prices are all ebay's doing not the seller.

I said I never would, but I have used GSP for overseas buyers in the past year, for polystone statues and figures. The reason...I can't cope with a lot hassle or potential messing around these days, and GSP is so easy and hassle-free. All the customs, shipping and other stuff is handled by ebay. And that's exactly what they want...to make it so easy that it becomes the preferred option...so ebay wins again. They also accept slightly larger and heavier packages than Royal Airmail, so I'm happy to let ebay handle the actual shipping, saves me a headache.

With the costs of things and postage everywhere these days, it just another of those things that are becoming a fact of life. We just have to really consider what we buy and budget accordingly. If we don't like the shipping prices then we can choose not to buy.

Several UK sellers insisted when I did a Buy it Now on their auctions that I could pay later. But that was not the case. As soon as I clicked on Buy It Now, ebay sought to charge my credit card.

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
Several UK sellers insisted when I did a Buy it Now on their auctions that I could pay later. But that was not the case. As soon as I clicked on Buy It Now, ebay sought to charge my credit card.

Like me, they probably didn't know/realise that the pay at once requirement was even in there Nobody's perfect