With shipping charges like that, it’s no wonder people are losing interest in using eBay. I find myself using Kijiji more lately to sell things, and I’ve bought less and less from eBay – largely because of sellers who gouge people with insane shipping charges.
That’s why my wife and I stopped using Ebay years ago. My wife used to buy a lot of clothes on Ebay, until people started jacking up shipping charges. She once saw a single women’s shirt for $3 with a $20 shipping charge. Her use of Ebay stopped right then.
Just curious, is the value of this item near $34. What I’ve found is people are doing this to basically scam ebay as my understanding is that fees are not paid on the shipping amount only the sale amount. So by overstating shipping, they save on ebay fees. Not ethical, but I think that is what is going on. I usually just look at the total cost regardless of how much is the price and how much is shipping. Ebay needs to police this for their own benefit, they are the one taking the hit.
Chris,
Yes, that’s exactly what sellers are going – squeezing out more profit from the transaction and avoiding fees. In this instance, it’s a graphic novel worth about $10 USD brand new, so no, it’s definitely not worth the shipping fee this person is asking.
My hope is that eBay sellers with reasonable shipping rates will see more success than the rip-off artists and eBay will self-correct itself. I miss the days of individual sellers…almost everything on eBay is from “pro” sellers.
As someone who’s doing a lot of shipping with USPS lately, that auction is posting the actual shipping costs for the box. There’s no markup or profit there, just check http://www.usps.com/prices/priority-mail-international-prices.htm. The price for an International Flat Rate Priority Large Box to Canada or Mexico is $32.95. At least this seller isn’t offering to ship it UPS, which is EVIL for shipping things to Canada.
Neil
Neil,
That’s pretty interesting – thanks for sharing that. Makes me wonder though why he’d ship it in such a large box. It’s a graphic novel – so comic book-sized – and certainly no more than 1/3rd of an inch thick. That package size seems like bizarre overkill. I wonder if as more and more things go digital, there’s less for USPS to ship, and thus their prices will go up…which hurts Web sites such as eBay.
It may have nothing to do with depth and everything to do with width/height. Also, if the person is a low-volume shipper USPS packaging is attractive simply because of convenience. You don’t have to buy boxes and keep them around. They’re free, you just pick one up, stick your stuff in it, slap a label on and you’re done.
I personally think USPS’s flat rates are a screaming deal. I’ve been shipping a ton of stuff using their priority mail service and for under $13 I get reliable 2 day delivery times pretty much anywhere in the US. UPS simply can’t match that.
Neil
Jason,
I hear ya… It’s sad to see that they haven’t adapted their policies and forced people to be more reasonable. That being said, and sort of off-topic, but I just noticed an HP Mini Vivienne Tam edition on Kijiji and was wondering if it was yours (Ashley’s)?
Cold Flame,
Nope, it’s not our Vivienne Tam Edition HP Mini 1000. That’s on extended loan to us by HP, so it’s not something I can/would sell.
Jason,
Oh ok… I kinda figured that was the case, but just found it to be such a coincidence that I saw it there and then thought of you, and here’s this post about hating eBay and its shipping charges and how you use Kijiji for most things now. =)
Anyway, got my WHS running now. Now I just need to figure out how to configure it all. *laughs* WIP (Work in Progress!)
Cold Flame,
Glad you got WHS up and running! The configuration, at least in terms of backups, is really easy. Install the Connector software (it’s in the Software folder on your server) on each of the computers you want to protect, and it will back up them up at midnight every night.
They are charging you to handle it – maybe they need to feel it up first before they send it to you!
Kijiji is a subsidiary of eBay