Anticipating a fight over shipping...

[MegoSteve]

I guess I'm becoming one of those bottom-feeding troublemakers, because I recently bought a bunch of cheap bronze-age comics on eBay and the seller charged me $10.50 to ship them. I just received the package... it came via Media Mail in a padded envelope and I weighed it; he paid $2.77 to ship it. Even if he bought that envelope for $2, he still charged me more than double the actual shipping cost.

I'd have no problem paying $10.50 for shipping something if it was an expensive item or it came in a box and had Priority Mail postage on it. I know I got a great price on the books, so it's really not a huge, earth-shattering blow to my wallet in the overall scheme of things, but man, I really hate when sellers pump up their profits by charging excessive shipping like this.

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

It drives me crazy too, and I'm told Ebay has just upgraded their complaints area for this exact thing.

[Zemo]

Did it say 10.50 shipping in the auction and did it say how they would be shipped?

[MegoSteve]

In retrospect, after he explained it, he did have it in his auctions, but it was pretty confusingly worded. Instead of saying $1 extra per lot, he said "$1 extra for single comic auctions and 50 cents for 2-5 comics and 25 cents for 6 comics or more." What he meant was that some of his auctions were for more than one comic and on those he'd add fees differently. Just confusing... I don't think English is this guy's first language.

Bottom line is that I think it's ridiculous that he's charging me $10.50 on a package it cost him $2.77 to mail.

[Meule]

Welcome to my world

[NickyBoo]

Well ebay supports any reduction that a seller makes in postage, it means more fees for them. In fact they would have you post it for free so that you pay fees on the postage aswell.

[Adam West]

If you got a good deal on the comics and received them in good shape; I wouldn't worry about it. He probably didn't get the price he was expecting and cut corners. This kind of stuff happens to me all the time. I have learned for myself over the years not to sweat the small stuff. If I got a good deal and the shipping is a little high; I just focus on the great deal I received and not so much on the shipping.

[toys2cool]

If you got a good deal on the comics and received them in good shape; I wouldn't worry about it. He probably didn't get the price he was expecting and cut corners. This kind of stuff happens to me all the time. I have learned for myself over the years not to sweat the small stuff. If I got a good deal and the shipping is a little high; I just focus on the great deal I received and not so much on the shipping.

yeah i agree,

[Bruce Banner]

That happened to me on some CAH figures I got from Ebay Germany.
The actual shipping he paid was less than a third of what he quoted/charged.

[Duncan]

Personally, I don't differentiate between shipping and the item's cost, assuming I know the shipping up front. A $12 item with $3 shipping costs me the same as a $1 item with $14 shipping. If an item has high shipping, I just bid less. It's not my job to police fees on behalf of e-bay.

However, I do get annoyed when sellers balk at combining shipping, or try to extract a little extra profit after the fact. I think MegoSteve has a legitimate issue; probably can't do much about it.