Can a seller pad the shipping costs so that they make more on an auction?

[mollymaddy]

A seller has an auction starting at $.99 with $23 shipping. The items in the auction are 22 playing cards. These cards would fit in a 5"x7" envelope and would fit through Canad Posts letter slot. I queried her on her high shipping cost and this was her reply

"The reason the shipping price is so high is because it is an auction. In case the highest bid is only a dollar, the high shipping ensures that I still get the full value of the cards. Also, in Canada shipping is relatively expensive. There is no way you can ship out this amount of cards for $1.25 when shipping to the US for a single card is around $4."

Can a seller pad their shipping costs like this?

[reallynicestamps]

At one time this was a very common quasi-scam on eBay. I say quasi-scam because the total was usually a reasonable price, but the seller was cheating eBay on fees. At that time, eBay charged fees on selling price but not on shipping costs.

Today, and for a couple of years, eBay has been charging fees on both selling price and shipping and the practice has almost stopped.

In fact today, you are more likely to see listings offering Free Shipping, which really means the cost of shipping is included in the asking price.

Which is cheapest?

A $5 item with $10 shipping?

A $10 item with $5 shipping?

A $15 item with Free Shipping?

In defence of the seller, having said rude things about her, products cannot legally be sent lettermail. She would have to use Parcel Post within Canada and LightPacket or Small Packet internationally.

None of these services include tracking or Delivery Confirmation.

I take it these are  cards like those in Magic The Gathering? Twenty two cards in appropriate protective holders could easily be over the maximum 2 cm thick allowed for letter or light packet. So while $23 does sound high, it would not be $1.25 for shipping.

Tracked service like ExpressPost starts around $14 and goes up with destination and weight.