SELLERS CLEVERLY HIDING MARGINS IN SHIPPING

[shanksee55]

There are dealers from China selling Wall Art. Nothing great if you have lived and worked in HongKong and China. Sold for $5 on streets. On ebay the auction is a few cents and lands up at 1 to 2 bucks. But the shipping! Its $47 onwards when it actually costs $5 to $7. So the seller cleverly avoids paying ebay its fees.

Also the ebay system of complaint is so shrouded in inaccessibility it makes you wonder on whose side are they on? Their own?

[brandeentertainment]

The ebay system complaint I agree with you ..

Sellers have be paying Fees on shipping for well over a year now so they are not avoiding fees by doing this so reporting them for doing nothing wrong is going to result in nothing so don't waste your time ..

[femmefan1946]

There is no  fee avoidance of that kind any more, since eBay brought in the 9% fee on shipping costs.

It comes to the same old "Look at the total, not at the parts" No matter how the cost is broken down, either the total is worthwhile or not.

Your other arguement is about a thing called "arbitrage". Basically a thing which is cheap and easy to get in one location (the streets of Hong Kong) is hard to find but wanted in another location (Canada, for example.) The price rises to meet the market.

There was a US seller a few years ago who was buying Secret deodorant at her local drugstore and selling it at a huge markup on eBay Germany. The product was known and desired there (why? from American NATO bases?) but was not distributed.

Her discovery of that special market was "arbitrage".

Every seller has found a cheap product she can sell for a substantial markup. That is how entrepreneurs succeed.

[widgetc]

"It comes to the same old "Look at the total, not at the parts" No matter how the cost is broken down, either the total is worthwhile or not."

Well...not really. The fees are on the cheapeast shipping ie local. Local shipping $1 as nobody local will buy...international shipping $40.

[widgetc]

oops I meant to quote "There is no  fee avoidance of that kind any more, since eBay brought in the 9% fee on shipping costs."

[widgetc]

yes always look at the total cost

[closeupfanatic]

"always look at the total cost"

Lots of sellers hide a margin in shipping. Just ignore them.

[pocomocomputing]

There is no  fee avoidance of that kind any more, since eBay brought in the 9% fee on shipping costs.

Shipping fee is not 9%. It is only 9% for non-store auctions.

The FVF rate varies with the type of listing and the category it is in. It can range from 13% to 2% and be 0 % for International shipping if your domestic shipping cost is free.