eBay

leaky-bucket-labs · ‎04-15-2023

$289 USD to ship 2 small transistors?

Whats even happening here? Thats insanity

leaky-bucket-labs · ‎04-15-2023

I can buy parts off digikey and its $8 for fedex to my door in under 48 hours, no extra fees or duties.

This is a disgrace

everything-wonderful · ‎04-15-2023

Dont the people who sell on Ebay set prices? Wouldnt that be somebody essentially trying to scam by putting ridiculously high shipping fees?

marnotom! · ‎04-15-2023

I seem to recall that when the Global Shipping Program was first unleashed nearly ten years ago, it also came up with some really extreme charges that varied depending on whether you viewed the item on .com or .ca.

The thing we have to remember with these programs is that the computer subroutine, coding, bot, whatever-you-want-to-call-it has no idea what the item actually is. All it has is information provided by the seller on the item's category and shipping weight/dimensions. If the seller feeds the "bot" insufficient information or garbage, it's going to have to make some guesses and usually the result is more garbage.

My understanding from a British antiques seller who used to hang out on the Canadian boards during the early days of the GSP is that if the "bot" didn't have the required information to calculate a shipping price, it would apply a category average. What's probably happening with eIS is that it's applying a worst case scenario.

In addition, because this listing says that there's no import charges upon delivery, the "bot" has probably estimated them and added them to the shipping price, so US$25 or so of that shipping charge is probably HST and estimated customs processing fees.

You might want to post this on one of the .com site's discussion boards to give sellers a heads-up on the importance of providing as much information on the nature of the item as possible, but lay off the "RIP eBay" rhetoric. Cries of eBay's demise tend to be regarded with as much derision as demands for class action lawsuits.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎04-15-2023

@everything-wonderful wrote:
Dont the people who sell on Ebay set prices? Wouldnt that be somebody essentially trying to scam by putting ridiculously high shipping fees?

@everything-wonderful

@leaky-bucket-labs

Many sellers (not all) use auto settings. (Maybe they use the same shipping for everything they sell or a limit of 3 options.) Basically set it and forget it. Without an occasional test they are doing their buyers a major disservice showing inaccurate charges. If postage is bot generated in majority of situations rates shown will be entirely out to lunch.

-Lotz

marnotom! · ‎04-15-2023

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
Many sellers (not all) use auto settings. (Maybe they use the same shipping for everything they sell or a limit of 3 options.) Basically set it and forget it. Without an occasional test they are doing their buyers a major disservice showing inaccurate charges. If postage is bot generated in majority of situations rates shown will be entirely out to lunch.

So are you suggesting, @lotzofuniquegoodies, that part of the problem here may be that the seller's out-to-lunch rate for shipping to Illinois are being added to eIS's out-to-lunch rate for shipping to Canada?

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎04-15-2023

@marnotom! wrote:
@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
Many sellers (not all) use auto settings. (Maybe they use the same shipping for everything they sell or a limit of 3 options.) Basically set it and forget it. Without an occasional test they are doing their buyers a major disservice showing inaccurate charges. If postage is bot generated in majority of situations rates shown will be entirely out to lunch.
So are you suggesting, @lotzofuniquegoodies, that part of the problem here may be that the seller's out-to-lunch rate for shipping to Illinois are being added to eIS's out-to-lunch rate for shipping to Canada?

@marnotom!

What I am suggesting is a majority of USA sellers have been for awhile and more as of late have out to lunch shipping costs to Canada. At 1 time it was suggested that some sellers did this for out of stock place holders. That does not jive if their shipping to the USA is free or negligible or multiple units. No buyer in their right mind is going to purchase a 20.oo item with 100.oo plus shipping. Another suggestion was for visibility to their items. Click on any item and you see the rest of them. Then there are sellers that will show a small assortment of listings located in either Canada or USA when in fact they are in China. Found this out by ordering from 1. 2 of 3 items were noted Canada. All 3 arrived from China. To my mind it seems to be very bait and switch.

-Lotz

If the issue is a built in fault with eBay's program it is something that needs to be addressed. Buyers need to know realistic shipping costs and an actual method an item will be shipped before they buy. Not after. Like the mention that sellers are not required to include weights and measurements of an item when creating a listing.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎04-15-2023

@marnotom!

Random recently discovered set of listings. Intended only as FYI/test purposes.

https://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_ssn=pc_channel&store_name=itchannel&_oac=1&_sop=16

Important to update ship to Canada and sort with highest shipping cost.

Update shipping to USA and items suddenly have free shipping. Also curious to see where they are registered when you compare to the listing details.

-Lotz

marnotom! · ‎04-15-2023

Okay, so for what it's worth, I found the listing that @leaky-bucket-labs was looking at, and I suspect that some of the problem seems to be caused by the seller listing the transistors in the "Ham Radio Amplifier" subcategory, rather than "Other Ham Radio Equipment" and not providing any specs on the item's shipping size.

Their domestic shipping price adds US$8.00 to the total shipping price.

leaky-bucket-labs · ‎04-17-2023

It has nothing to do with the subcategory. Although 80% of the junk listed there is not a ham radio amplifier and ebay doesnt care about listing it in the wrong subcategory which is a whole other disgrace and form of "sliding" competitors off the front page.

Ebays system sets those shipping prices not the seller. Heres some comparison

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎04-17-2023

@leaky-bucket-labs wrote:
It has nothing to do with the subcategory. Although 80% of the junk listed there is not a ham radio amplifier and ebay doesnt care about listing it in the wrong subcategory which is a whole other disgrace and form of "sliding" competitors off the front page.

Ebays system sets those shipping prices not the seller. Heres some comparison

Thanks, @leaky-bucket-labs a perfect visual perspective!!! I rationalize it as the new eBay normal even if eBay does not want to admit to it.

-Lotz

marnotom! · ‎04-17-2023

Sorry if I was unclear. Yes, eBay does set the shipping for items sent through the eBay International Shipping service, but that amount is added to what the seller charges for shipping to the Illinois hub.

The eIS shipping charge is based on information provided by the seller, though, and my conclusion from looking at your photo essay is that the seller of the M7437 is doing something those other sellers aren't, which likely is entering the dimensions and weight of the package when they're creating their listing.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎04-17-2023

@marnotom! wrote:
Sorry if I was unclear. Yes, eBay does set the shipping for items sent through the eBay International Shipping service, but that amount is added to what the seller charges for shipping to the Illinois hub.

The eIS shipping charge is based on information provided by the seller, though, and my conclusion from looking at your photo essay is that the seller of the M7437 is doing something those other sellers aren't, which likely is entering the dimensions and weight of the package when they're creating their listing.

@marnotom!

@leaky-bucket-labs

If a Canadian seller inserts inaccurate shipping in majority cases it's mostly a typo or a hijacked account. (Truthfully how many times do you see that?) If a US seller does it it becomes a glitch. How many reports of this observation does it take for eBay to realize this may be a problem? Especially for Canadian buyers. From my observations it's been going on for several years.

-Lotz

flipistics · ‎04-17-2023

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

@marnotom!
@leaky-bucket-labs

If a Canadian seller inserts inaccurate shipping in majority cases it's mostly a typo or a hijacked account. (Truthfully how many times do you see that?) If a US seller does it it becomes a glitch. How many reports of this observation does it take for eBay to realize this may be a problem? Especially for Canadian buyers. From my observations it's been going on for several years.

-Lot

For small and light items, many US sellers are lazy and never enter package dimensions because most of their sales are to the USA anyway. They just select the 4oz or 8oz rate or whatever. Since we don't have small parcel rates here, we have to enter everything. Given the size and weight of some ham radio things, I'm guessing eIS is taking a worst case scenario for the category. I wouldn't call it a glitch though.

What they should be doing is disabling interational sales if dimensions and weight aren't entered. Showing shipping costs that high is a really, really bad look.

mcrlmn · ‎04-22-2023

Lots of similar, ridiculous scenerios.

Why get your knickers in a twist?

Shake your head and move on

Many don't read or have the IQ of a bag of onions... Let the fools have at it.

brettjet38 · ‎05-06-2023

Time to SHOP CANADIAN while the shipping is cheaper, and the wonderfully newly minted EIS takes hold and rattles the shoppers with the new Shipping and Third Party Delivery fees...

treadstone68 · ‎07-20-2023

I think it more a case of Darwinian selection. IF someone is stupid enough to pay this price, it is on them. Sadly, self responsibility is not a thing these days it seems.

reallynicestamps · ‎07-20-2023

Those four tubes are all from the same seller. Whether this is dropshipping or a seller with multiple IDs, they all have the same very specific background.

The other two are pretty high shipping but we should have this for comparison:
https://postcalc.usps.com/?country=10440

USPS is still putting the highest cost service at the top and the lowest (FirstClass International Packet -- which is tracked) at the bottom. Sneaky.

I expect that the next time I send out my discount postage list to my private customers, I will have a strong response.

marnotom! · ‎07-20-2023

@reallynicestamps wrote:

Those four tubes are all from the same seller. Whether this is dropshipping or a seller with multiple IDs, they all have the same very specific background.
The other two are pretty high shipping but we should have this for comparison:
https://postcalc.usps.com/?country=10440
USPS is still putting the highest cost service at the top and the lowest (FirstClass International Packet -- which is tracked) at the bottom. Sneaky.

The eIS shipping charge (converted to Canadian dollars) for that M7437 has actually dropped a little since that screenshot was made, although I'd chalk that up to exchange rates rather than anything eIS might (not) be doing. And at US$10 and change, that's less expensive than what USPS would want at the counter.

millana-dee · ‎09-13-2023

That's totally normal. One hankerchief cost 20 dollars, so why would that be any different. The Global shipping program is blatantly overcharging Canadians for shipping. And we just have to continue to suck it up. It's so wrong.