Sellers using shipping fees to profit on items in auction

[ch-690618]

I want to buy a stick of ram that costs about $130 on amazon, but I found an offer in auction for only $0.15 which got me excited. This excitement was short lived after I investigated the ridiculous cheap price that wouldn't even be offered if the item was outdated by 10 years and used by multiple computer; the shipping cost from Shenzhen to Canada is $140 for standard delivery. This must be a way to attracted buyers by lower upfront product cost and piling it in the shipping costs right? Why is this even allowed?!?! Please fix this abuse of the shipping cost as a way to profit. Note that this item can easily fit into a letter envelope. 

[reallynicestamps]

Yeah that buyer is even more stupid than he is sketchey.

Once upon a time, eBay charged fees on selling prices but not on shipping costs.

So a seller might charge $1.00 for the item and $99 for the item or $99 for the item and $1.00 for shipping.

Cost to the buyer was the same -- although many buyers were as angry as you are by the twisty listing.

But the sketchey seller paid on ten cents in fees to eBay while the second one paid $9.90 in fees.

EBay didn't like that and  finally decided to charge the same 10% fee on both price and shipping.

So nowadays the seller pays $10 on the example sale, no matter how he splits up the costs.

Mwah hah hah hah hah.

Bet your smartypants seller is shocked when he sees his monthly invoice and all those Final Value Fees* on his phoney shipping price.

So basically, it's fixed.  And was some time ago.

Your smartypants isn't as smart as he thinks he is.

* This is a simplified version of how eBay fees work.

[ducati860]

This brings back memories of one of my very first eBay purchases... a video card for a Mac IIci that I got for a good price and paid a lot for international shipping on, from the States to Canada. Something like US$25, but it was over 30 years ago, so back then a considerable amount of  money. It showed up ... no box, no bubble wrap, just the video card in a paper envelope with less than a dollar in postage stamps on it. I was not happy. 

[needsmorerobots]

It makes no sense. I've had tracked shipping from China for as little as $4, so why this person thought he would get away with it is beyond me.

And yes, it it sad that sellers continue to do the cheap retail but inflated shipping fee. You can add a handling charge to your shipping fee but I think any fee you want to tack on would best be done in the original retail price. This is where it should be decided you either make sales or you don't.

It also makes it very difficult to search for products on Ebay that I want to purchase. My searches take twice as long because I have to wade through low retail and high shipping and high retail and low shipping just to find what's reasonable.

Now if each Ebay international site were to monitor people using hidden fees in shipping for their own areas, this problem would be quickly cleaned up.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@needsmorerobots wrote:
... It also makes it very difficult to search for products on Ebay that I want to purchase. My searches take twice as long because I have to wade through low retail and high shipping and high retail and low shipping just to find what's reasonable.

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Use the search sort option of "price+shipping" to simplify your searches.

[femmefan1946]

Yeah that buyer is even more stupid than he is sketchey.

Umm - seller. Obviously.

[lady.stark]

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@ypdc_dennis wrote:

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@needsmorerobots wrote:
... It also makes it very difficult to search for products on Ebay that I want to purchase. My searches take twice as long because I have to wade through low retail and high shipping and high retail and low shipping just to find what's reasonable.

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Use the search sort option of "price+shipping" to simplify your searches.

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This used to work well... until GSP appeared. Unfortunately, the GSP price you see in the search result is NOT the same you see when you look at the listing... eBay said a long time ago they would fix this, but it never was...

[femmefan1946]

That can be helped (but not cured) by Searching on a laptop or desktop and using List View rather than Gallery.

Huh.

I just checked myself using two favourite Searches. (Firefly/Serenity and Eileen Fisher) .

I did not see ANY US seller with the GSP wording on the List View.

Coincidence?

[marnotom!]

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@ch-690618 wrote:

I want to buy a stick of ram that costs about $130 on amazon, but I found an offer in auction for only $0.15 which got me excited. This excitement was short lived after I investigated the ridiculous cheap price that wouldn't even be offered if the item was outdated by 10 years and used by multiple computer; the shipping cost from Shenzhen to Canada is $140 for standard delivery. This must be a way to attracted buyers by lower upfront product cost and piling it in the shipping costs right? Why is this even allowed?!?! Please fix this abuse of the shipping cost as a way to profit. Note that this item can easily fit into a letter envelope. 

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Sellers will only profit this way if people actually buy items listed in this manner.