complaints about shipping costs`~what u need to know~

    hello everyone!   

Let's get right to the point here, im seeing way too many complaints on blogs, guides, ect about seller's "inflated" shipping costs. Im not sure if it is I alone or has the majority just gone mad ! lol

Here's the scoop

I've noticed alot of complaints with "cheap" bidding items, like you won an auction for $5 and you ended paying $15 dollars for shipping, and your like man the shipping costs more than the darn item!!.....but in most cases look back on ebay and do a little research at that same item you ended up paying total of $20 for, most likely you will see that same item with the ending bid price at $15 and the shipping $5. Guess what?? it costs $20...the same $20 you spent but for $15 dollars shipping.

And what about those "free" shipping listings?? WOW what a great deal i don't have to pay for shipping!! Im definately buying from this seller. Well in reality the seller makes up for that "free" shipping with a higher bid price, so in actuality you are probably going to end up paying the same if you didnt't choose the free shipping.

But you won't see much complaints on the higher bid price, because shipping is where everybody loves to save on.

Some of you may be reading this and are like this guy doesn't know what hes's talking about, but to those I ask this, have you ever bought something online other than ebay, lets say a popular distributor or maybe something off television??

For Instance I have personally purchased many items from companies such as Columbia House...which mainly sells media such as dvds and cds. You know how much they charge for 1 dvd to be shipped to you, with taxes and other fees you will be paying $10-$15 for media mail shipping!! and not to mention the wait time and the actual time it takes to be shipped out the warehouse....be expecting that dvd in 2-3 weeks.

I have also read blogs from other sellers who claim that they sell shipping costs at the amount they pay to have it shipped. Thats sounds so noble and greatful of them!! But lets face the reality, as mentioned before these people can afford "cheap" shipping because they are selling their listing auctions at a higher price. Ebay is a business, and if you sell on ebay, the object is to MAKE money. As in the example above with Columbia House, easily they are making $7 per box they ship out on shipping alone. But that's their way of conducting business and they are pretty successful at it.

Simple rule of thumb when you are buying something off ebay is to look at both the auction bid price and the shipping price, combine the two with a little help from our friend addition and what that price comes out to check other listings and do the same. Never just buy something based soley on the shipping costs or the auction costs.

Always keep in mind that the higher the item costs the more likely the item will cost to ship. WHY is that you may ask?? well although ebay may be free to purchase items from, to sell is another story. Ebay charges listing fees as well as a final auction fee which takes a percentage of what the final sold price is, therefore the more money you receive per auction the higher the fee. Also if paypal is your method of receiving funds through your ebay account they also take out a percentage of the final auction end price.

Again I know its no fun to hear it but the objective of the seller is to obviously make money!, and even as when I, myself buy off of ebay I have to realize that, that this is a business yet there is no need to be upset on certain shipping prices when as I mentioned above if you look around ebay listings both the end auction price +shipping costs will average the listings to be about the same price.

Have a great day and happy holidays!!

Josh~