We are all familiar with excesses in shipping charges for Ebay items. The classics are books and musical CDs which most often ship for less than $2.00 Medial Mail and often come with $7 or $8 shipping charges. Even taking into account the cost of packaging (assuming the seller is actually purchasing a jiffy pack or having a 3rd party do the "handling"), such charges are obnoxious.
The worst however is something I have only recently encountered. When searching for books, particularly in a series or other circumstance in which you want to order several books at one time, it is almost always more efficient to browse Ebay Stores, ideally looking for combined shipping. However in almost all cases, these stores do not offer combined shipping, claiming that they ship from various locations. While I am certain this may be the case for larger outfits, e.g., mortar & brick bookstore with suppliers around the country, I simply cannot believe that the typical Ebayer putting together a "store" to sell books is pulling these copies from all over the country. A "bookstore" offering no more than 20 or so titles is stretched pretty thin if those titles have to be shipped from different locations. Not much of an inventory, eh?
Another version of this is when the combined shipping is discounted only a small amount. In the case of books and CDs one can ship up to 9lbs(!) Media Mail for about $5. How can I be paying $12 to ship 2 books? Most often the initial shipping is excessive and the "discounted" amount is only slightly less excessive.
Keep an eye on these costs. They don't necessarily mean the seller is dishonest, but they are often way out of line with true shipping costs.
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