@dave4110 wrote:
I think eBay should implement a system where the sellers list the item price and handling fee for postage, but not the postage cost itself.
eBay calculates and shows the postage cost for the buyer when he sees and buys the item. The buyer will pay the item price and handling fee to the seller, BUT they will pay eBay for the Aus Post label to ship the item, not the seller.
The seller gets the payment notification and a link to the PDF to print the postage label from eBay, and he packs and ships the item using the buyer's postage label.
This will get rid of "postage gouging" by sellers, and buyers will pay the true shipping cost for the item. This will also mean sellers are not considered to be responsible for shipping problems, because sellers just ship using the postage label provided by the buyer.
That might sound good in theory, but is a practical impossibility. (I will note that there is already a form of this available, namely eBay's calculated shipping option, where the seller enters the package dimensions and weight and the postage cost is automatically calculated according to the buyer's post code. The seller also has the option to input a handling fee, but no label is automatically generated via eBay post-sale).
The first reason being is that it's the "handling fee" that contains amounts above and beyond stamp or actual shipping cost, so it wouldn't eliminate 'gouging'.
The second being - aside from the fact that it's more up to the seller than it is the buyer which company is used to ship the packages - there are many sellers who can't use Australia Post, and still more who won't, meaning eBay would have to be integrated with every shipping company available in Australia.
The third being, in order to make any attempt at all at eliminating 'gouging', a maximum handling fee would have to be implemented. eBay is not in any kind of position to dictate what the costs, in addition to actual stamp / postage prices, a seller incurs to send their item(s).
-But- (and here's the biggest reason) even if they were and did implement a cap on handling fees, what would the end result be? Cheaper prices overall?
Not likely. (that's a personal opinion based on some observations and experience)
When most sellers sit down to price an item, the vast majority of time they are working from an amount - that amount being, when all is said and done, I want $x.
Then they work out their costs - that includes things like eBay fees, costs of packaging / postage, PayPal fees, stock costs where applicable, and so on and so forth.
Then they work out how much they need to charge in order to have that $x amount left over. Then they split that total into two columns. Column A = item price, column B = postage charge. If there was a limit on column B, the excess is simply placed into colum A.
If you don't believe me, just listen to some sellers who use the "free" postage business model, or sell on that rather large site that rhymes with Blamazon, where there are some fixed postage charges in certain categories. The solution is never (and I do mean never) 'oh well, guess I won't get as much for this item", it is always "oh well, I'll just increase the item price by Y amount to ensure I get $X.
Postage 'gouging' is usually (not always) all about impressions rather than reality.
