I have been buying on e-bay for a long time now. Items in the US have always been prohibitively expensive because of the postage cost. I have now noticed that items in the UK have exorbitant postage costs and when I have queried this the sellers tell me that they are using e-bays new global parcel plan and are not even aware of the listed postage cost. Furthermore, parcels sent using this service cannot be sent to post office boxes, which is what I use. So, I can no longer make purchases from the UK, but what really troubles me is that the sellers are unaware of how much e-bay is charging. It is such a total rip off. e-bay is just getting greedier and greedier and it is not good for business. I have for example seen 2 exact same items available on e-bay from the UK, one using the global parcel plan and the other not. The postage for the item using the plan is $60 + whereas the item not using this "service" is $15. $15 is the actual cost of postage; the other $45 goes to e-bay for this "service" which will actually discourage international buyers. The sellers I have contacted are not aware of how much postage is being charged.
e-bays greed is very bad for business. The new global parcel plan makes purchasing from overseas impossible. I just hope members refuse to use it as it does not appear to be compulsory, and bring some fairness back into e-bay. When you consider that sellers have to pay a commission on postage, it is just outright wicked.
I love collecting vintage inlaid boxes from e-bay but won't be able to anymore because of this new postal scheme. I wish e-bay was not so greedy. It will be its undoing.
