topic Re: Excessive Postage Costs in Buying

Excessive Postage Costs

jvdv — Sun, 14 May 2017 06:31:03 GMT

Just a gripe to get it off my chest ...

I will no longer bid on items where the seller is charging an excessive amount for postage - i.e $25.00 for an item that will fit in an Aust Post 500 gm satchel for which most sellers would charge around $8.50.

There, I feel better now.

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

Anonymous — Sun, 14 May 2017 06:33:32 GMT

At a guess, I would say many such sellers are in for a shock when they discover ebay take 10% of postage charges too

I understand the need for appropriate packaging etc but some postage costs are just downright laughable ,I too see such listings and move on

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

kopenhagen5 — Sun, 14 May 2017 08:34:58 GMT

I also skip sellers with outrageous post costs.

Keep in mind some add signature and insurance.

And then if they live miles from a PO, petrol is part of handling costs.

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

bluebudgies — Sun, 14 May 2017 09:07:18 GMT

And some use the quick listing tool which seems to only have options for satchels, and the sellers don't know how to change it, let alone that they can change it.

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

phorum_junkie* — Sun, 14 May 2017 09:59:37 GMT

I take no notice of the postage cost. I search for an item by price including postage and then look at the first few to see which looks the most reliable going by their feedback and stars.

If one is $10 item price and $18 postage and another is $29 with free postage I would be nuts to buy from the free postage seller.

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

k1ooo-slr-sales — Sun, 14 May 2017 10:08:21 GMT

while I understand where you are coming from, I always look at my total spend amount and take advantage of less bidders when postage costs seem excessively high.

It can lead to me getting a real bargain.

This strategy of mine would not work well if I needed to return an item for an item price only refund, but I just make sure I am careful when buying.

If you see something you really need or want that has a high postage cost then think of your total spend amount and reduce your high bid accordingly rather than outright excluding the option of buying altogether.

edit: pj posted while I was typing my post, and I agree with sorting by item + postage as that lists search results for you so you don't have to do all the calculations yourself to work out best value total spend items.

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

collect247 — Sun, 14 May 2017 12:39:52 GMT

My question is why would you bid in the first place?

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

springyzone — Mon, 15 May 2017 00:41:32 GMT

@jvdv wrote:
Just a gripe to get it off my chest ...

I will no longer bid on items where the seller is charging an excessive amount for postage - i.e $25.00 for an item that will fit in an Aust Post 500 gm satchel for which most sellers would charge around $8.50.

There, I feel better now.

Packaging costs can be deceptive. What you think would fit in a 500gm satchel might not be how the seller wants to risk sending it in case eg it breaks. If that happened, you'd probably be the first to cry it wasn't packed well enough.

But, I do see your point. I think postage costs matter. They matter a lot. What it means for ebay is that it is no longer a great venue for selling some cheaper items, even if the postage is only at $8.50.

I was idly scrolling through some clothes listings on ebay (to compare to the actual brand website sales) and really, even if a second hand top or whatever is only $4.50, by the time you add $8.50 for postage, it is not an attractive option.

Most big online companies are putting a cap on their postage costs. That cap is often set at about $9.99 or $7.99 (excluding heavy furniture).

By comparison, it is making some ebay sellers look expensive. I would baulk at paying $25 postage on a small item too.

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

phorum_junkie* — Mon, 15 May 2017 09:12:24 GMT

As I said before I doon't care about postage when buying, which I do infrequently, but as a seller I kknow it is important to some buyers so I charge a nominal $5 postage for most items and build the rest of my end price into the item. Not only do buyers see it as cheap postage it allows me to give discounts for multiple purchases.

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

*tippy*toes* — Tue, 16 May 2017 09:16:23 GMT

I do see your point and have also been the victim on postage gouging. I have to ask though, which item would you buy? One for 1c with $49.99 postage, or the other for $50 with free postage? I bought the first one at auction because I knew it was worth at least double. There were no other bids. The other one sold for over $100 and had around 20 different bidders. Same seller. I'm sure there were plenty of buyers who saw the postage cost of the item I bought and thought there was no way they were paying that for postage when they know it would be far cheaper (especially coming from China). Yet, they were happy to pay more than double for the identical item because the postage was listed as free.

I do get annoyed when I pay a lot for postage, because the seller has listed as parcel post with SOD, then it arrives in a padded bag with 3 stamps on it. Sometimes the item plus the postage cost is more than what I'd planned to pay, but it was something I really wanted so was happy to wear the extra postage cost. For it then to arrive in a padded bag was straight out piracy. They weren't a new seller either, so knew exactly what they were doing.

I have listed things for parcel rate, then when the time came to package, it fitted in a padded bag, under 20mm, so I refunded the buyers the difference. My conscience wouldn't let me keep the extra. On the other side, I've posted items under 20mm at parcel rate because they are fragile. I've had buyers question why a small item would be so much to post. Some are then happy to pay the extra knowing the item will arrive intact.

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

4channel — Thu, 18 May 2017 02:51:29 GMT

@jvdv wrote:
Just a gripe to get it off my chest ...

I will no longer bid on items where the seller is charging an excessive amount for postage - i.e $25.00 for an item that will fit in an Aust Post 500 gm satchel for which most sellers would charge around $8.50.

There, I feel better now.

I hear you jvdv. I have had issues with sellers making extra by upping the postage. Not saying that this was your case. Bad enough for many upset folk having to deal with overseas sellers using the horrid Global Shipping. Now we have sellers charging waaaay too much on post. Believe me, I have heard some horror stories. One day too, maybe I will share some info on a very slimey dirty trick that a Sydney seller (no name will be mentioned) did to a friend of mine. We should have called the cops but he was too timid.

Once, about 8 years ago I was going to buy a record LP from an Australian seller in NSW or Vic. There were a few other LPs that U could have been interested in. She appeared to be young. I asked her if she combined postage and how much for each extra record. At that time, 25c to 50c would have been right. She said $4 each. I wanted to get another 5 records from her. No way I was going to pay $20 plus on top of a less than $10 post. No way!!!!! so I left it.

Another incident was with a sller than I purchased an item from another state. I was charged an extra $6 on top of the postage. Well seller was new and she charged me for time to cut up paper and make the parce. I felt sorry for her being new and gave her some pointers where to find free packaging etc and be industrious, and we split it. She refunded me $3.

Now for something refreshing. This guy called jerlynrecords, I think is the same seller I came accross 8 years ago. I like his style. Straight up and no bull. Cheap AirMail postage via First Class but his asttitude is cool. If the same seller, he said ...

"I never say on my auction page, "The item you are now bidding on".

Also " I never call all black music Northern Soul"

and his page does say

"I NEVER charge any Handling charges. Handling is something you do in the "Men's Room".

Now from my perspective, that's the kind of seller that makes ebay a fun and cool place.

BTW: I have never bought from this guy and maybe never will if he doesn't have what I want. But this is an example of the old fun ebay scene that made people passionate about buying.

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

zanadoo_56 — Mon, 22 May 2017 04:00:43 GMT

@4channel wrote:
@jvdv wrote:
Just a gripe to get it off my chest ...

I will no longer bid on items where the seller is charging an excessive amount for postage - i.e $25.00 for an item that will fit in an Aust Post 500 gm satchel for which most sellers would charge around $8.50.

There, I feel better now.
I hear you jvdv. I have had issues with sellers making extra by upping the postage. Not saying that this was your case. Bad enough for many upset folk having to deal with overseas sellers using the horrid Global Shipping. Now we have sellers charging waaaay too much on post. Believe me, I have heard some horror stories. One day too, maybe I will share some info on a very slimey dirty trick that a Sydney seller (no name will be mentioned) did to a friend of mine. We should have called the cops but he was too timid.

Once, about 8 years ago I was going to buy a record LP from an Australian seller in NSW or Vic. There were a few other LPs that U could have been interested in. She appeared to be young. I asked her if she combined postage and how much for each extra record. At that time, 25c to 50c would have been right. She said $4 each. I wanted to get another 5 records from her. No way I was going to pay $20 plus on top of a less than $10 post. No way!!!!! so I left it.

Another incident was with a sller than I purchased an item from another state. I was charged an extra $6 on top of the postage. Well seller was new and she charged me for time to cut up paper and make the parce. I felt sorry for her being new and gave her some pointers where to find free packaging etc and be industrious, and we split it. She refunded me $3.

Now for something refreshing. This guy called jerlynrecords, I think is the same seller I came accross 8 years ago. I like his style. Straight up and no bull. Cheap AirMail postage via First Class but his asttitude is cool. If the same seller, he said ...

"I never say on my auction page, "The item you are now bidding on".

Also " I never call all black music Northern Soul"

and his page does say

"I NEVER charge any Handling charges. Handling is something you do in the "Men's Room".

Now from my perspective, that's the kind of seller that makes ebay a fun and cool place.

BTW: I have never bought from this guy and maybe never will if he doesn't have what I want. But this is an example of the old fun ebay scene that made people passionate about buying.

I too like sellers that use humour to get a message across....and I very much dislike the ones who imply (or worse) that every buyer is likely to be a thief if they don't meet the seller's unpleasant list of buying conditions or don't agree with an even longer list of how they've worked out their terrible postage costs.

My favourite message (no doubt to any potential buyer allergic to pet hair) was that all her packaging 'was done under the supervision of her Siamese cat'. As a cat lover it made me laugh because Siamese get into everything if they get the chance. I was more than happy to buy from her (...and there wasn't a single cat hair anywhere on my purchase).

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

black*poppy — Mon, 22 May 2017 13:22:37 GMT

Haha, there's been more than a few times I've won an auction and then asked the seller politely what's with the excessive post. I reckon 90% of the time it turns out to be a mistake and they've adjusted the postage accordingly. Sometimes you can tell it might be a mistake cos their other listings have the postage at a reasonable rate.

They probably lost out on buyers because of the excess post.

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

missymoo18 — Sun, 01 Sep 2019 21:28:01 GMT

No postage is free how do you come up with free post the postage cost are incorporated into the selling price ....

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

davewil1964 — Mon, 02 Sep 2019 03:29:41 GMT

That is true. As is the fact that you've dragged up a 2 year old thread to add nothing of substance

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

be.be.ce.ce — Mon, 02 Sep 2019 04:43:54 GMT

I’ve bought a few Coles minis and noticed some sellers are asking between $15 to $20 to post a tiny toy that costs $3. I’ll pass on that one.

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

heihachi_73 — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 00:02:00 GMT

Some of them are too big for the letter gauge (same with the Ooshies), which pushes them past $8. Throw in Express Post and it jumps to around $12. No idea where $20 postage would come from unless it's going via England.

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

ryanjamez — Sat, 22 Feb 2020 05:12:30 GMT

Completely agree, and so do most.

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

maltapso — Sat, 22 Feb 2020 06:48:20 GMT

I'm a buyer, and I empathize with you. I also wont buy from sellers who charge too much for postage, unless the item is at a real bargain price. I've actually got into some quite unpleasant conversations with sellers about this when I have pointed out that their item can be sent for a much lower cost. I sell on another account, so I have experience with postage costs.

As someone else mentioned, some sellers might not realize they are being charged a fvf on postage too, it wasn't always like that and sellers could get out of high fvf by pricing the item low and postage high.

Because I also sell, I can see it from the other side too. Once ebay and paypal have taken their cut, you have paid a promotion fee (if you use one) you have bought a box or satchel, bought or found some kind of wrapping, gott everything sealed up securely and addressed properly, bought more printer ink, waited in the post office for 15 minutes, got stuck in traffic, spent almost an hour making the listing in the first place, fought with ebay glitches and realize you are only going to end up with $10 for all of that, it seems justified to add a bit onto postage.... or somewhere.

Or It can be difficult to know exactly how much something is going to cost to post, if you are not used to posting stuff.

I usually add between 50c - $1. (for packaging) and I try and price my items to cover everything else.

If you buy from the US or UK you are paying extremely overpriced shipping via the GSP, that makes our postage costs overpriced by a few dollars look like a bargain. I get more annoyed at paying the exorbitant GSP fees to Pitney Bowes than to local sellers who add a bit more on to cover fees and time etc.

Sometimes a seller will admit that their postage is overpriced because they are not sure how much it's actually going to cost and they want to cover themselves, they will sometimes agree to refund the exess after the item has been posted.

Re: Excessive Postage Costs

davewil1964 — Sat, 22 Feb 2020 08:23:00 GMT

@maltapso wrote:
I'm a buyer, and I empathize with you. I also wont buy from sellers who charge too much for postage, unless the item is at a real bargain price. I've actually got into some quite unpleasant conversations with sellers about this when I have pointed out that their item can be sent for a much lower cost. I sell on another account, so I have experience with postage costs.

As someone else mentioned, some sellers might not realize they are being charged a fvf on postage too, it wasn't always like that and sellers could get out of high fvf by pricing the item low and postage high.

Because I also sell, I can see it from the other side too. Once ebay and paypal have taken their cut, you have paid a promotion fee (if you use one) you have bought a box or satchel, bought or found some kind of wrapping, gott everything sealed up securely and addressed properly, bought more printer ink, waited in the post office for 15 minutes, got stuck in traffic, spent almost an hour making the listing in the first place, fought with ebay glitches and realize you are only going to end up with $10 for all of that, it seems justified to add a bit onto postage.... or somewhere.

Or It can be difficult to know exactly how much something is going to cost to post, if you are not used to posting stuff.

I usually add between 50c - $1. (for packaging) and I try and price my items to cover everything else.

If you buy from the US or UK you are paying extremely overpriced shipping via the GSP, that makes our postage costs overpriced by a few dollars look like a bargain. I get more annoyed at paying the exorbitant GSP fees to Pitney Bowes than to local sellers who add a bit more on to cover fees and time etc.

Sometimes a seller will admit that their postage is overpriced because they are not sure how much it's actually going to cost and they want to cover themselves, they will sometimes agree to refund the exess after the item has been posted.

I wouldn't. Total price + postage equals total cost. Regardless of how the various seller costs are apportioned. Or are you saying that you consider a post-purchase discount is warranted or relevant to what you were prepared to pay?