@devilcountrytoys,
Lyndal is blunt rather than rude. You will often see some of the most helpful posts on these boards being posted by her, even if she doesn't phrase it delicately or in terms of tiramisรน-like deliciousness. When she's wrong, she acknowledges it. Especially when it comes to postage issues, there is no better-informed person on these boards. (I personally prefer to deal with people who are blunt as opposed to sweet-but-will-knife-one-behind-one's-back, even though I tend to temper being direct with my own style of empathetic cordiality. That's how it is... All of us have our own style, and because we're all adults here on eBay and hopefully can manage a variety of communication styles, I hope we can all learn to deal with various styles and appreciate individuals for their positive qualities!)
I know what you mean by speaking of GST included in the price. It can catch people out if they don't check before purchase whether the price shown is ex-GST or GST-incl. I was recently sort-of caught out by this myself! A company in Victoria (my state) had agreed to price-match with regard to a PA system that I was originally going to purchase from a company in NSW - but when I went to pay the invoice, the price-match had been ex-GST, whereas the NSW price was GST-incl. I decided to go ahead anyway because the company had arranged for me to have a "loaner" in the meantime while the main unit would take a week to arrive, and I needed the system by a particular date. A secondary consideration was that if there was a problem with the system, I'd only have to return it locally.
But all my subsequent purchases in relation to that item, and a smaller second unit, I've been purchasing from the NSW company.
That probably illustrates how customers will behave when it comes to GST in general. If they deal with sellers whose prices are GST-included and thus represent the total item price, as opposed to sellers whose prices are ex-GST, they're going to weight up subsequent purchases in the light of that information. Once Australian eBay buyers start realising to what extent the price is affected (and to what sort of items and from what sort of buyers), they'll be automatically thinking "plus 10%". I agree that this does create speciousness in the option to sort by lowest price on eBay, but at least we do still have that option and aren't reduced to eBay's hilarious idea of "best match" only.
