eBay has become like the old brick and mortars.

[sea.breeze]

In the sense that you once could be pretty sure that you'd be able to find what you wanted at the best price on ebay if you worked at it. Not any longer. No, postage seems to have become a massive rort. The 'free postage' is almost a pi55 take seing as it's clearly obvious that a huge postage fee has been loaded on.

So now that eBay have become like those they replaced, verrily it has come to pass that ordinary online retailers are doing eBay's old job.

Recent case in point. OK so I'm looking for a dehumidifer, it's gonna be a cli-mate or an ionmax just looking for the best price, both around 10L both similar prices. I type into ebay "Climate CLI- DH10C Compressor Dehumidifier", and you'll get quite a lot of results from many different suppliers ranging from 270 to 300. This is mainly because they are being loaded with about $40-50 delivery. 

I was surprised to type it into a search engine and instantly find it for 230 with free delivery. Delivered in three days from interstate.

[davewil1964]

What a shock. Sellers wanting to recoup postage prices, who would have thought. I would think $40-50 would be about right to post something that bulky.

You found a mug seller who probably made almost nothing from the sale. Congratulations. It doesn't mean all, or even many, sellers are mugs.

[digital*ghost]

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@sea.breeze wrote:

In the sense that you once could be pretty sure that you'd be able to find what you wanted at the best price on ebay if you worked at it. Not any longer. No, postage seems to have become a massive rort. The 'free postage' is almost a pi55 take seing as it's clearly obvious that a huge postage fee has been loaded on.

So now that eBay have become like those they replaced, verrily it has come to pass that ordinary online retailers are doing eBay's old job.

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eBay used to fill a particular niche, or role, now it doesn't - and when it did, it was when there really weren't any retailers on the site. At least not to the degreee that there is now (I'm talking your big box, national stores that are now using eBay, rather than your casual / home seller who grew a business).

I don't think that it's eBay's "job" to deliver the best (or bargain) prices on objects, and I think if they felt like it was, they would not have shifted to providing as close to a retail environment as possible without actually opening up a mall. 

I used to sell secondhand stuff casually, then eBay made changes that meant if I wanted to stick around and try to make a worthwhile amount from my sales, I had to source new items, in multiple quantities, which in turn drove up the purchase price of my stuff, so also the listed price. Then they overhauled the fees, not only increasing them but deciding they will apply to postage costs as well, which meant I was paying a lot more to sell items, so up went prices again. Then they brought in policies to "encourage" selling practices that (insisted) were in line with normal retail, which - again - if I wanted to remain competitive, meant I would incur additional costs in order to sustain my business through all of the changes. 

The push (and I do mean they really pushed it) for sellers to list with "free" postage was coupled with the promise that it would increase a sellers ranking (i.e. their listings would appear higher in search results than other sellers without "free" postage, and also increase their sales, because "buyers love free postage"). Sellers don't (can't) just absorb these costs to conform with eBay's wishes, and they don't get a choice about how $0 extra for postage is displayed, so the only solution is to cover all of their expenses in the item price. The seller you ended up buying from would have done that too, but probably has fewer costs to cover than an eBay seller - not that buyers tend to really care about this stuff, I mean not many people are gonna pay $30+ more for an item just so an ebay seller stays in the game. 

But, all of these changes were driven by eBay trying to stay relevant in a rapidly growing, and changing, landscape. After the initial innovation and novelty, the market (i.e. buyers) tend to drive these kinds of changes, though eBay isn't always the greatest at listening to the market, or anyhone else really.

In saying that, while I do most of my shopping off-eBay, I tend to find many things are still cheaper here when one of the (currently quite frequent) 10% codes pop up, since most sellers seem to prefer having fairly consistent pricing across all avenues (they might not be paying eBay fees, but they'd be paying for the site, processing fees, and other things like advertising on google and social media, etc). I have my own website, and my list prices are lower there, but eBay are basically competing with me for my own buyers by offering them codes all the time. 

[shoppingbag*]

The so called "free postage" is encouraged by eBay. Common sense would tell you that nothing is free, so it does have to be incorporated into the price of the item. Therein lies the problem. The Seller has no way of knowing if the item is going to be purchased by someone in the next suburb or someone across the other side of the country. Seeing as postage is calculated by size,weight and distance, the seller has no option but to add the largest possible postage cost to cover all of the possible distances. However, a seller who has a postage cost listed, may have chosen "Calculated Postage" for the listing, which means it is calculated from their postcode to yours automatically. Therefore, everyone viewing the ad will see a different postage cost, depending on their location. So you may well find that buying the same item from a seller who is closest to you, could be the cheapest postage.  "Free Postage" sounds great, but in actual fact, can be the most expensive way to buy in Australia in many instances.

[springyzone]

You're not comparing apples with apples.

Not at all.

There never used to be much new stuff on ebay at all, it was the home of mum & dad sellers or hobby sellers who were usually clearing out used items or the occasional new item.

Most people in the old days would not have come on ebay to buy a new de-humidifier, put it that way.

What has happened between then & now is that ebay now has a lot of big companies advertising on it and also, most companies now have their own websites and sell directly online. I'm not surprised you can sometimes find things a bit cheaper if you buy direct.

Don't assume though that ebay is never competitive. I've bought a few things from ebay that either I could not find in any local (and even some not so local) shops or things that I could buy locally or online but ebay had the best price.

Sometimes you'll be able to source something for the cheapest price on ebay, sometimes not.

As for postage, of course it is included in the price. There's no such thing as a free dinner.

[gutterpunkz05]

At least you had the good sense to look elsewhere, rather than using the common ebay buyers sense of entitlement and make a ludicrous $20 offer.  Sometimes wish more buyers would look elsewhere.