A lesson on overcharging on postage

[ljhosking]

I’ve been selling online for 15 years, I have never deliberately overcharged on postage and if my postage quote was higher than the actual postage, I have always refunded. Postage is postage is postage, it’s not up to sellers to add costs to postage ie: packing, eBay and PayPal fees or as I’ve seen petrol costs to drive to the PO. I was overcharged $11.70 on postage, postage quoted $20, postage on parcel $8.30. Item was damaged because she didn’t box it as she said she would. Everyone told me “good luck getting that back, PayPal won’t give a partial refund for postage” Well.....PayPal did give me the refund, I sent PayPal screen shots of the messages between the seller and I where the seller states “eBay policies allow me to add costs to postage to cover my costs” wrong thing to write. eBay and PayPal do not allow sellers to add their eBay or PayPal fees to the postage, that goes against their polices. PayPal is starting to enforce this now and I recieved my refund last night. The seller is lucky I didn’t send the item back for a full refund, fair is fair. Add all costs to the item your selling, not to postage. I hope this stands as a lesson 

[tazzieterror]

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@jimaras_50 wrote:

Ebay continues to rort money of other peoples blood sweat and tears. It's a common story with ebay - rules to line their collective pockets. In all, it is the fault of sellers.In most industries there are unions that battle to ensure workers rights. But the way ebay works, is having sellers challenging sellers. It should be sellers uniting and challenging ebay. But as long as their is independence between sellers, nothing will change. You will always be working for a pittance

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Rort money? Working for a pittance? Go rent or buy a B&M shopfront somewhere and see how many of your mouestraps, measuring cups and squeeze bottles you need to sell to cover those fees.

And if selling online is causing you to lose blood, you really should consult with a medical professional.

[chameleon54]

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@jimaras_50 wrote:

Ebay continues to rort money of other peoples blood sweat and tears. It's a common story with ebay - rules to line their collective pockets. In all, it is the fault of sellers.In most industries there are unions that battle to ensure workers rights. But the way ebay works, is having sellers challenging sellers. It should be sellers uniting and challenging ebay. But as long as their is independence between sellers, nothing will change. You will always be working for a pittance

Just because you cant make ebay work, it does not mean everyone else cant either. It just means you haven't done your homework, finding products to sell that allow for decent profit margins and regular sales. There are plenty of ebay sellers who work on profit margins of 500% to 1500%, while still achieving good sales. These sorts of profit margins leave plenty of fat on the bone after paying ebay fees, paypal fees and covering problem buyers. 

This might sound a bit harsh, but maybe you are just not cut out to sell on ebay. If you are working for a pittance you need to either revise what you are doing or give up all together and find something else that you are good at and make that work for you.

[*tippy*toes*]

The minimum profit I make is 1,000%. Usually it's much higher than that. 

[davewil1964]

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

The minimum profit I make is 1,000%. Usually it's much higher than that. 

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I probably get 500-1000% markup. But when fees and time are taken into account it's wages. I don't know what many of my books are worth until after I've bought them. Most are average, the eyes light up ones usually disappoint, and the no idea ones tend to be the 'how is this worth that?' ones. I don't recall ever buying a book worth more than $50 and having any idea of value. Unless it's a repeat.

Plus, carrying $1k in postage supplies tends to eat into the cashflow.

[chameleon54]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

The minimum profit I make is 1,000%. Usually it's much higher than that. 

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I probably get 500-1000% markup. But when fees and time are taken into account it's wages. I don't know what many of my books are worth until after I've bought them. Most are average, the eyes light up ones usually disappoint, and the no idea ones tend to be the 'how is this worth that?' ones. I don't recall ever buying a book worth more than $50 and having any idea of value. Unless it's a repeat.

Plus, carrying $1k in postage supplies tends to eat into the cashflow.

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Interesting point Dave, I,ve noticed the " Eyes light up " books usually disappoint too. Often the books I sell that are worth hundreds or thousands of dollars are small, insignificant looking things. I also do a lot of research into books and have an extensive reference library of valuation sources etc. including John Ferguson, Jonathan Wantrup etc.

It could be argued that " you can only make high profit margins on one off used items " and while its true that I sell a lot of old and collectable items which allow very high profit margins, I also sell new items as well. I have a line of items that I designed and are made up for me by a local company. They cost me $1.20 to have made up and I sell them on ebay for $15.00. They are consistent sellers with some rating very highly in general google searches / google images etc. ( close to the top of first page in searches ) The thing about them is they are unique. People need them and no-one else sells them, so if a buyer wants one, the only place they can get it is from my ebay store. And most importantly.....the profit margin is over 1000% on a new, repeatable item. 

The secret to small sellers making ebay work is to find niche markets or products that no-one else sells. As soon as you go into the bulk commodity, general carp market such as mouse traps, you are competing with hundreds or thousands of other sellers in a race to bottom on sales, price and profit margins.

[erici_81]

I dont think it is unfair for a seller to add a reasonable charge for packaging but i think this should be transparent. I recently purchased an item and wanted to share.

Ebay seller in Australia was selling packets of 40g Mild Mince Curry Powder. Shipping $12.90 for a standard parcel delivery. Australia Post's Standard Parcel Post service is 2-3 Busines Days to my postcode. Seller had 5 left. If I bought all 5 packets shipping would be $34.50. I over calculated the Dimensions length 27cm  Height 20cm  Width 15cm  (its L25cm H15cm W10cm-thats the dimensions of the continental packets) Weight  220g (x5) (Its 200g) and then checked on Australia Post
Aust Post Parcel Post charges are: Sender provides packaging-$10.95 ($12.90 may have been a fair price if packaging needs to be covered.) However, from this point on the seller engages in blatant overcharging.  .Parcel Post prepaid small satchel-$11.30 medium satchell $15.30  (39cm x 27cm max 5kg). The seller charges $12.99 x1. Seller charged me $17.98 for 2 no tracking and arrives between 3rd April and the 8th April. By comparison an order placed at same time (same country same sending state) came with free shipping. But offered Aus Post Express Parcel option for  delivery 1 to 2 days for just $10. Item was bigger and heavier. and came with tracking

I contacted the seller who replied that it was based on distance weight and dimensions. I replied with the details provided here but he ignored me. This is an example of someone obviously over charging and ripping Ebay buyers off wouldnt you all agree? There are also violating Australian consumer laws

[repentatleisure1952]

My head hurts.... after reading all that about some curry powder.

I would not agree... I shop total price.

If the shipping cost does not appeal to me then I hit the back button.

What consumer laws have been violated?

[sandypebbles]

So if you believe it violates Australian Consumer laws, report it

Did you quote thus seller in 2025, the costs involved today, or the details provided here (as you say) that are from 2019?

[kh-syedse]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread, if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.