Fees associated with Shipping

[brandonsplayhouse]

After being involved with Ebay for many years, it's my personal opinion that Ebay should not be charging fees for the cost of mailing/shipping.  Besides the seller entering the cost during auction setup, Ebay should not have any involvement with the mailing process.  The cost of shipping is already outrageously high where anything over 13 ounces needs to go Priority Mail and listing your auction as "Free Shipping" is a total farce in itself knowing that the "cost for shipping" is included in the purchase price.  Unless the postal service is willing to ship for "Free", "Free Shipping" doesn't exist.  With a recent sale, I found that Ebay (including Paypal) actually made more from my sale than I did.

Example:  Selling a Vintage (1960's) Slide Projector Tray (these trays are not worth much so you can't place ridiculous price on the item; worth about $3.00; weighs 1 lb 15.5 ounces).  A buyer from Texas purchased the item.  The cheapest that this item can be shipped for by USPS Priority Mail Ground is $10.30.  Ebay will charge me 10% on $13.30 ($1.33) & Paypal will charge me 3% on $13.30 ($.40).  So, Ebay with Paypal made $1.73 and I made $1.27.  If you take into consideration the cost for packing supplies, gas and my time, I made nothing.  If the Ebay shipping fee was not included in this transaction, I could have put $2.60 for the $3.00 item (more resasonable).

I understand that Ebay has provided a postage discount to help offset the shipping cost.  But, this requires the up front knowledge of the weight and packaging characteristics during the creation of your auction, plus you never know the buyer's location which could affect the cost.  Depening on the location, regular Priority Mail Box may cost more than a Priority Mail Regional Box which may cost more than shipping in your own box.  Ebay's discount for mailing makes you lock in on weight and how the package is mailed up front.  Most likely, you would need to buy a scale or make several trips to the Post Office to make it worth your while and will obviouly cost time and money.     

I also understand that Ebay will posture itself saying that without fees for shipping, all buyers would sell their items for $.99 and charge $20.00 (or whatever cost) for shipping.  Maybe Ebay will need to set their fee based on the the higher of the two amounts.  It will allow them to make money for their service and allow the sellers to put more in their pocket.