I'm afraid I'll have to conditionally agree with the OP and some others about high shipping costs. While some of the problem is due to high postage costs that a seller has no control over. There are sellers who take the easy way out, and ship using flat rate or zone instead of calculating exact costs. Then there are those who guestimate on the high side just to ensure they do not get caught short.
Recently I had the need to replace one of the main parts of a model kit, that was in a 1956 gift set of models. The individual model itself comes in a box that is 13"x5"x1.5" and could be placed in a USPS Priority box with a minimal amount of packing material to keep the kit safe, bringing the weight in at 1lb. What I found was shipping prices that were all over the board including the sellers offering Free Shipping. (I won't get into the discussion of free shipping often raising prices by as much as 30%).
However, most of the sellers offering the item had shipping over priced between 28 to 40%. Many using standard shipping for more than the cost of expedited shipping. IMO this is being done because the higher the shipping cost, the higher the online postage cost discount. That discount can be as much as 18-20% which means the sellers are coming out ahead of what they are charged by ebay/paypal's 12.9% on shipping costs. Granted there are other costs involved in shipping, but those are often over stated as well.
Since one of the models offered was being sold by a customer of mine, I was able to calculate shipping zip to zip, and found the shipping was being calculated on the model either weighing 2+ lbs and/or a box of 18" or longer using priority, but was being shipped standard.
"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FOOLPROOF, BECAUSE FOOLS ARE SO DARNED INGENIOUS!" (unknown)
