Is it against ebay rules to sell very expensive items for cheap and then charge outrageous shipping?

[kengib_75]

Basically I am looking at a few Geforce RTX 3090 graphics cards that are being sold from anywhere from $9-$40 dollars but then the seller turns around and charges the buyer $1000-$1800 shipping. Are they avoiding ebay fees, are they scamming. What's up with these type of listings. I've reported them but ebay seems to do nothing about it. The listings are coming from Hong Kong.

[pikabo-icu]

@kengib_75 

eBay charges  FVF on shipping so they may think they're getting away with something but the joke's on them, they aren't. 

[kds99]

Moreover, I wouldn't buy this from a seller who only sells underwear.

[titipeo]

I think these low figures may have something to do with export shipping customs, or perhaps the $1k shipping is to pay for the airfare for the seller to personally deliver this to you. Regardless, it is odd, I wouldn't buy this. 

[whattheactualfox]

So I may have an idea of why the seller is doing this!

Most buyers (like myself) may sort from "Low to high" and the seller reduced the price but jacked up shipping in order to hook new buyers.

I messaged the seller for my own curiosity to see what their side of the story is. Taking a look, it is not a bad buy 

[alcoforever]

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@whattheactualfox wrote:

So I may have an idea of why the seller is doing this!

Most buyers (like myself) may sort from "Low to high" and the seller reduced the price but jacked up shipping in order to hook new buyers.

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That sort won't work as it is price+shipping, lowest first.  There is no sort on price alone.

[kengib_75]

Could they also be avoiding taxes.

[kawe-4254]

Yes, I think so . But not that they are simply managing payments.

[lepke1979]

Possibly they don't know fees include shipping 

But possibly also to deal with returns.  Only give back $9 instead of $1100. Although it's possible eBay will interject and give back a lot more if a dispute happens.

[popblox]

The top results in a Google search usually display where you can get an item for the lowest price, but it doesn't show the shipping cost at first glance. Gets me every time. 

[whattheactualfox]

Here are the messages I got back from the seller. I censored part of the name just in case because mods usually remove images if they have identifying info.

So it looks like the seller does this to avoid import fees/tariffs.

[7606dennis]

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@kengib_75 wrote:

Could they also be avoiding taxes.

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That could be a possibility if the buyer is located in a state that doesn't consider shipping as taxable in their sales tax calculations.  However, I'm not sure I can see how that is of any profit to the seller.  Buyer, yes.  Seller, no.

[coolections]

First off I have no clue why anyone would want to buy something from a seller in Hong Kong. Secondly what is there to report and why the need ?  Lastly, how much (price + shipping does the item typically sell for ?

[soh.maryl]

What taxes would the seller be avoiding by listing this way?

If you are referring to state sales taxes, those are charged based on the buyer's location, not the seller's.

The only way this would work to avoid state sales tax would be if the buyer's delivery location is in a state where the state sales tax is charged ONLY on the item price, not the shipping cost.  I believe there are only a few of those.  

[soh.maryl]

When a buyer returns an item with the reason Not As Described, the seller is required by eBay to refund the buyer all the money he has paid to the seller.

Item price $10 with $5 shipping? Refund $15.

Item price $5 with $10 shipping? Refund $15.