To sell, or for show?

[lowerymp_806]

I find it very interesting, curious and frustrating when I come across a seller with several items I am interested in who choses not to discount or combine shipping which causes the sum total of the items (13 for $22.24) to quadruple (+$76 to ship). I have similar items coming from further away, almost same quantity (10 for  $42 + $13 to ship). I get it, you can charge what the market will bear, but is the idea to here to gouge? I suppose if your plan is to sell one at a time, and charge base shipping each time, okay. But, as I see it,  not many people are going to fill up their cart and pay 4 times the asking price to get anything. All I can say to that is "Good luck, dude!". Anyone else encounter this behavior?

[redmodelt · Accepted solution]

No one is forcing you to buy from that seller. If that seller will not budge on lowering the shipping cost, move on, it is a free market and can charge how they see fit with in what is allowed. It's not like anything is hidden from you. 

We have no idea what you are looking at, so don't know if combining the items will lower the cost or not. 

[caldreamer]

When you put multiple items in your cart....EBAY calculates the shipping for each item (not the Seller).   Did you contact the Seller?   Most sellers would be happy to "refund the difference in shipping". 

If not, that is not someone you want to do business with.  

[slippinjimmy]

Did the seller actually tell you they don't combine and offer a discount?

eBay's combined shipping rules don't work for me (not flexible enough) but I also state in the description that I can offer substantial discounts for multi-item purchases.

There are sellers out there that as policy they do not offer (stated or not) any discount. Since I price compare pretty much always those sellers become more expensive than another seller that might have slightly high Item price but does offer shipping discounts....more expensive means I don't buy.

It's similar to sellers that insist on Priority when they are things that in the past could be shipped First Class Package (now Ground Advantage) for about half the price of Priority. I take a pass on those sellers as well.

[farmalljr]

It is not just sellers who GOUGE on shipping, it's the brain dead sellers who think things are worth a million bucks when solds do not support their assumptions. 

Sellers are free to price any way they want, buyers are free to move one. ebay is also free to NOT show seller's items too. Which eBay freely does, especially when sellers are not here to actually sell product. There are plenty of sellers who aren't really here to sell, unless they find an idiot for a buyer. 

One has to wonder that if part of the reason  sellers have such a hard time with buyers trying to screw them over, is that sellers have spent so much effort treating buyers like that. 

[lowerymp_806]

I did contact the seller. He was not allowing a discount. I am okay with whoever wants to sell their stuff the way they see fit, I just think if you have a potential customer why not work out a deal where both can benefit, not gouge on shipping for whatever reason. They can pay to list stuff and have it sit there. Works for me. I just bought elsewhere.

[lowerymp_806]

I know no one is forcing me to buy. I am just pointing out how ridiculous it is to pay to list stuff and then charge 3X the cost of the item for what? I know for a fact it does not cost as much as was charged to ship that order from there to here. As I said, do you want to sell or just list them for show? I bought elsewhere.

[lowerymp_806]

He said he would not discount shipping.

[lowerymp_806]

Well put! Good point!

[buyselljack2016]

a benefit for YOU may not be the seller's concern.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Sellers who sell under $2 items are frequently not interested in any extra work to save a buyer some money.

They make pitifully little and draw the line at this point.

Your example of a seller who will combine is charging more per item.

Handling combined shipping can be a PITA. Some buyers cannot master putting items in the cart. Not all can find how to request an invoice, or the mobile app doesn't do it. Some buy and pay the full price, and I have to make partial refunds to multiple orders.

I combine shipping but do not sell fundamentally unprofitable items.

[albertabrightalberta]

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@lowerymp_806 wrote:

I just think if you have a potential customer why not work out a deal where both can benefit, not gouge on shipping for whatever reason. 

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@lowerymp_806 wrote:

 is the idea to here to gouge?

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Sellers can run their businesses as they see fit and buyers can choose to do business with that seller or not. 

FYI: Although many sellers do offer discounted shipping for multiple items shipped together, it's a seller's choice. 

And it's not "gouging" when sellers choose not to offer discounted shipping. Price gouging is when one overcharges for necessities during a state of emergency. 

[stacy_pme]

I am not sure what you are buying... but there has been a few times I have refused to combine shipping.  Both items wouldn't fit in any box I had access to... both items were fragile, and I felt shipping them together was a bad call.  One item is very fragile (glass) the other item is heavy (like a hammer) and shipping them together would have guaranteed damage....  And I also pre-box many items.  Perhaps I already have the item pre-boxed?  I am not going to want to unbox the item and combine it with another item and double the labor?  Especially if it is a delicate item that requires a lot of careful packing....   Sometimes sellers have very good reasons to not combine shipping.... Sometimes they don't.  Reaching out to a seller and asking why they won't combine the shipping is a good move...   A few times I had things listed that wasn't set up to allow combined shipping but I didn't know it, so a customer who messages me and asks is awesome!   Not all sellers are out to gouge... Some are just trying to make this gig worthwhile financially.... which means it's not a hobby!  We'd like to make a few dollars at it.

[richard1rst]

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@lowerymp_806 wrote:

I find it very interesting, curious and frustrating when I come across a seller with several items I am interested in who choses not to discount or combine shipping which causes the sum total of the items (13 for $22.24) to quadruple (+$76 to ship). I have similar items coming from further away, almost same quantity (10 for  $42 + $13 to ship). I get it, you can charge what the market will bear, but is the idea to here to gouge? I suppose if your plan is to sell one at a time, and charge base shipping each time, okay. But, as I see it,  not many people are going to fill up their cart and pay 4 times the asking price to get anything. All I can say to that is "Good luck, dude!". Anyone else encounter this behavior?

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Well, without knowing what you are buying I can not say that this applies everywhere. BUT there are many items I sell that if I combine them and ship in a single box they actually cost more to ship than shipping them individually.

A blanket in a polybag weighs just under a pound. Two blankets will not fit the polybag and has to go in a box which is now billed as 3 pounds.

Cubic pricing where the size of the package is more important than the weight has blown the whole combine and ship for less apart.

Two items combined result in a box over one cubic foot.

Many more examples.

[1786davycrockett]

@lowerymp_806 

In the past, I have contacted sellers who have multiple items in which I am interested, inquiring whether they will combine shipping for my purchasing several items at the same time, in order to save money on shipping charges.

Most have agreed; but, for those few who have refused, I have countered by then requesting that EACH item be shipped separately (and NOT together), since each of my purchases also includes a shipping charge, and I expect the seller to maintain his commitment to sell me the "whole package" which he had offered (not only the items itself; but the individual shipping charges, as well -- all of which was advertised TOGETHER by the seller).

Some of these sellers will back down from their previous "no combined shipping" demands, in order to get the multiple sales. 

I only had one seller who refused, stating that he had "employees that needed to be paid" -- which still makes no sense to me:  Screw your buyers on shipping fees, so that your employees can be paid?

But I bought TWO items from him anyway -- warning him ahead of time that I would be expecting TWO individual packages, then, since I had paid for TWO listings included TWO individual shipping charges, explaining that the  "whole package" purchased included BOTH shipping fees that had been paid.

A few days later, I received BOTH the items as ONE package -- but also a refund for the full shipping charge for ONE of the items.

I guess his employees just didn't get paid that day.