@ed8108 wrote:
@chinohighcowboys1963 wrote:
If you think the shipping cost shown on a listing is too high, you will find that the BACK button works just fine.
Smart sellers simply list their items as priority mail shipping, then add handling & packing costs.
Seller then downgrades shipping to a cheaper &slower service, parcel select, first class, or media mail & pockets the overcharge.
Smart sellers do not downgrade the shippingservice
The may list at "retail", and ship with "online" savings, but no "smart seller" downgrades the service offered in the listing.
- "let's say $14.00 shipping. Then when you receive the purchase it has $ 9.80 on the shipping cost label." $14.00 shipping less a 10% eBay FVF on the shipping, less a $2.9% PayPal commission, less a $.30 PayPal transaction fee leaves $11.89. If the funds are international then PayPal will get 4.4% instead of 2.9%, which would leave $11.68.
- "Heck USPS boxes are free." Ordering them and picking them up are not free - it involves labor and use of a vehicle, both of which cost money. USPS only provides a limited range of box sizes and does not provide boxes for 1st Class Mail, Parcel Select, or Media Mail. In many cases USPS's boxes are the wrong size, thus the seller will need to purchase them or try to obtain used boxes from a store or other location. Even a small 6" x 6" x 4" box might run you $.25 each in bulk. Perhaps you should checkout the price of some boxes. Digging through a store's box dumpster for "free boxes" involves labor and use of a vehicle, both of which are not free. Then we have the cost of packaging supplies. You can use newspapers, assuming you can secure a supply of newspapers from other sources as your own daily newspaper is simply not going to go that far. To secure a larger supply of newspaper you might ask family and friends to save them for you or pay a local group such as Boy Scouts to save them for you - once again we have labor and the use of vehicle which ar enot free). Have you checked the cost of packaging peanuts that go inside the boxes lately? Obviously no! How about the cost of tape? Did you check the cost of producing shipping labels - consumables such as printer toner cartridges, paper, adhesive labels? How about the cost of packaging tools such as tape guns, tape dispensers, scissors, carton knives, scales, printers, etc... How about the cost of metal shelving units to store these packaging materials as well as inventory on?
- Storing shipping supplies not free - every square foot of storage has a fixed cost per month - you know, little things like rent, a lease payment, a mortgage payment, various types of insurance, property taxes, maintenance, and a host of other expenses. Where might we find this mythical land you speak of where such things are free?
- "packaging and time are a part of the shipping cost, not a part of making profit." What are you complaining about then? $11.93 less $9.80 = $2.13 for the seller to pack your item, print and apply a shipping label, take it to USPS, and cover a whole other set of fixed costs the seller has each month associated with just shipping. Where exactly is the profit? I suggest you take a package to a packaging service offered at some retail office supply outlets - they definately are not going to charge you $2.13.
- You make money off the item your selling, don't be sneaky, cute and try and pull one over on a buyer by making an extra $3, 4 five or even $10 bucks off the ship cost quoted w/ your item vs actual shipping cost. You are way out of touch with reality on this matter. You really need to obtain some practical experience in running your own business or at least take a cost accounting course where you can learn what what costs are exactly involved in running a business or producing a single product. Consider the diagram below that I made as a response to eBay sending out SPAM message to sellers telling them that they should lower their item prices by 5% because ebay was so concerned about lowering prices for buyers. You complain about the twigs in some seller's eyes (who trying to make a living) and ignore the forests in the eyes of eBay managment.
I forgot to add that Priority Mail comes with $50 or $100 free insurance. However, if the seller is going to insure the package for more than the free amount they don't get credit for that free insurance - they have to buy insurance as if they hadn't gotten any free. First Class, Media Mail, & Parcel Select don't include any free insurance.
