Shipping your E Bay item

dereksbicycles

dereksbicycles

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Let's say you listed an item on E Bay. It's listed as $14 to ship. Now, that person wins your auction. This person lives in your state. Therefore, shipping is only $7. Do you refund the difference without being asked? Or do you refund only if person asks? Or refuse to refund, period!!
 
Well, ethically speaking, you should probably refund the money without being asked. Monetarily speaking... It's $7 that they were willing to pay in the first place, so it's not like it's really any harm. They figured they'd pay $14, so it shouldn't really matter to them whether they see anything back or not.

So I guess refund them if they ask, otherwise, it's whatever. :)
 
I thought shipping was the total cost of packaging materials, labor, and shipping together, not just the carrier costs.
 
Its a fixed price shipping then no you don't refund. I figure in material, packaging and ebay fees that they charge on the shipping cost! yes ebay has been charging final value fees on both the sale price and the shipping cost. When you ship something that is say 100lbs, probably about $80 to ship, ebay takes $15-20 of the shipping cost so I pass that onto the buyer... sleezbay is just a greedy SOB and out to screw the private seller.
 
Thank you very much for all your inputs.

It was a fixed shipping cost of $14. I don't think I should refund. See, if the auction was listed as having shipping fee of $10, then that person would probably not have won my item. Maybe someone else would, not that person. So therefore, it's not fair to refund.

I was thinking in future from now on, I will post in my listing, if you don't like my shipping cost, DO NOT BID!!

Final verdict: I'll probably refund $3 or $4, but then put in listing that shipping cost if fixed and final!!

I appreciate your inputs and feel free to add more insights.
 
why don't you use the automated shipping calculator in ebay. you enter the weight and demensions of the package and it automatically will calculate the shipping cost for each person who views your listing. you can also specify an handling charge to be added to all shipping estimates. For example you wanted $5 for gas/box/time/tape etc. then you can print the shipping label from ebay/ paypal directly.
 
I would be willing to learn how to do automatic shipping costs, but it's more work. Worth a try.
 
dereksbicycles said:
. . . I was thinking in future from now on, I will post in my listing, if you don't like my shipping cost, DO NOT BID!!
Click to expand...
That's seems rather hostile. You might lose customers with that kind of message.

If people don't like the shipping cost they will ignore the item for that reason, without you having to yell at them.
 
The shipping cost area is a tactic/strategy used by some sellers so they pay less fees to ebay.
If you set your shipping costs and the buyer paid it, then they agreed to pay for it already. Whether you want to refund the extra costs or not, is up to you.

Keep in mind (I am assuming you are not a Power Seller/gold eBayer/Store) you add Final Auction Value fees (FAV) Fees for your shipping cost as well and it is like around 8-9 % of the total shipping price, with a price cap around somewhere.

Here is how it works if you are not an advanced seller:

- If you sold a $100 item for free shipping, you don't get any eBay charges for your shipping. You pay $~9 for the FAV of the auction only.
- If you sold a $100 item for $0.99 auction and $99 shipping, you have to pay ebay a FAV of ~$9 for your listed shipping cost, plus the FAV of the auction price (it's a fixed rate for low price listings).
- If you sold a $100 item for $90 and $10 shipping, You pay $~9 for the FAV of the auction, and you pay around a dollar for the FAV of shipping.

Keep in mind there's also paypal fees, which are around another 3-4% of the cost of the payment the buyer sends you.
So for some sellers, the shipping/handling section sometimes has higher prices than the ship cost because they need to find a way to offset the costs of handling, transportation, buying packaging/shipping material, fees and so on.

If you don't know shipping costs so you list higher costs because you don't know how much they cost to ship, it would do you good to study USPS shipping rates but that takes time to learn them.

First class packages runs up to 13 ounces maximum, costs up to $4-5 without additional services for USA shipping.
Priority mail for items under 1LB (16 ounces) run generally $5-8 for USA shipping, designated by 'regions'.
Priority mail flat rate boxes are ok with any general weight and are $5-15 for the different sizes they have. There is a weight limit written on each box.
 
naisho said:
The shipping cost area is a tactic/strategy used by some sellers so they pay less fees to ebay.
If you set your shipping costs and the buyer paid it, then they agreed to pay for it already. Whether you want to refund the extra costs or not, is up to you.
Click to expand...
See my post #6, this is exactly why ebay started charging final value fees on the shipping as well as the sale price and they have been doing that for a couple years or more now

From ebay
"How is the final value fee calculated?

For most categories and selling formats, the final value fee is based on a percentage of the item's total cost to the buyer. The item's total cost to the buyer includes the item price and shipping cost plus any other costs to the buyer (less any sales tax). Any shipping discounts are not included in the final value fee calculation. see this second part means if you have 5 items listed and say $10 shipping on each one but you also list $10 shipping for the first and $2 for each additional item . if the person buys 5 items it is $18 shipping but Sleezbay will charge final value fees on $50.. $10x5:mad:
 
soutthpaw said:
WRONG, See my post #6, this is exactly why ebay started charging final value fees on the shipping as well as the sale price and they have been doing that for a couple years or more now

From ebay
"How is the final value fee calculated?

For most categories and selling formats, the final value fee is based on a percentage of the item's total cost to the buyer. The item's total cost to the buyer includes the item price and shipping cost plus any other costs to the buyer (less any sales tax). Any shipping discounts are not included in the final value fee calculation. see this second part means if you have 5 items listed and say $10 shipping on each one but you also list $10 shipping for the first and $2 for each additional item . if the person buys 5 items it is $18 shipping but Sleezbay will charge final value fees on $50.. $10x5:mad:
Click to expand...

how long have you been doing with ebay? are you in now?
 
Yeah I still buy a lot that way but don't sell too much as ebay/Paypal got too greedy, Craigslist works better for me most of the time.
 
this is why I post my books/video games/DVDs i want to get rid of to half.ebay.com, no posting fees (they do take a small commission for sales though I think). Easier to post to half.com and leave it as it is.
 
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