eBay Degenerates

[A K]

A small rant. Sold a cell phone cradle and screen covers (both new) on eBay. Started at 1 cent, finished at 1 cent. Shipping fixed at $6.00 for Priority insured, which was clearly noted at the top of the eBay page and in the description. After paying eBay's, PayPal's, and the USPS' fees, I lost about a buck plus the value of the items. Whatever.



Received positive feedback: Shipping charges were high but the item price was reasonable.



What part of the listing didn't he understand? Don't bid if you don't like the terms.



And he paid $6.01 for items worth about $30.00.



Took me ten+ years to get anything other than a fully positive comment on there, so I'm a little bit peeved.



Debating now to send a short reply via e-mail to the effect of "Note that eBay conspicuously lists shipping costs so as to avoid post-bid and -auction surprise." That or waiting for him to list an auction and return the favor.



:soap:

 

[MikeSondra Grossen]

NEVER MIND....



(I thought he left you negative feedback...sorry)

 

[gary s]

adam,

imo, i believe 99% of e-bay buyers think shipping is to high.

most don't take into consideration packing, driving to the po, waiting on line at the po and fuel.

i used to get pissed when i ordered something and the s/h was $10.00 for example. but realizing that there are other costs involved other then just the shipping i now understand. as long it is reasonable.

also, it isn't worth selling anything say less then $10.00 on e-bay. to much trouble for what, a profit of a few dollars if that. the only time that works is if you mass sell a very inexpensive item.

never list anything lower then you want to get for it.

 

[Bud Williams]

doesn't sound like a very positive positive feedback, jerks...

would have been better off to put the item in a yard sale, or take them to goodwill

and get a tax receipt

 

[Kevin Lang]

Definitely not right on the part of the buyer, especially when it is insult to injury when you lost so much on the auction.



Reciprocity on his auction can only go badly imo. Not to mention cost you even more $.



While this dude isn't justified at all, too many ebayers go with low item prices and high shipping costs to make up for it, as I hear tell that sellers get to keep more of the S&H than they do of auction price, but you of course know this better than I, and there is really no one to blame but the stupid bidders themselves for truly the shipping prices are fairly obvious. Even the "enter your zip codes to compute" ones which are rather dubious.



I'd send the email though...and since the feedback was still positive in all but text it won't hurt you too much if it stands.



At least you get the name of the jerk, and the ability to email him. After ebay removed the name and history of current & past bidders on items, once they bid more than X amount, I signed off of anything save Buy it Now. Rigum frigum ragum fragum ebay ain't a "secret" auction...

 

[A K]

Gary, I agree as to the $10 rule. I thought this would find its value there, though. I've had pretty good success with 1 cent auctions. Shipping was actual cost (well, lower than actual--it cost me $6.80 to ship Priority insured). That's what bugged me (in addition to calling 1 cent "reasonable"). And, I looked at this guy's other feedback for others. It seems he likes to leave backhanded positives. Just an all-around fool.



Bud--agreed as to charity. I've been cleaning out a lot of old and unused items, most of which go to Goodwill. I thought this could get a few more bucks than a deduction. But I'd have been better off (and less peeved) by simply taking the deduction.



KL--agree with shipping. But, in my case, it was actual cost. It's a heck of a lot easier for me to ship PM flat rate than go to a post office, especially with my work schedule. It's like the guy bought a car, paid for all options, signed the contract, and then complained that the dealer charged him too much. Perhaps an extension of the blame someone else mentality that dominates our culture.



Felt good to get it off my chest, though. :haveabeer:

 

[Bo Loo]

There are a lot of idiots on eBay. I had a bidder contact me a few months back complaining that he wanted to buy my item, but he kept getting outbid. I had to explain the concept to him like a 5 year old.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Adam,



I don't auction much on eBay anymore, but when I do, I ship only to to the continental U.S., and I provide free shipping. I figure out what it costs to ship the item to Seattle (as a worst case...you know where I live) and set the minimum/starting bid at that price. Whenever possible I use USPS priority service (one of those that gets it there in 3 to 5 days, but typically costs a LOT less than UPS). I do use UPS for larger/heavier stuff.



Free shipping is like bears to honey for many eBay bidders.



TJR

 

[Richard L]

I think you all need to realize that there are many ebay sellers who make more money on the shipping charges than they do the merchandise they are selling. That has been policed a little better by ebay than in the past, but it still happens.



Gary S is also correnct that many ebay buyers complain about shipping cost that are totally legitimate charges. Especially when the seller has to have proof that the item was shipped. That usually requires some form of tracking, or confirmation from the post office or the shipper...That always costs extra. There is always some labor time and perhaps packing material costs involved besides just the actual shipping costs.



Then there are the ebay service charges, and if they buyer pays by PayPal, there are service charges associated with that transaction as will.



I personally would never bother to try and sell something on ebay for one cent, regardless of what the item was worth. Most buyers will not look at the bargin they got, they will only look at the fact that they paid $6.00 to ship a one cent purchased item?



Perhaps it would have been better to sell the item for about $7-$8 with Free shipping?



...Rich

 

[TomT]

There really are lot's of stupid people on ebay these days. Sometimes it's hard to get a good deal because people way overbid stuff that exceeds even Amazon's or other retailers price. I mean how stupid can you be to not check prices from other sites? Sometimes I want to email people links to a product they overbid on, just to show them how retarded they are.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Richard L said:

Perhaps it would have been better to sell the item for about $7-$8 with Free shipping?

Ed Zachary.



That's what I do. Figure out the worst-case shipping cost of something I would otherwise throw away. Then I list the item with free shipping and a starting bid of that worst-case shipping cost.



TJR

 

[Tom Schindler]

This got really bad when eBay no longer allowed sellers to leave anything but good feedback.



This is eBays fault.





Tom

 

[A K]

Caymen: Agreed. That and I cannot believe how expensive selling has become.



TJR: I'll have to do the minimum bid = shipping thing from now on. Seems like an easy way to avoid this.

 

[Scott Doughtie]

I have sold over 750 items on eBay since May of 1999, but I have abondoned eBay increasingly over the last two years in favor of Cragslist. You still have the mornic questions and the attempted "I will pay you twice for it" scammers. Plus, fewer trips to the PO and/or fewer hunts for shipping supplies. It is much easier to get cash-in-hand and avoid all of the fees all the while taking a fraction of the time.



I have also been burned by PayPal a few times with them holding my money ransome while they determine if the exchange was legitimate.



As a buyer though, the thing that bugs me the most is when someone takes a week to ship and item, and they get mad at you when you ask for tracking information. Few know that the seller is required to ship an item within 1 day of receiving payment. Alas, eBay will do nothing about it as they have already invoiced for all of their fees.

 

[David Ponder]

I havent bought a whole lot of items on E-bay, (20 some items now) but I bought a Keychain off E-bay a few years ago... Not an expensive item, but I paid for it within 2 hours of auction close. Seller took over a month to ship the item, and that was after 3+ E-mails to them.



That is the only negative feedback I have ever left, and I seriously debated for a while before I left it. I did ask him (E-mail) what the reason for the delay was, and got no response at all. If I would have received something like "I was Ill, in the hospital, relative passed away", or if he basically had a good reason, I dont think I would have left negative feedback.



In any case, I left simple, but negative, feedback, stating that "time to ship item was not acceptable". The Seller left a rather snotty comment stating that I was "newbie E-bayer, and I needed to learn how to use the E-bay forum". I then listed a more specific addl comment that the Seller took over a month to ship my paid for item, and did not respond to any E-mails. Obviously, there is no point in getting into a pi$$ing match with someone, but the feedback is something I do look at when several sellers have the same item for sale, and if you have a bad experience I am glad it is noted.



As for Craigs List, I ALWAYS check the local and 2 other closest ones to me before I go to E-bay. If I am selling an item, I use Craigs list too.