I will no longer sell on ebay.

Another ebay change that apparently just started today: You can no longer see who the winning bidder is or even what country they're from. This is after the auction has ended.

 

I saw a seller put in to his listing to ignore the shipping that ebay has posted and that it doesn't apply ,that cds are $6-7 to ship.I reported all his listings that had this.

 

It's possible that old listings (pre-restrictions) still have old shipping prices. I'm not clear on what eBay's terms are for power sellers that have older listings up. If its a brand new listing then is it possible that the seller was in another country? The only way around the shipping restrictions is to list it in another unrestricted category or to list it as multiple CDs.

 

No,it's a U.S.A seller and the listings were started in November.I can send you the listings I am refering to if you like.

 

We've been shipping focused for a while since the OP was about shipping but my major eBay gripe has to do with buyer payment practices. I find that most bidders pay pretty fast but every 10 items I sell I get someone who doesn't contact me and/or is very slow to pay. eBay offers no support for bad bidder/buyer behavior that I can find (forget feedback because bad feedback doesn't correct the problem). eBay needs to rate buyer behavior when it comes to auctions. I want to know if the person has a non-payment strike and I want the ability to prevent those people from bidding. I also want to know the average days to pay for auctions - like a credit report.

I'm planning on giving this feedback to eBay so if anyone like this idea please go to eBay with it. I see no reason why they should refuse this kind of thing. It doesn't have to be public info but sellers should be able to see buyer behavior at some point in the bidding process.

 

I'd be interested to see them, yes.

 

I am with you, as long as you know the shipping up front, why complain?
In fact I would rather the shipping be higher so the ebay monster doesn't get richer. I hear many people whinging about inflated P+H, but do these buyers whinge about the fees the sellers have to pay Ebay. Do the math. I always research P+H before I bid and if it works out too expensive, I don't bid. No one is forcing anybody to buy anything. Many services have hidden fees added by taxes etc. Do you get in an argument with a sales assistant about it? It makes no sense to me from the buyers perspective if Ebay makes more on fees or the seller does. It sounds like sour grapes to me. If you don't like the total price don't bid. Simple.

If sellers couldn't incorporate handling etc. into the fee the prices would go up making Ebay richer and you would probably pay more. Is this what we all want?

 

It's an easy fix, have up front postage in your auctions. If you are worried about undercharging have a couple of extra dollars to cover it. I know if I don't know the postage in advance, many times I will just buy it elsewhere so it is more than likely lthat you are losing sales also. CD's are roughly the same weight unless it is a special edition or box set etc., so it should be easy to cut and paste international fees in all your auctions. I can guarantee you will have more money to spend as a result.

 

Yes, I'd like to see these as well, if you could.

 

Hi, and thanks for the answer. I have put the actual shipping cost in my auctions and an alert to wait for my invoice before paying. Still people pay before receiving an invoice (3 USD) or get pissed because they believe 3 USD is the actual cost. Somebody here gave the advice to use calculator in shipping to get around the problem. I will try that or maybe have a BIG RED alert in top of my auctions about International shipping. Sadly many people don´t read what´s stated in auction.

 

No they sure don't!!! I even have buyers who decide on an arbitrary figure for their shipping themselves. Its amazing! In Australia if an LP is under 500g the default domestic post is $5.40 - if its over 500g then is usually $9.75. Weight can vary from LP to LP. The new ones mostly come in over 500g. Expensive by USA standards i know, but thats what it is here - with no competition - so we have to lump it. So I normally charge $10 to cover my costs - but let the buyer get up to two single Lp's or a double for the same cost. The mailers cost me about $3 each and are really sturdy. So the most I can "make" on shipping is $1.60 - not including my time, sticky tape, printing labels etc etc. More often its a loss

Anyway the point that I'm making is that I get people just saying "Hmmm i'm only going to pay $5 so there...!!" And they don't wait for my invoice - just add it on themselves. I normally let it go and then make a loss. I could be vindictive and send the LP in a paperbag but I'm not like that.

And these are the people who i can only leave positive feedback for. Something VERY wrong here!!!

 

If I'm not sure I'll ask for an invoice with shipping to here added or enquire before bidding if I'm deadly serious.

 

Are you a porn star??? and he blew your cover?

 

What will you do if a US buyer insists on US$ 3 shipping costs?

Joachim

 

Are you forced to list $3 for shipping an LP?

 

CD: US$ 3
LP: US$ 4

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/August2008Update/MaxShipping/

Joachim

 

I hope they don't introduce maximum shipping for LP's in Australia at some unrealistic price! They have a maximum of $5 for a CD which is mostly OK - although they bizarrely apply this to a CD boxset which might cost up to $10 to post domestically as its often over 500g. I'd love to know where these ebay execs get their figures from - do they actually post anything themselves? Smells like a backhand way for ebay to add to their zillions - if the post is unrealistic then the seller will have to charge a bit more on the item (if they can) - so then ebay will get more fees. So the buyer doesn't really benefit in the end either. Funny that eh? Nice one ebay - we all love you dearly!

 

As a buyer the new shipping charge policy great. All too many times I've searched for a CD to see $4-6 new albums, then a $8 shipping charge

 

Found out.

 

The net value of the shipping charges does nothing to eBay's profit. And if it does effect their profit they can't count on it because they'd be counting on sellers to raise their prices. That hasn't happened across the board. eBay share holders are looking for larger market share and the way to get more market share is to increase the customer base. eBay desperately needs more shoppers and they apparently believe the way to do that is to make shipping prices more palitable to buyers. Who knows if that will work in the long haul?

As to where they get their prices? I think partly from the Amazon model. Amazon has the same pricing structure and those prices do not regard boxed sets differently from single CDs. Kind of silly. eBay claims that you can sell CDs in a lot and charge more for shipping. I don't see how to do that. In the US I suppose its possible to ship a boxed set media mail. Where the shipping prices get dicey is international shipping.

 

True. But If I'm listing something as a Store Inventory item. Lets says its a CD set that weighs over 500g. Then the $5 maximum leaves me out of pocket on postage here in Australia. Solution? Add the difference onto the selling price. Result? Ebay will earn more because their commission is related to sales and not postage.

If I'm auctioning something then I don't have the option to increase the price as the market decides that in the end - unless I start it at cost price + actual shipping. But then when I do that it costs more anyway - and proabably is less likely to sell than a 99c start. So catch 22...I give up!

On a different note I just noticed that Australian Power Sellers don't get the 15% discount on fees that USA residents enjoy. And I'm just about to qualify! That sucks! Bugger

 

I think it does. It makes sellers have to sell at higher prices which brings in more ebay commission.

 

Thanks for the link

-s1m0n-

 

It could have a small impact on them but not enough make the company bigger. Shareholders want big profits and they need those profits keep going up. My point is that its not really the profit they are looking for - and besides they can't really count on it since sellers can hardly afford to raise prices. I have not seen a general rise in CD prices.

In recent months I have found more bargains on eBay than I have found on Amazon. My buying has slightly shifted toward eBay. It's all about the final price to me - I could care less how much eBay makes on the deal. If its cheaper at eBay then I'm buying there. I'm not sure if eBay's strategy will work but I think its step in the right direction. As a seller I'm more bothered by other things than I am about the shipping policies.

 

I have seen some sellers cleverly circumvent the maximum by offering "Free Pickup" as the one shipping option within the maximum.