Max amount you're willing to pay for Shipping?

To bring up a discussion from the other thread that Shrike locked, I finally rec'd a response from eBay about including PayPal fees in the cost of shipping.

Hello,

Thank you for writing to eBay. My name is Dunn and I appreciate the
opportunity to assist you today.

I would just like to stress that we appreciate valued members such as
yourself writing to us with concerns about listing policies, as we do
take the time to make sure that your questions are answered.

In regards to your question about passing on the PayPal charges to the
bidder through your shipping price, I can assure you that this practice
is not allowed as it violates our Payment Surcharge policies and Fee
Circumvention policies.

If you feel that the charges of our services are to high for you, you
should incorporate these charges into your opening bid price. Then, you
could for example offer a discount to buyers who pay by your preferred
method. If you would like to use this option, the discount would have
to be taken off the winning bid price after the auction closes. This
way, the bidder is not charged any additional fees.

You may also want to review our current policies at the following URL:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-items.html

These policies are reviewed and updated from time to time, so please be
sure to double check on terms or policies that you may not be familiar
with.

Thank you for taking the time to write to eBay's Trust and Safety
department.

Regards,

Dunn
eBay Community Watch

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Original Message Follows:
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Form Message %43333% 070200
D_ID061820051029D_ID/W_ID35302070W_ID/S_ID000S_ID
Subject: BI=C32002 Ask about selling fees [#US ?01 ]

User Feedback: 140
User State: ?01

Browser Info: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.8)
Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4

Ask about selling or billing (for sellers only) > Billing and selling
fees > Ask about selling fees

Message: Is it alright to include my listing fee, final price fee, and
Paypal fees in my shipping and handling charges?
Click to expand...
 
If you feel that the charges of our services are to high for you, you
should incorporate these charges into your opening bid price. Then, you
could for example offer a discount to buyers who pay by your preferred
method.
Click to expand...
I didn't know we could do this. That means a Seller could say:

"People who pay by check or money order, will receive a $1.00 discount."

.....since avoiding paypal, saves the Seller ~$1 in fees. Interesting!

troy
 
I look at the total cost, so no real max. However I've found eBay 'deals' on the low value games generally happen with sellers that have low S+H fees, so that certainly gets me watching a bit more eagerly.
 
[quote name='electrictroy']I didn't know we could do this. That means a Seller could say:

"People who pay by check or money order, will receive a $1.00 discount."

.....since avoiding paypal, saves the Seller ~$1 in fees. Interesting!

troy[/QUOTE]

Surcharging for PayPal payments is against their rules. I'm not sure if discounting for all other payment types would technically fall under that, but I'd be careful with it.

myke - I always thought that was in their rules as well, but couldn't find it on their rules/help section a few weeks ago. Good to see an official answer. For sellers with half a brain all this means is to never explicity state that part of your handling is eBay and Paypal fees.
 
Total cost is usually what I look at also... I just get irritated with obviously inflated shipping. I definitely look at auctions w/reasonable shipping in a better light, but in the end as a buyer, I'm just trying to buy something for as cheap as possible. I will get my package with the actual shipping cost listed, and if it's really inflated shipping, I curse the seller and shake my fist at them, and move on since that's all I can really do. But I wouldn't pay $1 + $20 for a $50 game; I'd just report the auction :p

[quote name='mykevermin']To bring up a discussion from the other thread that Shrike locked, I finally rec'd a response from eBay about including PayPal fees in the cost of shipping.[/QUOTE]
That was response was certainly no surprise.

Edited to add: wubb, I'm fairly certain eBay would consider that a violation of the Payment Surcharge policy.
Further edited to add: I totally misread that paragraph, so maybe they wouldn't? That's weird...
 
[quote name='electrictroy']I didn't know we could do this. That means a Seller could say:

"People who pay by check or money order, will receive a $1.00 discount."

.....since avoiding paypal, saves the Seller ~$1 in fees. Interesting!

troy[/QUOTE]

It's an interesting approach, in that they say "you can't have your buyer pay for PayPal fees, but you can give them a discount if they don't use it." It's an explicit answer at the same time that it's still a bit peculiar.

Now we know, and knowing's half the battle.
 
Everytime I sell a game/DVD, i charge $5.00 for shipping. Once, I sold Spiderman 2 First class and the shipping was 60 cents. However, another time, i sold a Shenmue 2 (Xbox) with two discs for around $3. I don't charge a higher shipping and it works for everyone. However, I have great feedback (score=93, 100%) so I usually get a good deal. It varies from person to person but I would not mind paying up to $5 (that's why i charge $5) for shipping. Anything over and its excessive. I have found that sellers who sell memory sticks/SD/xD. etc. and cables/accessories for popular products tend to overcharge on shipping.
 
The 'cash/check' discount thing is legit, and not limited to Ebay. Many B&M retailers offer cash/check discount [gas stations used to as well] because the credit card companies charge a percentage to accept a transaction, and in their User Agreements, it says "you cannot require a minimum purchase" and "you cannot add a surcharge for credit cards". So the retailer tries to make the alternative more attractive by offering a discount.
 
I don't mind paying for high shipping if the total overall is a good price.

Here's something to think about though, Paypal charges you for the total amount received, including the shipping fees. That's not really fair to the seller as this is what it costs to ship the game.
 
I'll pay whatever the S&H is. But realistic S&H, not the imaginary stuff you see on some import businesses and eBay.

I don't like it when people/businesses insist on hiding the real costs of S&H--I just assume that if they're willing to misrepresent S&H costs, there's a good chance they may misrepresent whatever I'm looking to buy off of them. Hence, I take my business elsewhere if I see S&H costs that aren't explained in detail or don't seem aboveboard.

I got to thinking about this when I was mulling over "discounts" for S&H on eBay auctions. I figure if the seller is being truthful about S&H, then it seems fairer to everybody involved if you just let the bidding take care of the cost. I mean, all a discount does for a person is allow them to bid more than somebody else, which just drives bidding up on an item and makes the market unfair to those without a discount.
 
[quote name='encendido5']Paypal charges you for the total amount received, including the shipping fees. That's not really fair to the seller as this is what it costs to ship the game.[/QUOTE] Paypal is charging a fee roughly equal to what using a credit card costs. The credit company doesn't care. It's just money to them.





[quote name='wubb']Good to see an official answer. For sellers with half a brain all this means is to never explicity state that part of your handling is eBay and Paypal fees.[/QUOTE]You just charge for something else:
=========
Gasoline + Paid Labor = $2.50
Ship (Media Mail + Envelope + miscellaneous) = about $2.50
=================
TOTAL = ~$5.00













[quote name='ebay']I understand that you would like to know what an acceptable shipping amount would be for a DVD (in this case) due to some shipping amounts can be deemed excessive.

All that I can really tell you is that, as you know, sellers are responsible for determining the shipping and handling charges on listings, and eBay encourages sellers to clearly describe the item and terms of shipping and delivery in their listings to avoid possible confusion. Sellers may charge reasonable shipping and handling fee to the final price of their item, providing that this fee is disclosed up front in the listing. *A shipping and handling fee can cover the seller's reasonable costs for mailing, packaging and handling the item.*


Listings that excessively charge for handling or manipulate the bid outcome with low-bid price, high-shipping charge selling strategies, are potentially in violation of our Fee Circumvention policy. This policy consists of guidelines to govern listing techniques which are designed to circumvent the eBay fee structure. When offering an item for a low opening bid price and setting unreasonably high shipping and handling charges, sellers are avoiding eBay insertion and final value fees for their listings. Practices such as this, that are designed to circumvent or defeat the eBay fee structure are not permitted. Not only is avoidance of fees unfair to eBay, but it is also unfair to eBay users who do pay their fees.
Regards,
Noland, eBay Community Watch[/quote]


troy
 
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