Why do ebay sellers charge outrageous shipping costs?

[Jason_C]

Actually, in what way does a person not have a right to charge the buyer for expenses he / she had to pay? It's called making profit, and you can't do it unless you charge more for the item than it cost you to sell it. And, no offense to you or anyone else who's posted here, but... As outrageous as it is, doesn't the seller have a right to charge what they please? I mean, it's not like anyone is FORCING you to go buy their cards... Just MHO.
-pssvr

 

[masterwoo0]

Actually, in what way does a person not have a right to charge the buyer for expenses he / she had to pay? It's called making profit, and you can't do it unless you charge more for the item than it cost you to sell it. And, no offense to you or anyone else who's posted here, but... As outrageous as it is, doesn't the seller have a right to charge what they please? I mean, it's not like anyone is FORCING you to go buy their cards... Just MHO.
-pssvr

You're absolutely right about them being able to charge what they want. "Someone" will buy it, and some other seller will be stuck with their goods at the end of a 7 day Auction because he went too high.

It's always "Supply and demand". Why do you think Gas Prices went so high? Because they could?? No. Because if the "didn't", how much gas do you think would have been available without the means to keep Supply steady? Sure people made out like bandits, but I'd rather pay 3-4 dollars a gallon for gas than to be driving around looking for the "Last Gas Station on Earth" that still has it because everyone can still afford it and there's none left.

Now, prices are dropping back to normal levels and should steady out around 1.90-2.20 range before Christmas, and no one was really hurting for Gas at all.

As for Yugioh Cards, the demand is really inconsistent because of Netdecks and the Ban List. For a while, you could get just about anything for 3 D. D. Warrior Lady's. Ban came out, D. D. Warrior Lady lost her luster, but she was still popular, but that also meant people who had three were not so lucky anymore, and that made trading or buying much easier.

EBay is not a real gauge for card prices because at any given time, you can get a hot card for much less than the "average", and then you can plug in your high bid at 10 or so over the average, and someone desperate enough will outbid you by 50, just because they really want the card.

It's all about how bad you want a card that you will have in your possession in a few days instead of a few boxes or packs oF failure after failure to get what you want.

I know after 3 boxes of IOC and not getting either Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End or Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, I gave up and just traded for them. What was strange was, I sure had a lot of Dark Magician of Chaos' when I bought those boxes, but havent managed to get another one since....

 

[Jason_C]

Yeah, gas is a good comparison. People <cough>Democrats</cough> are asking for price controls, saying that gas stations shouldn't be allowed to charge such high prices for gas. Well guess what? When gas stations can't charge what they not only WAT, but actually NEED to charge to stay in business, they simply quit selling the gas and close down. That happened in the 70s, and it will happend again if we try it again. Supply and demand determined the price, not some massive conspiracy to raise prices.
You know, I used to go on a site called ww.nick.com, that is to say, the Nickelodeon website. I was a legend there. I acquired over 22 million "Nickpoints" playing "MyNick" and buying and selling "Nick e-Collectibles". I mean, I got up to like #17 in the world on that site. I was truly a legend. And people would ask me "Why do you charge so much for e-Collectibles, and why do you offer so little? It's so unfair!" To this I'd respond, "Because if I charged any less or offered any more, I wouldn't be as rich as I am". Then I would go on to explain how just because my prices and offers were there didn't mean they HAD to accept. But most people never did catch on...
-pssvr

 

[exiledforcefreak]

they just recently added to ebay, when you search for a card, not only does it state the current bid and "buy is now" as is has before. but now, right next to the two prices, is the price of shipping.

This should definatly discourage sellers from charging insanely STOOPID:drugged: prices for shipping.

 

[Jason_C]

Li3k ttly stoopied? Yeah, I noticed that. I hope they keep it, and maybe even add a search function that allows you to find lowest COMBINED price and shipping.
-pssvr

 

[roadhouse007]

yeah, but on nick.com you are probably dealing with grade school/jr. high/ lower grade high school students. A lot of these people don't understand Supply and demand or how you have to work to run a successful buisness. It is morally wrong, but kids would be the easiest target for ripoff artists anywhere. Even if they read 'the fine print', would they comprehend what they just aGreed too? This is why the following line is on almost every website that children could visit, oir some variation thereof:

"If you are under the age of (13), please have a parent consent to your use of our website before entering"

Furthermore, on ebay the sellers are discouraged from including their surcosts within their own shipping price, but then why don't they require that shipping costs are determined by a method other than seller determined? They do give that option to have a button 'calculate shipping costs'. It is not at all illegal, just discouraged by ebay themselves because they make less money that way.

 

[babyarm]

I would laugh if I went to Suncoast and they also asked me to give them money for the handling of the item into the bag and the price of the bag.

The price of the bag, the employee, the counter, and everything else is already figured into the price that you pay for whatever it is you're buying. Just as the cost of operating the store gets factored into the price of what you buy at a brick and mortar store, the cost of listing the items on eBay gets factored into "handling" charges. If the cost seems too high, don't bid on the auction, plain and simple.

 

[Jason_C]

Ahem. I'm sorry, I know this is off topic, but I feel a distinct need to interject here. I WAS at the time in grade school / junior high. I began playing Nick when I was ten, and continued till I was eleven. Most of the people I dealt with were OLDER than me. And yet I became among the elite of the elite. It has NOTHING to do with age, it is about intelligience and entrepeneurel (sp?) skills.

-pssvr

 

[daivahataka]

This should definatly discourage sellers from charging insanely STOOPID:drugged: prices for shipping.

Nah, there are sellers who you'll find listing an item multiple times (many copies in stock obviously) but the price will vary, what you'll often find is that the postage varies too so that the total, the price + postage, is always the same amount.

 

[Jason_C]

Nah, there are sellers who you'll find listing an item multiple times (many copies in stock obviously) but the price will vary, what you'll often find is that the postage varies too so that the total, the price + postage, is always the same amount.

That's strange. What is the benefit there?

-pssvr

 

[Dr Kain]

Okay, here is what I'm talking about, I need 5 more Spirit Type cards (Hino, Fushi, Inaba, Yamata, Susa) to complete my Spirit set, I found two sellers that sell all 5, however, shipping starts at $3 for both of them, and then an additional $1 per card. That means I'm paying $7 for shipping from either of them for 5 freaking cards!! Then I found a seller who says up to 5 cards is $2 shipping, but he doesn't have the cards I need/want. Go figure. :-\

 

[The Advocate]

Just Plain Greed is the answer; I've seen shipping as high as $4.98; I don't buy anyone's stuff who charges more than $2.99 and I think that's high; I only charge $2.50 and that includes top loader, bubble mailer and delivery confirmation on 1st class mail. Sad truth was posted earlier, all shipping costs are pure profit. Even with $2.50 I made money because I bought the bubble mailers from Wal-Mart, used online postage which is cheaper and sold plenty of auctions. I"m getting 2.99 stuff in regular envelopes with cardboard around the card, cheap b's. Anyway, I hope the muddy waters of the Gangees river run up their taj and out their mahal.