Excessive postage

[suesjools]

Also you have to remember that since the Royal Mails latest scam (Pricing In Proportion) the charges have rocketted. But ultimately you have the answer, if you don't like the price don't pay it.

Agree 110% - thanks to USPS price hikes, overseas shipping is, IMHO, nothing short of outrageous, but it is what it is and there isn't much we, as sellers, can do about it.

Many times a little research into the situation goes a long way. Or there's always the above: 'if you don't like the price don't pay it.'

Nuff said...

Best wishes for many sales to all,

[adruml]

So many posts to agree and disagree with on this thread. It's difficult for me to understand how someone in this day and age who is computer savy wouldn't take into consideration there may be a shipping charge involved and should investigate the full cost of the transaction prior to placing a bid.
Indeed sellers MUST include our costs for our time as well as packing material but don't forget Pay Pal charges for total money paid to us whether it's for shipping or not. If your item is $10.00 and shipping $5.00 Pay Pal charges for the $15.00 and not just the $10.00 item amount.
It is fact ebay began charging ridiculous fees which forced sellers to increase shipping charges to lessen the ebay Final Value Fee.
I was and still am a US ebay seller and probably ship 30% of my items International. Most have been cymbals but there has been quite a few guitars. A regular 18" cymbal will cost about $45.00 to ship and a guitar approx. $85.00. Even if I leave ebay's fees out of it I still have Pay Pal fees to pay on these shipping charges. It's only a couple bucks but it's still costs. Then, with guitars you must loosen the strings, wrap the guitar, place it in a box, pack the box so the guitar doesn't move around, place that box inside another box, make sure that box doean't move around then finall take the box to the Post Office wait in line for a half hour to pay and ship. I neglected to mention the filling out the Customs forms documents. Luckily I have found a source for guitar boxes otherwise I would be purchasing them to the tune of $10.00 each and that's $20.00 per guitar. Try to explain all this to a buyer and they not only don't want to hear about it they don't believe it either. I add $12.00 to International shipping on guitars and $10.00 for other items.
Even simple items I ship UPS GROUND here Domestically I add $5.00 packing and handling fees. Shrink wrap, bubble wrap, tape, ink for the printer and time to pack along with the additional Pay Pal fees on the shipping costs warrants the $5.00.
I'm with several others on this post if the buyer isn't happy with the postage fee please don't buy it. These are the buyers who can only think in black and white and have no idea how to think outside the box.
I post in my listings that I am charging these packing and handling fees but as stated here there are several buyers who do not read the entire listing or do read it but only comprehend what they want to.
Bottom line is if the item is $10.00 and shipping is $5.00 it's a total cost of $15.00 for that item. You just need to ask yourself: Is the item worth $15.00 delivered to my door and not "it only costs $3.00 to ship why am I paying $5.00". I'll tell you why because you probably can't find the same item anywhere for even close to $15.00 so pay the $15.00 and stop worrying about how the money is split up just look at it as you are paying $15.00 period.
I believe the original post showed concern regarding ebid sellers high shipping costs turning off buyers. Myself I haven't seen that here nor should high shipping costs be needed. We still need to add a little to cover Pay Pal fees and packaging costs but there are no other fees we need to hide in shipping and the old ebay listing technique of $.99 no reserve with a high shipping cost (just in case the item sells cheap) to get views, watchers and bidders just won't work here as there are no bidding wars.

[gbsbks2010]

If I list a heavy weight item - I explain the cost of the postage and packaging by saying that the item is heavy - followed by the weight and leave it for the bidder to decide.

For instance a hardback book will cost more to send than a paperback book - this is just a general example.