Spending More On Shipping Than I Am On Stamps. Advice?

So that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I am feeling a bit burned. I purchased a few auctions off ebay from a single seller, with $3.00 shipping per auction. I had purchased from the seller before and he had combined shipping back then.

Apparently he changed his policies and no longer combines shipping. Bam, $27 suddenly added to my purchase for absolutely no reason. I guarantee that the stamps would have been packaged the same whether I had paid $3 or $27.

This has totally reduced the thrill of having purchased these stamps, since I ended up paying so much more money than I was planning. That $27 could have gone towards a new gem for my collection.

I also feel the shipping burn when I buy for my topical collection. Since my topic is specific, I usually have to buy single stamps and sellers often do not have other stamps with that topic. So I end up spending an extra $2-$5 per stamp on shipping just because I would not be able to get the stamp elsewhere.

I feel like there is not much of an in-between. It's either going on ebay where shipping is ludicrous or going to an auction where collections will be out of my price range.

How do you handle ludicrous shipping costs?

(The grand irony in all of this is that putting money towards shipping is putting money towards the Postal Service itself, which is the origin of our identities as philatelists... That said, I really don't believe that that $27 is going anywhere but to the seller's pockets.)

Start by asking the seller to consider combining shipping this one time as a courtesy since the last time you bought the policy was different. If that doesn't work, ask him to cancel the sales. You never know.

Lastly, since you made an honest mistake with a seller who clearly is out for spurious self-enrichment, I would give serious consideration to walking away. It's a bad deal. ebay May issue you a strike for non-payment but that's the last you'll ever of it it (unless you do it twice more!)

Personally I would feel worse getting ripped off than walking away from a bad deal based on not having all facts. Lesson learned.

Did you try asking the seller to make an exception this time, since you are a previous customer and wasn't aware of the change in policy?

If this person is charging $3 per auction, that's the sellers option. You have the option of finding another seller. There are PLENTY of sellers who combine shipping.

Also, if they are charging $3 shipping per auction item. I expect EACH auction item to be shipped separately. Since they won't combine shipping, I wouldn't accept combined shipment. Just following THEIR policy.

Bottom line, drop this seller.

Feoen, I think shermae is absolutely correct. Unless, you are buying items that are heavy or bulky, there is no reason to pay such outrageous prices for shipping. And, the seller's changing the policy to collect an additional $3 for each item (postage stamp?!) is 'over the top'.

Feoen, Greetings:

Not to channel my inner curmudgeon - okay, just to channel my inner curmudgeon - why do we all seem to think that it ought to be possible to buy'n'sell stamps without transaction costs? And without risks?

If I drive to a local dealer/bourse, I pay gas & parking, not to mention the occasional ticket for chatting on my cell phone.

If I take the bus or train, I pay a round-trip mass transit fare, eg, more than five dollars.

If I let the postman do the work, it is still gonna cost something.

You've gotten good advice about the twit who declined to combine shipping costs, and stole your joy.

But your other point - the high overhead of onesy-twosy sales - is just the cost of doing business.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Did you pay for all items individually or as a combined lot. Buyers may not realize that PayPal charges a fee for each transaction. If you paid for 9 items seperately the buyer would have had 9 transaction fees.

Or if the items weren't set up properly to combine shipping and you paid before receiving a revised invoice it could have shown $27 shipping.

As others have said, I surely would have contacted he seller and questioned it. And as a last resort I would have requested to cancel the transaction.

As a seller I have had buyers overpay the shipping cost. I always send a refund, either through PayPal or along with the shipment. They are usually very grateful.

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

I agree that is outrageous to pay extra to pay for stamps you want .That was like what happen to me .
I purchase round trip airline tickets from Chicago to Boston for $650.00 to go to a stamp auction and then rented a car to go to the stamp auction for 5 days for $300.00 .The hotel was $500.00 for 4 days of stamp viewing at the stamp auction .Then food was $100.00 even with the fast food restuarants . Then....Then I had to pay $2.00 for coffee in the morning ...can you believe that!! Two dollars for coffee just to buy stamps that is also outrageous . I believe stamp companies should offer free coffee if your buying stamps .

It is "Shipping and Handling" - and I reduce S&H for several orders in same shipment but I have never - and will never "combine" it. Frankly, I find the expectation that a seller "combine" S&H unreasonable. BTW I never have complaints about my practice.

We've had this discussion before. Some sellers think no questions should be asked about their use of "S&H" to recover the cost of their labor in putting packages together for shipping. Even preparing an invoice, a label, putting even one stamp in an envelope takes at least a few minutes of time. But most commercial products are not sold with separate S&H charges. The main historical exception to this was catalog sales, and now, sales over the Internet. But an "unbundled" charge for the labor and shipping involved in bringing a product to market is an exception, not the rule. When is the last time you paid "S&H" for a dozen eggs, or coffee at Starbucks? In most economic transactions, S&H is just another production cost to be covered by the price of the product, and profit is what is left over.

Many, many buyers would simply ignore a seller that charges $3 per item and doesn't combine shipping. They look at the total cost, and often a shipping cost like that will put the total cost above what they can get the item for from another seller. Welcome to the marketplace.

I buy a lot from a dealer who starts most of his auctions at $0.01 and offers free shipping. How can he afford to do that, I'm sure some wonder. Well, if the item doesn't sell, he's made no profit. If it sells for less than shipping costs, he's lost a little. If it sells for just enough to cover shipping cost, and then some, he's made some profit. And if the item sells for a lot, he's made a lot of profit. I'm sure he's figured out that on balance he's more than covering his S&H costs and still making a decent profit.

A separate S&H cost has no underlying or fundamental economic rationale. Sellers don't "set" prices. Buyers do. If the "sticker price" is too high, buyers walk away. On ebay, the "sticker price" is the total cost, and if a seller tries to price his wares with a separate S&H cost, buyers are usually smart enough to take that in account and decide whether to buy or not.

I've made the same mistake as the OP, where I assumed that shipping costs for several items would be combined, only to learn that I was wrong. My bad. Caveat emptor. Live and learn. It was my fault for not paying closer attention. I pay what I agreed to pay, and, in most cases, never buy from that dealer again. Even in this case, where the dealer once offered combined shipping, but changed the policy, it doesn't really excuse the buyer from being responsible for the terms of sale. In free markets, the buyer is king. For that position, we assume the responsibility of being as informed as we can be, and ignorance is no excuse for buying something and then realizing you didn't know the terms of sale. It is a hard lesson to learn, but that's life. Learn it, and move on.

floortrader,

You left out the cost of the catalogs and other reference works you've bought, as well as the time you've spent learning to distinguish one Washington from another. I think sellers should discount their prices to compensate me for these costs, especially for my time. My time is valuable. I should be compensated for it. At least for the time I spent looking at their item on ebay. Maybe we can make a deal: the time I spend looking at their item, for the time they spend putting a package together. Call it even, and just not bother with S&H.

CanadaStamp at least some of those who would have an issue with your policy probably are no longer customers.

@ blcjr great post exactly my feelings. I hate when I make a mistake but don't hassle the seller about if I made the mistake. At the time time, if their policies aren't acceptable I never buy from them again.

Feoen, if I am making an offer on a Buy It Now lot I will usually lower it to offset the listed shipping cost.

Exactly.

shermae,

I think it would depend on how much CanadaStamp "reduces" for a combined shipment. To use the OP's example, I think he's saying he'd never consider sending all 9 items for the same $3 S&H as one, but that he'd reduce it and not charge the full $27. If he's reasonable in how much he reduces, buyers will take that into consideration in whether to continue to buy from him.

I always like the bidstart system where sellers could set an S&H price for one item, and then a much smaller marginal cost increment for each successive item in the same transaction. Such as $3 for the first, and $0.25 each for additional items. For the OP's example of 9 items, the total would come to $5.00. I think most of us buyers think of this as "combined" S&H.

Dudley,

Not all BIN sales come with the "Make an Offer" option. And if you limit your offer just to the reduction in shipping cost, you might miss some deals. I just recently made an offer of $28 on an item that had a BIN price of $38 with two dollar shipping. The offer was accepted, so I saved $10, not just the $2 I would have saved just reducing it for the shipping charge.