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

This is why I prefer to have combined shipping at exact costs as charged by the postal system. It's fair to both sides.

The only problem with that system is that on ebay if a buyer buys more than one item ebay cannot automatically estimate the shipping when one is selling lots of different sizes, weights and volumes. Most buyers are pretty good at requesting an invoice or waiting for one to be sent by me, but there's always those few buyers who overpay shipping or complain that ebay's shipping rates are too high. They didn't read the description or shipping information that they need to request an invoice or wait for me to send a corrected combined invoice. I either send shipping refunds or explain how the system works and they are content what that in most cases.

Battlestamps,

Good observations. Sometimes I don't know whether a dealer is going to combine S&H until I get an invoice from them, so I make a habit of waiting for invoices, though I am otherwise a very, very quick payer. As for buying and not knowing whether costs are being combined or not until I get an invoice, I've usually made the decision to bid with this ignorance anyway, knowing that I might not see any discounted S&H. That makes it nice when I do.

When I mentioned "combined shipping", to me that includes "reduced shipping for multiple lots". The point being that since the shipping is being combined together into one shipment, then I should be charged the actual shipping/handling for the combined lot. Whether that means flat rate shipping or reduced shipping for additional items, it doesn't really matter to me.

Don't get me wrong. I have consistently bought from some sellers who don't combine shipping at all (although the per item price is far more reasonable than $3). In my 1st post, I didn't mean drop a seller only because they won't combine shipping -- drop them if you are that unhappy about it. I simply reduce my bid to deduct for the shipping & handling charge, just like I reduce my auction house bids by the commission charged. I pretty much always consider final cost paid, not close/hammer cost.

When I sell domestically, I have a 3-tiered shipping charge based on envelope SIZE (not weight). I don't have a per item "handling" charge. But to each, his/her own. The market makes the final decision, regardless of what individual sellers/buyers may want.

If they could get away with it, the motor oil change shop would have you get an oil change every 500 miles, while drivers would try to push oil changes past every 10K+ miles.

blcjr,

Quite correct, my statement applied only to Make An Offer lots. I meant to say that I take shipping costs into account when making an offer, not that I limit the offer just to reduced shipping. In your example, if I was willing to pay $28 for the item on offer for a BIN price of $38 with shipping of $2, I would offer $26.

This problem is not made any easier by ebay. I find that sometimes I can drop items I want to buy in my shopping cart and then "check out" when I am done shopping. This allows items to be grouped together for shipping purposes when more than one item comes from the same seller.

However, other times, the "Add to Cart" option is not available and everything becomes "Buy It Now" so if you buy more than one item from the same seller, you automatically get charged for separate shipping. You are then held hostage to the seller's beneficence as to whether or not he/she refunds some of the extra shipping charges. I have had instances where the seller refunds the money and some where they have not.

I was reading the comments here and I saw Will's comments that most buyers are willing to wait for an invoice. I had just read my emails prior to this and I saw that Will had refunded some shipping for me on my most recent purchases from him. This really was not necessary as the shipping charges were already fair, but I do appreciate the extra care I get from a great seller.I usually wait a few days to pay when I bid with sellers that I have bid with before. Sometimes life, business and family get in the way and I pay sooner knowing that I am likely paying extra shipping charges, but my schedule can be such that I would rather pay quickly and a little extra than to offend a seller by paying late.

One of the problems with ebay is their policy of charging "final value fee" on the shipping charge. Thus if a seller charges the actual post office charge of $1.00, it will cost him a total of $1.15 with ebay and PayPal fees to recover the $1.00.

This is why I buy my stamps only from club members and through stamp shows and bourses now. I have had great luck finding what I need. The stamp dealers in our area seem to have a great inventory and I like to support them.

Dianne

For $27, the stamps should be sent overnight anywhere in the world, packed between pieces of armor plating. I expect to be charged a reasonable shipping rate, and by "reasonable" I mean enough to cover actual shipping costs as well as the cost of envelopes, paper, ink, and eBay/PayPal fees on those costs, etc. Even for a simple first-class letter (49 cents postage), the seller's real costs are probably closer to 70 or 75 cents or so, and I don't begrudge a small markup on top of that. Not saying that I only expect to pay 75 cents for shipping, just that I realize that the real costs are higher than just the postage.

All that being said, I avoid sellers with exorbitant shipping costs like the plague. I'll hold my nose and buy if they have something I really want and they're still lower priced with their shipping. I don't know why it really matters, to be honest. Everything else being equal, the total cost is all that really should matter, regardless of how much comes from the stamps and how much from the shipping.

For the original posting, its not clear if Feoen had actually asked the seller for a combined lower shipping amount. I have occasionally found that the link to request a total amount for a group of purchases from one seller will result in a message that the seller does not combine shipping and no message is sent to that seller. But if I contact the seller separately, they are almost always willing to do so.

"One of the problems with ebay is their policy of charging "final value fee" on the shipping charge."

This policy comes compliments of unscrupulous sellers back in the days when ebay didn't charge a 'final value fee' on S&H. Back then, some sellers would sell decent-sized-ticket items for near nothing while making their $'s on the shipping charges which would be huge.

Eg: Sells a grand piano for $1.49 with shipping of $800.00.


The buyer got what he wanted at the same total price, the seller only had to pay fees on a miniscule sale's price, and ebay got screwed as a result. That's why ebay changed the policy (to protect themselves) so the entire community can thank the sellers who pulled this stunt years ago. I can find several things that irritate me about ebay but I have to admit this one is understandable.

You can do that on ebay, and in fact I do exactly that.

And my joke to the original poster, if you are spending more on shiping than on the stamps, you need to start buying more expensive stamps

It would be nice if they only charged a "final value fee" for S&H amounts that were say above 50c, since we (in the US have to spend at least 49c on postahe (and most of the rest of you in other countries even more).

How I shop depends on what I'm looking for. If I'm buying lots, I look at the price as a whole, and if a seller wont combine... Well... Next! There is plenty of stock out there, and no need to settle with a non-combiner. for picking up onsey twosey types, I like Bidstart. Pick a seller that has most of what I'm looking for, and buy a bunch from that seller. And shipping is always considered as part of the everall price. I'm what you call very Frugal. I will pick a seller just because he combines, and avoid sellers that dont, regardless of what they have to sell.
2 cents.