This one surfaces from time to time. Usually people equate 'fair
shipping cost' to the cost of the stamp on the package. That's fine
for me but when B&H sends me a parcel, I expect it to cost a lot
more. If someone is in business, everything has to be factored into
the shipping cost, including the rental on the storage facility and
the wages and benefits of the dimbot wielding the stickytape. (No
specific insult there. just an general observation on ex-students who
have chosen 'storeman and packer' as a career path).
As a private seller I can afford to be more generous because when I
go to the post office in a spare moment, buy my lunch, have a coffee
and pick up some groceries as well, secure in the knowledge that the
Department of Education is paying my salary as I do it. I can even
have a pile of recycled packaging, scavenged and squirreled boxes and
other handy bits and forget the time and inconvenience. Professional
sellers do not have that luxury. Also, while I certainly combine
items for shipping and just have done so, some mass sellers of small
items have them already packed for, storage speed and convenience and
so can't do that easily.
There are some clever weasels out there such as the guys who are
offering Leica R - EOS adaptors on oBoy at present very cheaply and
making up the difference with highly inflated postage but many
professional sellers are simply trying to avoid going slowly broke
due to the inevitable leakage caused by unrecovered invisible expenses.
AndrewF
On 16/06/2005, at 4:20 AM, ScottGee1 wrote:
> I let ebay sellers know when I find their shipping costs out of
> line. I
> tell them that I'm interested in what they are offering, but will
> not bid
> because of the shipping cost. Of those that respond some offer
> lectures
> similar to those of the FM group and some offer a more reasonable
> rate. In
> fact, that just happened. We won two items from the same seller and
> she
> kindly charged shipping only once. It's certainly worth asking for
> a lower
> rate.
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