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I have sold items on Ebay. I ship via the Local Post Office because the staff is friendly. They give me 4 different kinds of Prioity Mail Boxs (Small to big) The have what is known as a "Flat Rate" for the two biggest boxes. usually 7.70 anywhere in the usa as long as the item can FIT inside the box. I had one sale where a customer won several items (Bravo!) and I combined them into a single 6.00 shipping charge. At the post office I ended up using two boxes for a total of near 17.00 to get all the items to his house. I did not say anything because I made a profit versus MSRP on these items and was happy to eat the difference. He probably will be willing to shop my auctions again because he knows that I shared the shipping charges with him. Next month I will be asking 7.50 for shipping anywhere in the USA. I may pay anywhere from .20-1.50 but the customer wont have to foot the whole shipping bill. I refuse to buy auctions with "Buy it now" at prices same as my local hobby store (Hey, he can get it and I dont have to pay shipping) I use ebay for Out of production items and am willing to go up to a maximum of 10.00 for shipping. I am a sucker for "free shipping" or Flat rates of anywhere from 4,5,67 or 9 dollars. And combining auctions. Sometimes the sellor would experience a loss in shipping as I did and raise prices also. What I will not do is participate in auctions that have messages designed to poke at Ebay, USPS or any other entity with bad ill feelings regarding shipping. Eventually there will be a shake out in ebay because 1- shipping is too high, 2- hobby shops have or can order the same item for you, 3- bad feelings among some sellers who write messages on auctions blasting about the shipping fees (I dont want to hear it) Last summer I built my computer from nothing. I had no problems fex-exing by air parts such as a 80 dollar hard drive with a 25 dollar fee to get it to my house in 2 days. Shipping really added up on my computer project and next time I will combine ALL parts into one air freight lift. Rarely will I see auctions both buying or selling where shipping charges are going to be a "Doozy" usually lots of 50 kits, 100 kits or someone's layout and everything on it... these command the highest shipping costs. If I could afford that kind of shipping I would be buying brass engines. Bottom line. As a seller I am willing to offer a flat rate somewhere below 10 dollars for any item I offer only because that is what the United States Post Office will want. I'll take care of the insurance. Sometimes I insure valuble items anyway because I dont want the customer to lose money. (1.30 per 100 dollars) As a buyer I am willing to pay a little but I usually decide if that same item can fit within the rates supplied by the United Parcel Service, Fed Ex and the United States Post Office. The biggest shipping I ever had to do was a HO scale steam engine across the border into Canada. The customer who bought the engine provided me with everything I needed to know how to do it right with the customs and the rules against insurance. The biggest issue was using Canada Air-Post as it only costs like 8.30 and took about 10 days. The customer probably had to pay DUTY and also Import taxes on the item as well. (15% I think but not real sure) on items across international borders. Sellers who refuse to mark shipments as gifts or for a lessor prices usually earn at least serious consideration of the item for bid. I know this has been a long post and many other people will probably want to jump in this thread as well. But, I have managed so far until last month to keep my flat shipping rate at 6.00 as a seller and understand that as a customer I may have a pay a little bit more but you can be certain I will be asking the seller questions like: 1- How heavy is the item? 2- will it fit in the Priority Mail package? 3- perhaps a alternative shipping such as Parcel Post? 4- Is it necessary to pay the extra 1 or 2 dollars (packing materials are not cheap either) Also I try to consider the distance from the seller's location (Mapquest with the seller's mailing address) to the post office and throw in a dollar or two for his or her gas because not everyone is within walking distance of a Post Office or a UPS mailing store.
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