ratfink wrote:

I came across someone once [on a forum, not ebay] who wanted payment for his time spent wrapping items up and going to the post office. That service added $25 to the price for 3 boxed games, on top of a generous amount for actual packaging materials and postage fees. Time is money!

That's not unreasonable, actually. Some ebay sellers do this as well. If it's a business rather than an individual, they may have employees to pay. It's no different than tipping a waitress, bartender or cab driver, they are providing you with a service that has value.

I finally found a boxed copy of XTree Gold after over a year of having it in my automatic searches. The seller was US based but international shipping was offered, so I put in bid and won. Shortly afterwards - before paying - I received a request from the seller to cancel the transaction, because the seller had noticed that the box had "US version only, not for export" stamped on it?!

This is 20 year old software! Grrr

I haven't had any trouble on eBay personally, but I did run into an issue with two different sellers on Amazon some time back with a couple of games. I tried to order Blood and Unreal: Return to Na Pali but here was the thing, the order was fine and I got tracking information but a week later there weren't any updates posted. I message the sellers and they tell me that they didn't have the item all along and had to cancel the order... which I found quite odd considering that the listing was there, legitimate, and everything went well based on the updates initially.

This is why I ditched eBay altogether, got scammed out of $200 but long story short eBay is not seller friendly and people these days are always looking to get free stuff/money at someone's expense.

vetz wrote:

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I asked a seller in the UK for shipping to Norway were I live. The item was a socket 7 CPU which weights 20grams without packaging. He replied that it would cost 5 GBP without any tracking. Since I have full knowledge of the Royal Mail prices I knew he was charging quite some over the actual cost, so I politely said that I would not pay that price and if there were anyway he could reduce it? I also gave him this link since many sellers in the UK are not aware of the international prices and dimension limits:
http://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/ … t_April2013.pdf

His response: I was called an idiot and I was blocked from all his auctions...

Strange seller:
Some time ago I tried to bid on a boxed game from the UK, but he refused to sell it to me since "there were so many jackasses living in Portugal". 🤣

The part alone may weigh only 20g without the packaging but once it's safely packed up the weight can rise greatly unless you want the seller to ship a CPU with fragile pins in a plain white envelope with no padding to protect it. The weight of a package alone doesn't always determine the shipping rate, either. Packages that are bulky or difficult to handle can incur additional charges. I know of some guitar sellers on ebay who will disassemble a guitar that has a detachable neck prior to shipping because it costs less to ship in a relatively square box than shipping it in one piece in a very long box. The nature of the item being shipped can also incur additional charges. Ebay also allows sellers to charge a little extra for packaging materials and time spent getting it ready to ship. That's why it's called shipping AND HANDLING. If you are buying from a business that ships hundreds or thousands of items every day, then there are probably employees involved in picking and packing your parts. Should those workers do their jobs for free so you can get your parts for less?

(Dammit, I hate bumping of old threads. This is one reason why old threads should lock automatically after a certain amount of time, so people don't end up replying to the same topic more than once.)

sliderider wrote:

The part alone may weigh only 20g without the packaging but once it's safely packed up the weight can rise greatly unless you want the seller to ship a CPU with fragile pins in a plain white envelope with no padding to protect it. The weight of a package alone doesn't always determine the shipping rate, either. Packages that are bulky or difficult to handle can incur additional charges. I know of some guitar sellers on ebay who will disassemble a guitar that has a detachable neck prior to shipping because it costs less to ship in a relatively square box than shipping it in one piece in a very long box. The nature of the item being shipped can also incur additional charges. Ebay also allows sellers to charge a little extra for packaging materials and time spent getting it ready to ship. That's why it's called shipping AND HANDLING. If you are buying from a business that ships hundreds or thousands of items every day, then there are probably employees involved in picking and packing your parts. Should those workers do their jobs for free so you can get your parts for less?

Please read the thread before answering, you complain about people resurrecting old threads, but here you do the same by only replying to the first post and disregard everything else. I won't take part

vetz wrote:

sliderider wrote:

The part alone may weigh only 20g without the packaging but once it's safely packed up the weight can rise greatly unless you want the seller to ship a CPU with fragile pins in a plain white envelope with no padding to protect it. The weight of a package alone doesn't always determine the shipping rate, either. Packages that are bulky or difficult to handle can incur additional charges. I know of some guitar sellers on ebay who will disassemble a guitar that has a detachable neck prior to shipping because it costs less to ship in a relatively square box than shipping it in one piece in a very long box. The nature of the item being shipped can also incur additional charges. Ebay also allows sellers to charge a little extra for packaging materials and time spent getting it ready to ship. That's why it's called shipping AND HANDLING. If you are buying from a business that ships hundreds or thousands of items every day, then there are probably employees involved in picking and packing your parts. Should those workers do their jobs for free so you can get your parts for less?

Please read the thread before answering, you complain about people resurrecting old threads, but here you do the same by only replying to the first post and disregard everything else. I won't take part

I don't think he was the one resurrecting it...

Jan3Sobieski wrote:

I don't think he was the one resurrecting it...

Not initially, but Jorpho asked something similar which was already answered previously in the thread. The whole point with the first post was not the shipping issue, but being told to fuck off when you are nothing but polite to the seller.

vetz wrote:

Jan3Sobieski wrote:

I don't think he was the one resurrecting it...

Not initially, but Jorpho asked something similar which was already answered previously in the thread. The whole point with the first post was not the shipping issue, but being told to fuck off when you are nothing but polite to the seller.

Gotcha.

There are two sides to everything though. I myself am a seller on ebay and I pre-package everything in advance. I try to use the smallest box/envelope possible to fit the item while making sure nothing would damage it in shipping. This way it's easier for me to store/calculate shipping/ship out right away after payment. Just print out, slap on a shipping label and off it goes.

I never charge for "handling" as I believe that is somewhat bogus. If someone believes the buyer should pay the seller for "handling" they should add that to their initial price of the item. Otherwise it feels like they're doing you a favor by packaging the item for you. What? Are you serious? When I go to a store to purchase a pair of pants, there is no "handling" fee on the receipt even though the cashier folded them nicely and put them in the bag for me. Yes, you can say that in a store, that service is added to the price of the pants, which again, should be done the same way on ebay.

However, if someone would contact me regarding an item I'm currently selling and they tell me my shipping charge is too much even though I did everything I could to fit it in the smallest package possible with adequate padding, I'd tell them to go to hell.

Unless it is a buy now item you can't slap the handling onto the price, since it's still an auction.

sliderider wrote:

(Dammit, I hate bumping of old threads. This is one reason why old threads should lock automatically after a certain amount of time, so people don't end up replying to the same topic more than once.)

One of the things I like about this board is that threads can roll on and reappear months or years later. This thread's not a good example but there's information around here that never gets old, and allowing people to append their question to the end makes more sense than starting a new thread.

To answer the original posters grievance, I think to get a CPU shipped anywhere for 5 pounds is cheap, especailly if its a cheap cpu.

MY beef is US sellers who quote like $50-$150 to ship a graphics card to Australia, it doesnt matter if they pad the postage price a little IMO as its a pain in the ass to package and send a parcel in the first place, to get a cpu you want its a very, very small price to pay.

I will agree that the seller was rude if it were me I would politely explain that a small charge for time and effort is perfectly reasonable.

dirkmirk wrote:

To answer the original posters grievance, I think to get a CPU shipped anywhere for 5 pounds is cheap, especailly if its a cheap cpu.

MY beef is US sellers who quote like $50-$150 to ship a graphics card to Australia, it doesnt matter if they pad the postage price a little IMO as its a pain in the ass to package and send a parcel in the first place, to get a cpu you want its a very, very small price to pay.

I will agree that the seller was rude if it were me I would politely explain that a small charge for time and effort is perfectly reasonable.

According to Ebay rules you are NOT allowed to charge for handling costs beside packaging materials and extra shipping insurance. Everything else has to be included in the selling price. Secondly, when you know the postage system and someone just takes a price out of thin air then you have the full right to tell them it can be shipped to a third of the asking price.

Again, as pointed out several times, the point here was the seller exploded back, hence the name of the topic "rude".

Why would anyone bother selling on ebay if you couldn't a little back on postage? Ive bought a few items for like $1 or $5 plus post essentially you make nothing from the sale, I reckon if you told most people they had an item worth $100 on ebay 90% of the time it'd still end up in the bin as most people couldn't be bothered going through the effort, ive personally never sold any computer hardware on ebay as you'd to be pretty hard up to justify the effort/reward, I guess I just have a different opinion on these things as alot of my purchases I believe the seller is providing a service for my benefit and not theirs when you consider the sale price.

dirkmirk wrote:

Ive bought a few items for like $1 or $5 plus post essentially you make nothing from the sale

Power sellers selling thousands of items a day can probably work out a special deal with the post office, especially if they're in Hong Kong.

I reckon if you told most people they had an item worth $100 on ebay 90% of the time it'd still end up in the bin as most people couldn't be bothered going through the effort

😳

I don't think Ive encountered one that was rude , so much as ones who provide inadequate service.

for instance, a few years ago , I bought Final Fantasy 9 from Ebay, it took the seller about 10 days to send it, in economy class (so it took another 3 or 4 days to get here) , and in the end the game was broken, after the game was advertised as perfectly fine, the box itself wasn't too bad, but the discs were a mess, something one couldn't see in the picture.

I had this one ebay experience...

There was a brand new AT case I was keeping an eye on, and I was pretty sure that this two-inch-wide black square on the front was a MHz display. Just to make sure, I ask the seller to verify if it is indeed a MHz display, and he replies:

"NO THIS IS REALLY REALLY OLD. IT DOES NOTHING FANCY LIKE THAT."

... ironically only "really really old" cases have a MHz display! I ended up not buying it out of spite...

I bought a boxed game, it was new and in great condition in the pics (they were the actual item). I collect, so I contacted the seller before bidding that I would like the item packaged well so as not to get damaged in transit. This is a normal thing for me, and usually all sellers are cool with it, as was this one... so the item arrived in the mail, crushed. All he did was wrap the box in butcher paper. So I contacted him, and asked him why it wasn't packaged properly like we had discussed, and he told me it wasn't his responsibility what the post office did to the package. I pointed him to ebay policy where it clearly states that the seller is responsible for the item until it reaches the buyer. He got really mad and started cussing at me, and said if I wanted a refund I could send it back to him AT MY EXPENSE. Probably the worst experience I've had on ebay, ever.

That sucks, it's really not that hard to pack things properly, and to demand you pay to return it - that's crap.

I've had a bad run lately, a mega drive game describes as "like new" was dirty, cracked, and the manual held together with sticky tape. The seller didn't respond to messages, nor the negative feedback I left. I had a game simply not show up recently too. I was notified that it was in the mail, weeks went by, we messaged back and forth and then I finally asked for a refund. He sent one via paypal, but it bounced on his end. Never heard from him again.

vetz wrote:

So who has a story they want to share? […]
Show full quote

So who has a story they want to share?

I asked a seller in the UK for shipping to Norway were I live. The item was a socket 7 CPU which weights 20grams without packaging. He replied that it would cost 5 GBP without any tracking. Since I have full knowledge of the Royal Mail prices I knew he was charging quite some over the actual cost, so I politely said that I would not pay that price and if there were anyway he could reduce it? I also gave him this link since many sellers in the UK are not aware of the international prices and dimension limits:
http://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/ … t_April2013.pdf

His response: I was called an idiot and I was blocked from all his auctions...

Strange seller:
Some time ago I tried to bid on a boxed game from the UK, but he refused to sell it to me since "there were so many jackasses living in Portugal". 🤣

While they were very rude I dont think £5 is unreasonable considering the minimum cost according to RM today is £2.60 for surface mail or £3 for air mail.

I live in the UK and my nearest post office needs to be driven to thus thats part of the postage cost in my book as is the materials to send the item. it may only be a 20 gram CPU but in the years I've had selling items on eBay I would simply send anything in an envelope is a no no as its prone to damage. Boxes & bubble wrap arent free, neither is paper and ink for postage labels, it all has to be factored in.

You are right though they was no call for their attitude, if it was me I would simply have replied "sorry the post cost is fixed, many thanks for your interest"