1 cent auctions with $7 shipping - Doesn't Ebay get mad?

[Anthony1]

You know these guys that are selling games, and they have a 1 cent auction, but the shipping is $6.95?

So basically they are selling the item for $7, but they are trying to make it look less than it really is.

Doesn't Ebay get mad at this tactic?

I'm assuming that they are using this tactic for three main reasons:

1. By having a super low starting price of 1 penny, they show up at the top of the list when people do searches for the lowest priced item.

2. By packing their profit into their shipping cost, they basically avoid the Final Value Fee that Ebay charges. I mean what the heck is the Final Value Fee for an auction that is only 1 penny?

3. More people will click on there auction, just to check it out.


Nowadays, when I see a 1 penny auction, I typically don't even waste my time clicking on it, because I know the shipping is going to be in the $6.95 range at least. But there must be suckers out there that bid on these auctions or these people wouldn't do it.

But I would think that Ebay would recieve alot of complaints from Buyers that paid $6.95 shipping for a CD that was shipped for 60 cents, or a cart that was shipped for $1.06. Also, you would think that Ebay would be pissed about these people avoiding Final Value Fees.

Yet, these auctions continue to exist. Unabated. Does anybody know why Ebay allows these 1 penny auctions to continue?

[Bronty-2]

ehhh.. there are degrees. $7 shipping they'll get away with. $70 shipping wouldn't fly.

[jajaja]

High shipping cost have already been discussed:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=61080

The easiest way is to e-mail Ebay and ask about this. Then you should get an answer. If it clearly says that the shipping is i.g $6.95 its too late to come and complain, because then you have agreed to pay $6.95 for shipping.

[Bluteg]

Anthony, thats exactly why we have Paypal... to make sure ebay gets their money... and to double dip on us legit sellers :/

[WanganRunner]

But then what does shipping actually cost?

I pay like $3.50 for regular first-class mail with insurance. If they're using a faster/more secure method, $5+ for shipping a single game isn't unheard of. Sure, they may tack a buck or 2 onto that, but that could be for packing materials, paypal fees, listing fees, whatever, I can understand that.

It's the places that charge like $19.95 to ship a game that piss me off. That's just blatant BS.

[rally9x]

When you use the ebay shipping stuff that is calculated ebay even has a place where you can add in an extra charge...so they basiclly support padding. Which is fine by me.

[Anthony1]

Yeah, but let's all get real here.

This is blantant padding and blantant fee avoidance for the most part.

These people that do these 1 penny auctions, with $7 shipping, know that the most they are going to get for the game is $7 total. So they padd the shipping part of the equation to limit their Ebay fees.

The insertion fee is 35 cents, and they ship the CD for 60 cents, via First Class. If it's a cart, then it's $1.06 or $1.29.


If it happens to be a CD, then their cost is .95 cents, which is something they can live with.

I'm just suprised that Ebay doesn't consider all the lost revenue from Final Value Fees that they could be getting out of this. I guess they figure the enforcement of it, would be more trouble than it's worth.

[tylerwillis]

You can actually report items that have high shipping fees - because it is avoiding eBay fees. Generally eBay won't do much (in my exp) unless the fee is exhorbitant ($40 to ship a game sys via parcel). If you really feel outraged, then report them and see if eBay does anything.

[Anthony1]

If you really feel outraged, then report them and see if eBay does anything.


I'm not outraged at all, at least personally speaking. I could care less what they do. I'm just curious why Ebay just let's it happen, unabated.


But for me, I never complain about shipping costs. Whenever I'm looking at an auction, I find out what the shipping cost is, and the bid cost, and I add the two together to get the total cost. I'm only interested in the total cost.

If somebody is selling something for $19, with $1 shipping, then the total is $20.

If somebody is selling something for $1, with the shipping $19, then the total is $20.

To me, there isn't any difference whatsover. I'm only looking for the total price that I need to pay, and whether or not I feel that it's a good deal. How they divy up the "true" cost of the item between shipping and the bid price doesn't matter much at all to me.

However, I must admit that I also look to see if I have to pay tax, or if insurance is required or anything extra like that.

The bottom line is that I'm looking for the total price to get the damn thing to my mailbox. Once I know that real cost, then I make a decision based on what I think the item is really worth to me. How bad do I want it, can I be patient and get it for less, etc, etc.

[Vectorman0]

Unless it's something extreme, eBay doesn't do anything about the TOS violation. Why? Because so many sellers capitalize off of it and make an extra dollor or two on inflated shipping prices, there are just too many to punish. And if they did, it would harm them enough to not want to do it.

Sort of like going 35 MPH in a 25 zone. The cops could arrest you for it, but they would have to along with those ten people in front and behind you too.

[squirrelnut]

Ebay endorses that. Remember there cd's for a penny thing?