A Fair Price For Combined Shipping?

[Damaramu]

Quick question for you guys:

Just won several different auctions from a guy in Japan. He is combining shipping for me, but....it's not much of a discount.

Adding up all the shipping costs for each auctions comes out to around $35. He's knocked it down to $24. Now, keep in mind this won't be EMS, just Airmail. On top of that, it's 8 CD's, 3 of which come in a slightly larger cardboard box. I'm assuming he'll be shipping them in a small box.

So again, is $24 too much for 8 cd's via Airmail from Japan? Should I ask for a lower price?

[jajaja]

If the original shipping cost is $35 and he knocked it down to $24, thats a pretty good discount i'd say. The CDs probly weigh around 1kg. Sending upto 1kg cost about $17. If its over 1kg it will cost like $28. These are the postage prices, then its the packing fees, thats $2-3 so you're upto $20 then. Maybe he add insurance too, thats a few dollars also.

[alec]

Sadly combined shipping from ebay sellers always comes out to more than the actual shipping cost. I have been doing some ebay buying lately and have found this to be the case in most circumstances.

[Damaramu]

Personally, I never charge people extra for shipping supplies. Boxes and newspaper are readily available for FREE if you know where to look....and that's not really hard at all.

[Kevincal]

I have found selling stuff on eBay is not an easy task...First you have to research the product you are selling to get an idea of how much to list it for. Then you have to take pictures/scan whatever you are selling and makes auctions. It's quite time consuming...Then you have to figure out how much to charge for shipping. I'm sure a lot of people that sell on eBay are like me and don't have a small scale to calculate something like a Genesis game. Then after the auctions are done you have to box everything up nicely and write the shipping address or use a label. Then you have to drive to the post office or where ever and wait in line quite awhile sometimes...

So, what I'm getting at is...I think it's perfectly fair for sellers to charge "a bit" more than actual shipping costs to cover the other costs. Oh, and I forgot to mention about all of the eBay and Paypal fees. Then you have people who win your auctions and sometimes wait darn near a week to pay you! Then if you accept Money Orders those can take forever. So really the seller has to deal with quite a bit.

[jajaja]

Personally, I never charge people extra for shipping supplies. Boxes and newspaper are readily available for FREE if you know where to look....and that's not really hard at all.

Depends on where you live and what you are going to send. I can go to the grocery store and get big boxes for free, but if i need a small one i have no idea where to look. It also takes time (and it cost money if you drive) to get them.

Then you have to use tape to seal the box. I never use newspaper to ship small things, i always use bubblewrap. Folded newspaper does protect as good as bubblewrap, had the experience with GBA boxes i've recieved Since its a small package its not always easy to crumble the newspaper and fit it. At last, you have to go to the post office and send the stuff.

Its totaly induvidual for each person. Not everyone have easy access to free boxes and packing material. I live like a mile away from the post office and i many times i drive back and forth just to send 1 package. Things like that cost a bit :\

[Griking]

There's really no correct answer to your question. One person can compile a list of all of the supplies, expenses and time that's put into selling things on eBay and why it's only fair to pass those expenses onto the buyer. Another can say to suck it up because that's all part of doing business and should be factored into the asking price and not the shipping and handling fee.

Personally I think that $24 shipping for multiple games shipped from Japan is probably fair. The seller is probably charging a few bucks more than his actual cost but I think that a few dollars is fair.

Ultimately it comes down to what you think is a fair surcharge for a person's time and expenses.

[DreamTR]

Personally, I never charge people extra for shipping supplies. Boxes and newspaper are readily available for FREE if you know where to look....and that's not really hard at all.

Yeah, we really feel like dumpster diving and not pad protecting things to save some money instead of convenience when we work full-time! Yay!

[rcgamer]

Today is exactly why people on Ebay charge so much for shipping. I decided to charge only 3.50 shipping for dreamcast games and I started my bidding at 99 cents on each game. I figure with lower shipping and low start price I would get lots of bids then could give multiple game winners combined shipping , .......oh no. I had 5 or 6 people watching the items for 7 days without bidding . Ended up selling 6 games so far for 99 cents. Then this douchebag who just won one of the games for 99 cents sends me a message asking if he wins this other game that is still at 99 cents could I combine shipping. Hell, it was probably one of the guys on here griping about how high shipping is. I just straight up told him that there was no in hell I was combining shipping for games he won for 99 cents.

See if the seller doesn't boost up his shipping prices the buyer just tries to screw him over.

After today I am officially on the high shipping bandwagon. And never again will I start bidding on my games for 99 cents. It's like you guys think sellers are just trying to be good guys and give you almost free games otherwise.