Item that looks low cost on ebay...isn't!

[flyinghuntster]

I was fliping through E-Bay this morning and was shocked when I saw, at first glance a pair of fins with a buy it now price of $0.99. I had to take a closer look and possibly pick up a pair for the kids to use while we are on vacation.
With a closer look at the post the SHIPPNIG costs are OUT of this world!!!! $29.99 to ship a pair of FINS???? What are they doing delivering the items in a limo? I would expect something like this from a personal E-Bayer, and I DON'T do business with those types, I would never expect this from Diver supply. I didn't bid on them. $30 for a pair of fins delivered isn't all that bad but just the idea of posting fins that cheap and claiming that you are going to spend almost $30 to ship and handle the things (Unless they hired Donald Trump to pack the boxes). I also understand that it is a marketing trick to catch your eye and it did but it still just doesn't seem honest.

HAS anyone else had an experiance like this?

 

[archman]

I've noticed this occasionally on eBay, mostly on smaller items. I paid $9 to get a rare CD mailed to me domestically once... fortunately I factored that in ahead of time.

Yeah, you have to always keep an eyeball on the shipping costs. It's also good to look at payment types the buyer accepts. I also always check the buyer history before making purchases.

 

[emtdan]

Thats how ebay auctions look so desireable. They are assuming that their clientel is stupid, which they are not most of the time. They make it look oh, so cheap, and then hit them with crazy s&h.
One other reason is ebay charges the seller based on the listing price and the final auction price, so the seller can give little over to ebay.

 

[Hoyden]

When shopping on ebay you need to carefully read the all of the information and ask questions if the the seller is not clear. There are many good buys to be had on ebay, but you need to be a smart shopper because there are many ripoffs as well.

Jackie

 

[kazinvan]

I have seen that a lot, it's a scam if you ask me. Some people don't read the shipping charges and buy the $0.99 or even $0.01 items then the bill comes to $30.

 

[jonnythan]

They do it not so much to scam people, but to scam eBay. eBay charges you based on the final selling price but NOT on shipping. So if you put 90% of the cost in shipping, you save bundles on Final Selling Value fees.

 

[Bob3]

Blatent abuse of the "shipping/handling prices" is against ebay's TOS, so if you're ticked enough, just rat 'em out & ebay will send them a nastygram and yank the ad.
Ebay just hiked some of their seller's fees by 100%, so you may be seeing more of this. I know I'm probably going to have to make some adjustments accordingly, one way or another.
Ebay's pretty much the only game in town, so they can screw with us pretty much any way they want.

 

[BigJetDriver]

Folks,

All of the above points are good. Unfortunately, I need to add this important note:

If you are caught by an E-Bay scam artist, the E-Bay folks will do nothing to help you. They SAY they will in their public statements and policies, but in practice, THEY LIE. THEY WILL NOT HELP YOU.

Sorry about that. Just a word of caution!

 

[jlayman800]

Yep, that's pretty much the truth. PayPal is about as much help. You have to be an expert on their rules or they find some reason not to help. Up until recently, if an item was paid for more than 30 days ago, they would tell you your out of luck. They have raised it to 45 days. That seems a bit more reasonable.

Funny story >>> I saw this cool box of O-Rings on EBay for $6.50. The shipping was only $1.00 so I bid on it. When they came, the box was about 1 inch by 2 inches and 1/2 inch thick. The next time I visited my dive store, he had the same box for $3.25.

 

[AmyJ]

Ya, the scam is to Ebay, usually not the buyer, but I always warn people to check shipping BEFORE bidding. I have seen items (obviously underpriced ) go for bids of $6.00 with 'shipping' in the three digits. (well, actually 5 digits.... $150.00).

Great deals to be had, but buyer beware always. I NEVER (after a hard earned lesson) bid from anyone with less than a 99% positive feedback. No guarentee (holy crap! how do you spell that word??? spell check has made me brain dead) but you get the point.