International Postage

[Shavely Manden]

Just to rehash the obvious. Many sellers use inflated postage just as an attempt to make more profit from the unwary.

I just add the postage price in my mind when bidding on anything. When I see a ridiculous postage rate I just move on.

That's the problem, even for the sellers -- they might end up with less profit owing to the ridiculous shipping charge (since buyers who might've bid up a razor won't bid). Basically, we need to let the sellers know that they're missing out on money by listing ridiculous shipping.

but i don't need Handling that is priced at white-glove service, when neither white glove is wanted nor received.

The best example of eBay "handling" was when I bought my IBM Model F keyboard (the heavier, clickier predecessor to the famous Model M). It's a pretty rare KB (on clickykeyboard.com they tend to go for a couple hundred, at least), but they're pretty obscure, too, and this one wasn't labeled that well, so I got it for $25 + s/h. I guess the guy wasn't thrilled with the price, since I got a keyboard box weighing about 7 1/2 lb. later that week (the keyboard itself weighs about 7lb). Opening the box, I discovered that the packing materials consisted entirely of one small, broken piece of styrofoam on top of the keys--he might as well have put a stamp on the back of the keyboard and chucked it in the mail, for all the protection that gave!

Fortunately, the thing is built like a tank, and survived its shipping ordeal.

 

[Go West Young Man]

Don't forget that domestic shipping is as easy as clicking a link that bills you for postage and prints a mailing label, then USPS comes to your door to pick it up. International shipping involves schlepping to a post office at lunch, wasting an hour in line, and having to fill out a bunch of forms by hand.

If I were an eBay seller, I'd charge for my time too.

 

[garyg]

Don't forget that domestic shipping is as easy as clicking a link that bills you for postage and prints a mailing label, then USPS comes to your door to pick it up. International shipping involves schlepping to a post office at lunch, wasting an hour in line, and having to fill out a bunch of forms by hand.

If I were an eBay seller, I'd charge for my time too.

+1 - While I have shipped razors to members on at least 4 continents, there is a difference beyond just the amount of postage. CONUS I print a label & put it in my mailbox. Offshore I will need to label the package and fill out a customs form, then drive 5 miles round trip to the PO, where a good day line wise is 20 minutes, an average round-trip is usually more like an hour.

I have never refused to send to anyone here, and only charge for the extra postage cost (which I have to estimate, can't really tell until it is weighed in officially). I haven't sold on EBay for a while, but there I just won't ship internationally due to the hassle.

 

[ferroburak]

Is he trying to ship it via USPS Priority Registered? If so that should be the correct quota.

If sent via USPS First Class Mail it should cost less than 5 usd in an envelope.