e-bay shipping & handling question

eBay used to not charge a percentage of their final auction fee on shipping. In other words, if I sold an item for $20 and charged $5 shipping, the final auction fee I paid was based on just the $20. But many sellers would over charge for shipping and under charge for the price to cheat eBay out of some of their fee. To the buyer, you'd pay $25 regardless, but to the seller, you'd pay a percentage of the $5 and not the $20.

To circumvent that eBay began charging a final auction fee based on the entire purchase price plus shipping.

And shipping has gotten more expensive. When I began eBay in 1997, USPS priority mail was only $3, "if it fits, it ships" if you used their box, you could get a standard armor model kit in it and mailed for $3. Today, that same sized box is $11 and change. Shipping stuff to Canada has gotten way more expensive as of late. Even I am hesitant to trade with fellow modelers in Canada.

I used to swap kits frequently with guys looking for something I had. for about $5, I could ship a kit I didn't want and get one I did want. Now, after shipping, it's $15-20 to trade a kit. At that price, I could buy the kit and keep my kit for marginally more.

A couple of days ago, I mailed out an eBay item (garage door opener remotes from my old opener). I used the small sized box that was originally designed to hold a VHS tape. It cost $5.65 to mail it from Kentucky to Texas.

Ebay has gotten abusive with their fees. They also require you as a seller to have Paypal which they also own so it's a double whammy, putting more money in their pocket and less in yours. Granted, Paypal is convenient but their fees are ridiculous.

As Rob explained, Ebay got smart with the cheaters and now all get punished for the act of a few. I told the Ebay customer service rep. to go after the ones charging excessive shipping charges and not the ones charging regular rates.

I only get vintage kits off ebay.  Anything in production I get at the LHS and much has to due with the shipping and fees.  Of course some people offer free shipping and you can score a deal every once in a while.

Its simple addition for me.If the kit price+shipping doesn't make sense,then I don't buy it.Otherwise,I still can find decent deals on Ebay

I find now that I am only buying kits off Chinese Ebay vendors who deal in Academy, Hasegawa etc. who, for some reason I don`t understand, sell with FREE shipping. I don't know how they do it and make money, but, I certainly save. I wonder if it`s because they can buy the kits for super cheap wholesale, vice, the LHS in N.America having to pay to get the stuff sent from where it was produced?

Hi :

      The question here is this .Do you even know why E-Bay did what they did ? Every Auction I have been to Always has a Sellers and Buyers surcharge per item sold , which is a percentage point they feel is fair .As far as PayPal , if my credit card isn't good enough they can " Go Fish !!! "

   I have bought from there , but only after scouring a lot of other places only to be told by the seller , " Well , that kit is incomplete so I am not selling it " . Months later I find they sold it at way less then I offered . Go Figure ! Sometimes I want only ,say , the hull from the " Hawaiian Pilot " or the " S.S.United States " For a conversion job .I don't want the whole kit !

     Anyway , Prices notwithstanding , I have gotten some neat stuff of the "Bay " and I will deal with the lemons to get my lemonade !

The only reason why I sold the garage door openers is because eBay mailed me a coupon to "list and sell an item by June 19th and receive a $10 coupon when it sells." They also sent me a coupon for $25 but the item had to be a video game by June 20th. So I chucked an old video game up that sold for $8.

So for listing a couple of worthless items (to me) I got $35 worth of eBay credit. Plus I made $23.50 for the openers (before the $5.65 postage) and $8 (before the $2 postage) or about $20 total after shipping and final auction fees. eBay even makes it easy to pay for postage online through PayPal, deducting the amount straight from the money you just received from the buyer.

I just listed the other two openers and the keyless entry pad for the old opener. They've made it much easier to sell for the average Joe.

Rob Sherman

I find now that I am only buying kits off Chinese Ebay vendors who deal in Academy, Hasegawa etc. who, for some reason I don`t understand, sell with FREE shipping. I don't know how they do it and make money, but, I certainly save. I wonder if it`s because they can buy the kits for super cheap wholesale, vice, the LHS in N.America having to pay to get the stuff sent from where it was produced?

This sounds interesting. How do you find them?

Just look for the new, latest armor kits, generally speaking you can get them from China for less (including shipping and handling) than you local store or even US based online sellers.