eBay Shipping Shell Game

Have you ever watched a skillful shell game?  A stone is put under the shell and then moved around while you do your best to follow it.  You point to the shell which you think has the stone and more often than not you are wrong.  The buyer who gets a deal – like a computer printer for $5.00 and then learns that the shipping is $42 – feels like they have been conned.

A common eBay buyer complaint is sellers charging excessive shipping fees, or not making the shipping fees clear at the beginning process – in the latter case, the winning bidder may find himself being faced with a shipping charge that’s out of line based on the item being sold and the shipping method offered.

A seller needs to do their homework prior to listing an item in order to determine  the rates of the various shipping services and the pertinent dimensions of the packaged item (length, width, height and weight), and how much the packing materials cost.  eBay sellers can charge fair fees and put these fees directly in the listing to help the buyer avoid any nasty surprises.

Research also protects the eBay seller from being surprised by mailing costs that drain the profit from the sale.  It is supposed to be fair for both the buyer and the seller!

Final note!  Remember to get Insurance!!  If it would be painful to refund your buyers payment, you need to protect yourself with insurance.  It does happen that items are damaged upon receipt or never arrive.  Insurance will take care of the unfortunate situation where an eBay auction tem that went into its shipping container in one piece arrives at its destination in two or more pieces… or never arrives at all.  And by providing the buyer with the shipper’s tracking number, you’ve put the onus for dealing with the problem mainly in the shipper’s lap.

But the buyer is very likely going to come to you first.  Be prepared to prove you did, in fact, ship the item—tracking numbers are the best way to do this—and, in the case of a damaged item, that it was as described and pictured in your listing when it left your hands.  Those photos of the item in its unsealed shipping container that I mentioned earlier?  This is one of the reasons I suggested that practice.  A little extra attention to detail can save stress in the long run.

The moral of this story is…plan ahead, be fair, get insurance, and pay attention to the details.  As an eBay seller you can rest easy.  As an eBay buyer you feel protected.