Expresspost shipping on Ebay sales

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Craig2

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I've noticed several Canadian sellers lately who offer only tracked/registered shipping on all items, regardless of the value. While I understand protecting yourself on purchases about a certain amount, I have seen a number of items selling in the ~$10 range that then require more in shipping than the buyer is paying for the item.

I'm all for seller protection, but at some point does this not hurt your sales especially on lower-end items? I always factor the price of shipping into bids, and it seems that many of these would become prohibitive. Am I missing something?
 
I'm inclined to agree with you. If I want to buy a card that I would expect to pay $10 for, if I found it at a show.... then $7.50 CND + $2.50 CND s/h is the same thing.

If it's costing me $5 CND, plus $10 for s/h, that's a 50% markup (overall) and I'm not going to do it.

Without delivery confirmation though, there's no way to make sure you're covered, in the event of someone filing a claim. You can't charge $7.50 for a card, $2.50 to ship.... lose fees to eBay & paypal... and then spend $10 on shipping.

I've never had a problem with chargebacks, but if you sell on eBay and it's been an issue for you... and you want to be covered.. it's the only thing you can do.
 
Unfortunately, fraudulent chargebacks are an issue on Ebay. I get them about 1/100 times, but they are a huge annoyance. I chock it up to a cost of business, as I wouldn't be able to sell any lower end cards with $10/card shipping. I can definitely see why some seller would get annoyed though and require the signed pickup. Even that doesn't protect you 100%, as a buyer can claim the envelope they received was empty or damaged.

Unfortunately, this hobby is full of scammers and liars. Also, people who expect some kind of special service. I had one buyer buy a card on Christmas Eve. I posted it 2 days later. He sent me messages everyday demanding the card or a refund, despite me explaining to him that I do not control the postage system and they are going to be very busy around the holidays.

It's a very frustrating hobby to be in sometimes. I accept that I will get scammed every now and then. However, I feel for the kids who are getting scammed out of what is likely a large amount of money for them.
 
I've had the opposite experience. All of the singles I buy on eBay from Canada that get sent to Nashville come without tracking and take 1-2 weeks to arrive. If I were a dirt bag I could just file charge backs all day.

This is why I don't offer "free shipping" while building the shipping cost into the price of the item. The item is X + $9.50 shipping to Canada, which provides tracking for both ends. Can I potentially lose out on Canadian buyers? Sure but I protect both of our interests. And of course I have singles available that sell for less than $9.50 and if that is the case i'll just suggest to the buyer to checkout my other auctions for something they may like.
 
I have only been selling bigger items but I have been eating some of the shipping. Cost me $27 to ship a $350 card that I offered free shipping on. Free shipping help sell cards. I figure it’s worth losing a little of the profit to have a quick and safe sale.

As a buyer the first thing I look for on most items is shipping at $3 or less.
 
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My policy as an eBay seller is anything over $50CDN requires tracking without exception. In over 1600 sales so far, only one person complained about my policy but after showing them the full cost of shipping via the receipt, they accepted that I was an honest guy not trying to make money on shipping.
 
I haven't had much of an issue with Canadians. It is Americans that think a card is getting to them in 3 days from Canada, cuz that's the standard from a US seller to a US buyer. I try to explain the many reasons why it takes longer but they don't care. They file the claim and get their money back, and then get the card for free. I have been thinking about only offering tracked shipping to USA but it will hurt sales of lower value cards. I guess I have to see how much I'm losing from claims and figure it out. I must say though, hockey collectors are not an issue, its the football, baseball and basketball collectors in the states that give me the most grief.
 
I’m not defending Americans expecting delivery within a couple days but it’s nearly impossible to send a bubbler in the states without tracking. A seller would have to use stamps or waste their time going to the post office. If I’m a new buyer on eBay and I make a purchase from Canada i’m just seeing “item shipped” for two weeks without any tracking.

I had an US ebay member recently who managed to send me a card wrapped in cardboard with a $1 stamp. It was fine since it was a 99 cent purchase but he would have got my money if he charged $3 for shipping that actually included a toploader and bubble mailer.
 
cardboardnostalgia said:
I’m not defending Americans expecting delivery within a couple days but it’s nearly impossible to send a bubbler in the states without tracking. A seller would have to use stamps or waste their time going to the post office. If I’m a new buyer on eBay and I make a purchase from Canada i’m just seeing “item shipped” for two weeks without any tracking.

I had an US ebay member recently who managed to send me a card wrapped in cardboard with a $1 stamp. It was fine since it was a 99 cent purchase but he would have got my money if he charged $3 for shipping that actually included a toploader and bubble mailer.
Click to expand...

I understand the problem, I just wish some Ebay buyers would listen when I explain the situation. A lot do understand when I tell them I’m sending from Canada, but others don’t care. It’s frustrating. I have 14,500 feedback, I’m not trying to scam anyone. I guess it doesn’t matter though, Ebay side with them regardless.
 
Because Ebay doesn't offer any protection to sellers, the sellers now have to go to the extreme to protect themselves from all the charge backs from happening.
You get liars and cheats and people who steal to keep their money, compared to others who are trying to make money.
Even on breaks now, you buy a spot on Ebay or anywhere else and if you don't hit, you file.
It's a shame on the hobby that we have people like this now
 
Justcards said:
Because Ebay doesn't offer any protection to sellers, the sellers now have to go to the extreme to protect themselves from all the charge backs from happening.
You get liars and cheats and people who steal to keep their money, compared to others who are trying to make money.
Even on breaks now, you buy a spot on Ebay or anywhere else and if you don't hit, you file.
It's a shame on the hobby that we have people like this now
Click to expand...

Didn't know people did that, but that's brutal. It all is.
 
For Calgary sellers, use dyk post to ship your items to the US. For bubble mailers it costs $1 CDN to dyk post and $2.67 usd if you create the USPS label from eBay. You will need an US address posted on eBay (I use my comc address) and you need to generate it from eBay.com

It’s great. I rather sell to US customers only. Never had any issues with US buyers. Same can’t be said of Canadian buyers. I can even go over the 2 cm thickness limit.

The only issue is if you don’t have enough volume you need to go to their store located by Marlborough mall. If you have enough they will pickup the packages for free or nominal cost.
 
For me it isn't even about losing a few dollars here and there.
It's protecting your reputation as a seller!

I ended up with a negative feedback over a $0.99 card with a whopping $1.00 shipping charge.
(Claimed he never received it.)
The buyer had obviously had his mind set on leaving negative feedback.
After looking at his profile noticed he had done this to others as well.

Ebay refuses to recognize a pattern
So there really is no other way to protect yourself other than tracked shipping.

So it is difficult to sell low-end cards with low-end shipping.

It is sad but this is where we are at now.
 
for lower end cards I just go comc...

COMC might become the future of buying/selling in the hobby (but its a ways off). It seems like having a trusted third party (COMC) eliminates a lot of the BS
 

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