The six golden rules of ebay discussion area

cid_2

As the previous poster has said (thunder! stolen!) one of the dodgiest things about eBay is the frankly remarkable postage costs that some people charge, and these things are only going to spiral.

If you win an auction for a single CD, you can now regularly expect to pay an extra £2.00 on top of the winning bid, which to post a single CD - not recorded post I should add, just a jiffy bag and stamps - is taking the Michael a bit. I know it might seem tight-fisted to quibble about 50p or a quid on top of the genuine cost to the seller, but when you buy as many CDs as I do these things add up.

I've got two tips for people, which might come in handy. First is obviously to check the postage cost before you bid, but to help you do this, set up your eBay preferences to include the postage cost alongside the price of the listings when you do a search. This is done through the 'Customise display' link at above your search results on the right-hand side. Her indoors has been using eBay for a couple of years now but didn't know about this until I told her last week.

Second, it never hurts to email the seller, if you've ben hit by an unexpected and unreasonably high postage amount, to ask them, in your most innocent voice, if they wouldn't mind sending the item non-recorded ("there's no-one at my house to sign for it during the day, and the sorting depot is miles away from where I live"), and asking for the updated price "if this is ok". If they were not sending it recorded anyway they occasionally drop the price a bit (guilt, perhaps?), and if they were they'll often rid you of the extra 70-odd pence charge. I'd say this works for me about 50% of the time I try it, though obviously if the postage is reasonable I'll happily pay it without moaning.

Hope that helps somebody anyway, particularly the customisation of the display. Seeing the postage cost listed in the search results to the right-hand side of the current bid price has definitely saved me a few bob over the past few months as I've learned to combine the two immediately for the true cost of the item.

buono

I agree totally about the amazing postage/packing prices some people charge.

I was charged £9.99 p&p by a seller in the UK. The package arrived with postage of about £2.40.

I always add neutral feedback and state that the price for p&p is way over the odds.

Another facor of which to be aware is that some sellers claim to be UK-based but the item is despatched from Hong Kong.

I have also noticed several new sellers from China. I was looking for a decent mp3 player that records in decent quality for podcasting and noticed a couple of sellers with zero feedback ratings selling goods to the value of about £200 from China. the goods are often slightly under what you would expect to pay for the item. To be fair, most people do seem to steer clear as the items all had zero bids.

timmo44

People often think that because it's an auction they are getting stuff cheap. I have been at real bankrupt stock auctions before and seen punters bidding up stuff to double/treble what they could buy it for in Argos - they just assumed it was a bargain (because of all the myths you hear about buying cars/electronics/PCs etc. for pennies at these auctions.)

It's always worth checking to see if it's cheaper elsewhere - it often is. A great new tool from Google is https://www.froogle.co.uk which brings up prices of items that you search for.

The other big point worth mentioning is the postage costs. So often I see (relatively small) items going on ebay for what seems a good price only to see they want £20+ for P&P! This is also a sort of scam, hoping you won't notice the P&P until after you've bid - especially common on 'buy it now' items where you are actually committing to purchase rather than bidding.

If you were to buy the same item from an online retailer you'll probably only pay £7-9 delivery if not get it delivered free (see https://www.wysiwyp.com which lists sites who offer free delivery.) which could well bring the total price below the ebay one.

darbooka

MSE_Martin wrote:

This isn't a "six golden rules of not using eBay" but an article about how to use it while protecting your pocket from overpaying, and protecting yourself from scams. It's the same approach as all things MoneySaving.]

That's a useful clarification. So then in such a spirit of how to use eBay while protecting your pocket from overpaying, and in regard to an approach of all things MoneySaving, the following corollary can also be deduced:

When considering the purchase of an item you've noticed on a shopping comparison website or one being offered by a retailer, before making a purchase don't forget to check for the item on eBay to see whether it's being offered there at a more attractive value!

suwyn

Hi
I have been a seller on Ebay for 4 years, I occasionaly buy as well.
The thing that has always bugged me is how some sellers bump up the postage to incredible amounts, safe gaurding against not reaching a high sale value.
Please check before you bid, you should be able to work out within reason, how heavy an item is, or better still ask the seller how much it weighs, then check with royalmail.com, for how much the postage should be.
Hope this is useful to members
Sue

MSE_Martin

couldn't agree more darbooka. However there's a lot more people using ebay and not checking comparison sites than using comparison sites and not checking eBay!

potbelly

As an ebay enthusiast, both buyer and seller, I agree wholheartedly with Martin's and other 'moneysaver's' comments about eBay, and all the warnings. However, I would disagree with his recommendation to use the 'shopbots' for checking prices. I have ALWAYS beaten their prices by doing my own search, usually Google and more recently Froogle. These 'shopbots' obviously only search a very limited number of sellers and the prices are all pretty much the same. They are also guilty of one of the biggest complaints about eBay sellers - they often don't include the delivery charges and some don't show a VAT inclusive price, until you get to the end of the 'checkout'.
Just goes to show, the old adage of 'buyer beware' still holds true.
But it's also great to have someone like Martin to offer advice!!!

darbooka

potbelly wrote:

... the old adage of 'buyer beware' still holds true.

Yes, or caveat emptor as they say in the legal trade. :beer:

darbooka

Regarding some of the rants concerning postage, of course there's a limit to what can be considered reasonable; however, as long as the postage price and means of delivery is clearly specified up front there's no real basis for any bidder to be infuriated. After all, the bidder can choose not to bid if he/she deems it too high. However, do not forget that eBay clearly terms the P&P as postage and packing. Sellers are not merely providing stamps for carriage on the bidder's behalf. It can't realistically be ignored that a seller would have expended time, effort and money to obtain, stock and use packing materials - not to mention the time to prepare your item for transport and then to travel and carry your item to the post office or coordinate dispatch by courier. And all this while the bidder ostensibly has benefited from not having to endure the time, effort and hassle of traveling down the shoppes, clamoring for parking, waiting at a till and lugging an item home. So eBay sellers shouldn't be expected to necessarily do ALL the dirty work for a bidder without some premium for their efforts. As long as the seller declares accurately what the P&P charge will be, the potential bidders can decide for themselves if it's worth it to them or not. If the bidder didn't bother to look at the P&P amount stated on the listing, and/or didn't bother to query the Seller, it's nobody's fault but their own.

freddyfeet

Re: Postage -- Sometimes the seller gets stung too! My work colleague sold some books for £7.00 on ebay. The winning bidder lived in Canada and enquired about postage cost. Because the parcel was too heavy for the post office it had to go Parcelforce International at a staggering cost of £125.00. The buyer paid by paypal which resulted in a large fee (they take commission on the total amount including postage).

Then (this is the REALLY funny bit) he contacted Parclelforce and they said that the parcel was too heavy to collect from our premises or a post office. He had to take the parcel to the nearest depot which resulted in a 90 mile round trip!

He reckons he will be an ebay millionaire this time next year!