I know the price of stamps keeps going up year after year. And letters don't weigh anything near a item that costs a good amount. And depending on the weight and size it can be cheaper to send USPS vs UPS or FedEx. That to me is where the homework comes in. You have to be familiar with each of their services to know which one will give you a better price for what it is your shipping. Now on my eBay. Shipping. She could have just refunded me the money and just relisted it with a more realulistic shipping price. But she didn't and had to end up taking what she made from me and then take $25 out of her own pocket just to send the speakers. If it was me in her situation I would have refunded the money n did the relist with a more accurate shipping price. But it all worked out for me. And I was surprised that she wasn't bitter enough to stab the speakers. Especially the subs cuz there ported so the only was to see if with a flash light other than listening to them to see if the bass hits correctly without the backfire sound of air.
I also had a item on eBay a month ago or so. I could not get the free shipping to work when I set up my auction. It kept saying I need to select a carrier, so I picked USPS and it automatically gave me a price. I wanted to do free shipping but it wouldn't let me. It's alright cuz I my items didn't sell. You live n you learn.
There is way to specify free shipping... and eBay encourages its use. So you'd think it would be easy to do this but... the procedure for how to do this keeps changing! For a while eBay had these inane "shipping policies" that had to be set up. It appears that they were quietly discontinued. It's almost completely useless to describe how to add free shipping "today" because it could change "tomorrow"... Totally agree that it's important to do homework. I actually set up groups of items based on how I could ship them. For N Scale this is not a big deal, but in HO Scale for example, it's very easy to go over the 13 ounce threshold for First Class Mail. Once that happens the fun starts: zoned shipments unless "it fits it ships" in THEIR box which isn't very useful (and I could swear keeps getting smaller...). I've had some success using the Priority Mail flat rate padded envelope-- nowhere does it say that you can't put a boxed item in it!
When I sold on FeePay, I made sure that I gave accurate and complete descriptions of items. If there were any flaws, I made sure that I stated them once. In addition, close to the end of the description, I reminded the buyer that he was buying flawed and/or non functional merchandise. I would at least use the CAPSLOCK in the reminder, if not italics or something to make the warning stand out. Still, I was amazed at the e-Mails that I would get asking what was the flaw. I would always answer the question, and add a courteous reminder that I had stated it in the description, but if the potential buyer still had any questions after he re-read the description, please ask them, as I would prefer that the buyer consider himself fully informed before he committed himself. I always did list an item for the minimum that I would accept. If I could not get at least that, I could keep it. I never intended to make a living doing FeePay. I merely used it to sell off items for which I no longer had a use. I was always amazed at the prices that defective items fetched. None of the defective items that I listed were unusual or rare. There was a bullet nosed C-C Hudson, in the 1938 scheme that ran absolutely horribly in forward and pretty bad in reverse. It fetched more money than I paid for it new. When I bought it new, it ran acceptably. I stated twice what the defects were in the locomotive, and added at the end: BE AWARE, YOU ARE BIDDING ON DEFECTIVE GOODS. THIS THING DOES NOT RUN PROPERLY AND IN ITS CURRENT CONDITION IS UNFIT TO PULL A TRAIN. Not only was I amazed at the price that it fetched, but also I was amazed at the gushingly positive comments that I received from the feedback. I never made much selling freight cars. There are simply too many of them out there. Passenger cars are a different story. There ain't that many of them out there. You can make money selling them individually or in sets. There are some who want only certain types of cars. Either they want a baggage or two and several coaches, or they want a stray diner, sleeper or observation. The former do not like sets, because they contain car types that they do not want. The latter do not like sets because they only want a car or two. Then there are those who are just getting into the hobby who want sets because they provide a ready-made passenger train. I stated my shipping prices up front. I also stated that the price included handling, packing, insurance and Priority Mail. Yes, the price was high because I built into it some recovery of fees. I did state that local pick up waived the shipping charges. I did get some takers on that, which meant that I ate the fees. I did get some nasty e-Mails regarding my shipping. They got a courteous response that the fees are stated up front, before you bid. I reminded the sender that we have a capitalist economic system in the United States. In a capitalistic system, the cost of doing business is passed on to the customer. If the sender did not like the price, no one was compelling him to bid. If the tone of the letter was hostile or the sender sounded like he was going to bid and not pay the shipping, or pay what he wanted to pay, he got a BLOCK. Some did quarrel with paying insurance. They got the same reminder about how a capitalist economic system worked. Insurance is a cost of doing business; it gets passed on to the consumer. I stopped using FeePay for two reasons: 1. The fees for them and PayUpPal are ridicky-poo. 2. The sellers can no longer warn the others of bad buyers except maybe in the case of non-paying bidders. If ever I decided to make an income selling trains, either full or part time, I suppose that I would have to use FeePay. At that point, it would become imperative to keep detailed records for the Internal Revenue man. At that point, though, the FeePay and PayUpPal fees would become tax deductions. As a buyer, I am looking for a bargain. Looking for a bargain is NOT the same as looking for something for free or next-to-nothing. I do not expect to buy a new in box, test run only or even lightly used Athearn 2-6-0 for ten dollars and no shipping. I am , however, unwilling to pay more than sixty five dollars for it, including shipping. If I have to pay more than that, it defeats the purpose of going to FeePay. If I want one so badly that I must pay more, I will go to a discount e-Tailer and pay his price for a new in box and get a warranty with it.
Hey guys, I have not read through the whole thread but wanted to see what you think of my formula. I had 2 people bring me their collections as an "it's you or the garbage" option. Between the 2 there were over 200 MT cars and an assortment of non DCC locos. For the MT cars I used the Armstrong listing for original price, not the latest auction price. I took the list price down to street (approx. 20%) and then valued the car at 50% of street. It worked well till I got into the "I don't need that car" options. It worked well, most of the product sold, what was left went to a pawn shop who offered almost what I expected. I think about this when my kids have to decide what to do with my over 150 DCC locos and some 1500 cars. Does the formula seem OK? Bob.
