eBay gets an earful from sellers

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Don't Blame Sellers For High Shipping Costs

I was a power seller at one time. It is a huge competition out there for people's eyes. The more people you have looking at your items, the more likely they are to buy. How do you get people to look at your item? Lower the first price they see.

Sellers know the cost of their item. They also know the general cost to ship it. Any item under a pound can be shipped anywhere in the US for under $5.

Let's take that $0.99 item. Very likely, that item actually costs more than $0.99. Let's say it costs $3. With shipping, the item total is $8. You want some money to make it worth your time, so you charge $10.

Now, say you put it on Ebay for $4.99 + $5 shipping. You get decent sales for a while, then a competitor puts the EXACT SAME item up for sale for $0.99 + $9 shipping. The cost of boths items are EXACTLY the same, but the competitor's looks cheaper. You want to know what happens? I've seen this plenty of times. Your sales dry up and they go to your competitor.

So, what? Do you stop selling your item? No. You set up your cost structure to match your competitor's.

Who's fault is this? It certainly isn't yours. And you can't blame your competitor for attempting to compete. And I wouldn't blame buyers for wanting low prices. The problem as I see it is from the way Ebay is set up. You can't see the total price from the main search page. You have to go into each item listing to find that info. And of course, buyers start their looking with the $0.99 item, although those are obviously under the actual cost of buying the item wholesale.

Posted by: Vicissidude   Posted on: 06/27/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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