Hey y’all,
I won a few auctions from an ebay seller who charged $3.50 per item shipped, no matter how many items you win they don’t offer a cheaper combined shipping option. So my package arrived and it contained all the items shoved together in a little bubble wrapped mailer… I just thought this was not very fair. I guess it sounds silly to assume they would individually ship each item but then again that’s what I paid for right?
Thoughts?
-Matthew
Did you request combined shipping/request an invoice from the seller? I’ve had some people pay me full shipping prices after winning several auctions, not much the seller can do if you overpay. However usually when people win multiple auctions from me, even if they don’t ask for combined shipping, I up the shipping speed or something so that they get something for the overpayment.
If you did request combined shipping and they still didn’t do it that’s not very friendly. There is the materials cost of label paper, ink, bubble mailers, time to package and ship, but that still shouldn’t be too much of an additional cost. I don’t really see an excuse for not combining shipping except sellers trying to get the most $$ out of you.
Sounds like cardrushinc haha
Sellers can charge whatever they want for shipping and have no obligation to reduce the shipping costs if they combine. That being said, it’s totally within your right to provide them with feedback about your *negative* experience if you wish. Just keep in mind the seller will likely block you should you do this so if it’s a big seller you wish to buy from in the future, it might not be the best course of action.
They dont have to combine shipping at all, eBay doesnt require it. Most sellers are really nice about it and will.
Sometimes it’s not cheaper at all. I just sold two composition dolls on eBay(11 pounds but a HUGE over sized box) and it wasn’t cheaper to combine shipping. In my 12+ years of shipping that was the only time it was not cheaper to combine. The buyer got all mad, left negative feedback and complained that they couldnt get cheaper shipping. Even though I sent them screenshots of the calculated costs.
Called eBay and even they plugged in the numbers and saw the the postage cost was the same. They also told me that I was in no way obligated to combine shipping for a lower cost.
Ugh, this topic is so annoying. I think I’ll make a general thread. I’m going to title it “there is no such thing as a shipping charge.
I don’t think it’s unfair, if I ever have any shipping questions I’ll send the seller a message for clarification. There are a lot of sellers that won’t combine, and they’re under no obligation to either. If anyone bids expecting a seller to combine shipping without asking (or especially if a listing states they do not combine - I don’t understand how people can complain about this one after bidding) then it’s not the sellers fault, it’s on the buyer for making assumptions.
That said, the practice is a great way to get negative feedback because it obviously upsets people as we’ve had a lot of threads about this on here before. I feel like sellers that want to do this would probably save themselves a lot of negatives if they just started the auctions at say $3.50 rather than 99c and offer free shipping, that way the shipping charge is already factored into the sale. I think when buyers see free shipping they’re more inclined to bid a bit higher too especially for multiple things from the same seller.
If I was the seller, I’d definitely combine shipping, as that’s how I’d want to be treated. By purchasing multiple items, the buyer has saved me time and effort, and the least I can do is charge them the rightful amount. I’ll also refund buyers if they overpaid even without them asking. Honestly, this shouldn’t even be considered good service; it’s simply not being a douche.
That being said, it depends on the scenario. A seller might list dozens of low-value singles, each with an attached $3.50 cost, or they might integrate the shipping cost for higher-value items under the guise of free shipping. The seller could do the same integration for the cheap cards, but no one in their right mind will want to pay $5-6-ish a pop for a bunch of $1-2 cards. In the end, it all depends on the buyer’s value perception, but the least the seller can do is respond to messages and not take advantage of the person who did them a favor.
I appreciate everyones opinions. I wasn’t trying to ruffle anyones feathers but this is a forum so I thought the point was to gain experience by asking questions. I don’t plan at all to give negative feedback, I just thought I would bring up the topic to learn more about my specific situation.
Kind regards,
Matthew
I read this thread and I read the other thread also, and first I would like to say that you have full rights to ask these types of questions and not feel attacked at all. You are a valued member in this community and while some questions bring out more heated discussions, this actually brings out pretty interesting perspectives that are valuable to both sides of the discussion. I also did not think Gary’s message was directed to you (or in any way of being rude), but more to the overall posts about combined shipping (this happened like a few times these past few months), and he just had enough of it. You’ll get used to some of the members way of expressing themselves 
In regards to your question in particular, I agree that it is not fair and it would be fine for you to leave a negative feedback. Perhaps the way you worded the question may have misdirected the overall opinion in this thread and maybe I am wrong, but I think you are more unhappy by the fact that you paid for shipping and got less than stellar shipping service experience. My best guess is that the seller essentially jammed all the cards in an undersized envelope that significantly increased the odds of the cards being damaged for the sake of increasing their own margins, which frankly, is unacceptable. I think the combined shipping is the indirect consequence to this because at least if they combined the shipping, you felt like they did what they have to do to save on the shipping. However, this way, you essentially paid more shipping to increase your chances of the cards arriving damaged which frankly is BS.
If the package came in a neat box well packaged with visible care in regards to protection, would you have complained about the shipping? If not, then ultimately the problem lies in the seller’s poor shipping packaging and that deserves a negative feedback.