£5.30 postage...surely that's not right???

[elle23]

I bid on (and won) two items from the same seller. One was a top for a 2 year old and the other was a pair of jeans for an 18-24mth old...The invoice I received stated that items would be sent together, but postage seems extortionate to me, am I being a cheapskate??
Another auction I won was a bundle of clothes (7 items) and postage for that was only £4!!

Is it wrong for me to expect the seller to combine postage? Or is it really ok for seller to just add the two postage costs together, even though items will be sent together??

Leonie- undercharging on postage is not being fair or honest- it's doing yourself out of money that should be yours.

Take a look at what others charge and you will quickly see that the actual postage cost- and even a brand new Jiffy bag at £1 - is often greatly exceeded by most P&P.

I have bought many items wher the postage was say £2.50, yet the actual cost when the item arrived was much, much less. You have to take into account your time, your packaging costs, as well as the cost of mailing. And whether you agree or not,most people do include a small amount to cover Ebay fees.

The postage charges are quite clear from the beginning and I don't bid if I think they are too much. People often email me in advance and ask if I will combine-you can't take it for granted.

Ive never heard of people adding fees either Ive been selling for a few years and wouldnt dream of it. I also dont take into consideration time & travel costs- just postage and packing. Why should I charge someone for 5 mins of my time packing an item? In all honesty why would it take you longer than that for an item? And why charge someone for me taking it to the posy office whne in hindsight im going to town/shops for my own/other reasons too.
IMO I think its wrong to charge for such silly reasons and thats why people are not generally spending as much on ebay lately as they are being scared away by stupidly high prices. I know people dont have to bid on items if they dont like the prices but they still do for many reasons and I dont see why sellers take advantage of that.

I agree with Leonie and Mel. I occasionally undercharge because I don't want to overcharge. Overcharging fucks me right off, and I think people are willing to bid higher if the postage is fair (I certainly am).

I do sometimes wonder where people get off charging such high amounts to post incredibly light childrens clothes. The SELLER has made the decision to sell the item rather than give it away, and so shouldn't factor in the time it takes or the cost of travel to post it. You wouldn't donate stuff to a charity shop and demand they give you petrol money for taking it there, so why should a buyer, who is already spending money, have to pay extra to have it sent to them?

agree with expat.

Dita I agree with If P&P is high I personally dont bother even looking at the item.

Tidey Exactly!! surely sellers should realise if they are selling an item its in their best interest to encourage buyers to take notice of their items not scare them away.

I cant think of any reason why a seller can not combine postage for multiple items!

I can think of at least two scenarios where I might not want to combine postage:

I recently sold two items to the same bidder. After the end of the auctions she emailed me to ask if I could combine postage. I explained that I couldn't as the combined value of the items would be in excess of the amount insured by recorded delivery and I was not prepared to risk being uninsured if the parcel got lost - she was paying by paypal so the risk was mine rather than hers.

It actually took me quite a while to work out how to send two separate invoices in that case as ebay was routing me down sending a combined invoice and it's not particularly intuitive to change this.

Second scenario - I often pack up things that I am auctioning before the end of the auction. I like my auctions to end on a Sunday night and if people pay immediately can just address their parcels and have them in the post on monday morning. I would be reluctant to unpack two items and repack them in those circumstances although I probably would do so if pressed.

Don't some people use it as a way of getting round e-bay fees?

E-bay charge a percentage of the sale price but not a percentage of postage costs IIRC so a lot of people put unreasonably high postage, knowing the bids will probably be lower accordingly. They get to keep more money and e-bay lose out.

I don't think it's right or fair but I think it is very common practise.