I'm writing this guide based solely on the topic os shipping coin and currency. I regularly see complaints on discussion boards about excessively high shipping charges. I'm going to try and clear up why some charges may seem high, but in reality are not. Many times you will run across an item, say with an overall value of $25. The item may be listed for sale at 5 cents, but the shipping charges are marked $30. This IS a violation of Ebay policy. What the seller is doing is, he's listing his product for sale at a low cost and setting his shipping price at what he feels is an acceptable final sale price. By doing this, he is avoiding the fees that are charged by ebay and paypal for listing his item. Ebay bases there listing fees on the value you start your auction at and the final sale price. By keeping an item as low as possible, he is avoiding fees because shipping charges are not calculated into the value or final value of an item. When purchasing an item, it is always wise to figure the shipping costs into what the maximum amount is that you are willing to pay for an item. If you buy a coin with a book value of $100 and pay $85 for it, you may thingk you have a deal. But tack on $8.95 for shipping and you didn't get the deal you thought you did. I have seen complaints for shipping charges at the 4 to 5 dollar rannge that go something like this.....How can you charge $4.95 for shipping, when you're probably going to just mail it in an envelope with a stamp on it? First of all, they are assuming something that may not be true at all. In all fairness it is fair that a seller may try to recoup listing fees and final value fees with a portion of the shipping and handling charges. I personally try to never charge over 5 or 6 dollars for shipping unless weight or package dimensions force me to do otherwise. Here's a typical example of how I calculate shipping and handling charges. For instance, say I sell an uncirculated  2 dollar bill that has sold for $10. I have a bubble mailer that  runs me $1.25. A currency sleeve that costs me $.40. $.52 in postage for unmachinable first class mail. Paper and ink expenses for printing a manifest, let's say $.25. Right now, we are at $2.52 in costs alone. Then factor in the ebay listing fee  of $.65 and a final value fee of  roughly 2 to 4% at $.40. That's $3.52 in costs. Now if the buyer  pays with paypal, they get a fee as well, taking an other $.40, which brings us to $3.92 in costs alone. I'm left with  around $1.03 which I feel is more than reasonable for handling charges which may include tape, pens or pencils, gas if a trip to the post office is needed. You see, it all adds up rather quickly. It's really not fair to expect a seller to lose money on any item. So next time before you start to get upset at a sellers shipping fees, please take some of what I've said into consideration. It's really more expensive than many people think. Of course, if you come across the occasional dishonest person, charging excessive fees for shipping to dodge fees, feel free to report the person and the add will be removed until a fair shipping fee is imposed. I hope that I have been able to shed a little light on this subject for those of you who are new to ebay. Have fun and just be careful and be suspicious of outrageous shipping charges. Thanks for reading my guide.
Coinfiender