Shipping & Insurance

Shipping and Insurance seem to be the biggest issue to  many people and rightly so . There are dealers that look to make a  huge profit from shipping an item to you . This is a dilemma that many sellers are faced with . What to charge for shipping an item to a customer . Although there is no  hard and fast rule you can go by , there are some reasonable assumptions you can  make when buying on line.

The first thing you should do is look to a  retailer (online or brick and mortar) for  a similar item that is  selling on ebay. See what they are charging for an item of similar size, weight and type of good(s) that are being purchased. Once you have some general idea then the next step is  compair their shipping  fees being charged by the Ebay seller. Keep in mind that although you may be able to buy an item on ebay for less than in a store or  online retailer, ebay sellers are charged the same for shipping as a retailer is  by the USPS,Fed Ex Ups and other shipping companies. Where the variable comes in is the type of shipping "service and packaging" you get for the shipping fees charges

Lets say you by a mobile phone  and you see two different shipping charges for the same model being sold by two seperate dealers. One is charging $10.00 for shipping  and the other is charging you $14.00 for exactly the same item including insurance . Here is where you seperate the cream from the milk. The first seller is just taking the mobile phone and shipping it in its original factory box by wrapping it in craft paper and tying string around it. Not very safe and secure. On the other hand the other seller that is charging $14.00 for shipping and handling is taking the mobile phone in is factory box They then put it into another box, surrounding it with bubble wrap and shipping peanuts to isolate the mobile phone from jars while in transit . Even though you are saving $4 on shipping an item you have just bought it from someone who has no idea how to ship for safety. As such they do not seem  care about it other then meeting minimum standards. The second mobile phone dealer is a serious seller and cares about the item you purchased. He provides professional shipping . He is not overcharging He is covering the cost of  professionaly shipped items that would otherwise run the risk of being damaged in transit or being stolen His extra care in packaging an item has made for a safe effective deliver   That type of shipping cost  more that the first dealer. He must purchase boxes bubble wrap. shipping peanutes, tape and other items that create a safe and secure shipping environment The  first mobile phone company may be the one overcharging since they are using the bear  minimum in shipping materials and would seem not to care much about the conditon of the factory packaging or  its contents  while in transit to the recipient.

Other factors that must be considered are distance that an item must travel to reach you .Shipping fees  from  someone in your own state or province  are usually going to be less than someone that is shipping an item to you from another state or province. Cost by the carrier will and do vary. Carriers such as UPS, Fed Ex and the USPS  charge based  4 criteria. Size. weight.  value and distance. The United States Postal Service has increased its cost of shipping by as much as 43% and in some cases more . This is due to the reality of the market place . Another thing you should keep in mind is that distance can play a critical role on the cost of an item(s) being shipped.  An item that is shipped from Kentucky to New York will be one price. The same item being shipped from Hong Kong, Thailand  or elsewhere in the world can cost as much as 3  or 4 times the amount because of distance. (fuel charge, local export fees Etc.)

Even though you may be paying more for shipping you are probably paying much less for the actual item from overseas so the additional shipping fees are well worth the expense. There are a Mom and Pop sellers on ebay  that work from there homes. As such they have little overhead and can cut their cost of shipping an item because they are not paying anyone but themselves. The vast majority of overseas sellers are actually companies comprised of employees that work in shipping . As such a company must also factor a portion of an empoyees salary into the shipping fee .So what may cost you $4.00 for shipping within the United States just jumped to $14.00  from an overseas company. They have employee salaries, shipping materials, transit time to the Post office. Postal services outside the US do not have a pick up service nor do they have online service An actual person must fill out postal forms by hand and deal with their post office with one item at a time. UPS and Fed Ex charge by weight. distance and value so it is going to cost more that if an item is shipped domestically.

One other very important factor no one has discussed is a rule that Paypal has imposed on sellers and buyers  for protection under Paypals Buyer Protection Policy All  shippers are now required to either show proof of signature (online) on items valued at $250 or more and proof of deliver (online) for item(s) with a value of less than $250 This service of proof of deliver or proof of signature costs the seller Ups, Fed Ex and the post office all charge additionally for this service. We fully understand  why Paypal is doing this and why sellers are happy to oblige . There  have been too many unscrupulous buyer recieving items and then claiming to their credit card company that they did not get the item. Proof of Delivery  and or proof of signature is proof positive that they did get it.

So if you see an item that is cheap and the delivery is also very cheap then expect just that This is a good rule of thumb to go by