Ebay can be a haven for great buys and hard to find items; Actually those things are the very reason eBay has become a multibillion dollar company and global market leader. As with any marketplace, you will always find a certain element that practices underhanded, very common ripoff tactics.

This guide will help you steer clear of those sellers looking to rip you off on shipping and handling fees. The more people that get educated to this eBay scam, the better chance eBay has of maintaining a reputation of being the very best place to buy or sell just about anything you can put a price tag on; And to my mind, that is well worth preserving.

Low Starting Bid

A very common practice is for a scam-seller to offer an item at a ridiculously low price. Example? I would love to be able to link to an eBay auction that shows this taking place (ebay doesn't allow these guides to link to specific auctions), but the one I am looking right now has an MP3 player - new, factory sealed for $23.00  - Buy It Now!

This partiular MP3 Player retails for about $45.00. The prospective buyer sees this price, and in a flash (in hopes of buying it up before anyone else does), clicks on the Buy It Now Button - then 'buyers remorse' sets in. During the Paypal Checkout Process they realize that the seller has assessed a $37.00 Shipping and Handling fee. That's right, $37.00 for "Priority Mail" shipment. Their actual cost? $4.60. You have just been scammed. This happens a lot. A lot more than you might think - to a greater or lesser degree. They realize this $37.00 fee is not 'seen' by eBay, and doesn't get included in the final value fees.

Calculated Shipping Costs

Another very popular scam or ripoff is handling portion of the "calculated shipping cost" option. This requires the prospective buyer to enter in their Zip code in order to get exact shipping cost prior to bidding.

Here's the problem:

A seller can add ANY amount to the standard shipping charges when creating the auction. That's right, when the seller is creating the auction, they can select the "Calculated Shipping" function for their auction, and in so doing, they can then add to the "Handling" portion of that setup, any figure they want as a 'surcharge' for their "handling" of the item. Many people don't want to trouble themselves by clicking on the calculated shipping button prior to bidding and typing in their zip code to actually find out how much the package is going to cost them to ship, or they don't notice it - some sellers know this, and exploit it...to their benefit.

The first time (and the last time) I got suckered into this was when I won an auction for a vintage baseball trading card of Mickey Mantle - it of course was a calculated shipping auction. The card cost me about $75.00 - guess how much it cost me to get it shipped to me? $17.00. No insurance, just came in a Priority Mail box that weighed no more than 5 ounces. Actual cost? $3.85 at that time..now it would have cost $4.60. Ripoff, plain and simple. I never clicked on the calculated shipping button to see the $17.00 figure, and if I did, I would have seen $17.00 S&H - if I would have just taken the time. "Fool me once"...that's enough for me.

***Insurance? What Insurance?

Some sellers looking to take your money will assess an "insurance charge". Pretty straight forward right? One Problem... when the package arrives, you guessed it, it's not insured - no insurance sticker...nothing. Many sellers when confronted with this will state, "it's self insured"...Self Insured...right...what exactly is that? It's a Scam, that's what it is. After reading this guide, I have had seller's email me that use this "self insured" tactic, trying to justify this 'option'. Insurance without any formality to it, to my mind, is not insurance at all. It's simply more profit to the seller. Insurance companies exist to make money...enough said.these "Self Insured" Seller's might in fact honor their insurance claims, but that does not take away from the fact that they are, especially if they sell in high volumes, making good money on using self insurance. Buyers, make certian the seller has excellent feeedback. If you do not want to weed through 5000 feedbacks in the last month to get to the negative/neutrals, go to www.toolhaus.org and type in their username.

Summary

It is important to note that eBay now allows excessive shipping and handling fees as a reportable offense. It became so much of a problem, and there had been so many complaints to eBay about it, they simply had to give the [eBay] consumer some way to report this ever growing problem. To report a S&H ripoff simply go to the bottom of the auction page in question, and click the "report this item" link. You should be able to navigate from there.

I want to thank everyone who has emailed me with their stories...or should I call them 'nighmares' about this problem. It is amazing how many of us have been ripped off through S&H scams. Please keep the emails coming, I appreciate them very much. This guide has become, far and away, the most popular S&H Fee Ripp Off Guide on eBay, thanks in large part to those of you who have clicked "yes" at the bottom of this screen.

As for the handfull of sellers that have emailed me telling me that they take offense to this guide, only to spend the next 4 paragraphs justifying their "handling" charges to me - please don't bother - you know if you are charging too much, and if you are, please stop ripping us off. If you want increased profits, incorporate that profit into your item, not some hidden 'handling fee' or 'Ghost insurance fee'...people are getting wise to it, and are tired of it.