Since shipping and handling charges are such an issue between buyers and sellers on e-Bay, I decided to write this guide to try and help explain what shipping and handling charges are all about and what costs are included in them.

First off I want to say that there are some sellers on e-Bay who are charging outrageous shipping & handling charges. Although e-Bay allows sellers to charge whatever they wish for shipping & handling, e-Bay policy also states that sellers are not to make a profit on shipping & handling charges.  The best defense against excessive shipping & handling charges is for buyers not to bid on auctions that have excessive shipping & handling charges and to report these auctions to e-Bay. If sales go down far enough for a seller charging excessive shipping & handling and enough reports get filed on them, the seller will then be forced to rethink their excessive shipping & handling charges.

Shipping & handling charges are NOT just the cost of postage. This is not just an e-Bay thing. Anytime someone orders merchandise from a catalog, a mail order store or from online it is pretty much guaranteed they are going to pay more than just the cost of postage for shipping. Even auctions that state they charge only 'actual' shipping costs are charging for more than just the cost of postage. The main thing that is included in shipping charges is the cost of  the packaging materials needed to safely ship an item. It can be expected that the more fragile an item is, the more packaging materials it will need to be safely shipped to the buyer. The packaging materials most often incorporated into shipping charges are tape, shipping boxes, bubble wrap and packing peanuts. The cost of other supplies and services needed for shipping are included as well, such as printer ink and paper needed for shipping labels and Delivery Confirmation cost. Some sellers pay someone to professionally package their items for shipping. e-Bay allows sellers to charge a reasonable handling fee to offset the cost of things such as gas to take packages to the post office and to compensate them for the time it takes to package items for shipping. However not all sellers factor those things into their shipping costs, some sellers (like me) consider their time packaging items for shipping simply the cost of selling.

Since I am not privy to other seller's shipping habits, I can only use my shipping practices as an example. I sell live plants. It takes time, care and special packaging to insure that the plant makes it to the buyer in good condition. My shipping charges include the cost of the packaging materials needed to safely ship the plant and Delivery Confirmation. Now since winter is here and the weather is cold in most parts of the country as well as my location, I must use special packaging to protect plants from cold temperatures during shipping. I now insulate shipping boxes and include heat packs to maintain a safe temperature inside the box during shipping. This has resulted in an small surcharge to be added to shipping charges.

I am always happy to answer any questions anyone may have on shipping & handling charges.

As you can see a lot more goes into shipping than just the cost of postage.