When you bid on an auction, make sure to begin with that the stated shipping fees are not too high. I don't know what you consider to be fair, but for me, if the cost of the postage (and insurance, if any) is more than doubled, I usually won't bid. I feel that I am buying the product in question, not contributing to someone's retirement fund in addition. Of course, I'd love an extra dollar on top of everything else, for every item I sell. But it's not fair to the buyers. I recently paid $6 for postage for what I thought was a DVD set, but it came in a single box (2 discs), with a postage cost of $1.70. Such a seller will only catch me once!

I cannot understand the desire on the part of some sellers to charge exorbitant shipping and handling fees. I have had some sellers quote me the most ridiculous prices. In one instance, I was quoted $22 for a small item in a box. When I balked at this, the seller reviewed the situation and said he could in fact send it for $14 instead. When I said I thought it could still be sent for much less, but that I would reluctantly pay this amount, the seller then asked at the Post Office (instead of looking up prices on the Net) and the item was shipped for the princely sum of $4. It arrived 7 days later and the seller, now disabused with respect to the issue of postal costs, was good enough and honest enough to refund the difference. This sort of initial miscalculation has occurred several times, particularly in the U.S.

However, some sellers want the S&H fees to bring in the bacon and regularly charge 200% or more to ship items like DVDs and CDs. Well fine: I just won't buy and I don't know how many other people feel the same way, but I find it is frustrating that certain sellers, whose inventories interest me initially, push me away with high additional costs.

In passing I note that sellers in the U.S. are particularly prone to this sort of behaviour. In the U.K. I have found that sellers are very agreeable in almost every instance to finding the most economical method of shipping to me in Canada, should I desire it. Perhaps this reflects the high cost of living in the U.K., so that people are more careful with their pennies. Or maybe it simply reflects different values and a greater appreciation for that old American tradition: the profit motive!