High shipping blues - report to Ebay outlandish shipping charges.  Here is the url, you can report up to 10 auctions at a time and request a copy be sent to your email address. 

1st goto - http://pages.ebay.com/help/index/A.html.  Click on excessive shipping and handling.  You will be taken to a page that explains what it is and will give you samples of it.  Then at the bottom of thepage is an email entitled report.  Click on this.  Then click on excessive shipping violations in the second pull down box.  Then in the detailed reason, click on excessive shipping.  Then the next box click on the same thing and hit the continue button.  On this page you can list up to 10 auctions, seperated by comas.  Ebay will look at them and make a decision.

For instance auction number   280241069536 with a .99 cent start and a $9.00 shipping could be considered excessive shipping or it could also be considered circumvention of fees (this is where they are cheating Ebay out of their rightful share of the money to begin with - because they don't want to have to pay Ebays begining fees).   This item should cost no more than $6.75 to mail, which should include any handling charges.

0kay, you've bid on an item and forgot to check or didn't inquire by email how much the shipping was and now you are stuck with a bill that you know is totally unfair.  Yea, you can leave negative feedback before or after you receive the item.  However, keep in mind a seller may not be able to do nothing about your words here on Ebay but they can sue you if you are down right insulting (name calling, swearing, etc.) in your feedback to them.   

Before you bid, you see high shipping - don't be fooled into thinking you are just be charged shipping.  I have noticed that some sellers claim a small handling charge of $2.50 or less.  But when I figure the shipping costs and I ship a lot from my small store here on Ebay, even without the handling charge that they mention the shipping is totally out of line.  Some sellers are quick to tell you that they keep their bidding price low so that they can attract more bidders and sell higher, yet the truth to be know is the shipping price covers the item that they are selling and then bid price is actually the ship price, or nearly it.

I like flat rate shipping, when a customer is buying many items and they will ship comfortably and securely in a flat rate shipping box.  I especially like using a flat rate when the cost would have been much higher if I didn't use the box. I want my customer to enjoy their item and even though I don't have to worry about feedback, it would still distress me if they were angry over the shipping.  The feeling that you were taken takes the liking out of an item real quick.

When someone is close to my location I always suggest they come by my home to save them shipping. 

WORD OF MOUTH IS VERY POWERFUL and it can swing in any direction.  I prefer that it swing for me instead of against me!

When I am buying, I look at the total bid.  What is the maximum that I am willing to pay for an item and I include the shipping in my calculations of cost.  Since I resell the items I buy I have to go one step further and figure out what I would need to charge my customer in order to make a profit.  High shipping no matter what site they are on - from a seller can make a profitable item into one that I may look at forever or end up being a gift because I couldn't sell it.

I have looked at Ebay's calculator, but I have also wondered about the hidden costs that I don't see like the handling charge.  How much are they charging me that is handling and how much of it is shipping?  IT IS always better when you check the post office for an estimate on to what the shipping would be - if your not sure. 

I have emailed sellers to ask about shipping, but usually by the time they answer me I have gone on to greener more defined pastures of the buying experience.  I also hate those little answers of  "It is listed in the auction", okay fine.  I missed it and now I must reread to find it, so how important was the auction to me?  How much time would it have taken the seller to just tell me?  They didn't want to be bothered, so why should I?

Shipping and to Alaska aand Hawaii does not cost more than to any other place, it just seems that sellers have a need to make these people feel that they aren't part of the US - wake up sellers they are.  

I have had a few customers specially request the chocolate truck (UPS).  I find UPS higher and to boot I must find a UPS office so I charge a gas charge, since they are never handy.  The closest one to me is 45 minutes away!

  If you take your package to one of those UPS outlets they don't necessarily begin your shipping the same day that you brought it to them.  I have had packages set as long as a week waiting for them to build up their out going packages to be shipped before they call it in.  It use to be in California that if you called in everything or went to the site and did your calculations before calling it in, then UPS would come to pick it up.  Now, I understand there is a charge for them to do it. 

UPS

1. Will not deliver to the Post Office Box and sometimes not to the rural box
2. Won't deliver on Saturday, Sundays or Holidays,
3. They fluctuate their price
4. They don't give anything away

United States Post Office

1. They ship anywhere.  
2. The post office will deliver on Sundays and Holidays if you pay for Express Mail.  Monday thru Saturday for all other type of mails.   
3. The price is steady until the next rate increase, usually at the end of the year. 
4. The post office will give free of charge Priority Boxes, they use to give tape out but don't do that anymore.

One last note, I like sending my items out combined shipping.  It saves me time as a seller.  It takes more time and effort of doing individual boxes and keeping track of it than I want to really do.  While big is not always better as far as shipping goes it is better as far as time and 1 box shipping doesn't appeal to the customer who would be interested in saving money on shipping.   

It's a win win situation for everyone and always has encouraged more sales.