What's the deal with outrageous bat shipping prices?

[TNTtoys]

I used to do that. Now if I see a bat with $15+ shipping I won't bid.

Have a little dose of reality...

Here are the exact rates (Priority Mail + Delivery Confirmation) for a bat from my home to California. Assume that I eat all paypal costs, provide my own box and packing material, and the buyer doesn't opt for any insurance:

$15.35!

I suppose there are a lot of honest sellers out there who charge exact shipping costs who will not be seeing your bids.

[trsent]

I sold two bats this past month and lost money on the shipping of both of them by charging the nominal $10.00 that people come to know and expect. One cost me in the ballpark of $15, and the other was approx. $18. What seems to complicate matters is the following:

1. Any coast-to-coast shipping maximizes cost, as the rates are zoned. I live on the east coast...automatically a sale of a bat to a west coast buyer is more than any cost from someone shipping bats out of the center of the country.

2. The post office raised rates this month. Many are not aware.

3. The post office considers any package with 1 side over 36" a possible oversized package (bats generally fall into this criteria). Therefore, you may get hit with surcharges. At very minimum, you cannot print postage for these online...meaning higher rates for postage at the window and no longer do you get free delivery confirmation.

4. If the bat is worth a few hundred, you should insure it. At $7-8 insurance alone for a $500.00 item, people also often don't take this into consideration.

5. If you are going to buy a bat tube to ship in (and believe me, the post office has no problem selling these), that's another $4.00.

So... $10.00 to ship a bat might be a price of the past except for the following circumstances:

a. You are shipping to someone fairly close
b. You don't require any shipping materials
c. You're sending an inexpensive item that doesn't require insurance or delivery confirmation

If you are selling on eBay - Use PayPal's shipping tool and when using Priority Mail, it asks you to enter the dimensions of the package. This will automatically calculate if any extra dimensional weight is needed.

Any eBay seller who uses US Mail is crazy if they do not use PayPal shipping through the USPS. It offers built in delivery confirmation (free for Priority Mail and Express Mail and like .18-cents for Media Mail, Parcel Post and First Class Mail) and it also emails the buyer a shipment notification with tracking number so you don't have to do this. Finally, in your My eBay it marks the item shipped so the customer sees the order shipped with the tracking number.

Also, eBay offers calculated shipping if you wish to use this service. I use a flat rate to anywhere, but I am in the Midwest so I may make some on a local shipment, but I often lose some on a West Coast shipment. It all evens out for me in the end.

If you use the calculated shipping tool, you enter the total weight (say 3 or 4 pounds for a bat in a USPS Priority Mail tube) and you can add a dollar or two for packaging/handling charges right through eBay. This way, a local buyer will find cheap shipping and a long distance buyer will have adjusted shipping. The buyer sees this calculated shipping fee when they are logged into eBay viewing your listing. It is a great tool for such situations.

I used to do that. Now if I see a bat with $15+ shipping I won't bid.

I agree with the others, if you see high shipping, say $25.00 on an item you are willing to pay $60.00 for, I bid $35.00 and I have nothing to complain about. Sometimes when the listing ends I ask the seller about the high shipping and hope to get a discount, but when they don't at least I bought the item for no more than I wanted to spend.

I understand people do not approve of charging a shipping plus handling/packaging materials fees, but eBay does approve of a reasonable handling/packaging fee.

I saw an autographed boxing robe on eBay earlier today. The guy wants to charge $100.00 for FedEx insured shipping. Sounds excessive to me, but if I was to buy his item (which I am not) I would bid accordingly to ship silly shipping method and fees. I do not know why he wouldn't ship insured via a reasonable method, say UPS Ground or US Priority Mail, for say, $35.00 or $40.00 (the item had an asking price around $2000.00) but it was not my listing.

[brianborsch]

I will say that I once charged just $10 shiping for a bat sold to someone somewhere in Nebraska, and it ended up costing me like $27! Priority with delivery confirmation. No Insurance! I had them check it again. It was because it was tough to get a package in that area? And the awkward size of the priority 3 sided tube/box. The manager approved it so it must have been legit. I lost out on that one. I typically charge 10-12$. $15 if it is really heavy.

BB

[10thMan]

Opinions are one thing, REALITY is another...

I have NEVER shipped a Bat out (USPS) from San Diego or Los Angeles that has cost less than 12-13.00$ I had a Postal Clerk in LA that would dive over the counter to measure a package & GOUGE me with the extra 1.75$ Some Clerks wouldn`t add the extra fee. Thank God I got out of that hell hole, LOL.

15-17 Bucks would NOT stop me from Bidding on a Nice Bat. Ive seen people charging 20-30 Bucks for Shipping a (common) Jersey, what gives there???


Sean