Poll of the Day > I hate it when ebay sellers lower cost of item, but up shipping cost

(+) Yeah! (+)

like if an item is going for 50 dollars, and the seller has the item for 10 dollars, and shipping 40 dollars. It's a pet peeve of mine.
I just bought a PS4 game where the seller did that.
JUST PUT WHATEVER COST YOU'RE PAYING FOR SHIPPING AS THE DAMN SHIPPING COST DAMMIT

But then how would they come up early in the listings when you are 90% likely to sort them lowest to highest cost?

hypnox posted...

But then how would they come up early in the listings when you are 90% likely to sort them lowest to highest cost?

There is a Price + Shipping - lowest first option

Ferarri619 posted...

There is a Price + Shipping - lowest first option

Ah I don't use ebay.

Sounds like they're trying to cheat on taxes

Both on your end (less purchase price to be taxed) and far more so on their end (tons of sales, all made for far less than the seller actually took in for profit)

It's like when people on Amazon sell a used book for 1 cent, but then charge like $9 in shipping.



streamofthesky posted...

Sounds like they're trying to cheat on taxes

It's probably more a marketing strategy. People are more likely to buy something if it seems cheaper, even if it really isn't.

It's why you see so many prices like $19.99 instead of $20. Or why gas prices always deal in fractions. It's also why most stores will show you the base price, without including sales tax until the end of the transaction.

If you see the sale price first, and it's super-cheap (This book is only a penny?!), then your brain becomes more open to it (Sure I'll buy it - it's a total bargain!), with the added surcharges later being sort of written off as the cost of doing business. But if you reverse that (This book costs $9... but also has free shipping), your brain may be more discouraged by the higher price (even though its exactly the same as the first version).

Basically, the human brain is stupid. And so much of marketing and politics and social engineering in general just consist of finding new ways to trick the stupid brain into being stupid.

I left the seller positive feedback but gave 1 star for shipping cost. I think that's fair, lol