Read before you bid

[Pineapples]

I am sure most of you read before you place a bid on ebay. But for those who doesn't, PLEASE DO! Why? Your bid is a contract, you win the auction, you must pay. So if the auction is for "info" or "links" to matrix sites, and you find that out later on, you're screwed!

I have this dude bid on my auction, it was for a computer power supply. He was new, got 0 feedbacks on him. He placed a bid and won the auction, then the invoice came and it was total of $16, $1 was the winning price and $15 was the shipping and handling. He didn't read the shipping and handling description and bid, now he blames ME for the whole thing. How is it my fault? It would be my fault if I didn't post $15 to ship, but I did. Even a blind man could see it. He refused to pay and I told him I would report to ebay if he doesn't pay. Then he left me negative feedback, for what? For him being stupid and not read first? God, I am so mad. I'm just plain mad right now.

[hurley9192]

and that's why matrix auctions and sites have been successful...they prey on the fact that most newbies won't read everything and think that it's only a little investment of $25 so no big deal if they get their prize. They throw away the money on a shot at a bigger prize and end up just donating it to the matrix owner and people at the top of the list and the scammers on ebay are making money off it as well.

[spydrman]

Pineapples,
You should make sure to post your shipping overcharge in big bold letters. $15 is a bit much, it probably costs you $3.85 priority mail to ship it. I doubt it's more than $5.00. That's a good $10+ overcharge. That's deceiving.

Now I had an auction where I overcharged $4.00 and the person received the item and said he loved it. And asked why I didn't leave feedback. So I went ahead and left feedback. Guess what! Then he leaves me a negative and says I overcharged him shipping!!! I should have never left him that feedback, and I learned my lesson as a seller in feedback, never leave any first. My rating is well over 100 and I have one negative!

I typically overcharge shipping between $2.00-3.00 to cover my ebay and shipping fees. I think you should consider doing the same. You may run into more problems in the future.

There are also consumer laws that protect overcharging for certain things. Such as a moving company, in some cases i've seen on television, they can't overcharge you like 10% more then the estimated price. A company tried to do so, and was sued. This was on the Montel Williams Show recently a few weeks ago.

[Pineapples]

You have any idea how heavy a 250W compaq power supply weight? 8 - 10 pounds. $3.85 is up to 1 pound. I sell a lot of stuff on ebay to know about how much they would cost to ship items that I am selling. $15 is not over charging at all consider ebay listing fee, final price fee, paypal fee, cost for the shipping box, wrapping bubbles, plus the shipping fee which will likely cost $10-$12. So overall, not overcharging at all, and if the guy lives in the East side, I most likely will have to pull money out of my own wallet.

Besides, when you place a bid, you agree to pay the shipping fee stated. Not overcharging and not my fault he was blind.

[spydrman]

Wow, I guess I was thinking about a different power supply then. Anyhow, be careful about overcharging much on shipping. I've seen many other sellers get quite a few negatives from buyers who see a much lower shipping price on the package, then get mad and leave negatives. I bet that's how some sellers make most of their profit.

[Pineapples]

Yeah I have seen that too, I try keep the shipping and handling fee as low as possible. There are times I lose money on shipping because I don't charge people enough. So sometimes when I am not sure how much it would cost, I just offer cash back on shipping.