|
Lot of 6 postally used, except for one (Court House, Christiansburg, VA) vintage postcards of various US court houses: Court House, Christiansburg, VA (unused with tape repair to back of bottom left corner which has a tear; some corner/edge wear; heavy age bronzing to back), Ashland County Court House, Ashland, Ohio (postally used-1943 linen with postmark bleed to front and something written on front--looks like Methodist Church); Fayette County Court House, Lexington, KY (postally used-1942-linen; scuffing, small tear, some wear, and postmark bleed to front); Court House and Monument: Wincheser, Indiana (postally used-1916; lifting on front to corners and in two places on margins left/right; worn with some thumbing and diagonal crease to bottom left corner; some age bronzing and soiling); Court House, Clinton, Iowa (postally used-1928; postmark bleed to front; some corner wear); McLennan County Court House, Waco, Texas (postally used-1943; linen; little postmark bleed to front; light corner wear). Decent lot of vintage postcards for the court house motif collector. . I will be happy to combo ship, but must charge a handling fee for each item added to the the package to help defray the expenses associated with doing business with eBay and PayPal. IMPORTANT NOTE TO BUYERS ABOUT P&H: Most sellers have their own particular rules and regulations that they add to the bottom of their listing. I don't have any rules beyond common-sense ones, but I do have a large issue with the concept of postage and handling and so wish to end each listing with the following information that I hope you will take the time to read. If I can make just one buyer rethink the P&H issue, I'll consider this long paragraph a success. There are some buyers who simply don't understand or don't want to understand what costs are involved with selling on eBay and who seem to think that the seller should bear all those costs and offer the buyer an item at a bargain price with free or reduced shipping. Before you post negative feedback for a seller for charging too much for postage, (and yes, some was posted recently for me for sending two items to Germany for $5 P&H), please consider the following: While eBay encourages sellers to start auctions at 99 cents or less, offer free shipping, and donate a portion or all of the selling price to a favorite charity, it's time to really examine what that actually means. As a seller, if I did any ONE of those three things, let alone all three, I would be out of business in no time. It's time for sellers to speak up about what it really means to sell on eBay and accept PayPal payments. Briefly, listing and selling something like a postcard for $9.99 at auction (plus P&H of $1.75) will cost the seller $1.90 in eBay/PayPal fees; sell an eBay store item for the same amount and the cost to the seller will be $2.22, provided that the item sells the first month it's posted (sellers pay a monthly listing fee, not to mention a minimum of $15.95 per month to run a store, plus another $10 and up for a picture-hosting service). It's 35 cents here, 30 cents there, $15 here, 12% there, etc. and those amounts really add up quickly to the point where a typical seller owes eBay/PayPal several hundred dollars a month or between 1/4 and 1/3 of the monthly gross sales. I've been selling on eBay since 1998. If you are just a buyer and not a seller, you need to know what is involved with selling and you need to realize that it costs a lot of money to use eBay and PayPal's services. This all brings me to the postage and handling discussion. EBay encourages free or exact shipping--of course they would. That is appealing to everyone but the seller. Most consumers understand the concept of overhead in the retail world, but apparently not with eBay purchases. We know that that $4 boneless chicken breast in the grocery store costs $20 in a restaurant because of the costs involved in its preparation and serving. Similarly, there is overhead, and a lot of it, with eBay/PayPal and I continue to be unhappily amazed at how a good percentage of buyers expect sellers to charge exact shipping and eat the overhead, because there are just enough sellers who do that who don't seem to realize just how much money they are losing and who make the rest of us sellers look like extortionists when we charge $1.75 to ship a postcard versus 42 cents exact postage. Or how about the seller who sells a new room-sized rug for $1 and charges $50 to ship and then gets oodles of negative feedback because the rug only costs $20 to ship? C'mon, folks. You've just paid $51 for a rug--sounds like a great bargain to me. Does it matter that the rug was $1 and the postage $50? What if the rug were priced at $51 and the postage free? Would that make you feel better? What difference does it make? $51 is $51, no matter how you split it up. If you think a $1 rug should ship for free or exact shipping, you are truly ignorant of how buying and selling works. If you are willing to pay $51 for a rug, it shouldn't matter how much of that is actual purchase price and how much is P&H. Stop expecting free things and deep discounts and stop posting negative feedback for what you perceive as unfair P&H. The question for sellers is how to build those hidden overhead expenses into the opening bid and still be competitive? Short answer is, it can't be done. P&H is the only place the seller can do that--that's why it's called postage and "handling." That's not a new concept for on-line purchasing. Every single business that sells product builds in overhead, either into the asking price or into the P&H or both. An eBay seller's handling includes time spent locating items, getting them ready to list (cleaning, taking photos, researching what similar items are selling for), listing, packing, going to the post office, buying packing supplies, buying gas, and all of the myriad associated eBay and PayPal fees. None of that is free and buyers should not expect it to be, nor should eBay encourage that perspective. Sure, $1.75 to ship a postcard sounds like a lot if the actual postage is only $.42, but I've just paid eBay/PayPal about $2 for that sale, so $1.75 doesn't even cover actual postage and eBay/PayPal fees, let alone the other overhead mentioned above. My handling fee only HELPS defray overhead--it doesn't pay for it entirely--not by a long stretch. Hopefully, I have provided some information that puts the "H" in P&H into some logical perspective. If not, and you still think that exact postage is what you should pay, then please do not bid or purchase my items. In this economy, everything is going up in price and eBay should be no exception. Please, let's try to make this a fair marketplace for both buyers and sellers. Powered by eBay Turbo ListerThe free listing tool. List your items fast and easy and manage your active items.
Place a Bid!
|