This is what I call Trolling for suckers (E28 Cluster on eBa

[John In Valdosta]

I don't know who he is but everyone should be aware of this type thing. $1 Buy It Now, $85 shipping.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 59779&rd=1

[greg.epps]

That's what the e-bay folks would call 'fee avoidance'. He gets $86 dollars for the thing, and e-bay only gets fees related to the first dollar... It's against their rules, but you still see it all the time...

This guy had 4 instrument clusters for sale...all with the same setup. What an @$$


[Edit by greg.epps on [TIME]1109372228[/TIME]]

[Rick I 87/535is]

Allthough he is breaking eBay rules and regs, it is pretty clever. Maybe eBay will take a look at this as a message that their rates are to high.
I bought a charger and a spare battery for my phone a few weeks ago for .99 cents. 8.95 for shipping. Still,,,pretty clever.

[Tim in N FL]

Yep,
I just bought a cell phone battery and antenna for my dinosaur Motorola Star-TAC and paid
$5.00 (BIN) plus about $8-10 s/h. Give me a break....clever but annoying.

Have seen BMW enthusiasts selling tire sets the same way. HUGE shipping prices with LOW reserves.

(Screw)Bay may wake up and lower fees or they may lose some marketshare....they need to tone down the greediness factor. C'mon...how much overhead does it cost to run that business?

[RetiredDoc]

I've bought 3 instrument clusters on ebay this year, and never paid more than $40 for any of them (winning bid plus shipping) I'm always careful to check the shipping cost before I bid. After your warning, I will be even more cautious. Thanks!

[spinedocab]

I looked at some of his feedback, and the shipping was in line on everything I looked at. Also, of his current auctions, only the clusters are structured that way. Everything else is listed with "normal" shipping rates.
So, maybe it is final value fee listing avoidance. Good catch though. Thanks for the head-up.

[shifty]

Maybe it's the Finance guy in me, but you really can't blame the guy for taking advantage of good ol' capitalism at its best, can you? Sure it's a little shady, but shouldn't every smart eBayer shop caveat emptor anyway?

[greg.epps]

IMO, it's not just a littly shady, it's Unreasonable Shipping. And it's fee avoidance. These are a couple of the policies you agree to when you sign up to be and continue to be an e-bay seller. If you're going to agree to follow the policies and don't? Then e-bay should shut-em down. And e-bay does sometimes. I've seen auctions like this disappear before. But this guy's only got a day left. I doubt he's going to get shut down...

[shifty]

I agree that it is shady. And if eBay has rules against it, then he should definitely get shut down.

But what about people that charge a flat shipping rate without even knowing to what zip code the item is going? My S&H charges on my eBay auctions cover packing, shipping, eBay fees, Paypal fees, and a little bit for the time/effort spent getting the item shipped out. It's not $85 (usually no more than $20 unless it's a large item like a set of wheels that I know will be well over that), but it's more than the actual shipping cost. Of course, it IS called a shipping and HANDLING charge for a reason.

But, I do agree with you that $85 is a bit high, and that guy's auction is an obvious violation.

[Bob in San Jose]

I sent him a question. Can i pick up the cluster and avoid the shipping costs. You think he'll do that?
Bob

[shifty]

[QUOTE="Bob in San Jose"]I sent him a question. Can i pick up the cluster and avoid the shipping costs. You think he'll do that?
Bob[/QUOTE]

You ought to ask him if his shipping costs are negotiable. Offer him $20 or $30 for shipping.

[Bob in San Jose]

I don't really need another cluster, have 4 in the garage already. Just want to see what he thinks about selling something for a dollar. Doubt he will even respond.

[C.R. Krieger]

Well, folks, I figure ebay's a little too busy to pick up on this stuff on their own. You can always send a message through their 'Safe Harbor' section complaining about the violation. I do it all the time for keyword spammers (I have a finely-crafted set of searches I use all the time and I do not like extraneous junk showing up in them.). Sometimes, if it's the first time and it's not excessive IMO, I'll contact the seller and explain what I don't like. If they accept the criticism in the spirit in which it's intended, I don't complain. If they jump down my throat, well, it serves 'em right.

For 'excessive' shipping charges, I often ask about pick-up arrangements. I've had buddies pick up a whole set of wheels in Daytona and haul 'em back to Ohio for me - for free (OK; a couple coffees)! I've also 'educated' an unknowing seller who got a bad quote for shipping from somebody. When he went back and questioned it, the number came down some 20%. It never hurts to ask.

[Bob in San Jose]

It's coming up "Invalid Item" now. Guess eBay caught on.

[Al Canuck]

[QUOTE="Shifty"]But what about people that charge a flat shipping rate without even knowing to what zip code the item is going? [/QUOTE]

I do that all the time, particularly with my 02 and CS carpet sets($22 anywhere in USA or Canada). I know that Miami is about as spendy as it gets from here, and Seattle will be a bit cheaper. The range is usually only $3-4 anyway, so I've flat rated my shipping. Sometimes I lose a couple bucks, and sometimes I come out a couple bucks on top. It all works out in the end. I don't charge for packaging, or my time to go to the post office though.

Al