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Really high shipping cost, advice?

Brando_Beast

Brando_Beast

Jan 4, 2021
188
90
Tampa
#1
So I bought a guitar on eBay. It was listed at 199 but I made an offer of 155 and they accepted so I got charged immediately. I was really surprised when I saw the shipping.
(Technically the shipping plus the total price show when you make an offer. I get it, it's my responsibility but moving forward...)

From Oregon to Florida it is 131 dollars. Is that reasonable? I know some sellers lower the upfront price and make up for it in the shipping in a sneaky manner. Should I feel swindled? Right after I got the approval email I thought about canceling the order but that felt passive aggressive and I want to take responsibility for my actions.

To be honest I was new to the make an offer feature on eBay. I've been using eBay for 20 years but usually did buy it now. The make an offer thing kinda felt like gambling...

So my question: 131 dollars for shipping? Inflated? Unreasonable?
 
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#2
I hate to say it, but that’s about what coast to coast in the USA has cost since everything … got very expensive in the past couple years. If someone has a business account with a courier, or sells through reverb and gets a discounted shipping label through them, or maybe if they separate the neck from the body for shipping, they can ship for less; but for an ordinary private seller paying full price, that doesn’t sound like the seller overcharging for shipping to me.
 
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#4
I bought a bass from a friend of a friend in Nashville two years ago, just as everything … got more expensive. I included an extra $99 for shipping to Oregon, and jokingly told the seller to take our mutual friend out for coffee with whatever remained. He then somewhat sheepishly informed me that the best rate he could get was $120 :facepalm: so I sent more to cover it and thanked him for at least shopping around a bit. I have loved the bass since I got it, but shipping kinda killed the buddy deal.
 
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#8
I just paid a reverb seller $100 from OR to MI. It sux but that is the way it is.

skycruiser said:
Yet somehow you can return a bass to Sweetwater for about $20. I think the commercial contracts are forcing rates to increase for the individual. They have to make it up somewhere.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. I used to work in a shipping warehouse. The sales reps for the shipping company were woo-ing giant corporations with impossible to sustain rates. I remember full size desktop computers shipping for $6 each. Impossible to do even back then (2010). The last leg of the trip costed more than $6. There were mountains of them in every warehouse. If I wanted to ship one it was about $30 at that time. We are all subsidizing all the companies that get impossible rates for shipping. We also get the crappiest levels of service.
 
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#17
"Shipping" is the new gouge. Some sellers make a point of charging only their third party out of pocket shipping cost. But others look on "shipping and handling" as a profit center.

Remember those obnoxious TV ads: "Order within the next 5 minutes and receive an additional item absolutely free. Just pay separate shipping and handling."
 
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#20
Brando_Beast said:
So I bought a guitar on eBay. It was listed at 199 but I made an offer of 155 and they accepted so I got charged immediately. I was really surprised when I saw the shipping.
(Technically the shipping plus the total price show when you make an offer. I get it, it's my responsibility but moving forward...)

From Oregon to Florida it is 131 dollars. Is that reasonable? I know some sellers lower the upfront price and make up for it in the shipping in a sneaky manner. Should I feel swindled? Right after I got the approval email I thought about canceling the order but that felt passive aggressive and I want to take responsibility for my actions.

To be honest I was new to the make an offer feature on eBay. I've been using eBay for 20 years but usually did buy it now. The make an offer thing kinda felt like gambling...

So my question: 131 dollars for shipping? Inflated? Unreasonable?
Click to expand...

The shipping price is very reasonable, especially for one of the longest distances an item can be shipped in the contiguous U.S.A.

You already said it's your responsibility to know that, and that's basically where the analysis of the situation ends. There is no "moving forward" from that, other than paying the price for your mistake, or admitting your mistake and apologizing to the seller, and asking them to give you a cancelation out of the goodness of their heart.

It wouldn't have been "passive aggressive" to cancel the purchase. It would have been sleazy, immature, and infuriating.
 
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