Date   : Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:18:40 +0200
From   : anders.carlsson@... (Anders Carlsson)
Subject: ebay deal of the day

Michael Firth wrote:

> There seems to be a bunch of these adverts, and strangely, though the 
> listing says
> "collect in person" for the postage terms, the words of the advert 
> actually give a
> reasonable (I think) price for shipping to the UK.

Perhaps it is a new way to get around eBay policies? Nowadays, advertised 
shipping costs on items in certain categories may not exceed a fixed value 
defined by eBay. By stating only local pickup and then still offer some 
wiggle room for shipping costs, you can charge your actual costs!

It may sound strange to you, but if e.g. I would list a vintage computer on 
eBay UK, I am supposed to offer shipping to mainland UK according to what 
e.g. Royal Mail offers despite I am actually living in Sweden and would have 
to send it internationally at a much higher cost. Since there is no eBay 
Sweden (there once was, and that site was a big joke), my other option would 
be to list it on eBay Germany. The same thing happens again, I think I would 
need to offer shipping to German customers according to what eBay thinks the 
Deutche Post charges locally.

If this bloke now lives in Egypt but lists his items on the UK site.. well, 
I understand if he fills in "local pickup only" in the automated form and 
then adds some text about the item might still be possible to ship, but at a 
higher cost than what eBay ever would expect it to be.

Of course we got all this nonsense due to too many sellers overcharge on 
shipping expenses, so the auction sites need to take action against it. Too 
bad it sometimes affects honest sellers.

Best regards

-- 
Anders Carlsson