eBay Sharks: Beware new eBay freight costs!

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eBay Sharks: Beware new eBay freight costs!

Here is a good example of a pure eBay shark:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-IIGS-A2S6000-Computer-with-Keyboard-and-Mouse/383289451692?hash=item593dd4e4ac:g:h7kAAOSwndFd3rPg&autorefresh=true

 

He is asking USD$150+ for a //gs, and he put a US$INSANE freight cost on it. Even in the states, this is US$600, in a horrible condition, 'as-is, for parts'.

 

When did this become a tollerable policy, either on eBay or...anywhere?!

 

Be cautious me mates, and feel free to post any other 'danger' signs for these people. Hiding that 'surprise' cost in the freight price is unfathomably evil, and unethical. I have seen this in other recent auctions, where a £3 part has a freight cost 80x its price. Be careful, people are being devious, and eBay, as always, doesn't give two pins. 

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I've seen enough of that that

I've seen enough of that that I try to make sure I checked their shipping charge. Too many times I've seen something at good price then the shipping is $200 - 600 for something that I'm sure their going to mail for about a dollar postage

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Ugh, yeah....  That is pretty

Ugh, yeah....  That is pretty skeevy.  :(

 

I don't mind paying a little bit of a handling charge when the seller seems to be on the up-and-up from the feedback.  I mean, you want to buy from a guy that knows how to pack keyboards and CRTs to keep them from getting damaged.  I once had a guy throw a bunch of minty ROM3 //gs stuff into a box with just packing peanuts, with an ImageWriter II (heavy) on top.  Needless to say, when it arrived I was looking at a pile of parts.  :(

 

So on something kinda rare/valuable, I cringe and accept $70 to have the guy go down the the UPS Store and have the thing pro packed with expanding foam and all that.  But the above is just pure scam, and enrangens me.  :(

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This has been going on for a

This has been going on for a very long time. Originally, eBay only charged its fees based on the auction value, excluding shipping. Some sellers got wise and began listing items for $1, but with inflated shipping charges, as a way to minimize the fee paid to eBay. Reportedly around 2016 eBay changed its fee structure to encompass the total auction price with shipping, so that deterred most of the sellers from continuing with that tactic. Yet some continue to do so, especially with rare or collectible items. My guess as to why? They're targeting drunk buyers who are coherent enough to notice a lower auction price but not the shipping cost. By the next morning they realize their mistake, only after it's too late. (Sellers only need to be successful at this a small fraction of the time for it to still be lucrative.)

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Dr. Webster wrote: My guess
Dr. Webster wrote: My guess as to why? They're targeting drunk buyers who are coherent enough to notice a lower auction price but not the shipping cost. By the next morning they realize their mistake, only after it's too late.

 

I agree, that this is the most likely reason: Accidentally clicking the buy button without reading the fine print. I have no issue with paying legitimate freight (and insurance) prices. I've seen single ICs up there recently with US$200 in freight on a part that costs a fiver. This has become increasingly common over the past few months.

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Lee Adamson wrote:Ugh, yeah..
Lee Adamson wrote:

Ugh, yeah....  That is pretty skeevy.  :(

 

I don't mind paying a little bit of a handling charge when the seller seems to be on the up-and-up from the feedback.  I mean, you want to buy from a guy that knows how to pack keyboards and CRTs to keep them from getting damaged.  I once had a guy throw a bunch of minty ROM3 //gs stuff into a box with just packing

 

Recently had a 3.5 disk box come in with nothing more than a label taped to its side. People who do not know how to package and insure vintage goods should not sell them at all. They're destroyed in the post and the loss is to the userbase. It's very sad to hear that the //gs was crushed. A Videx card that I received last week was packaged without a static bag in standard bubble wrap, so we'll see if that survived ESD hell. 

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ESD hell

Don't worry too much about ESD. The on-chip ESD protection got pretty good in the early 1980s and constantly got better over time. Pre-1980 PMOS, NMOS or the - at the time rare CMOS - need to be babied ESP wise, or they would die like flies. TTLs around those typically protect them well.

The semiconductor industry has certain strict standards it must adhere to, so as to avoid delivering limping wounded to the customer, which would ruin their sub-10 ppm failure rate required nowadays, but for hobbyists, it is overkill to implement the full ESD protection suite. The bare minimum anti-ESD precautions are enough for hobbyists. I refuse to wear a ESD wrist strap in my own lab unless I handle those elusive and rare Signetics  MOS ICs that go into the Apple I.

 

 

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