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$15 CGC grading fee added to shipping costs on this Superman #199 eBay auction

Started by nearmint,

15 posts in this topic

dadaist

dadaist

Posted
Posted

Anyone know if this grading fee added to shipping has ever been tried with coin or card auctions? Just wondering. I would expect eBay to object to the practice as a form of fee avoidance. Grading cost doesn't really have anything to do with shipping costs.

 

In theory, I don't believe that eBay like this sellers methods. However in practice, this seller could easily get by any report for fee avoidance -- let me explain why.

 

The seller ships worldwide. The incidence of someone paying for insurance, and priority mail will be low (duties, tariffs, and the simple cost to ship an item by priority to an international buyer), meaning that any situation where a cracked holder arrives to the buyer, the seller will need to satisfy the buyers request for a refund, or costs to reholder the cracked slab. In most cases, a seller would opt to refund the buyer the cost to reholder (which is about $10-15). In some cases, this could include costs to ship the comic to CGC from the buyers location, and that would suck rocks if the buyer lived in Australia. But in some cases, its a worthwhile concession to make to offset negative feedback, or the hassle of having to issue a refund. Obviously, if the seller claims that the fee goes toward the grading of the comic, rather than claiming that the fee covers incidental reholdering fees, then every single buyer would claim the holder was cracked, greatly cutting into the sellers ability to recuperate losses from previous transactions. So to claim that its covering the cost of grading makes it a gray area, and one that would certainly create more hassle than good for the seller, but if it means the seller would have the opportunity to take a greater profit -- even in the face of a book arriving with a cracked slab -- then in this sellers eye's, the practice is well worth the trouble.

 

Its not to say that I condone this sellers actions, but I don't believe eBay would come down hard on this seller if s/he can prove the amount of costs that have gone to reholder books to satisfy worldwide shipping policies. They would however if the seller attempted to offset this incidental cost of doing business by charging a shipping overage to compensate reholdering fees. I know eBay is vigilante towards sellers who use practices that perpetuate fee avoidance, but I think if this seller plays his/her cards right, they may well have a case for claiming the fee as a cost of doing business on a global level, and claiming that the fees cover the loss of reholdering may well be enough for this seller to continue with the crusade of charging to slab.

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Dave_Hennen

Dave_Hennen

Posted
Posted

That's pretty lame, I think the seller should have to list the additional cost on the shipping total if that's the way they want to play it, $23 instead of $8. I guess they're not hiding anything and it's starting at a dollar but I wouldn't bid on this one or any other auction formatted similarly 893whatthe.gif

 

dave h

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thecomicsheet

thecomicsheet

Posted
Posted
Anyone know if this grading fee added to shipping has ever been tried with coin or card auctions? Just wondering. I would expect eBay to object to the practice as a form of fee avoidance. Grading cost doesn't really have anything to do with shipping costs.

 

In theory, I don't believe that eBay like this sellers methods. However in practice, this seller could easily get by any report for fee avoidance -- let me explain why.

 

The seller ships worldwide. The incidence of someone paying for insurance, and priority mail will be low (duties, tariffs, and the simple cost to ship an item by priority to an international buyer), meaning that any situation where a cracked holder arrives to the buyer, the seller will need to satisfy the buyers request for a refund, or costs to reholder the cracked slab. In most cases, a seller would opt to refund the buyer the cost to reholder (which is about $10-15). In some cases, this could include costs to ship the comic to CGC from the buyers location, and that would suck rocks if the buyer lived in Australia. But in some cases, its a worthwhile concession to make to offset negative feedback, or the hassle of having to issue a refund. Obviously, if the seller claims that the fee goes toward the grading of the comic, rather than claiming that the fee covers incidental reholdering fees, then every single buyer would claim the holder was cracked, greatly cutting into the sellers ability to recuperate losses from previous transactions. So to claim that its covering the cost of grading makes it a gray area, and one that would certainly create more hassle than good for the seller, but if it means the seller would have the opportunity to take a greater profit -- even in the face of a book arriving with a cracked slab -- then in this sellers eye's, the practice is well worth the trouble.

 

Its not to say that I condone this sellers actions, but I don't believe eBay would come down hard on this seller if s/he can prove the amount of costs that have gone to reholder books to satisfy worldwide shipping policies. They would however if the seller attempted to offset this incidental cost of doing business by charging a shipping overage to compensate reholdering fees. I know eBay is vigilante towards sellers who use practices that perpetuate fee avoidance, but I think if this seller plays his/her cards right, they may well have a case for claiming the fee as a cost of doing business on a global level, and claiming that the fees cover the loss of reholdering may well be enough for this seller to continue with the crusade of charging to slab.

 

Essentially what you are talking about is the seller is self-insuring by charging the buyer an additional fee. For international shipments in particular, insurance IS an expensive hassle. On international USPS shipping to get insurance with airmail you have to send it air parcel rather than air letter. That raises the cost from $13.30 to $20.00 (as an example sending US to the UK). That's a $6.70 hit just so you can buy insurance. By the time you add, say $3.30 insurance on top of that, you are looking at $10.00 extra to send a book insured.

 

I wouldn't try something like this myself (just from a customer relations problem), but I don't know what eBay would do about it. Unless it was reported to them, odds are probably 99 percent they would never even notice. If it's reported, I give it 50/50 that they would object as fee avoidance.

 

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Comicdave

Comicdave

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Posted

I like the part where he says "payment must be received in 3 days after the auction ends". insane.gif

 

Who is he kidding? Unless you're in the same state, most mail won't get to him in 3 days, even if it's mailed the same day as the end of auction. 893frustrated.gif

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