Open question still in keeping with the OP:
If you were to agree with a seller on a negotiated price for an item, then seller responded that your cost would be that cost then an additional $50.00 shipping/ insurance/ packaging fee AND 3% PayPal penalty. For something the size of let's say, the leather door inserts. Not a hood, spoiler, valence, wheels, etc?
Would that be acceptable to anyone?
The leather triangles can be separated and packaged in an envelope; a carbon fiber part needs to be bubble wrapped, protected, and encased in a box. Two such parts will produce a substantial box, similar in dimensions to a box for a spoiler or valance - about the size of two 17" rims side by side.
This is an accurate estimate based on dimensions, for packing, insurance, and shipping.
Paypal fees are shipper's preference... nobody likes to spend more than the price they see on an item, but the seller also doesn't like to see their cash disappear in paypal fees and shipping costs.
If I have an item for sale, and have the option of selling it to a local person for $250 cash, or a person on the East Coast using paypal and FedEx, the person on the East Coast will need to cover paypal fees and shipping/packing or I will not get the same $250 cash in my pocket.
It is not about nickle and diming the customer, it is about the customer choosing to pay for the convenience of paypal; I would gladly accept a personal check, so longer as the customer understands it needs to clear prior to shipping, and eliminate paypal fees from the total. Just as if a customer doesn't like the quoted shipping, I will offer to drop it off at a UPS store or FedEx office, and allow them to cover shipping and packing costs personally - the point of me selling an item at a minimal price is to get that amount for the item, if I get less than that amount it hurts me as a seller.
These additional charges are not cash in my pocket, they simply detail the breakdown of a final total - if expenses end up being less, I refund the difference. If they are more than my estimate, it is my fault, and I eat the difference. I don't see how the procedure could be done with any additional fairness - if I marked up my items substantially I would have a margin to play with which would allow me to cover shipping and paypal fees inclusive, but the buyer would end up paying more, and people would question the markup.
Glad I'm not gay. (Not that there's anything wrong with that...:biggrin
So that's kinda what being outed feels like? I posed an open question, not specific to you.
Not looking to get into a flame war but to avoid appearing as Jack Benny reincarnate, I'll elaborate as well to fill in some of the shades of gray. I did tell you twice that we can agree to disagree and that there is no harm in having philosophical differences- that I have built my successful business on tranparency. I still feel that way.
To the point, IMHO when you say "I want $450" and I say "to me a fair price is $400" and you say "that's acceptable to me, your total is $463.75 including $50.00 ship/packaging (?)/ insurance plus $13.75 paypal fee" to me that just doesn't feel right. And unless I'm just way off, there's no way that 2 door inserts will wind up dimensionally similar to a spoiler. I sign checks to UPS in the amount of over a million dollars a year and work really hard (and smart) to make this a smaller number. I think that I have a good handle on shipping and dimensional impact.
If a seller lists an item at a price, in fairness they should identify any additional accessorial charges up front- not after negotiating a price on the item. Indeed, it is understood that shipping is a separate expense, but to roll into that those substantial additional charges caught me very much by surprise. There was no caveat that prices were pick-up only prices and that there would be additional expense to take the package somewhere and pay them to package and ship it and no other form of payment offered.
I assumed that packaging was a condition of simply performing on the sale. If there are PayPal fees to be added that I could probably get with that but to say that I would bear a $50.00 S&H cost felt like you were recouping the discount that I had negotiated. Simply that.
I do like to manage my own personal freight as I do my corporate. I do like to do deals and send call tags or use my UPS shipper # to ship third party and enjoy the benefit of a UPS discount that I have negotiated. I think that's just smart. So when I in my mind an item's acquisition cost to me is X and it turns out to be X + 16%, then it is not the same value.
I said that I wasn't hating on you and I still am not. Either: a) we do business differently here in the Midwest or, b) there are in STEVENY's parlance, "unique" practices here on Prime that I have to get with the learning curve on. That doesn't make you a bad guy and I hope that it doesn't make me one either, that's just not how I operate.
This will prove an interesting case study for some Primer so please have at it in a good natured spirit. At the end of the day Scorp, literally and figuratively, I wish you well in 2010 and that you have a safe and happy New Year's.
