And to continue this discussion - this is what eBay US was going to charge for just 3 items from Don Mills:
View attachment 346407
US$32.28 postage for US$11.85 of bits in the Snipping Tool grab above - given I wanted at least 33 different bits from Don you can see why it added up to around $AUD$550 for shipping given eBay in the US will not allow combined shipping.
Fortunately I had dealt directly with Don before and was able to purchase directly from him - the shipping cost US Flat Rate of $12.00!
This 1:48 SCALE log truck has a number of Don's bits on it along with a Keith Wiseman conversion kit:
View attachment 346409
Best way of buying Don Mills bits now is to find them on eBay, add them to your cart, make a list and then contact Don direct - Don Mills Models <
donmillsmodels@aol.com>
Tell him I suggested you contact hm.
David, horses for courses. Those inflated shipping costs you cite, due to Ebay not allowing combined shipping discounts in this seller's instance : It shows the vendor is possibly using the wrong methods for marketing their products. Or at least maybe given your location or the way you buy. I'd be surprised any trader didn't modify their position when appraised of that situation, unless it was not worth their while for some reason. I'd be interested what the situation was when they traded within the US for this type of business.
I was a private seller trading a collection in my spare time to fund a new hobby. I found, at that time, Ebay offered the best value compared to other chanels open to me for the majority of my sales. Yes, Ebay and it's (now) partner PayPal, took on average 17-20% of the realised value. This was down to a combination of listing fees, final value take and PayPal's fees, if used. The alternative, a traditional (and when specialised even more so) auction house then (and now) would typically levy a 25%+ sellers premium and the same again on top for the buyer. This resulted in the added benefit that with Ebay the buyers' bidding was not suppressed by the need for them to factor in a fee at their end. To cap it all I could get to my intended buyer in greater volumes than an UK based auction house could then. I.E. A larger and more focused buyer pool (market) was created and greater final values should follow as a result. If you got your marketing right and managed things correctly within Ebay and PayPal's terms.
I used on occasions BIN/Best offer, but that was for the base "bread and butter" stuff that had very clearly defined and stable values in their market area. I even sold some items directly to dealers, taking a 50% hit on "market value". This was the most economic way to trade with low end items, it just did not make sense to do otherwise. It took up to 8 hours labour to list, manage the sale, pack and lable 20 items. One alternative for these could have been an auction house but they might "bundle" these lots, which can further depress possible sales values.
At least I could offer multi-buy (not win, I hate that term) shipping terms to incentivise buyers. Everything went tracked and insured shipping and I never had a single total loss. If helped that there is a Post Office in my village I could drop things off at, with a blank cheque the postmaster could fill in for payment. Hey, our postmasters are an honest bunch, despite what their employers were trying to tell them then. There was the odd foul up but by being prompt in offering a fast or equitable remedy I never lost my 100% rating. I suppose that's partly what the rating system is there to encourage.
The only time I used a fixed/best offer price format outside of Ebay was through an established dealer for items that had known/establish market values, usually those items valued over £300 and into the low end £K's. I would use a "commision sale" format, the dealer got 15% + VAT (on the commission) of the final sale value. These were mostly early garden railway items I bought and traded out when I got more focused on what I wanted to run. It was the days when you could buy things like Aristocraft and USAT locos + matching 6 car passenger sets on close out deals from the likes of St Aubins, G Scale Junction, Mr Kramer and others in the US, at an exchange rate of $2+ to £1. Happy days.
David these are just personal experiences garnered from in particular time frame and selling in a specific market. Horses for courses. Max
P.S. Ebay's global shipping program (aka Pitney Bowes) netted me an FOC NIB Pola large coaling station kit (like the one at Chama). That's another story.