posted on May 31, 2007 10:45:18 AM new
I noticed this in a listing:
MINIMUM ORDER OF 5 CARDS - MIX & MATCH FROM ANY POST CARD CATAGORY IN OUR STORE. WE WILL NOT PROCESS ANY ORDER OF LESS THAN 5 CARDS. PRICE IS POST PAID TO US & CANADIAN ADDRESSES.
The BIN price is for one card. As I read it, they won't ship until you buy 4 more cards from them.
posted on May 31, 2007 05:45:55 PM new
Not a choice auction.
It is an ebay store seller who gives free shipping, but needs to sell at least 5 postcards to make it worth their while (majority of the cards are $1). Otherwise they would be selling 1 postcard at a time and eating FVF/postage/paypal costs exceeding the price of the item.
It is against ebay rules to the extent that someone could file for seller non-porformance if they refuse a transaction.
They would be better off stating that shipping cost is $1 per item, but if you buy at least 5 then shipping would be free.
posted on June 1, 2007 07:54:31 PM new
Well, this has really started to gnaw at me. The seller is probably a good guy, just stupid. In his clumsiness, he has glutted and ruined a small genre of postcard collecting - modern postcards made for RR postcard collectors - not my favorite genre, but one I was stuck with when my mother bought a large number of them for me at a good price. I was able to sell many of them, charging $6 - $7 each and $1.50 shipping to cover the costs of inventory, eBay listing fees, PayPal fees, shipping costs and my time. Now the market is ruined by a guy who is breaking all the rules and still isn't making much money. He has 80-100 cards available for most of his listings.
Ebay is not the bad guy here, although they are making all the profit.
A glutted market with unfair playing field results in sellers declining to list similar articles, less choice for the consumer.
