There's a general trend toward INFLATED shipping charges on EBAY. I
suspect that fee avoidance is a part of it. Some openly admit to
padding their profit. Some buyers seem to lose sight of the total cost
and just bid the price up anyway, so it works.
A shipping charge >3X what might be considered reasonable and 40X the
opening bid is a RED flag. Deception in one area is a good indicator of
deception in other areas.
I have no information either way about this poster; just speaking generally.
The format provided by e-bay makes it difficult to enter an advert
without filling in a 'fixed' shiping cost, if origin is non-US. I
suppose there are ways to smooth it out, but I have no experience with
the format.
My research for insured, registered postal service to Australia gave
me a Cdn$80 figure; to UK it was Cdn$50. Obviously a customer would
likely choose a slower verion, at reduced expense, if he had some
confidence in the supplier and was in no great rush. Shipping to US is
likely less, but quoting a low 'fixed' rate could obviously create
problems for the supplier.
I personally prefer standard surface parcel post, which is quite
inexpensive, when purchasing. Strangely, some suppliers won't do it
that way.
While I'm on the soapbox...
There's also another interesting trend. Outright lying about the
product, either by comission or omission. Let the auction end then
disclose the problem. Buyers seem to just pay the inflated price
anyway. Most of what I've been involved with has to do with
missing or broken "accessory items" that are absolutely necessary to get
it to work.
I get annoyed when I lose the opportunity to buy a junker
at a junker price.
Though I haven't bought through e-bay for some years, I've always been
suspicious when bid limits were reached but not exceeded - suggesting
that someone had a method to probe your limit and get you to pay it,
without exposing themselves to the same risk.
It's easier to figure out how a last minute bid can beat you by a
piddling amount - just takes a well-synchronized clock.
Generally it's too expensive to buy junk this way - but lack of other
opportunities, andsome luck can nudge ebay's usefulness upwards, for
many.
RL