Feel bad about sniped bidder and need advice

[Oceans64]

I have been selling some of my Millet Poupee collection due to lack of space.  Someone who is practically a neighbor was bidding and won so I of course offered to have her pick up and no S/H. I offered this AFTER she won her first auction.  The problem is she sniped another bidder and honestly, I don't blame her - I would too.  The sniped bidder already won one of my items so I was going to combine S/H and she knew that.  If she looks at the item she lost (which she will) she'll see that I gave away free shipping.

Should I give the sniped bidder a discount?  It's not my fault but still I feel bad and DON'T want neg feedback...

Truly this wouldn't be a big "posting" deal because what are the chances ?  But I'll be listing my Mom's collection soon and have a feeling this is going to come up again...

What would you do?

[ironlord1963]

    I have had this happen just a few days ago, someone that ask if I combine ship before he bid, I said yes and one of the two items he was buying was sniped from him at the last second.  IMO This is not something a seller can prevent, and giving the sniped bidder a discount would only be above the call of seller duty per say.  Would be really nice and maybe you will gain a bidder that will come back looking. On the other hand, that is the world of Ebay it adds to the excitment  .  All I know is I got 50 cents more + a buck or two more on shipping. In the world of Ebay (at least My Ebay, that is make or break profit amount       

[waywardangler]

No one can snipe you if you bid high enough.  This is no different than a regular auction except people do not show their hands until the last seconds.  At a regular auction people get outbid because they do not want to go any higher.  The same should be true on ebay.  Just because someone puts in a last second bid, does that mean the bidder that was winning would have overbid the sniper? If so, they should have entered a higher proxy bid and ebay would have kept bidding for them up to their limit.  Every sane bidder should have limits and if they don't then a fool and his money are soon parted.

As to shipping, I offer local pickup so anyone that lives in reasonable driving distance can pick it up.  I think most sellers do this?  I have started to offer free shipping by building the postage cost in up front.  All bidders know what the total cost is by their end bid.  I hate looking at a lightweight item and see a flat rate Priority box fee on there for a shipping cost when I know it only costs $2.00 or so to ship.  That is just plain lazy on the sellers part.

JMO.

[ironlord1963]

     Sure made me think about my shipping logic wayward.   First I no longer offer Pick-up have tried 3 times all did not work out, espically the last one.  They won, then asked for pick-up on a .99 + 4.00 item.   I don't meet at my house I meet in public, they made me wait what seem to be hours was really about 45 min. pick up the item and grunted away.  If they ask for shipping discount I would oblige, beside most the times if you think gas, enviroment, time. its not worth it, If it weighed 50 lbs sure but 1 lb item.   As for shipping cost in general.  Fair is Fair flat rate no matter where you live, if you are in seattle, the price should be the same for those in Florida.  Now if you ask before bidding and are nice about it I will always work a deal espically if no other bid are on it.    The cost of shipping is pretty high for sure, one need to think about the bubbles, boxes roll of tape, and hope you get a $1.00 for that 15 minutes of labor.   I have added this cost in and overall I lose here.  Here is my basic cost.  $4.00 for any item that will stay under 13oz.  $5.00 Under 1 lb.   $9.00 under 2, $12.00, and $14.00  Some of the bigger items will take $4.00 in packing material.  Some times I win and some times I loss but the overall picture is breaking even and my labor seems to be free.  I don't think many buyer understand all the issue in Handling.  Then overall the buyer is trying to get the best deal and the seller is trying to make a buck.  Look at my cost with shipping and if you don't like my choice then really don't bid, I don't if I don't like the price I move on.

[waywardangler]

I agree, ironlord, that shipping is a big cost.  Shipping expense can be a deal killer.  If shipping is more than the item or almost as much as the item, I move on.  And it is not just on ebay, it is all over.  I do not agree that shipping should be the same to Seattle as it is to Minneapolis in my case.  Minneapolis is 150 miles away and Seattle is thousands.  I see where flat rate boxes are handy if the object weighs enough but to ship a 2 ounce item in a $10.55 flat rate box is ridiculous to me and I see it all the time so I do not bid.  I try and get my shipping supplies free.  I keep good boxes, reuse bubble wrap, and stocked up on sheets of styrofoam from work (used in refrigerated boxes).  I also buy bubble wrap on closeout (Holiday colors on sale after the Holiday).  I do not use peanuts because items shift too much during shipping.  I do use crumpled newspaper sometimes.  Sheets of styrofoam I cut with a hot wire cutter to fit the box and the object.

I am going to start bundling similar items as a lot just because shipping on one item is too high compared to the value of the item.  The market value is down and shipping costs really makes it worse.

[ironlord1963]

     Yea actually my newest favorite trick is take a good box and turn it inside out     I do get as much scrap from work, but been thinking about kind of borrowing some tape.  A $3.00  roll of tape will get 10 to 12 packages taped, .30 to .25    I have problem personnally with the flat rate boxes, nothing I sell seem to fit into them anyway, usless I use the 14.00 box, shoot I can parcel up to 5 lbs. at that cost.  It seems 90% of my items are between 1 or 2 lbs and require a good square box.  Beside those Flat rate boxes is made of 1/4 wall cardboard, not very friendly to my glass ware Need at least 1 ply but like 2 walled cardboard the best.   But A really wise shipper at work told me something that should be considered a shippers code. "It is not the box that will protect the item, the box should hold the protection".    Still just kinda of have  a thing against 1/4 cardboard      

[waywardangler]

I agree on the "shippers code" but the box wall does help against punctures.  Wall thickness really is good in that case.  I do not ship much glass so I do not have your problems.  I have shipped straight wall beer glasses (7 oz. variety) and basically cut the sheet styro to fit the box interior then used a can of the right dia. with one end rim cut off to act as a large cutter.  Twisted that can thru one sheet at a time and I had a nice large cylindrical hole thru the styro in the center of the box.  Nothing could touch that glass unless over 2" of stryo was also violated.  I have bought some good tape at the dollar type stores but it depends on what they get in at the time.  I stock up when good stuff is there.  I am quite cheap and I always look at clearance shelves at office supply stores and big box home supply stores like Home Depot.  At Sam's I buy padded envelopes as they are the cheapest I have found.  Depending on size they work out to $.25-$.50 each.  Office Depot or Office Max are much higher.  I also look at garage sales for people getting out of the business.  Sometimes I will get 10 for $1.

[Oceans64]

Hopefully my deal will work out OK.  The sniped bidder asked if I had more Dolls to sell and I told her about my Mom's collection.  I'm going to giver her a first look and we can come to some sort of arrangement for a BIN or just something thru PayPal since I think she has a level of confidence with me now.

I agree that S/H charges are deal killers for buyers but they are tough on sellers too.  In addition to the cost of boxes, packing and mailing, PayPal takes their (9% ?) cut as well.  At least eBay doesn't charge on the S/H costs which is probably why you see items listed at $.99 with a S/H of $30...  My local P/U will save me $$ -maybe $4- but discounting another item because of it would have ended up costing me TBH. Even with local PU I still have to carefully wrap the items.  I can't very well hand someone a bad of glass dolls and send them on their merry way.

[Overloaded]

Its dog eat dog world out there 


Personally if I wanted an item bad enough I would have put down plenty of cushion between the current amount and the max I am willing to go to. If I get snipped the last minute its my own fault that I didn't do this in the first place.


I'm a buyer like 99% of the time on ebay. Only few times in my whole time I've been a seller and the local pickup is such a hassle! Don't get me started with flakers on craigslist! So I totally understand the shipping issue- we when as sellers... lose alot money in the fees not the buyers.