Originally posted by: CKDragon
Quick Question: I'm sure a lot of people just order these just for the monitor and then eBay the systems, but I'm not much of an eBayer. How much do one of these systems (sans monitor) actually cost to ship? I see most eBayers seemingly gouge in the $80+ dollar range. My question is about the REAL cost.
Thanks a lot,
CK
OK, I'll give you my quick and dirty method. I live in CA and I ship a 25 lb package to Bangor Maine by FedEx Ground. It's 19.31 shipped to a business and 21.11 shipped to a residence with included 100.00 insurance. If you add more insurance, (say 200-300), it goes up to 22.61 for a residence. Knock off 1.80 if it goes to a business. This is all predicated on having a FedEx account, (it's easy, just apply online), otherwise FedEx charges around 2.00 if you bring it in to a FedEx dropoff and have their CSR's do work for you. That just started a few months ago, so to save money per shipment, you print up all the necessary FedEx labels, attach them to your package and just drop it off at a FedEx location.
The reason I use Bangor Maine is because it's around the furthest that FedEx will charge from my location. If it's somewhere in between, it will be less. Also it's possible to have what I call a "Boondock charge". If your desination is so far off the beaten path , FedEx will add a surcharge to go to places not normally on their route. Case in point, last week I shipped two hard drives from an eBay sale. One was 3 lbs to a Baltimore, MD residence and it was 7.90. The second one went to a far-off the beaten path, residence in Michigan, it weighed 4 lbs and cost 10.46. You can see the difference is 2.56 for a package shipped closer and only weighed 1 lb more. Anyway. hope you get the picture.
And yes those eBay shippers are probably gouging on the shipping, but it is still all relative to the final price. One reason sellers do this is because their eBay final value fee is based on the selling price and shipping is not a factor in determining the final value fee. This reasoning only applies to Buy-it-now items because you already know what the selling price will be and they charge less for the item and pump up the shipping. If the auction is a true auction and they are still charging outrageous shipping then it's probably gouging unless it's the only way they make a few dollars because the item for sale isn't selling high enough to make a reasonable profit.
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