Welcome to CoolCyberCats Disclosure & Consumer Info

This page will help eBay buyers make better purchasing decisions, at least that is my hope. You will find general information that I feel eBay buyers need to know followed by a seller profit calculator and information particular some items that I sell. I suggest you read the general section at least, and if you are inclined then continue on to the calculator and product info that brought you to this page. I think you will learn a few tricks sellers use and hopefully become a better educated consumer. Oh, and in the past I have received angry emails from other sellers demanding I remove parts of the information on this page. Why? Because they do not want you to know the tricks they use, the prices they pay, the profits they make or how YOU can save money.

Shipping Tricks of the Trade

Have you ever wondered why some sellers have a high shipping rate on an item other sellers have a low one? There are really only 3 possibilities for this.

1. The low price draw: Some sellers will lower the item price and raise the shipping cost to make more money. Even if the TOTAL price you pay is the same, the seller with the lower shipping cost makes less money. This is because eBay does NOT factor shipping monies in the listing and fee calculations. This is called "Fee Avoidance" and if a seller charges an unfair amount for shipping you can report them, even if you did not buy from them.
   The buyer is duped since most busyers never seem to factor in shipping when they look at prices, and the price that sticks out is the lower of the 2.
   This kind of unscrupulous seller does not deserve your business.
2. Forced competition: A seller of an item was going to charge a fair shipping amount, but after trying to sell the item for a while he HAS to up his shipping and lower the item price to compete with the other sellers of the same item. Did the seller lower the total cost for the buyer? No. In fact he makes a little more profit since he pays less in eBay fees. This seller may deserve your business since he was forced to play the game or not make sales. I do not fault him, but fault the buyers for not being smart enough to do some simple arithmetic before buying items.

If you really expect to get a good deal on your purchase, then note the total costs (item + shipping&handling + insurance) of the 2 lowest priced, the 2 middle priced and the 2 highest priced items. Then search for the item in the eBay stores and do the same thing. Don't be afraid to send the sellers questions, like "Why are you charging so much for shipping and so little for the item itself?". Some sellers will claim handling charges and not explain how they justify a $19 handling fee on a feather.

Insurance Tricks of the Trade

Don't be duped on insurance charges either. Assuming an item costs $20, $1.65 is the Post Office insurance charge. FedEx and UPS insure all packages up to $99.99 at NO cost and many sellers use Endicia, U-Pic or other 3rd party insurers and get a cost between 60 cents and $1.25 per $100 of insurance. If you believe the seller is charging more than they are paying to insure your order, then ask them what company will be insuring the package and then go check the cost yourself. You have every right to go back to the seller and ask them to be more realistic with the insurance charges. If the seller refuses to adjust the insurance rates then you have 4 options:

1. You can just pay the inflated insurance charge.
2. You can not insure the package.
3. You can complain to eBay by reporting the seller's "Fee Avoidance".
4. YOU can insure it yourself! That's right. Just go to www.u-pic.com. All you need to insure the package is the eBay auction #'s of the items in the package, the method of shipping and the date shipped. The rates are reasonable, the receiver CAN insure it and best of all you can also insure packages sent internationally! You can get the current U-Pic rates on their website.

At the same time do not use this insurance info as a reason to NOT insure your package. Packages get lost or damaged in the mail all the time. It is a fact of life. You cannot expect to refuse to get insurance, then jump all over the seller demanding compensation when the order is lost or damaged in the mail. So be a smart buyer and take the insurance option when offered, and ask about the option if it is not in the listing.

My Fees

The Problems With eBay's Shipping Methods

I dislike the choices a seller has for charging shipping on eBay. No matter how I look at it, a lot of work needs to be done here. As a seller I have choices on how I charge for shipping, and I have issues with each.

1. Free Shipping: That is great for the buyer, but the seller either ups the selling price to cover shipping or eats it. I would guess that it is the former.
2. Flat Fee Rates: I see this one misused all the time. Some sellers will charge a high fixed fee for the initial item and a high fee for each additional. For example, a seller may charge $8.99 for a pack of Soft Claws (which could be below their actual cost) and an initial shipping of $5.99 for the initial pack and $4.99 for each additional pack. The seller then ships them in a padded envelope which weighs 4oz. Is that a fair practice? Not to me.
   The problem with flat fee per item and each additional item is that it does not take buyer location into account. It does not cost the same to ship a 1lb package from Washington State to New York and a 1lb package from Washington State to Montana. So what do you set the fixed amounts too? If a seller sets the amounts to a central location (Chicago) and only east cost buyers purchase, the seller loses. If you set the amounts for the maximum distance, the close and mid-country buyers lose.
3. Weight Based: On the surface this looks great. You can set the handling charge and the item weight and let the post office figure the shipping charge. But I found one big flaw here. Take for example the Original 3 foot Da Bird I sell. A single Da Bird in a shipping tube will weigh between 9oz and 11oz (I can only assume the range I found was caused by the tubes having a manufacturing difference), usually 10oz. The Da Bird itself only weighs about 2 or 3 oz. So the tube weighs about 8 or 9oz. So the problem for a seller is, what do you set the base weight to? You could set it to 2oz and then slap in an extra handling fee to cover the initial 8oz of postage weight, but this causes more problems. What if a buyer decided to get 6 of them? To the ship calculator the order weighs 12oz which is a first class weight, so they get the option of first class shipping. In reality the tube will weigh over 13oz but less than 16oz putting the tube into Parcel Post or Priority weight. And a 36 inch tube shipped parcel post gets hit with a hefty fee by the post office, making priority less. But the buyer just paid a far smaller shipping cost because of the flaw.
   You could also claim the item to weigh 10oz which is right for only 1. But if the buyer wants 6 again the system will wrongfully believe 3lbs 7oz! Now the buyer is screwed. I tend to use the 10oz method and I will invoice the buyer with the corrected shipping. This protects me from getting shafted and the buyer as well.
   How should eBay fix this? Simple, and I have sent in comments almost monthly for 4 years asking them to do this too... Have an item weight AND package weight field. Even better would be to add a "Max # of items per package" field too. eBay owns Prostores and Prostores allows me to enter in the item mesurments and build a table of my packing supplies by size and weight. It then calculates what package OR packages must be used to fit the order, adds up the item and package weights and gets the postage amounts. And since it knows the box size as well it knows all restrictions by service and won't offer First Class on a 3' x 3' x 3' box weighing 13oz.

The Section That Angers Other Sellers - A seller profit calculator AND specific Item Information