Ebay to crunch shipping overchargers?

[sneakymagenta]

Sold for: US $2.00
Auction ended early with Buy It Now.
Ended: Jun-27-06 10:53:03 PDT
Shipping costs: FREE
US Postal Service First Class Mail®:

Welcome to my WHITE ENVELOPE MYSTERY auction!!

YOU ARE BIDDING ON A SINGLE WHITE ENVELOPE AND NOTHING ELSE!!

INSIDE THIS ENVELOPE IS A BEST BUY GIFT CARD WHICH IS A GIFT FROM ME TO YOU!!

Hee hee I love the next section

I AM A VERY HONEST PERSON.

Drum roll please 

Shipping insurance
US $100.00 Required

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280002040663

[sneakymagenta]

edit: there was a thread on T&S about that auction
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000172504&start=0

[amy]

I AM A VERY HONEST PERSON.

:

[Anita]

Seems like eBay is being taken over by scams and "honest" sellers. 

[BellisimaJ.]

ANd full- of -themselves boinktards.

[amy]

[quote author=bargainbloodhound link=topic=4324.msg17215#msg17215 date=1152237397]
eforcity 7,731 1 cent and 2 cent BINs[/quote]

Interesting, their lowest starting bid on Overstock is $6.46.  They offer free shipping on O so the total price to the buyer works out to the same as on eBay.  I'm sure eBay's fee structure has nothing to do with the difference in starting bid prices between eBay and O. 

[mandy]

Auctionbytes has an article on eBay's claims that it is cracking down on excessive shipping charges:

eBay spokesperson Catherine England said, "We are removing listings across the site with excessive shipping rates; that said, we are taking a strategic approach to enforcing the policy by focusing our efforts on those categories where we see the highest incidence of excessive shipping abuse."

England said the best thing sellers can do to avoid having their listings pulled for excessive shipping is to "charge actual shipping and actual packaging (plus a reasonable handling fee). Sellers can go to the usps.com website to see what actual shipping rates may be."

One seller wrote on a board that he believes eBay is trying to automate its "high shipping filter" and that they are experimenting on the cell phone categories. When asked about this theory, England said, "We use a variety of automated tools as well as individual listing review by our staff to enforce many of our policies, including the excessive shipping policy."...

full article: http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m08/i22/s01

[stardust]

Heh.  The fun just never stops!!  Lori needs the prozac drip, please.....

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?messageID=2003511468�

[Anita]

I rarely read the Stores Board anymore.  Morons have taken over.

Lori is one of the rather polite RR.