collecting police whistles around the world-postage

buying whistles on eBay seems like it is choking itself out of existence. WHY you ask ??

EXTORTIONARY POSTAGE COSTS…

It is the eBay effort to guarantee that the item gets to the buyer with no way of saying it didn’t. With a money back offer that sounds legitimate doesn’t it ??Sounds fine on the surface huh ?? Yet who pays for the ‘signed for delivery’ ?? The buyer alone !!! So a simple item like a whistle that costs someone perhaps 10 dollars USA has to now pay as much as ( the sellers in the UK charge from 8GBP up to 16GBP !!! )  an inflated price.

In effect the buyer now has to pay three times the items original cost. Or in other words what was won for 10 dollars now costs 30 dollars !!

Who loses ??

First — the seller, because the buyer doesn’t go for extortionary rates )

Second —  the buyer because it isn’t worth it anymore.

Third — eBay because it loses the sale, or it goes for WAY less money.

Fourth — All of us because it is killing whistle movement. In fact why sell whistles if they don’t sell for enough to make it worth it ??

On the surface it seems like a great deal to eBay as it owns Paypal and if they ‘pass on’ the cost of postage they make more money on total transaction fees. AND they make more on the exchange rate that is now ridiculously higher !!! Besides that they now do not have to refund due to lost items claims ( granted there may be some false claims made for items not received, but there are other ways to deal with that – like giving ones an option to NOT claim if they go with regular postage. )

It is sad that it has degenerated to this. The world market is opening up and shutting down as fast as greed can compromise it….

Just some thoughts on postage. Perhaps other markets are looking better ???