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okay can be a haven for great buys and hard to find items. Actually those things are the very reason okay has begee a multibillion dollar gepany and global market leader. As with any marketplace, you will always find a certain element that practices underhanded, very gemon ripoff tactics. This guide will help you steer clear of those sellers looking to rip you off on shipping and handling fees. The more people that get educated to this okay scam, the better chance okay has of maintaining a reputation of being the very best place to buy or sell just about anything you can put a price tag on; And to my mind, that is well worth preserving.
Low Starting BidA very gemon practice is for a scam seller to offer an item at a ridiculously low price. Example? I would love to be able to link to an okay auction that shows this taking place (okay doesn't allow these guides to link to specific auctions), but the one I am looking right now has an MP3 player - new, factory sealed for $23.00 - Buy It Now. This partiular MP3 Player retails for about $45.00. The prospective buyer sees this price, and in a flash (in hopes of buying it up before anyone else), they click the Buy It Now Button - then buyers remorse sets in. During the Paypal Checkout Process they realize that the seller has assessed a $37.00 Shipping and Handling fee. That's right, $37.00 for "Priority Mail" shipment. Their actual cost? $4.05. You have just been scammed. This happens a lot. A lot more than you might think - to a greater or lesser degree. They realize this $37.00 fee is not 'seen' by okay, and doesn't get included in the final value fees.
Calculated Shipping Costs
Another very popular scam or ripoff is the "calculated shipping cost" option. This requires the prospective buyer to enter their Zip code in order to get exact shipping cost prior to bidding. Here's the problem:
A seller can add ANY amount to the standard shipping charges when creating the auction. That's right, when the seller is creating the auction, they can select the "Calculated Shipping" function for their auction, and in so doing, they can then add to the "Handling" portion of that setup, any figure they want as a 'surcharge' for their "handling" of the item. Many people don't want to trouble themselvesby clicking on the calculated shipping button prior to bidding and typing in their zip code to actually find out how much the package is going to cost them to ship, or they don't notice it - some sellers know this, and exploit it...to their benefit.The first time I got suckered into this was when I bought a vintage baseball trading card of Mickey Mantle. The card cost me about $75.00 - guess how much it cost me to get it shipped to me? $17.00. No insurance, just came in a Priority Mail box that weighed no more than 5 ounces. Actual cost? $3.85 at that time..now it would have cost $4.05. Ripoff, plain and simple. I never clicked on the calculated shipping button to see that figure, and I could have seen $17.00 S