I think you hit the nail on the head regarding part of this issue. As with the example of some decks of cards that I posted about earlier the innitial shipping prices are not out of line for a single lot. Where there is a problem is when multiple items are being bid on, by one bidder, and a seller combines the shipping on the items to save himself/herself some costs and inconvenience but doesn't pass, at least part of, the savings onto the buyer. You end up with a situations where the buyer ends up being gouged. Maybe it is oversight and unintentional in many cases but as has been mentioned in this thread, this seller has enjoyed the courtesy from other sellers but won't extend that same courtesy himself. That is where I have a problem. That ceases to be oversight and miscalculation.

There are definately some people who pad their shipping costs in order to make profit that they don't have to share with eBay. They may be doing this to avoid extra fees. It seems to be happening more and more too. You would think that eBay would, for their own sake, do something about it. They must be loosing a bit of profit through that loophole. As bidders like myself may still bid on these auctions but bid lower due to the high shipping the seller still gets his money. The buyer gets their collectable or merchandise. Ebay on the other hand looses listing fees and commissions. I may be wrong but if I understand it correctly, the seller can charge or forgive any or all of these S/H fees with no obligation or effect to the amount that they owe to eBay. If a buyer emails him or her they can negotiate that but since the fees are clearly listed and reported in the auction the buyer really is against the wall if the seller refuses to budge. YOUR BID IS A CONTRACT TO BUY. For the seller, if you can get your profit into your S/H you avoid commissions and listing fees to eBay? That is why I figure the S/H fees into my bid. If they are high than I bid less.

I won an auction recently for a lot, (6 cars) of Action Performance Die Cast 1/64th Nilla Wafers Earnhardt cars. The starting bid was low and I put a bid of about $6 on the auction considering there was a S/H price of $14.99. These cars are reported to sell for around $10 or $12 ea. but I am a little uncertain of that price. They are the small cars not the medium size ones (1/24th). They are AP and highly detailed though. Anyways I figured around $20 for 6 cars, $3 to $4 ea. was fair. As it happened, I won the auction for .99 . That is for all 6 cars. The shipping on the cars was less than $6 if I recall and it was ONE LOT not a combination of lots. Thus it was clear that the seller, who still, last I saw, is trying to sell 6 car lots of these under "Other Wholesale Lots" (toys), was trying to make profit without having to pay eBay a commission. What sickens me is that I have seen a few of this sellers lots sell for fairly large amounts where it is clear that the buyer was bidding without knowing or should I say NOTICING the shipping costs. That has to be a big hit when the invoice arrives.

In general I am all for not bidding at all on these auctions and thus encouraging this practice. Or, if it is something that you really want or feel is a good deal otherwise, keep your bid proportionate to the shipping costs. In the case of the cars listed above, What did the seller actually save in the end. He made about 9 bucks in the shipping. Paid a quarter for listing(?) .99 open bid? I got it uncontested so what is the commission on the 99 cents? Ebay was the real looser as the seller sold the items for $9 profit which he gives nothing to eBay.