Shipping, to me, covers all the costs in getting the item from the seller to the buyer. This essentially means postage and packaging supplies.

The only tme I complain about excessive s&h is when sellers charge three to four times actual postage and then package poorly with reused items from packages they themselves received - an essential packaging cost of $0.

Don't get me wrong, I think reusing received packaging supplies is a great idea, but the buyer certainly be paying the seller the cost of new packaging for it. That's pure "hidden" profit.

-Aahz