Some sellers price their items at whatever they can to undercut the competition.
Some sellers just try to squeeze out any penny they can from their customers.
So, what to they do? Simple...charge higher shipping.
People will gladly pay $3 rather than $6 for a cable on ebay, even if shipping is $5 for the $3 cable and free for the $6 cable. Or, maybe they just don't understand that they need to add the shipping cost in.
And some people will gladly pay a high shipping amount for an item they either really REALLY want or the item is just hard to find and are willing to pay anything for it.
Hence..."shipping as profit center" was born.
If you don't already know where I stand on this, please...let me repeat: don't do it...find another way to sell...find another way to make money...don't make the rest of us look bad.
To me, making a profit off of shipping is like Best Buy charging you to walk through their doors, or your local grocery store charging a $1.50 to use their shopping carts. It's a service that you provide when you sell your product. Unless you are a professional packer or shipper, it should be as free as you can make it. Otherwise the customer will eventually feel that you ripped them off.
And they likely won't return. That hurts you.
And the likely will be turned off by the whole on-line buying experience.
And that hurts all of us.
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