We recently started adding Buyers’ Fees by Mercari and other Auction Houses. What about Shipping costs and Sales Tax?
The problem with them is that they are location-based. Say for example this Timpo Toy Eskimo –
I know what it would have cost me to get this shipped. But the buyer might have been in Australia and might have paid AU $5.00 shipping. For other price sources like auction houses we would not know if the buyer was in the room or bid over the phone and had the items sent to her or him. We just would not know the shipping cost for our Price Points.
Another issue is that the price guide is also for sellers to determine how much an item is worth when they list it. A seller could think that the sale price plus the shipping cost price is what they can sell it for. Then they would list it at too high a price and be unlikely to make a sale.
Then there is the additional complication: collectors in different parts of the world are willing to pay more than others. Belgian Hot Wheels collectors are willing to pay more for shipping than US collectors as they cannot get many models locally, folks in Hawaii are willing to pay more than others as everything has to be flown in, etc.
Same with sales tax and import duties. Seattle, Washington, charges 10.35%, Fairbanks, Alaska, charges 0% sales tax – so buyers in Seattle know to add around 10% and buyers in Alaska know there is no Sales Tax (but often higher shipping).
It would distort Estimated Values for all to add these extra costs (different to say Mercari’s 13% buyer-related cost that every buyer has to pay). Consider shipping, sales tax, or import duties as an additional cost that you have to pay on top of the Estimated Value (and yes, free shipping when offered does distort our pricing a little bit but there is nothing we can do about it).
So use this formula for your purchases –
And that makes it of course attractive to buy in a physical store (no shipping) or, even better, privately (if the seller is below her State’s sales-tax limit there is none of that either!).
shipping should 💯 be included as there are times when an estimated value is say 120 and someone lists the same item for 90 but with 30 bucks of shipping, when buying, that absolutely affects the price. especially when it’s then put into ppg’s algorithm and it lowers the price. you can have 10 sales at 120 and one sale for 85 or 90 drops it to being 90 or 95 all bc of shipping or bc I few saw the lesser price and then want it for that price so then people start selling the same item for 90 with 5 dollars of shipping dropping the price when that original 90 price was with shipping of 30 bucks. tax i can agree probably shouldn’t be calculated since it’s different in most areas and possibly none in other countries but shipping 100 percent.
a few
now I also could see for normal shipping cost say 5 to 10 dollars, then no you should not list that but when the price is ridiculously lower than the normal estimated value with 30 dollars of shipping then yes it should at the very least be stated that, that was a reason it sold for much less was a high shipping cost
Squad Members will exclude Price Points with extreme high shipping (and as eBay sellers have to pay the same fee on shipping it tends to not happen to much anymore as it used to).
I would say it depends on the algorithm of which the products are getting its value from. Let’s say if Funko pops value on PPG is calculated with shipping, then yes it should be included, because the shipping cost is adding to the value of the Funko Pops. If shipping isn’t included in the price valuation, then it’s just a cost of doing business and should not be included. Honestly, if shipping is being added in the algorithm to find the value, it should be taken out of the valuation, because shipping has nothing to do with a value of a product. It’s like someone else said, everyone has a different shipping cost if any, depending on where they live.
Fully agreed, we do not include it.
ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! I calculate my total expenses on Pop purchases at the end of every year. At first I wanted to include taxes and shipping, but then I realized that shipping shouldn’t be included. Shipping costs vary from seller to seller. Shipping is an afterthought. I look at shipping costs as a favor, it’s cheaper than the alternative of driving to California just to pick it up.
So no shipping costs shouldn’t be included.
ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! I calculate my total expenses on Pop purchases at the end of every year. At first I wanted to include taxes and shipping, but then I realized that shipping shouldn’t be included. Shipping costs vary from seller to seller. Shipping is an afterthought. I look at shipping costs as a favor, it’s cheaper than the alternative of driving to California just to pick it up.
So no shipping costs shouldn’t be included
ABSOLUTELY YES!!! Shipping should be included in the total value of a sale. You see it all the time on eBay and other sites, someone low balling a price and making up the difference (sometimes 3X the sell price) on the shipping charge! This is not a fair representation of an items true value and is causing a continued downward spiral in pricing. Selling an item for for $20 with free ship gets recorded at $20, while someone sells the same item for $5 with a $15 shipping charge gets recorded at $5? What kind of sense does this make?… Tax shouldn’t matter, but adding the shipping charge would resolve this existing continuing problem!
We do not really see many items that cost $5 and shipping $15 sales (that stopped mostly when eBay started charging full fees of P&P), then Squad Members could disregard those Price Points, members can flag them and lastly that $15 could be because the seller is in Hawaii or the buyer is Argentine.
only time shipping should be included is if it’s 20 or more and if the base price is 20 to 50 less than ppg or for that matter, what others has sold it for. I’m sorry but I really don’t care if it’s coming from another country and shipping is 40. either add it in, don’t post it or don’t buy from someone in another country. almost all listings on ebay that is within the US, is free shipping to maybe 15 tops. so I don’t know where you’re saying we never see 5 to 15 dollar shipping cost. those I’m fine with no inputting but 20 or more with a lower price absolutely
Absolutely not.
You’re confusing “cost” with “value”
that’s the point though, if someone sells something that ppg has listed for 120 and someone sells one for say 80 but shipping was 40 then yea it should be added as it drops the “value” bc its only taking into account that it sold for 80 but in actuality, it’s 80 plus 40 which us still the 120. ppg said.
Shipping is the cost you pay for acquiring a product from one place to another and should NEVER be included in the evaluation of the product no matter how much the shipping cost is. It gives no value to how much a product is actually worth. The only place shipping gives value is to the shipping company. If someone wants an item bad enough, they will determine if the shipping cost is of value to them.
Items that show up with irregularities or fluctuating in pricing, should be taken into account and looked at differently when determining the value of those specific items so the correct values can be calculated.
I think mup_ppg talks about excessive shipping charges. As eBay is now charging the same fee on shipping than on the item this is not much of an issue anymore. Where it does occur you can flag the Price Point for review.
To me, the value should be the otal of the item value + taxes + shipping.
For european sales taxes are always included.
And about the difference between including shipping or not, it’s t how much people want’s to pay to get that collectible, calculating shipping from maybe the other side of the world, compared of buying it at the shop next door.
Taxes are local and others would have to factor them out (say if you live in Nevada where there are no sales taxes). They also do not factor for private transactions. Much easier to know that you have to add taxes if you buy from a retailer.
Shipping information is the same (and it is not even available). We would then also have to calculate the fuel and other driving related costs if you go to pick one at a store say one town over.