Price differences
Hello warmly!
Could I ask for an explanation of an issue that concerns me? Why are there such significant price differences? On the main auction page, there's a much lower price than on the details page of a selected auction. The price differences pertain to both the item and the shipping costs.
4 comments
darksideoftheo
·1 year agoThis is very troublesome when browsing listings, and I looked into this matter myself, having already had some experience with buying on eBay, where in the final settlement the breakdown of items to be paid for looked different than in the calculations before it (only the final total matched). First I ruled out the login option (via ebay.pl), and then I compared listings from the results list with the pricing information already shown in the listing. To standardize the analysis, I compared listings from the USA with shipping to Poland via the so-called eBay International Shipping (that is, a system that should already calculate all the costs of acquiring the item up to the moment of payment).
So: usually the item and shipping prices in the listing were higher than in the view on the search results list; sometimes only the shipping price was higher, and sometimes both amounts were the same. In addition, by clicking the additional shipping information, calculations appeared that were presented differently in different listings, and it often happens that there is information about "possible additional charges". And how should that be interpreted when there are so many inconsistencies?
So I asked eBay support, who sent me a response translated from English into Polish (the most important fragment):
"Also, allow me to clarify that when an order is shipped using eBay International Shipping, buyers are charged the item cost, shipping cost, customs fees, as well as VAT charges, regardless of the amount threshold. Here, when you make a purchase with the eBay International Shipping option, you will receive the listing price without VAT, shipping cost without VAT, customs duties and VAT will be displayed separately. This is the reason why, when you make a purchase, you see such differences.
However, whenever you decide to purchase and want to see all the prices you will need to pay when making the purchase, you can always add the item to your cart and go to the checkout page. On the checkout page, you will always receive a price breakdown of each cost that has been charged to you on eBay. This way you will have a clear picture of what you are paying and you will not have to face such confusion."
So these are differences resulting from the addition of the (inevitable) VAT, both to shipping and to the item. A listing with eBay International Shipping should also immediately add customs duty. The service’s final suggestion is: put the item in the cart, and at the end you will receive the final amount to pay.
That sounds right, but not always possible, because an auction listing cannot be put in the cart, so you have to check this on a listing of similar value with the "Buy It Now" option. And then there are still listings with shipping that skips eBay International Shipping. What about those? These doubts, inconsistencies in the calculations (e.g. a listing included paid shipping, and after adding it to the cart it became free) and the information given in the listings were left unanswered and only summarized with "we will pass these comments on to our technical department".
To sum up: when buying from outside the EU (e.g. the USA, Japan, the UK), you should always assume the most expensive variant:
1. The purchase may be subject to customs duty. In my experience, at amounts of 500-600 PLN there was no duty yet, but for example for an item from the USA for $255 and shipping of $53, the duty was $15, i.e. almost 5 percent.
2. To the LOW item price from the LIST (i.e. the low price on the list, but higher in the listing), (possible) customs duty will be added, and VAT will be added to it (depending on the item category: up to 23 percent), i.e. to the shipping and to the item. If the amounts in the listing do not change, then you have to assume that they will still have to be paid - if not at checkout, then in Poland when passing through customs.
3. eBay International Shipping is fairly safe for one reason, namely that you pay upfront what is due and that’s it. In the case of shipping handled by the seller, it is worth finding out which freight forwarder will handle delivery to Poland. Polish Post, when going through customs processing, adds a fee of under 10 PLN to the parcel, but courier companies are a completely different story, because their price lists are MANY times higher than the postal one.
4. eBay basically operates on credit card/PayPal payments. My purchasing experience shows that these payments end up with fees of 4.5-6 percent relative to the currency exchange rate from Google at the time of payment.
In the case of auctions, it is worth checking this beforehand to avoid unnecessary costs and stress later - for yourself and the seller.
darksideoftheo
·5 months agoI'm back with a few more observations, further complicating buying stuff on eBay 😉
So I tried to order a figurine and a comic book from a seller in the USA. Although the system suggested in the listings that after adding them to the cart I would get a discount on the combined shipping, it didn't turn out to be that simple. In my case both items had "ebay international" shipping, but only the figurine had it in the listing info, in the shipping section - under > - with a choice between "prepay" (prepay import fees; then the shipping was shown as lower, at $65) and "defer" (defer until delivery, which was higher, at 78).
I put both items in the cart and clicked "go to checkout" (meaning the final step before purchase).
And yes.
Only for the figurine (see above) were there options to choose between "pay import fees on delivery" (pay import fees upon delivery) and "prepay import fees" (prepay right away).
When I chose "prepay", there was no shipping discount in the summary (30+65 for separate ?? shipments), VAT was added. Total: 348.50.
When I chose "pay import fees on delivery", the shipping discount worked (as if the book was by default set to the same option, so a "common denominator" appeared), because the total came to $80, and there was no VAT in the summary. The total came to $280. With the second option I would probably have had to pay VAT similar to the calculation for the prepay option, and definitely VAT on the items.
And what happened when I left only the figurine in the cart? As I wrote above: shipping for _prepayment_ was $13 cheaper. Why? I don't know. In both cases VAT was added (for the prepaid one a few $ less, because the shipping amount was lower).
Why was VAT added for the figurine under both payment options, but for the figurine with the comic only for prepayment? I don't know.
In the end I took only the comic, and in the summary it added 5 percent VAT split between the item and shipping.
What happened next?
Shipping in the USA and Germany was handled by DHL, which was confirmed by the tracking numbers (three different ones) provided by eBay. However, after it reached the Polish branch, the trail went cold, because none of the numbers could be entered in the Polish DHL tracker. Who took over the parcel? Poczta Polska. I found that out not from the PP website, but from the Postal Ninja portal, which identifies from the tracking number who handles it at each stage. Surprisingly, the parcel was delivered by the postman, and on a bicycle 🙂 And what about the extra charges? Only the customs handling fee (11 zł), i.e. the universal fee for going through customs.
So is it better to prepay everything when using the eBay international shipping option? In theory, yes. In the summary we have the amount to pay (which will increase by that 5-6 percent fee for currency conversion when paying by card or PayPal). On arrival there will be only a symbolic fee left.
When ordering parcels from shops in Japan, however, I learned that something in the customs system can sometimes fail, because even though I paid VAT in advance, after they went through customs they charged it to me a second time, pointing to the shop's fault (which was doubtful to me). So the "pay on delivery" option also isn't without sense, provided customs doesn't slap on the wrong VAT rate 😉
marek101
·4 years agoPrices are in zlotys on the homepage and in dollars on the auction page. If you compare by converting to one currency, it comes out the same.
You're probably looking on .com?
grmar-69
·3 months agoNo. Both are in zlotys.
In the list of offers, the price is, for example, 200 zł + 160 zł shipping. When you open that offer, the price is, for example, 243 zł and shipping 192 zł. I'm looking at .pl.
I don't understand that either.