As A Seller? A Lesson Learned

I've sold a lot of stuff on ebay, but never coins. Most of the time, for low-value items, I don't bother with delivery confirmation, and I've never once had someone claim they didn't receive my items. Yet I've seen many sellers talking about their coin shipments never being received (or, more accurately, buyers claiming they never received them). Are ebay coin buyers more likely to be scam artists, or, for shipments where a person can see it's a coin, are postal employees helping themselves to a freebie?

I don't fully believe that the seller is responsible to get the item to the buyer beyond shipping it in a secure, reasonable fashion. Ideally, if the post messes up, the buyer and seller should SPLIT the loss. I would do this with people I know. Not the way it works on paypal, however.

My experience is the other way around.
I never sell anything through ebay. I bought a lot, or I must say I snipe a lot. Few times if the price is way low, the sellers acting stupid. They pretend they send the merchandise in the hurry, forgot to buy delivery confirmation, will never do that again. I knew their trick, they send my money back in the hurry. For something like that, I would like to expose their name in the forum.

That's Amazon, small time sellers aren't the same as big time retailers. You have the responsibility to ship something in a reasonable fashion (not an envelope for something worth $1000 for example) but beyond that...obviously if you want to please people though, you probably refund them anyway. The buyer pays to get the item, but the post office messing up is beyond either party's control...ESPECIALLY if the buyer specifically asks for the cheapest method. I guess a reasonable compromise is charging for tracking, but if the buyer opts out they should have to eat the cost.

The shipping company (no matter who it is) works for, and is hired by, the seller so the seller is responsible for them also.

Small seller/large seller has nothing to do with it. The large seller might have a slightly better loss experience because they package and label better, and they negotiate much better shipping rates, but the rule still is deliver or refund.

The little guy had better insure a $1000 item, simply because a loss like that could be devastating. If he shipped hundreds of similar items a day, he'd either have a corporate policy, or figure losses as a cost of doing business.

Most volume sellers can tell you their losses are one per 1000-2000 packages. If you only paid $1 to insure up to $50, it quickly becomes obvious that you pay $1000-2000 in insurance for one $50 claim. Now you know why the PO clerk always suggests insurance!

I do exactly the same thing no matter what I sell. I will tell them in the description what the shipping charges are and will even break down the price to them so they see I don't make a dime on the shipping, I just tell them I want to make sure it gets in their hands instead of being left on the front porch where anyone can come by and pick it up. I have never had a problem since I started this and hope to never have one but hopefully if I ever do I will have all the proof needed to have a claim come out in my favor

quote][/quote]If you do a refund keep in mind USPS won't open a claim till at least 30 days after item was to arrive