Should Second-Hand Buyers pay back YOUR shipping?

I'm one of those people who would never expect to get back what they paid for a doll anyway so I would certainly never try to recoup my shipping costs. It's tempting as a seller to push to the top limit of what the market can support but mostly I'm more concerned about getting a quick sale and not feeling guilty afterwards about overcharging.
As a buyer, I'd begrudge paying someone elses shipping charges for them but if it was something I really wanted I might still pay the extra. At the same time I don't mind paying extra for a now unavailable limited with rarity value, it's just covering their shipping I don't like because I dont see it as an intrinsic part of the item's original price.

 

Nicely put!! My sentiments exactly

I feel the same way about charging purchase price for a 2nd hand doll, actually. Unless it's something rare, hard to find or has the most stunning faceup in the entire world -- or some other special quality that actually makes it worth more USED than it was NEW, what I'm selling (or buying) is a USED item. Of course it shouldn't be priced at its original price and of course I shouldn't expect to either charge or pay the original shipping.

It's like driving a new car off the lot. It has depreciated the second you take ownership. Cost of doing business.

 

A secondhand buyer should never have to pay purchase price (Especially plus shipping!) for a doll that is still available from the company, as far as I'm concerned. The second you open that cardboard box, another person will not get the experience of doing so with that doll, and thus the value has just depreciated. The more time goes by, the more the value of the doll depreciates, unless the sculpt becomes retired, sold out, or otherwise goes off sale.

This is one of my pet peeves, actually--the people in the marketplace selling dolls several months-several years old and trying to get back exactly what they paid for him/her when the doll is still available new. By that time, it's not even just the fact that someone else has owned the doll previously that kills the value, it's the inevitable yellowing/fading! Trying to charge the same amount for a used, damaged (Yes, damaged--as far as I'm concerned, when someone is selling a doll yellowing constitutes damage, simply because it's heavily undesirable and most people try to avoid it.) doll as for a brand-new doll is just flat out wrong.

 

As Inigo Montoya once said: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
"Scalping" seems to be turning into the "elitism" of 2010.....

 

I'd be totally OK with the new trend if it meant that anyone not taking equal interest in every gallery thread posted, or preferring to buy a certain style of doll, wasn't accused of elitism every twenty minutes. *runs away cackling evilly*

Ahem. But. Yeah. That isn't scalping.

People will charge it or they won't. People will buy from those people or they won't. It's legal to do, people disagree on the morality of it, but it just isn't an issue I can manage to get worked up over.

 

Well for me personally, I don't like the idea of people charging to recoup shipping costs. As far as I'm concerned, shipping contributes to depreciation in the value of what we collect. If a doll passes through so many hands, pretty soon it has been paid as much to ship as it was to purchase. I keep a running tab on shipping charges I have paid and it's close to $400 so far (and I've only just started in this hobby six months ago and have four dolls!)

That said, of course sellers can charge whatever they want, and I do appreciate the breakdown. Sometimes an aftermarket Resinsoul will be priced higher than retail because it has a custom, professional faceup. Sometimes it will be priced higher because it's sold out on the official site (*cough* Soom MD's)

However, from my personal opinion, I feel there's some ethical hazyness to charge your shipping costs to the next buyer. I tend to pass on sellers who try to recoup their shipping, personally. It can turn a pretty regular $20 outfit into a $50 outfit and it's rarely ever worth it.

EDIT: Also, wanted to add that I have no problem for people charging the full retail price for a "pre-owned" doll, especially if it's in good condition with the packing material and stuff. For me that's just the savings of immediate delivery rather than waiting a month or two for the doll to get made!

 

If I want an item and it is within my budget I do not care if it is original second hand or fourth.
I chased my doll's previous owner around three message boards, craigslist and finally ebay until I got her.

She was over priced but I absolutely loved her from first site and I got her because she needed a home where she will be loved and taken care of.

So no I do not think it is wrong to add what ever amount on to an item you purchased if you are going to resell for any reason.

 

I believe so too.

One is because i would be the buyer [ two NOT the seller] and if i would buy it with the same price+shipping from the marketplace . . . Why not buy it from the company? Get it first hand and get some free stuff too! >__<

Or maybe i will buy it . . . IF it is Limited Edition and i really loved it, why not?

 

I think it just comes to what the seller believes to be his/her moral obligation to do. And while as a buyer, I don't agree with the seller putting their own shipping costs in the price, it's really just up to them. Of course if it's a regular edition doll, I might as well just order right at the source =P

 

heck no. just... no. No way would I pay that as a buyer.

...So as a seller, I'm not going to include that in my prices. The buyer has to pay shipping from me to them, anyway. There's no reason to charge more. I "tried out" the doll. Reasonably, I shouldn't expect that time to be free by making the next buyer pay for every little penny I put in.

 

The only reasons I would ever buy a doll itself secondhand would be either to save money on shipping ($62 for my next one from the company!), or if it was a limited doll that can only be bought secondhand. If a seller priced a normal doll including shipping from the company to them, why would anyone buy it, when they could buy a brand new doll from the company for the exact same price? For all I know the doll could be yellowed or have bumps from having it already shipped to the seller. I personally would never pay that price or include it in a doll I would be selling.
You have much less of a choice with limited dolls and are practically forced to pay whatever jacked-up price they are selling for if you really want the doll. It may not be "ethical", but there's nothing that can be done except to find another seller, which can be next to impossible for some limiteds.

 

If you expect me to repay your shipping cost, I will not buy from you. It defeats the purpose of using a second-hand market. End of story.

 

Princess Bride reference FTW!

Scalping means buying up most or all of an item so that you can force the price of it up and reap the profits. Adding in shipping costs to the price of a doll is not the same thing.

If it's a limited doll or no longer for sale, you can price it at whatever the market will bear, and that is not scalping either. I don't consider it unethical. This is basically a collecting hobby. Varying values on items is normal in collecting. If it's a standard doll, easily available, I wouldn't buy it from the MP anyways, so it's a really moot point for me.

 

Actually, that's what scalping is: to resell at greatly increased prices. Your definition would be a monopoly, or cornering a market.

 

Well, here's what a business site said on the matter:

1. Attempt to take maximum financial benefit of the scarcity of an item (such as tickets to a sellout show) by hoarding it.
2. Trading strategies in which goods or securities are bought and sold for small, short-term, profit during a trading session, rarely carrying a trading position to the next day.
3. Spreading favorable but false information about a good or security to boost its demand and then unloading it. Also called pumping and dumping.


Taken from here: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/scalping.html


Adding shipping prices to the cost of a used doll doesn't fit my definition, your definition, or the business dictionary's definition - unless those shipping prices were reaaaaally high.

 

I think most of people said it before. People are allowed to do whatever they want with their dolls, and that includes setting a price when they sell them. Now I don't agree with the practice, mostly when they're selling a doll you can still buy new from the store. Now if they're selling a limited item or discontinued, then why not? The buyer will choose anyway whether if they want to pay that price or not.
I've never sold anything doll related, but if I do, I'll sell it lower than the store price (even my limited items), because that's what "second-hand" means to me.

 

It's a pet peeve of mine, really...expecting me to pay for your initial shipping cost in addition to my own. So basically, you got the doll shipped for free and I pay for shipping twice. Not on your life! Whenever I see this in the marketplace, just one word comes to mind...greed. And I do not care to do business with greedy people, simply put.

 

I wasn't referring to adding original shipping, I was responding to your general statement regarding charging "whatever the market will bear," which is exactly what scalpers do. So the first definition agrees with mine. The 2nd and 3rd definitions are peculiar to securities trading, and don't apply here.

I happen to agree with you, selling a second hand doll at full price plus original shipping is not scalping, it's just overpricing a bit (and most people who do that would actually be scalpers if they had a limited or discontinued doll, I suspect).

 

When I read the definition of scalping, I specifically am mindful of the last part: "...by hoarding it." This eludes to the idea that people buy a doll specifically to sell it for a profit later. I know there are definitely some people that buy Soom MDs specifically to turn them around and sell them later at a much increased price. While it's not scalping to sell a doll for "market value" which can be much higher than retail, scalping is a term used to specify that the seller intentionally bought it in the first place to turn around and make profit by taking advantage of market situations.

I get the impression that sometimes they attribute this increase in price to their shipping cost just to make it seem like they are not intending to sell it so far over the retail value just as a matter of course.

I know I personally look up the retail price of everything on the marketplace to compare what it is really worth without paying back a seller's shipping. I know I have turned down several items when they were priced about $20 over retail. It's really not my problem what other people paid for their shipping, and I do find it unethical to charge for this. If someone wants to do the math and see that what the item might have cost if they bought it directly from the company then it's up to the buyer to do their homework.

 

Nope. No way. When I'm looking at a doll on the MP that's not a limited and still available I look up the current selling price sans face-up and use that as a starting point for what I'm willing to pay, then start depreciating for age and damage. I'm not interested in paying anything at all for face-ups because I can do my own. I'm not willing to pay the seller's original shipping and I hate paying PayPal fees and will avoid that when possible.

There's a doll on my wish list right now on the MP that was priced at full new price plus original shipping and this doll is over a year old and significantly yellowed and yellowed in parts, not all over. It's been reduced a little but is still is more than a new, blank, undamaged doll. I honestly don't know what people are thinking when they do this. I guess they enjoy the act of bumping or something.

It's not 2004, these items are not that scarce any more and we're in a worldwide economic recession. For standard dolls, it's unreasonable to assume you'll make your original price back, much less original plus shipping.