01-08-2007, 09:09 PM
I've been unloading some no longer used household stuff over the last few weeks. On one $25 sale last week, I was badly surprised to learn that on an $11 shipping cost there were additional charges of $4.00 or so for rural delivery plus a fuel surcharge of 41 cents. eBay's freight calculator does not take those additional charges into account so I had to eat them. Fortunately I had included a $5 handling charge, primarily to pay for the gas for the 40 mile round trip to town, but that was eaten up by the surcharges. I have also started including a couple of extra pounds in the shipping weight in the auction description to make doubly sure I am not subsidizing the shipping cost.