MREInfo.com

I don't know if anyone is interested, or not. I just thought I'd pass this along. I found someone selling cases of TOTM meals on eBay. This is just one of the several listings I saw.

http://cgi.ebay.com/MRE-Meals-Ready-To- ... dZViewItem

They all lok to be from the same seller. Current price is $20 per case with $25 for shipping.

This looks like the second round of eBay auctions from this guy for TOTMs. For the first round, I think he had $30 for shipping, which means he was trying to really rip people off for shipping. Now that it's $25 for shipping, he's just trying to somewhat rip people off.

If you can win the auction for $20, then the shipping makes it reasonable for a case.

A year or so ago, another forum member complained about sellers like this who padded their shipping as a way to avoid eBay fees on the final auction price. He said this was against eBay policies. I tried to look into eBay's rules under "fee avoidance" but couldn't find any specific rule banning this practice. If someone else can find the rule and point it out, I'd be happy to report people like this and get their auctions shut down.

Sorry to vent, Lifesaver, shipping-padders really get under my skin sometimes. But thanks for pointing out the auction to us!

I guess it would depend upon how he's shipping it. The over the counter UPS rate from Ohio to the West Coast is over $26 for a 20# parcel, the weight of a case of TOTMs. And those people that use eBay's shipping services usually pay a premium above that for eBay's overhead as well. That shipping charge may not be as unrealistic as it seems. Especially if you take into account the current price of fuel (thanks to the high prices in the Midwest, you can now get gas in California for less than the national average ). FedEX Ground might be a little less, but probably not by much, and the USPS Parcel Post charges are now pretty competitive/comparable to those of the private carriers.

As for the fee avoidance issue, quite honestly eBay seems to be pretty selective with their enforcement of that rule. It looks like many of the eBay sellers from China (including those who use a US address as a front) use that as a means of selling their wares (e.g. 99¢ for an item and $10 for shipping) and they've been doing it for years. It's not just the matter of fee avoidance, but also a means of ensuring no-returns as the buyer would only be entitled to what they paid for the item, the "shipping" portion would be forfeited.

kman wrote:This looks like the second round of eBay auctions from this guy for TOTMs. For the first round, I think he had $30 for shipping, which means he was trying to really rip people off for shipping. Now that it's $25 for shipping, he's just trying to somewhat rip people off.

If you can win the auction for $20, then the shipping makes it reasonable for a case.

A year or so ago, another forum member complained about sellers like this who padded their shipping as a way to avoid eBay fees on the final auction price. He said this was against eBay policies. I tried to look into eBay's rules under "fee avoidance" but couldn't find any specific rule banning this practice. If someone else can find the rule and point it out, I'd be happy to report people like this and get their auctions shut down.

Sorry to vent, Lifesaver, shipping-padders really get under my skin sometimes. But thanks for pointing out the auction to us!

kman wrote:
Sorry to vent, Lifesaver, shipping-padders really get under my skin sometimes. But thanks for pointing out the auction to us!

No problem. I hate those that charge excessive shipping fees too. As pointed out by MCIera, you see all these $.99 auctions with $10 - $20 for shipping and handling. Even if the item is total junk, the buyer is not likely to return it as they forfeit the shipping charges and only get back the purchase price. By the time you factor in return shipping, you are out far more than the item is worth.

For all of you wondering about the high charges:
These are the official Dutch postal office shipping fees for sending packages SURFACE Mail from the Netherlands to the USA. The prices are in Euro’s!

0 - 2 kg: 17,95 €
2 – 5 : 22,95
5 - 10 : 34,95
10 – 20 : 53,45

I will not bother you with the charges for Air Mail…!

Please note that almost each week the dollar is getting less worth compared to the Euro. 1 USD = 0.71 Euro. Paypal fees also have to be calculated (approx. 5%).
As you can see, International postage is extremely expensive!

Aquarius,

I understand that overseas air mail rates have gotten very high. However, the seller for the TOTMS that I linked to is in the United States. He's in Ohio.

Actually some of those Chinese listings are a bit more blatent than that with prices like $.01 with a $50+ shipping fee.

Lifesaver wrote:As pointed out by MCIera, you see all these $.99 auctions with $10 - $20 for shipping and handling.

The USPS no longer has International surface parcel post available. Parcels will all be processed by air now, and charged at the air mail rates. A postal clerk remarked to me that they'll probably get their greatest volume of complaints around the October time-frame when people start sending Christmas parcels to relatives overseas.

aquarius wrote:I will not bother you with the charges for Air Mail…!

Sounds like the USPS has surrendered the surface shipping market to UPS and FedEx.

Sorry, I left out the word International, I've since updated my posting to reflect that faux pas. We still do have surface parcel post domestically and it's comparably priced with that of UPS and FedEX, but without the delivery commitment times.

kman wrote:Sounds like the USPS has surrendered the surface shipping market to UPS and FedEx.