As a counterpoint to the “if the buyer doesn’t want to pay fees or send me a check then screw em” mentality, let me offer that as a highly rated seller on Audiogon, I always bake the fees into the price as the cost of doing business. If the fees make the price undesirable, then I eat them. Also, the cost of doing business. I have never once asked a buyer to cover my costs. If I can’t cover my own costs, then I don’t sell. Simple. I own a small company and approach doing business with my customers the same way. If I can’t afford to sell something, I don’t.
As a buyer on Audiogon, I have agreed to pay the fees as part of the negotiation to get the overall price where I wanted it, but tend to steer away from “Buyer Pays Fees” listings unless the inclusion of those fees still puts the overall transaction price where I want it.
Under no circumstances, would I send a check or money order sight unseen to anyone. As a consumer, I then have zero recourse should I be cheated without involving law enforcement which is a headache that no one wants. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Audiogon and PayPal provide an extremely valuable service that makes transactions in the 1000’s of dollars relatively safe on the Internet. To try and avoid or cheat either of these vendors of their rightfully deserved fees is unethical and in some cases, illegal. Not to mention, it cheats them out of the funds that allow them to continue providing what I consider to be a valuable service that the absence of would descend our online marketplace into chaos and rob honest sellers and buyers the opportunity to enjoy our hobby.
