I'm still mystified...

Sellers like to have the asking price as low as they can to attract buyer attention and further down the ad add the additional fees that are part of the transaction. This is not unusual because there are few things that you can buy without paying some kind of additional fee.

Buy a pair of speakers at your local dealer and that $1,000 cost you agreed to becomes $1,070 when he rings it up due to sales taxes.

It’s nothing to get angry about. Costs for the seller can vary depending on whether the buyer can pick up the item at the seller’s house and pay cash vs shipping across the country and paying with Paypal. Don’t get mad, offer the seller what you want to pay including Paypal and shipping and see if he accepts your offer.

glupson, so let me get this straight, you don't mind making 1,000 posts of questionable value bickering with geoff, but you won't deal with someone who adds Paypal fees to his asking price?

What do you call what you and geoff do, if not playing games?

I have NEVER seen this kind of "hidden fee" or "extra fee" behavior in the industry with audio electronic equipment.

Saying "sales tax" is part of this thing is not a good example because you have sales tax with any item purchase you make locally in your own state.

I can only think that you guys are not paying attention to the receipts you are receiving every day. Yes sales tax is charged on every purchase you make and it is almost never included in the price the seller quotes to you before the purchase. Why doesn’t that upset you?

When you go to a restaurant the menu gives you a price for your meal and then the owner adds sales tax when you pay for it and you are also expected to pay 15% or more to cover the cost of having someone serve you your meal. Shouldn’t the restaurant owner include that in the price on the menu? Shouldn’t paying his/her employees be his/her responsibility?

Have you ever looked at your utility bills? There is a list of taxes and fees you are required to pay in addition to the charge for water or phone service or electricity that you use.

Get the oil changed in your car and your bill will include various environmental and disposal fees.

I could go on, but you get the idea. Don’t deal with people who add Paypal fees if it upsets you, but understand that Paypal offers much greater protection and benefit to the buyer than the seller. Just look up some of the Paypal threads on this forum.

Don’t just meekly accept all the taxes and fees added to purchases you make every day, refuse to do business with these ripoff artists! If you don’t, eventually the fees and taxes will exceed the cost of the item or service you purchase.

No that’s not what they are doing. The people upset with sellers who add Paypal fees in their Audiogon ads but do not apply this reasoning to other products and services they purchase are using poor judgement about what is important and what is not and are unlikely to confront business owners or utilities or government agencies about excessive or undisclosed charges, IMHO. That is their right, but they may miss out on some really good audio deals over nothing, IMHO.