I can deal w/ the ridiculous prices some guys "think" they can charge for the figures but, I see more and more scalping going on w/ the shipping. Check this out:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...5961051690&rd=1

what can you do? email the guy and complain? He won't care, but I totally understand where you are coming from.

If you could win that for $200, even with the outrageous shipping, it'd only be about $21 a figure. Considering there's a Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Powermaster OP, and Hot Rod in the set, that's not too bad of a price...

What I do is check what they've actually payed for the shipping before I leave them feedback. I don't mind a few quid for time, packing material, and travel costs. But if they've taken the p155, then e-mail them and ask for some money back before leaving feedback.

This guy's not necessarily charging an arm and a leg for shipping, so much as he's trying to keep his Ebay fees low.

 

If he didn't charge this much for shipping, you could be sure that the auction would have a $200 reserve price.

 

The real rip off is that he's going to ship it USPS "Media Mail" rates, which are way lower than the normal ones, and it's illegal to lie about media mail to get those rates, so there is a chance that a package this big will get opened, searched, and sent back to sender. A possible big headache for the buyer.

him... after reading where it from I want to go watch family guy...

I wouldn't consider anyone a scalper unless their asking price was way above retail costs. This seller started the auction at a very low price so as long as the people bidding on it are aware of the high shipping price and bid accordingly then I don't see a problem with it at all. If someone puts a high bid without checking the shipping costs and ends up with a big surprise at the end of the auction when they win then it's their own fault for not reading all the details of the auction.

 

Just because people sell tf's on ebay doesn't automatically make them a scalper. After all, in most cases it's the buyers who drive up the costs so if sellers end up with a big profit then I don't have a problem with it so long as they started the auction off with a fair asking price.

:pfx I sold a LOTR Peter Jackson figure on Ebay for like $45.00, plus shipping. I paid $7.50 for it, but I only started the auction at $8.00. My thinking was that if I could turn a few pennies profit or better, I'd let it go, and if not, I'd keep it. Little did I know, it was a shortpacked rare chase figure. Big surprise for me, but did that make me a scalper? No way... but if I went out to 7 stores looking for and buying every Peter Jackson I could find for $7.50 each, and then put them up for auction one at a time, for $30.00 each with $20 shipping, THEN I would be a scalper. There's a huge difference.

If I had the money I'd buy them, since those figures are not available here, and never will be.

:pfx I sold a LOTR Peter Jackson figure on Ebay for like $45.00, plus shipping. I paid $7.50 for it, but I only started the auction at $8.00. My thinking was that if I could turn a few pennies profit or better, I'd let it go, and if not, I'd keep it. Little did I know, it was a shortpacked rare chase figure. Big surprise for me, but did that make me a scalper? No way... but if I went out to 7 stores looking for and buying every Peter Jackson I could find for $7.50 each, and then put them up for auction one at a time, for $30.00 each with $20 shipping, THEN I would be a scalper. There's a huge difference.

Wow, I would have loved to have that...