[Ham-Computers] Free Shipping was Laptop Battery

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

RAH (Robert A. Heinlein) said it best decades ago when he coined the 
acronym TANSTAAFL (there ain't no such thing as a free lunch).  eBay's current 
management is besotted with FREE SHIPPING.  We get numerous emails and several 
phone calls a month from them trying to tell us we should start offering it. 
 When I point out that shipping isn't free and is getting more expensive 
every 6 months (USPS) or 4 months (UPS), they disengeniously say off-handedly 
"oh, just raise your price to offset it.  Buyers are looking for it.".   
What eBay's management apparently thinks sellers are too stupid to realize is 
that if you do that, eBay get's a cut of the increase.  

I was recently looking for a part to repair an uncommon 
soldering/desoldering handpiece stand.  I was looking on eBay and elsewhere at cheap single 
iron stands as they appeared to have the part I was looking for (rest of that 
story is detailed on another list so I won't repeat it here).  I noticed a 
number of sellers both on and off eBay who offered the same stand both with 
and without free shipping.  The total cost of all of the ones offered with 
free shipping was about 10% greater than the cost of those that didn't plus the 
cost of shipping.  Which simply proves that many buyers may be but most 
sellers are not stupid.  

The moral of the story is that if you need a laptop battery (or anthing 
else), look for someone selling good ones.  You are going to pay for the 
shipping one way or the other.  Anytime the deal looks too good to be true, it 
always is.  TANSTAAFL.

> >Anybody in the list know of a good source to get a laptop battery that 
> might 
> >be offering free shipping?
> 
> 

Robert Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480