SouthGain Blog

For some of the most popular Diana Stalder items in our eBay store, we have both fixed-price listings and auction listings.  Our auctions are normally listed with free shipping, and the bidding starts at the same price as our fixed-price items.  We also include a “Buy It Now” price that’s equivalent to our regular fixed price plus standard U.S. shipping costs ($2.95 for individual Diana Stalder items).

So if you’re a U.S. buyer and you only intend to purchase a single item, your cost is the same whether you buy the fixed-price item and pay shipping or you do a ”Buy It Now” on the auction item and get free shipping.  But if you intend to buy more than one item, whether you buy from a fixed-price listing or an auction listing can make a big difference in your total cost.

Hopefully an example will help illustrate.  Suppose you live in the U.S.  and you’d like to buy a Diana Stalder Papaya Kojic Soap, a Diana Stalder Surely White Body Whitening Lotion and a Diana Stalder Surely White Whitening Cream with standard shipping.  If you buy these items from the eBay fixed-price listings, your invoice will look like this:

Remember, for fixed-price Diana Stalder items in our eBay store, U.S. combined shipping is $2.95 for the first item plus $0.95 for each additional item.  Now, if you buy these same items as auction listings, using the “Buy It Now” option on eBay, your invoice will look like this:

So you could have saved $4.00 by buying everything as a fixed-price listing and taking advantage of our combined shipping discounts, as opposed to buying from the auction listings and using the “Buy It Now” option.

But you might be able to save even more by bidding on the auction items if you have the right combination of patience and good luck.  If you watch the auctions closely, you might be able to win some items for the minimum bid price, and combined with free shipping, this can really give you the best savings.  Here’s an example, using the same items above, and assuming you win each of the auctions for the minimum bid price:

This represents a considerable $4.85 savings over the fixed-price approach, and a whopping $8.85 over the “Buy It Now” auction listing approach!  Of course, there’s no guarantee with auctions.  You might be outbid at the last second and end up having to wait for the next auction (or remember, you always have the option of just buying from the fixed-price listing).  But if you’re a savvy eBay buyer, bidding in our auctions might just be the best approach for you!

Bottom line, if you intend to buy multiple items, your best bet is either to buy from the fixed-price listing (to save on combined shipping), or to try to win the auctions at a lower price.  If you buy multiple auction items using “Buy It Now,” you are definitely spending more than you have to.