I can only speak for myself. I have shipped about 75-100 bikes but will no longer ship bikes. My reason being is that we now live in an "Amazon" type world where people are so used to returning items that they think nothing of getting a bike and decide "it is just not for them" and say they want to return it. Or going to Home Depot to buy a tool, use it a week, then return it which seems to be common place in this world today. It used to be an item had to be defective to return it, then it kind of went to being able to return an item if it was not used or opened. Now it seems like anything can be returned for no reason at all, even when well used. I know people that order a dozen pair of new shoes online to try on like they would in a shoe store, end up keeping a pair and ship the others back for a refund without any problem or even leaving their homes. That seems to me to have carried over to bikes and people think they should be able to return it at the seller's expense for any or no reason. Forget Ebay, they side with buyers all the time. Someone buys a cheap $200 bike on Ebay, pays the $200 to have it shipped to them, tells Ebay there is a scratch on the paint on the underside of the frame that wasn't shown in any photo or described in listing, BOOM, they get the $200 back they paid for bike as well as the $200 shipping which makes seller whole, and you have to pay for their $200 return shipping. So seller is out $400 to the seller for the purchase and shipping to them which they did receive, but in addition they are out as well another $200 for the return shipping they must pay for. And then seller gets a bike shipped back which hopefully has not had any parts removed, and are out $200 on the transaction. A lot of buyer's know this and I think they hope the seller just tells them they can keep the bike rather than be out another $200 to supply them with a return label. There are a lot of ways that buyers on Ebay can take advantage of the buyer protection by asking seller's for partial refunds, hoping the seller does not respond to return request and then Ebay after so many days will refund buyer their money and say they can keep item, things like that. But not just Ebay, unless you use Friends & Family, Paypal can refund money to buyers. And even if you use Friends & Family, or get a good money order or cashier's check, I do not want to tell a buyer I will not refund their money even if I feel I am in the right. Just do not want to deal with this at all anymore. I have never charged anything but actual shipping charges to ship a bike, no packing, material fees, or drop off fees, but would still have people complain about shipping costs. I know how to pack a bike well, so damage is not a big concern of mine when I would ship bikes, I just hate the hassle of dealing with people that feel they have a right to return anything.
Oh by the way almost forgot. I sold four 5 speed Mantas the past year and a half and have an idea of values for these, look to be each $700-$1000 non disc brake bikes. Parts wise, the set of shifters, overload tubes, and seats on the pair are worth the $1000 ($500 per bike), not a whole lot more for the rest of the bikes, but still some pretty good meat left on the bones. As long as a seller states no shipping in the original ad, I have no issue with that. I do get a lot of people who have friends or relatives pick up bikes I have for sale for out of state buyers.
