I built my entire layout for a little over 20K, with every item from on line retailers and much from Ebay. No hobby shops within 75 miles that catered to O Gauge, and never heard of O scale'. No scratch building supplies, except for Michaels. Prices and shipping on Ebay has been on the incline for the past few years. I' found brand new items from retailers 20 to 30% less than the same item on Ebay. I started my layout in 2012 and completed in 2020. So, back then, they were instrumental in obtaining many of the items I required. Now days, I find most items over priced.... But, if you care to spend the extra time searching, a decent deal can still be found...

Andre, I believe your right on shipping being in the[ Stupid range] If the seller is HIGH on shipping and I would like to Bid on sellers Item I send them a message saying I would like to bid on your Item but your shipping is to High 90 percent of the time I get a response and they change there TUNE on shipping

Unfortunately, some of us live in model railroad drought areas where there is simply NO retail shops or such. (Nearest ones I know of are hours away.)

For me, whether I like it or not, eBay is somewhat a necessity, especially when it comes to desired items that are out of production/etc. I'm a member of an HO swap list... but there you have to wait and hope something you can be interested in comes through eventually. At least with eBay I can use a Search function, and frankly, most secondary sale items pass through far more often than other venues.

Shipping is getting in the "stupid" range, and I feel that many sellers use shipping as a means to gouge the purchaser. My response to that is: I don't purchase. For most of the things I would be interested in, typically the same item will become available from another seller, and often at a more reasonable shipping rate.

Andre

Craig, I just sold 4 items today and combined shipped using the method below.

First class box: The best way to combine shipping on ebay is to go to "manage shipping settings" and use the "flat shipping rule" it will add how much "you" wish to charge per additional item. The buyer doesn't have to play email tag BS game lots of sellers choose to do.
I charge a flat rate of $4.50 for the 1st item and 30 cents for each additional items. If I have a large item such as a kit box I'll make the flat rate item higher. Anything over 15.999 oz is priority so figure carefully. Anything under one pound is shipped 1st class unless the buyer asks for the upgrade.

It’s stuff like this that keeps me away from eBay.

I recently could not figure out how to get combined shipping on a purchase that I wanted to make. I contacted the seller and he said that if I bought the items, he would credit me the extra shipping back, and he did. You could always go thru that approach if there is no other way.

I also sell (and buy) on eBay. Yes, it's on the buyer to request that combined invoice; some stores do have it set up to automatically calculate combines shipping. But it's largely not automatic.

When I'm selling, I manually go in and adjust shipping for buyers of 2 or more items. I even issue refunds now and again.

Craig,

mwbpequod is "correct" in his statement above. I sell on Ebay too and it is up to the buyer to place the items in a cart "before paying". You must ask for a combined invoice from the seller, wait for an invoice to be sent, then you can pay for your items. If the seller dosen't resend the invoice, you can message them in private message system, tell them what items you wish to purchase, provide him with your zip code, (with this, he can determine your location to lower shipping costs), (without it, he does not know how much to charge you), and ask them to combine items you wish to purchase. Obviously, this "is" Rocket Science...

That's not eBay.

If you go into your cart and request an invoice and get no change in shipping - not combined - - that's the seller.