I've just looked up - for the first time in probably a few years - Giles cartoon annuals that we used to collect back in the UK. They largely seem to be fixed price. The prices seem OK but the postage is CRAZY! Is it that much to post a Giles Annual (within the UK, never mind Canada) these days? Or is this just a rather clumsy way of hiking the total price to the purchaser? Or is it a VAT dodge?

I can't imagine it would cost GBP15.99 to post one annual across the Country. Whatever happened to the bidding thing? That used to be fun! Does anybody still bother with ebay - even UK to UK? Seems a bit of a rip-off to me!

Is it showing the postage to the UK or are you logged in as being in Canada? (I've just had a look for Giles books and the postage within the UK is far less)

Ebay in the UK is still worthwhile as a buyer for bidding.

In Canada it is quite often more expensive than the shops and mainly only links to things that are in the USA. Or things that are in China, pretending to be in Canada.

Excessive postage is quite common, but also not allowed and commonly reported to eBay. I used to report it every time I came across it.

I buy my boresnakes on ebay,can usually get a 2 in different calibers delivered for around $8,they cost $25 in the Canadian stores!

You know - I have no idea. I never thought of how I'm logged on. I just logged on as I always have. Do you think it identifies my ip address and adjusts the postage accordingly? I'll try later on the laptop with the expat shield VPN thingy turned on.

Cookies, if you've ever logged in from here, it will show postage to Canada option at the top of the screen. You can select a different country in that pull down to change the postage.

It calculates postage dependent on what address is listed as your main address. So if thats in Canada it will automatically give postage to Canada, unless you specifically go to the postage page for the item and ask it for UK postage. Nothing to do with IPs or VPNs

I think I've sussed it. I hadn't actually logged in. Once I did (ebay still has our old UK address) the postage came down. How did it know to give me postage to Canada before I logged in if it didn't recognise my location as being Canadian? I have never put my home (Canadian) address or any information into Ebay? Or into Paypal for that matter. Surely it must have recognised my IP address as being Canadian?

Correct, bases it on IP address.

If nothing to do with IP address, how would ebay know where I am? Worrying with a small "w" if they can track me by other means.

Can't say I really care, more curious.