Another eBay Double Take

Nancy Drew Book Lot Matte Picture Cover Mystery Stories Item #300274857260

Question: Me, again! Found the Nancy Drews - media shipping? Combined shipping if I win both? I want these, but to be safe I'm not going to bid until I hear from you that you'd be willing to go the media mail route.

Answer: Please dont bid if you are demanding as part of the sale to ship media mail it may cost more than the calculator is showing.

I found the other auction in which the buyer first asked the seller about media mail shipping.

VINTAGE 12 TRIXIE BELDEN CHILDRENS CHAPTER BOOK LOT Item #300274866929

Question: Is it possible to pay for media shipping for this item? Thanks!

Answer: There are two reasons I do not have media as an option, Ebay has changed the shipping rules and they use a grading scale to determine if sellers are charging to much, the problem on books is that the vast majority of sales is for one book thus making a "lot" of books trigger there overcharging system. So sellers are using UPS instead to get around it, also media in a lot of cases are even more expensive what I ussually do is try it both ways when I ship and see what the better deal is, So if you win and media is a better deal I will refund the difference. Thanks

This puzzled me when I noticed that media mail was an option in the shipping calculator section of both auctions. Huh? The Nancy Drew books had media mail quoted at $14.28, and the Trixie Belden books had media mail quoted at $7.78.

First, I don't understand why the buyer asked for media mail when it was an option. Second, I don't understand why the seller stated that media mail was not offered when it was offered. Third, from the amounts that showed in the shipping calculator, the seller did use calculated shipping which is the only way to get the media mail postage to display at greater than $4.00 in the books category. Fourth, for a heavy lot of books, media mail is not more expensive than other options. I have noticed that when a seller sends a heavy lot to me via UPS instead of media mail that I usually pay more for shipping than I otherwise would have. I do not follow the seller's reasoning.