Sales: truth in weight?


I see many listings for the same item and weight can go from an actual weight to insane numbers up to triple its actual spec. Do you feel some abuse this estimate in an effort to profit and if so do you call out sellers on this?
I made a purchase once and the shipping quote the seller gave me from their own weight estimate was almost three times its actual value so I asked for the item to be re-calculated. The seller was gracious and all was fine but do many buyers accept what the seller tells them, and if you do when item comes have you ever noticed the item is way off from what you were told?
Should part of a sellers integrity include an honest estimate of weight (knowing that actual double boxing and protective packing can add a bit to the total)? I am mainly talking about items such as Music disc's, CD players, amps and items that typically dont have super high weight and should be fairly easy to estimate accurately.
chadnliz
If I don't know the weight of an item I will usually look at several ads for the same or similar items to see if it's in the ballpark. My experience has been that many members underestimate the weight of an item, leading to higher charges at ship time.

I usually make an offer inclusive of shipping so that if the seller grossly under-estimates it's on him to make up the difference.
When I did question shipping cost regarding an LP being shipped by Media Mail (THE cheapest and slowest form of delivery), I was informed that the inflated cost was for shipping AND handling. This was not part of the ad and nothing that I know of can be shipped without being handled. I no longer buy from this seller even when he has something of interest (which is often).
Undoubtedly some sellers inflate the weight to try and make more profit, but I think it's mostly bad estimates. People in general are lousy at estimating size, weight, numbers and time. Unless you have a scale at home, it's easy to be off by a factor of two or three if you're just picking something up and guessing the weight. Most won't bother to take the goods somewhere to get them weighed.

I never had a bathroom scale until recently when my doctor recommended one to keep track of some medical issues. I found a digital one on sale for $10, and it's remarkably accurate. I've shipped a number of things since I got it and it's never been off by more than a pound. If you do a lot of shipping, it would be a cheap way to get accurate weight estimates, even if you don't care what your own weight is.

Like Rlwainwright, when I'm buying something I tend to make offers inclusive of shipping to avoid any problems or hard feelings.

As an aside, 25 years ago when the UPS limit was 50 pounds, I had a UPS driver that could pick up a box and tell whether it was 49 pounds or 51 pounds. Amazing.

David