Potential seller's strange policy

"PayPal and eBay explicitly state that the buyer is not to be assessed the fees and yet I see it all the time. It's time the buyers started telling the sellers to go pound sand..."

That's because PayPal and eBay are the same company. They've always had that policy, but they can only enforce it on eBay. Unless something has changed, PayPal can't stop you from collecting the fee from a buyer on other sites. If a seller on AG charges a PayPal fee, they aren't breaking any rules.

What country is the seller from? I see that your country is Russia which (no offense intended toward you whatsoever, only the potential seller) barely beats out Nigeria as far as potential transactional issues are concerned. There is always another seller, be patient.

I should have mentioned this before, but I have seen many times, where a seller is trying to do the right thing with a policy like this. When a seller charges a flat rate for shipping and fees, they often get accused with trying to make a profit on them. And for the most part its true. Most sellers add a little extra to make sure they're covered no matter what happens. I haven't sold anything in quite a while, but I'm no exception. None of us wants to loose money when we sell something. But my point is, some sellers want to be completely honest and only charge actual fees. Not a penny more or less. I'm not saying that's the case here. I'm just presenting a different view. For all I know, the seller could very well be dishonest.

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I see nothing wrong with the seller asking for a separate
payment/invoice for shipping if it's going to be the actual
shipping charges. I wish that I had thought of it in the
past. I've been killed on shipping several times on items
that I've sold. But, if I thought it would help the item
sell faster, I'd just go with the flat/estimated shipping
rate and eat the difference.

If this was an item that I just HAVE to have, I'd just pay
the extra fees to obtain the item. I wouldn't waste time
haggling over shipping if the estimate was anywhere near
reasonable.
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While I have sold items overseas they were small and I have never had a problem. They were all sent by USPS.

Larger items can get much more complicated and shipping can get into hundreds of dollars so I understand the sellers system in this case because shipping cost can't be figured in advance.

Personally I would just forgo foreign sales entirely to avoid the potential nightmares and headaches, customs being one of them.