You're right , the prioroty mail tape is free , but it's pita to use. I've used it , but I buy the shipping tape in a dispenser at Office Depot or Staples. Takes too much time to wrestle with the free stuff.
You can order them online by the case and now they will actually ship as few as 25 , which is the number of boxes in a case , right to your door..... at no charge.
Time is the biggest cost of all.
Time again.....thats a very big cost. And I have never been able to get enough packing material from the trash.
I agree , some do.
As a matter of curiousity , how many here are in a retail business or have ever been ? Anyone here in the hobby business ?
Yes I am. I don't sell on e bay. If asked to ship something I quote a handling charge plus actual shipping cost. If the buyer doesn't like the charges they can make some other arangements.
On Mon, 3 Apr 2006 12:24:15 -0700, "Jim McLaughlin" purred
Like I said they do NOT pick up outside their business hours. If you are working then, tough, no pick up so you have to go to the post office.
Only in some cases. Not all merchants have systems which can use this and this does NOT work with foreign orders (the bulk on my customers are not in the US)
Paper is VERY inferior protection for delicate items. as a legitimate dealer I want the buyer to receive their items intact and that means proper packing using styrofoam packing at the minimum.
That is true but a legitimate handling charge is appropriate. Those with insane shipping are simply ripping people off. It is clearly against eBay's rules but even with complaints they do nothing about those with the exorbitant shipping. this makes it tougher for legit dealers to cover their actual expenses without being lumped in with the crooks.
I was/am a partner in a retail store which specialized in imported models, etc. Like many small hobby dealers high costs and all too few customers made the business impractical so we closed. However we are now doing better selling our stuff on eBay. I have to admit having a whole world as potential customers beats hoping for a few clients from a few towns.
On Mon, 3 Apr 2006 12:52:03 -0700, "Jim McLaughlin" purred
Not usually and I rarely know from one day to the next exactly where I will be at any given time.
And i am going to just leave boxes of sometimes large and heavy valuable stuff outside to be stolen? That is not a wise idea if one lives in an urban area
I usually work a 6 day week, so see the first answer for details.
For the casual dealer they rarely think a month or more ahead of time before listing an item, hence no boxes on hand. commercial dealers do have the boxes but few casual sellers have them or can wait for the PO to ship them.
For me the problem is it makes a label incompatible with my record keeping system so I have to generate custom labels for each item
If you read my statement i said the lead time was a problem for the casual seller, not a regular merchant.
Here and in many other areas the PO charges you a per box fee if you get more than 1 at a time and the larger boxes are almost never available at my branches, just the high priced retail boxes.
Try using that to hold a heavy carton together. also if you use it you can not ship media mail and they will gripe like mad if it is on a shipment to a foreign country.
Handling includes all those costs, just like the full retail price covers them in a regular store. the only difference is now you actually see them enumerated. If one is auctioning legitimately (ie: setting the start price low enough as to be well below retail and does not have a high reserve) there is a good chance the buyer will get the item below retail so the usual costs need to be covered so they are simply listed. Last week i sold the hardtop for my old Triumph. I charged a $30 handling and packing fee. The actual cost was $41. Now where is that wrong? (especially since almost all others insist on local pickup only and I am the only one offering worldwide shipping on everything I sell) You pay handling on everything you buy, you just don'e see it listed.
Nowhere. And it would not have been wrong to estimate the packaging costs and then bill with a copy of the invoice for it, if you had someone else (Boxes, Etc. or such) do it for you. But I'd like to see an invoice justifying some greedy jerkoff charging $12 to mail an HO car or loco.
We frequently mail parcels from mid-northern Ontario to southern Texas. Cost is $12.15 for 1.1 lb or less, $13.15 for 2.2 lb or less. Plus tax plus fuel surcharge. These are "expedited parcels", the lowest rate class available.
Within Canada: a regular parcel to Alberta costs $8.75 for 1.1 lb or less, 9.35 for 2.2lb; or $10.75 and $16.80 by Express Post.
Plus tax, plus fuel surcharge.
Plus filling out forms.
$12 for shipping an HO loco or car is not out of line IMO.
Well, if you should ever wonder why something didn't get the price you wanted, add the ridiculous postage, then see if it's available in the hobby shop cheaper. No wait, and wonder about the mail, either... Also they can help with questions, which most ebay "retailers" have no clue about.
I'm in Australia, and I model US prototype in N scale. I've bought a lot of stuff from the USA.
I've used TexNRails 4 or 5 times without any problems. I've found them to have competitive prices, be responsive to my emails (although sometimes slow to do so), and they have reasonable S&H charges.
I also buy a lot of new stuff on eBay. Over the past year I've bought about a dozen new N scale locos from various eBay sellers. I only pay via Paypal, and I ALWAYS get a quote for S&H before bidding. The typical price that I pay to pack and post an N scale loco to Australia is about US$10 to US$12, but I've been charged anywhere from $9 to $20. I've been quoted as high as $25.
I don't mind the seller charging extra for packaging and his time - SO LONG AS he tells me up front what the price will be. I just take that into account when I bid.
To put it all in perspective, after taking into account the cost of S&H, on average I pay about AU$70 - AU$75 to get a quality N scale loco delivered to my door. Those same locos (if you can find them here) cost upwards of AU$120 each in my LHS. Delivery usually takes about 7 - 10 days.
All in all, I'm a very happy eBayer. By using it carefully (VERY carefully), I've bought a lot of locos that I could not have otherwise afforded.
Australians are great people. I had an Australian sister-in-law and have known many others. So don't get me wrong when I make the comment..." So you are the guy that keeps upping the ebay bid price!" What may be a good buy for you makes it less of a good buy for us here in the USA. However, if it helps an Aussie (or a Kiwi) get a good deal, I won't complain too much.
Would you consider switching to HO and leaving the N Scale locomotives to me? Just kidding Ron! Maybe it was you that I outbid today for that Atlas SD-35.
Happily, I can honestly say it wasn't me ... this time. SD-35s are too 'modern' for me. But I've bought six SD24s, several MTL FT sets and a few other locos from the '50s.
Actually, I find I'm at a bit of a disadvantage because minimum postage for me is about US$10. It's a real pain when sellers have a bunch of cars to sell, but they list them individually. Worst case for me is that I'll win just one for (say) $5 and then have to pay $10 S&H.
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