Shipping costs

[tparker]

I was recently looking at a carburator linkage stud and an alt spacer and was disappointed at what people charged for shipping. These are small items and shouldn't cost much. I order used books from amazon and they are usually in the $4 price range. One company charged a $10 handling fee on top of the item and shipping. A lot of these companies were also charging a lot more for the item than other vendors. For instance, some venders were charging almost $20 for the alt spacer plus the handling and $8-30 for shipping depending on the type.

In any case I bought the carburator linkage from Mancini for $15 or so. They didn't list the shipping and said they would calculate it later and charge it then. I was nervous but though I would take the risk hoping it wouldn't be $30 or something crazy since there didn't seem to be an approval process. I just got the invoice and and they charged .... wait for it..... $2.93. Yup that is it. Not $30. No Handling fee. That is very reasonable and makes me willing to buy more stuff from them.

I understand shipping can be expensive for moving metal based products, but some of these charges are crazy. I think charging handling fees is lame. Just raise your prices.  That is the cost of doing business. When I order a hamburger I don't get a handling charge. Actually some places have started that after covid ugh.

Anyways, shout out to Mancini Racing and others charging reasonable shipping rates.

[Dakota]

   Shipping on small parts is a killer.  I went to Carlisle for the first time after my car was back on the road.   As I walked though the vendor tents, it dawned on me that I could've offset the cost for the trip by avoiding shipping on all the small parts if I'd purchased. 

[Blowout]

I was just venting to my brother about this. I usually buy shipping tags at work for used stuff I buy on the forum or other places. I just recently bought some used stuff and about crapped my pants when I saw how much it was. Prices have gone way up on shipping recently. 

[pschlosser]

When it comes to ebay listings, I pay special attention to shipping costs and I'm learning costs are indeed going up.  Overcharging for shipping fees on ebay is another way a seller makes some extra cash.

[dodj]

Inflation has been bad in Canada,  but after a recent two month stay in AZ,  I think you Americans have been hit even harder than us. Just my

[cuda hunter]

I just paid 350 bucks for shipping from France.
3 Lb package.  I'm sure there will be an import fee that I have not seen yet. 
Turned down a few items recently because the shipping was around 100 bucks due to size.  A tube that was 4 feet long from Idaho to Colorado.   100 bucks.  That's ridiculous.

[70vert]

Shipping costs have definitely gone up, but as @pschlosser it is also a way to make/get a profit. Shipping $$ is not just the freight charge, there is also the box, packing material, sometimes insurance, and the time to do it all. All of that has to be re-couped.

I hate it too, but alternatives are minimal 

[Katfish]

Little known fact, EBay takes the sales price, adds the shipping charges, adds the sales tax they collect from buyer and charge the seller 14% or more on that total.
No one is making money on shipping charges on Ebay.

Example, sell something for $100 with a $20 shipping fee, the total with a 7% sales tax gets the total up to $128.  EBay gets $18 from the sale.

So assume it "only" cost $10 to ship.  Seller nets $92 ($110 - $18)
And they report the proceeds and seller has to now pay federal tax at 15-25% further reducing actual income

[70vert]

I never use eBay, or FaceBook for the shipping and payment! I take PayPal (or cash/check) which also charges a fee, and I use PirateShip. Best shipping prices and so easy.

[tparker]

Not sure about ebay because it doesn't make sense to automatically add shipping charges. Charging $100 for for a 318 motor and shipping it is not the same as charging a $100 for a rare stamp and shipping that. So weight is an obvious factor. Other factors are size. I think 8 foot length is also another consideration. I need t be a special "stick" that is 10 feet long. It costs about $100, but shipping is usually well over a couple hundred dollars. The funny thing is, it doesn't matter if I buy one or 30, the shipping is the same.

But there are lots of sites similar to ebay were they sell items for a super cheap price but then add a crazy shipping cost to them which brings them back to the price of others or slightly more. Probably to capitalize on impulse buying, then when you see the total in your cart you probably figure you might as well buy it cause it is the same price as the others and your too lazy to delete it and search for it again. Psychology.

I have not problem paying legit shipping, but most shipping seems to be on the high side. It is probably a hard problem because you don't know what the actual shipping is until you actually ship it. Hopefully most of these people use those estimaters. But in any case as I mentioned, I was charged $2.93. And the item cost less than $15. On ebay the same/similar item costs between $18-$22 and has a shipping cost ranging from $4.90-$5.50 with no direct correlation to the price. Not sure how it is calculated, but higher price doesn't dictate a higher shipping price and vise versa. Here is the search I used. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313&_nkw=1970+mopar+carburetor+linkage+stud&_sacat=0

OK $2 isn't much and I'm not quibbling over $2. But the initial post was more about some venders charging well over $10-20 for the cheapest shipping for something small and light. And when you need to buy a dozen items from different venders this starts to add up. When shipping is the cost of the part, that is 100% mark up.

The alt spacer from the mopar shop was $10 and shipping $4.50. Many people sell them for about $15 and ebay shipping charges are any where from $7 to $18. One vender was charging $18, plus $10 for the cheapest shipping AND $10 handling charge. This is what prompted this thread to start with.

I agree no one is getting rich, but if your buying more than an occasional part your best to either shop around, take that long trip to the store, or wait for a swap meet. Actually, some one is getting rich. If the actual part costs less than $3 to ship (what mancini charged) but others are charging $5-$7, then someone is making money even though it might not be the vendor.   These two parts cost me almost $50 and if I would have noticed I need them a week earlier I could have got them both at a local mopar carshow & swap for under $10 for the pair.

[MoparLeo]

Double the cost is 50% not 100 % mark-up. 100% Means the item was free to begin with.
If something costs you 50¢ and you sell it for $1.00. You made 50¢. A 50% profit.

[tparker]

Ha, thank you for catching my bad math. What I meant was more that the cost to the customer not necessarily the the mark up. I don't mean to sound like a dick, and I really don't mind a profit being made. I need to support people so I can buy these parts after all. But it seems there can be nearly a lot 75-100% difference in prices between some vendors and shipping that is anywhere from 2-3 times as high. I just wanted to point out that some venders out there are catering to those of us that perhaps can't afford a convertible hemi challenger  .

[RUNCHARGER]

I needed a thrust button kit for my 8 3/4 power lock. $20 part from Dr. Diff. End cost with mail was $71.73CDN. Honestly the "hobby" isn't fun anymore. I don't listen to the excuses anymore, I just refuse to participate in the raping.
I won't participate when a supplier wants you to prepay and then wait 1 year for parts, I don't want to hear the excuse.
I won't participate when a supplier has the tooling to make your parts in Taiwan and maybe they'll make you that part in a year or two because they don't want to stock them and you should be happy about that.
I won't participate when suppliers make parts that won't fit and know about it and don't care.\
I won't participate when suppliers make parts that either won't work out of the box or will fail before the Visa bill gets paid on them.
Business CEO's make multi millions of dollars a year in wages and their job is to (&%@ the consumer and &$(& runs downhill. The American business model is severely flawed and a reset is going to be painful but it has to come.

[Jay Bee]

My least favorite is not knowing what the shipping cost will be until you bought the item and checked out. I guess you can always cancel the order and get a refund but who knows if you'll get hit with a restocking charge. Yeah, even before it's shipped.

[70_440-6Cuda]

I think in most cases it is not the sellers, but rather the sign of the times.  I sell a lot on eBay and other forums to purge old junk from the house.  Not a business, just a way to get rid of things we no longer need / use.  I remember being on eBay way back in the '90s when it was like a virtual garage sale and that was awesome because you could find great things for reasonable prices.  It has become an Amazon competitor, and now I have to consider in the end what it costs me to sell something.  Generally, if it is not worth over $200-300 we just give it to the local Goodwill store.  Minimum to ship a book is now $3.65, plus if you have to buy a padded envelope or box and someone has to spend the time to pack it, even 15 minutes to box, weigh, print a label etc costs money. The hassle of shipping and the costs are often a deterrent for me to sell anything and I often just throw decent items away as not to deal with it

With everything being online these days and the cost of fuel going up routinely shipping costs are not likely to go down any time soon.