I am in the process of building my poster website for the collection I have acquired over the past 42 years. David Rew in Australia is building it for me and we have discussed the shipping issues, especially international shipping, at length. I have also consulted other poster dealers for their input. I opened a small ebay store about a year ago as a precursor to the website so that many of my fellow collectors and current framing clients would be aware that I am now in the process of selling the collection. I only allowed for domestic shipping. I have had several requests for international shipping have obliged those buyers but let them know in advance that the shipping was high. For instance, shipping a tube with minimal insurance to England is about $50-$55 via the post office. I just shipped a presskit to Australia, with $300 insurance and it was $66. That wasn't with any fancy shipping just the minimum the post office required to get it there insured. It would have been even more if I use my FedEx account with which I get a sizable discount because I ship about 40-50 boxes of frames per day. As a collector, I have always concerned myself with the shipping and have to take that into consideration when I purchase a poster from whomever. That is the overall cost of the poster. As a shipper, I can say one thing that customers don't take into consideration is the labor and materials involved in the shipping process. Tubes and boxes aren't cheap and, for many big companies, multiple employees have to work the shipping department. Even at minimum wage, employee salaries and matching taxes is expensive. I'm not trying to justify the shipping costs, I'm just trying to add a bit of info that can also drive up the cost. Most sellers have that cost billed into the price of the poster or the price of doing business. But I can see, especially with smaller dealers, that can be tough. With more and more people selling posters, and more and more collectors making lower offers for the posters (not in the auction arena, but regular websites), the seller has to charge whatever the shipping is to him. Just because a large seller or company charges $10 to ship your poster doesn't mean that is what it is costing them. In most cases it's more but the sale price of the poster offsets that a bit. I have had people who buy from me on Ebay ask me why it's $12 to ship a poster when someone else is $8. I explain that I ship the poster fully insured and via FedEx and that it will actually cost me closer to $15+ for the actual shipping charges, not to mention the cost of the tube and packaging. I am not a poster shipping expert and can only speak due to the number of boxes I ship per day of frames and those boxes are very expensive. For instance, we charge $24.95 to ship a one sheet from California to New York and the actual shipping is closer to $30 and the cost of the custom box with packing materials is almost $5, but if I charged what it actually cost me to ship that box, no one would believe me. So, shipping is a major issue in our hobby. The bottom line is that, no matter the venue you use for shipping, it is very costly and going up all the time, especially with the post office, whom I feel is trying to catch up to FedEx and UPS...just my thoughts.. Sue Hollywood Poster Frames
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2015 12:48:34 +0100 From: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MOPO] HA shipping costs To: [email protected] Exactly what I was talking about. Why does Simon feel the need to abuse me and make assumptions without any evidence to back it up? On Thu, Jul 9, 2015 at 12:28 PM, Simon Oram <[email protected]> wrote: Look Tommy, what do you want out of people? You sound aggrieved that only Michael answered your question, isn't that enough or do you want repeats? Look Heritage's shipping charges for the weekly slots are expensive for overseas buyers on cheap items or items that you thought you got for a bargain price , so move on and don't buy from them anymore or better still set up an address in the US to get all your stuff sent there, if you can. What more do want? Simon Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone. From: Tommy BarrSent: Thursday, 9 July 2015 11:25To: [email protected] To: Tommy BarrSubject: Re: [MOPO] HA shipping costs Thanks to Michael for responding to my query. I will provide fuller details of my grievances in due course, but in the meantime feel obliged to deal with some of the other comments. I have no wish to cause offence here but it is possible that offence will be taken - if that is the case my apologies in advance, but I do not want to start a slanging match. I asked anyone with international shipping from HA to get in touch with me, and so far only Michael has. He has what he perceives to be a genuine grievance, yet others with apparently no direct experience of the issue in hand seem very willing to accuse him of bellyaching unjustly about shipping costs, which might prevent others with similar problems from contributing. I have noted during my relatively short time as a MOPO member that there is a tendency to revere Heritage in general and Grey Smith in particular. The latter certainly seems to have friends and allies on the site. I do not know Mr Smith apart from exchanging some emails, but he is the director of a very influential and successful auction house, so deserves some respect. That does not, however, exempt Heritage from criticism, and I think international shipping is one area where there is, to say the least, some confusion. As I said, more on that later, but in the meantime all I ask is that the matter is allowed to be aired fairly and without prejudice. Tommy On Wed, Jul 8, 2015 at 10:58 PM, Michael Greenwood <[email protected]> wrote: Just to be clear, my cheapness is just that...it's not a condition that results in me thinking that everyone should honour the International shipping charges of six years ago or something. I know that shipping is expensive and I buy with it in mind. Almost all my records are now ordered through a shop in Toronto and I drive down once a month and grab them. Gas costs $ too, but not as much as shipping. Plus I see friends and have a nice meal! Ones I cannot source through them must be shipped and I deal with it or I don't get the album. However, I do try to make the shipping count and try to get as many records as I can (under a certain weight) if I am shipping. It takes work, this saving money! I'm only chiming in on my experiences...the original post wasn't explicit in what they were looking for as far as experience with Heritage but I thought I'd throw this out. M From: MoPo List <[email protected]> on behalf of Todd <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 8, 2015 5:50 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MOPO] HA shipping costs Michael, et al: I don't like to be ripped off for shipping either and when selling on ebay, I ONLY charge the ACTUAL SHIPPING CHARGE and don't charge for materials or handling. And for shipping outside the U.S., I'm happy to remove the Global Shipping Program option or sell directly. Todd Date: Wed, 8 Jul 2015 16:32:18 -0500 From: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MOPO] HA shipping costs To: [email protected] Michael, et al: I think that people in general still think that shipping is cheap; it isn’t. Kirby On Jul 8, 2015, at 4:24 PM, Michael Greenwood <[email protected]> wrote: Hello I'm writing because I've recently had an issue and it's something that's happened before so I thought I'd air it out and this shouldn't be read as Heritage bashing or anything too mean. I'm in Canada and the last five years has seen a tremendous jump in International shipping and especially from the US. I also collect records so I was very used to being able to estimate shipping for most standard orders of both forms of posters (rolled/flat) and records until the $ starting getting nuts. My first problem came when I found out that Heritage would no longer hold items beyond a maximum of three invoices. This was never how it had been for all the time I was buying there and had become used to and there was no warning of this and, at the time, I had amassed a good collection of stuff I wanted to ship as I always had...in one bulk go. It saves me a lot of money that I can continue to spend on paper rather than stamps. I started getting a bunch of shipping invoices as my stuff was filing out of Dallas three invoices at a time. It was going to cost me around $500 to ship all my paper so I freaked out and called them to stop. I had bought many posters that were cheap simply due to the fact that I knew (or thought I did) that they would be shipped along with the cream of the crop at little extra charge but now that the rules had changed, I'd have to rethink those buys and I was considering re-consigning them rather than ship them as it was way too expensive to consider. Thankfully Grey got involved and helped iron some stuff out and gave me a bit of an extra break in invoice shipping when I explained my predicament...I don't hold him responsible, naturally. It seems that what worked fine before no longer does and all I can guess is that more shipments out means more handling/material fees...more money for Heritage. Unless there is a reasonable explanation for the change I haven't been made aware of. But my most recent issues have come from me alerting Heritage that I want my items shipped and them sending them in two different shipments. I understand that rolled are rolled and flat are flat but the old Heritage understood how to put tubes in boxes and ship in one piece with ease. This is important in Canada as excise taxes are a reality as are brokerage fees and two packages incur two charges at the USPS end as well...costs that can be drastically cut by combining the items. Then extra customs processing equals extra fees and, again, I am spending more of my money on less posters. And I ask that they be shipped in one package and I am not consulted when they just ship it in two rather than contact me and work out how to do it, as I'd wish. On top of all that complaining (I am super cheap when it comes to costs OUTSIDE of the paper I want) I do want to point out that Heritage is by far the most expensive of the four main auctions that I regularly follow. They charge both handling fees and fees for materials and they are not cheap. I complain and I always hope that a sympathetic Heritage employee will just up and confess that they are what I assume they are...a greedy corporation trying to roughly yank every cent from my wallet in any and every way that they can...but nobody answering my emails has offered that as an explanation so they just kinda quote figures and such and remain kinda vague as to why my directions are ignored and I have to pay for it. Rich, Bruce and Peter all hold items for me for reasonable times and/or amounts. I am eternally grateful for this (and for Heritage's efforts in this too!) as it makes a really big difference now that International shipping is almost ridiculous. Bruce charges very little for materials and no handling that I know of. I don't detect any excessive charges from Rich either and Peter is just completely remarkable...give lots of business too all these people and maybe if enough people complain, we can bring these other, more serious capitalists around to helping the guys who help them exist to keep supporting them. Thanks, M From: MoPo List <[email protected]> on behalf of Tommy Barr <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 8, 2015 12:55 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [MOPO] HA shipping costs Hi fellow Mopoers, Some of you must buy from Heritage Auctions but not live in USA, and I would be interested in hearing from you regarding the amount they charge for shipping to your destination. Tommy Barr To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 Kirby McDaniel [email protected] To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
