I don't mind the clarification Helmut
you do get a discount when buying online and it does vary per package.
however, while a single poster in a box weighs
15ozs, one you introduce a second poster it is
over 1lb which makes you pay the 2lb rate. it is
rare that I only sell one poster to any buyer.
However, using your $9.97 rate, I'm still losing
money on each package if you look at my maths.
This may not have a poor affect when you're
selling items over $100, but the cheaper items -
of which our hobby has more of every day as
thousands more items get pumped out every week at
$1 bid (or even just how many sell below that
magical $15 poster some people stand on their
soapbox about) - still are losers in labor & costs
clearly however you do understand the 40%
discount that you are ultimately giving when you
sell that $50 poster for $30 online and I agree..
It's a difficult price point, but again, as those
thousands of items get pumped out week-after-week
under that magical $15 price point, that 40%
discount seems more onerous every day
I can also add that for every dollar I have
increased postage over the past 10 years, my
final value price for any item is reflected in
that and decreases, so it's a loser again.
here was my favorite from 2013, for an example on how bad it can be
I had some silent era half sheets listed in
auction, as usual starting at my 99 cents at the time
somehow, these 2 listings actually sold for just
opening bid 99 cents each and to two different
bidders, one in California and one in New Jersey
so shipping $10 and shipping $14
well these two buyers both balked at the shipping
costs with the reason "but the poster only cost
99 cents!" even though one admitted his proxy bid
was $37, the $14.99 total cost was too much.
Both buyers backed out. Interestingly, I was
going to lose money on both sales after packing &
shipping and I was the only person willing to go
through with the deals. It's insane or inane (you
choose) but at least I got to keep both posters,
one of which I later sold for $50 at Cinevent
Rich
At 01:15 PM 7/9/2015, Helmut Hamm wrote:
Rich,
I hate to contradict you, but if you buy the
postage online on the USPS website, for a 2 pd.
package it's only $9.97, not $11.55. Single
poster orders should not exceed 1 pd, so for
these you would pay $6.51 for postage, if
purchased online. With all due respect, but I
can't see how you're losing money here.
As to your 40% discount example: To each his
own, but if I start giving discounts in this
range, I feel I could as well replace my price
tag with a 'make offer' button. Seriously, I
don't mind the occasional discount on selected
items, but 40% on a single $50 poster purchase?
I'd rather have you take your business somewhere else.
Personally, I have decided to keep my shipping
rates as simply as possible: For up to nine
folded posters, I charge a flat rate of 5 Euros
in Germany, 8 Euros to any location worldwide.
For rolled posters, or larger orders, I charge a
flat 15 Euros in Europe, 20 Euros worldwide.
These rates include tracking and full insurance,
and unless you require UPS or Fedex, 20 Euros is
the maximum I charge for a single order, regardless of size and destination.
On small orders (total weight of under 1 pd.) I
make a tiny extra, anything beyond that I lose
money. I probably lose a good deal of money this
way every year, but I also get ZERO complaints about my shipping rates.
Cheers,
Helmut
www.filmposter.net
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 09. Juli 2015 um 21:37 Uhr
Von: "Richard Halegua Posters + Comic Art"
<[email protected]> An:
[email protected] Betreff: Re: [MOPO] HA shipping costs
folks.. let's get real on shipping costs. to do
so, I'm going to explain what shipping is like
to sellers first of all, while it does seem that
buyers pay shipping costs - it isn't completely
true (if it's true at all) for instance, let's
say you as a buyer find something in a store for
$50. You want one, but you say "let's see if I
can find this cheaper on the net" you look and
find one priced at $40, but the shipping cost is
$10. That equals $50 and is no deal, so you keep
looking. you can't find another, so you contact
the seller and ask if he'll go $30, which he
does, you pay $40 total, get your item. But the
dealer.. he's really paying the shipping. Why?
Because in order to sell you the item, he had to
drop $20 from the original price, originally
discounted to $40 and then custom discounted to
$30. That $10 came out of the seller's sale, not
from your pocket. The dealer's total discount is
40% of the "list price" the bigger problem to
the dealer however is that the $10 shipping cost
didn't really cover all the costs. when I get
$14 to ship a package to NYC, I'm actually
losing $2-4 per package! why? well a 2lb package
(any package with 2 posters is over one pound)
costs $11.55, so after shipping itself, there is
$2.45 left for labor and materials my materials
cost for a simple package: 2 pieces of cardboard
@47cents (shipped to me)= 94cents. a plastic bag
16cents, a label (& ink) 42 cents. tape, order
print out, maybe a flyer and then, labor. How
much is labor per package - well I know as we've
done all the actuarial stuff here. no person who
has ever worked for me ever made more than 5
packages per hour and the average is 3.5
packages per hour. easy math, if I'm paying $10
and hour, that is $3 in labor per package. So
94+16+42+3.00= $4.52. add another 30 cents for
the misc (tape etc) and you have about $4.82 in
packaging costs, but you only got $2.45 to cover
it. So there is a loss of $2.37 per package. It
gets worse if the item is rolled as I can't put
that in any of the free packaging boxes that the
USPS provides. a Tube costs $1.67 shipped. Or if
I have to use my own box because the Priority
Mail box is too small or whatever reason. $2.37+
$1.67= $4.04 loss, per package think of doing
that 50 times a week. it becomes a serious extra
cost and was one of the reasons I had to stop
doing a weekly auction (aside from just being
enable to do that much work, even with help)
International orders used to be even worse,
because unless your package was shipping
Priority Mail, I had to stand on line at the
post office to do the mailings. Okay, here's
that math = 20 mins drive to the po, 30-45min
line wait & counter service (sometimes even
more) and then a 20min drive back. a hour or
more of my time and I couldn't send any help as
I either paid with a check or my card, which an
employee couldn't do and my hours are more
costly than an employees. Thankfully, I finally
was able to get Stamps.com installed on one
computer (it only works on one computer. all
others it freezes up..what a pain) so now I
don't have to stand on line at all but what's my
loss on international shipping? It's more than
the standard loss on domestic as I must use all
purchased packaging now I don't want to seem
unsympathetic to buyers domestically or
internationally and I understand your pain, but
really when I hear people complain about
shipping costs - why don't you just stick a
screwdriver in my ear as the pain on my side is
not much different that said, I've posted that a
new auction begins on July 29th we'll have a
semi-regular monthly auction, probably 8 or so
auctions annually. Auctions will all start at
$9.99 or $10.00 (I believe my software does not
allow cents - I have to check) and the auction
will have lobby cards for Jailhouse Rock, the
Outlaw and others, folded one sheets (including
Jaws 1975R), promo items, and other stuff that
can all ship in a single package. a further
announcement will be coming after I finish
photographing the 150 or so items for this
auction. thanks for reading. stop complaining
Rich At 08:16 AM 7/9/2015, Simon Oram wrote:
Tommy, can I ask you something you mention
business practice at the end of your post. Is
this something that you think only applies to
other people or do you think your business
practices are exempt from scrutiny and public
discussion? Just I find it a bit rich coming
from yourself after having my one and only
dealing with you, no abuse intended but I was
waiting for you to produce the big smoking gun
or did you want everybody else to do it for you
before you had your say. Simon From:
<[email protected]>Tommy Barr Sent: Thursday,
July 09, 2015 3:54 PM To:
<[email protected]>[email protected]
Subject: Re: [MOPO] HA shipping costs Since
March 2012, I have bought a total of 182 items
from HA, ranging in price from $16 to $621. They
have obviously posted many packages to me in
that time, and mostly without any complaint on
my part about shipping costs. Recently, however,
I have had cause to question the cost. The last
shipment I received was initially invoiced to me
at $147.06, which I queried. I was informed that
HA had charged me at Fedex retail rate and not
their discounted rate, so the invoice was
reduced to $103.25. Even so, that was expensive
for a small box of folded posters, especially
considering that the previous charge from HA
was for 3 packages sent together containing a
mixture of rolled and folded (approx. 11
folded, 3 rolled including 1 linenbacked, 3
lobby cards) for which I was charged the not
entirely unreasonable amount of $122.75. I
asked that they quote me for shipping before
sending any future packages, and I received a
quote (comparing like for like) of $221.97. That
was for 13 folded and 1 rolled (linenbacked)
poster, similar to that previous shipment in
size but almost $100 more. I asked for a
breakdown of the cost on 20th June but received
no reply until yesterday, when I was sent
exactly the same quote with no reference to my
query. (As a matter of interest, the value of
the posters in question is just over $1,000 so
not, as Simon deemed to suggest, cheap
purchases.) I buy from several other U.S.
dealers and have found their postage costs to be
reasonable, and certainly never as expensive as
Heritage. I have been willing to pay their
shipping charges, however, as obviously they
have an attractive offer, in the same way most
people are prepared to pay their buyersâ
premium even though other online poster auctions
donât have one. In this instance, though, I
find it totally unacceptable, which is why I
have asked other MOPO members if they have had
similar experiences. Why some have a problem
with that I fail to understand. If MOPO exists
to allow collectors to discuss matters of
importance to members (and they don't all live
in USA) and not simply for advertising sales,
then surely the business practices of one of the
hobbyâs biggest players is a matter for
discussion? Tommy On Thu, Jul 9, 2015 at
3:36 PM, Helmut Hamm <<[email protected]>[email protected]> wrote:
Am 09.07.2015 um 13:28 schrieb Simon Oram
<<[email protected]> [email protected]>:
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,
with all due respect, but I also had my
grievances with Heritage's shipping department
in the past
Several years ago, they had GREAT
rates with Fedex, two-day international
delivery, for less money than USPS Priority Mail.
Unfortunately, the Heritage shipping department
was repeatedly unable to give me ANY estimate
upfront. Nobody over there was able or willing
to tell me, what the best option for my
deliveries would've been. In consequence, I had
to make a blind choice, and pay whatever they charged me.
I mean, we're not talking about a couple of
bucks here: Take a $10 poster purchase, with
buyer's premium you're at roughly $25, add $40
for shipping and 19% import tax, you end up
paying $77 for what started out as a $10 poster.
In consequence, I complete gave up bidding on
low-key items with Heritage, since they usually
ended up costing me WAY too much money.
On a related topic: I guess I am somewhat
sensitive about shipping costs, but I still have
to see the reason why so many ebay sellers feel
they are untitled to grant themselves a
substantial premium for shipping outside the US.
None of those guys would dare to charge $25 for
a domestic package, that costs them $5 to ship,
yet they have no hesitation to charge $40 for an
international package, that costs less than $20 to ship.
Also, the common shipping option I see listed is
Priority Mail International. For most of my
incoming packages, that's a waste of money. It
DOES take an extra click on the USPS website to
find the cost for First Class Mail
International, and one more click to choose the
free 'delivery confirmation' option, which will
provide full tracking all the way to Germany.
Then again, why go the extra mile and ship for
$20, when you can make your buyer pay $40 and ship Priority?
Helmut
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