Shipping inside the US?

[Out2gtcha]

I just went to purchase some MRP "RAF PRU Blue" from my normal go-to Sprue Brothers, and put the paint in my card as normal. No real surprise there, but its thinned quite a bit, and a bottle can last me 5+ years or more without drying out, but the real shock was next.....

 

After I put the paint in my cart I calculated shipping to my door, which as the crow flies is about 2.8 hours and got a bit shock; $16.00+  USD in shipping for 1 bottle of MRP paint!

I went to another go-to of mine, Hobbyworld-USA and they also had some MRP PRU Blue in stock. The paint was the same price or cheaper, but the shipping was $5.25, and according to what I can read, Watkinsville, GA is a LOT further away from me than Kansas City MO.

Granted sometimes HW-USA can be slow to ship, but I'm not going to need the paint for a bit, so I can afford to wait. 

On top of that, if you Google the color, it also appears SB.com is selling the same color on E-Bay for $14.34 with free shipping. 

 

Dont get me wrong, I love SB.com, I normally use them all the time, but is there some reason I'm missing why they are charging near 3 times as much for shipping?

[LSP_Ron]

Try living in Canada,  I won't order anything out of the US now days due to shipping cost. It simply is not affordable anymore.

 

The same issue is affecting our traders board here at LSP also.  N/A Cross boarder shipping is crazy,  transatlantic completely off the table.  

[Out2gtcha]

1 minute ago, LSP_Ron said:

Try living in Canada,  I won't order anything out of the US now days due to shipping cost. It simply is not affordable anymore.

 

The same issue is affecting our traders board here at LSP also.  N/A Cross boarder shipping is crazy,  transatlantic completely off the table.  

 

 

For sure. I shipped Andy some things in a relatively small box via USPS and it was an astronomical amount to ship across the pond for such a small box that it was.

 

I just don't get why the domestic shipping cost is still high, but seemingly for SB.com only.....

[Kagemusha]

25 minutes ago, Out2gtcha said:

 

 

For sure. I shipped Andy some things in a relatively small box via USPS and it was an astronomical amount to ship across the pond for such a small box that it was.

 

I just don't get why the domestic shipping cost is still high, but seemingly for SB.com only.....

 

I think it was something of a bargain, a few days ago I was having a look for Ki-61 decals, saw some by Wolfpack, which Sprue had in stock, out of interest put it in the cart, progressed, lowest shipping price, $35.99, for a decal sheet going in a small envelope!

 

MDC have some, cheaper, better colours, and much lower shipping.

[CRAZY IVAN5]

56 minutes ago, Out2gtcha said:

I just went to purchase some MRP "RAF PRU Blue" from my normal go-to Sprue Brothers, and put the paint in my card as normal. No real surprise there, but its thinned quite a bit, and a bottle can last me 5+ years or more without drying out, but the real shock was next.....

 

After I put the paint in my cart I calculated shipping to my door, which as the crow flies is about 2.8 hours and got a bit shock; $16.00+  USD in shipping for 1 bottle of MRP paint!

I went to another go-to of mine, Hobbyworld-USA and they also had some MRP PRU Blue in stock. The paint was the same price or cheaper, but the shipping was $5.25, and according to what I can read, Watkinsville, GA is a LOT further away from me than Kansas City MO.

Granted sometimes HW-USA can be slow to ship, but I'm not going to need the paint for a bit, so I can afford to wait. 

On top of that, if you Google the color, it also appears SB.com is selling the same color on E-Bay for $14.34 with free shipping. 

 

Dont get me wrong, I love SB.com, I normally use them all the time, but is there some reason I'm missing why they are charging near 3 times as much for shipping?

I just ordered some Mr.Color Olive Drab from Sprue Brothers and initially they wanted to do the shipping for $16 but there are options in the shipping section [ just below your address] for 2 more options that you can select. So you don't have to be stuck with $16 shipping [ that's for expedited shipping].

[LSP_Ray]

1 hour ago, Out2gtcha said:

I just went to purchase some MRP "RAF PRU Blue" from my normal go-to Sprue Brothers, and put the paint in my card as normal. No real surprise there, but its thinned quite a bit, and a bottle can last me 5+ years or more without drying out, but the real shock was next.....

 

After I put the paint in my cart I calculated shipping to my door, which as the crow flies is about 2.8 hours and got a bit shock; $16.00+  USD in shipping for 1 bottle of MRP paint!

I went to another go-to of mine, Hobbyworld-USA and they also had some MRP PRU Blue in stock. The paint was the same price or cheaper, but the shipping was $5.25, and according to what I can read, Watkinsville, GA is a LOT further away from me than Kansas City MO.

Granted sometimes HW-USA can be slow to ship, but I'm not going to need the paint for a bit, so I can afford to wait. 

On top of that, if you Google the color, it also appears SB.com is selling the same color on E-Bay for $14.34 with free shipping. 

 

Dont get me wrong, I love SB.com, I normally use them all the time, but is there some reason I'm missing why they are charging near 3 times as much for shipping?

What Crazy said: I dropped a bottle of paint into my cart and hit checkout, it defaults to express shipping which is over $16. Normal is $10 or if you use "Ground advantage" it is closer to $7.50. That is to AZ.

[LSP_Ray]

Also, as far as international from the US, the trick is to keep the package under 4lb, and size less than length + width + height combined = 36." That is the limit for 1st Class International. Go over then you must use Priority International which is nearly double the cost.

[Out2gtcha]

38 minutes ago, CRAZY IVAN5 said:

I just ordered some Mr.Color Olive Drab from Sprue Brothers and initially they wanted to do the shipping for $16 but there are options in the shipping section [ just below your address] for 2 more options that you can select. So you don't have to be stuck with $16 shipping [ that's for expedited shipping].

 

Haha that is exactly what happened.

Still a bit higher shipping than their SB EBay shop and a bit more than that compared to HW-USA.

Just odd that they now start at the highest shipping automatically.

[CRAZY IVAN5]

1 minute ago, Out2gtcha said:

 

Haha that is exactly what happened.

Still a bit higher shipping than their SB EBay shop and a bit more than that compared to HW-USA.

Just odd that they now start at the highest shipping automatically.

Actually they've been trying to pull that stunt for awhile now, at least a year maybe longer, I ain't about to fall for it. I don't know why they default to the highest rate. It IS the quickest so that MAY have something to do with it[tryin' to do us a favor?].

[Christa]

5 hours ago, CRAZY IVAN5 said:

I don't know why they default to the highest rate. 

Circa 1963, my first boss, Mr G, was a stall holder in Romford market, Essex. One sunny morning I reported that a rival outfit was selling one of our staple lines for tuppence more than our price. Mr G smiled and said, 'Son, we take money from customers penny by penny. Customers are important people. Always treat them with respect.' Each week Mr G sold three to four times more of that particular line than his rival.

 

So, that was some market wisdom sixty years ago. Perhaps retail dynamics are different now. Postal rates? I have no idea what is going on, but when I see postage for $7.50 or $16.00, $7.50 looks like a good deal, fogging the fact that recently I paid $2.60. Similarly, red herring idiot prices are routinely posted on eBay, especially for certain kits and out of print books.

 

Caveat emptor.

 

 

[Mark_C]

18 hours ago, LSP_Ray said:

Also, as far as international from the US, the trick is to keep the package under 4lb, and size less than length + width + height combined = 36." That is the limit for 1st Class International. Go over then you must use Priority International which is nearly double the cost.

 

💯

 

I had a recent experience shipping to the UK, and found once I got the kit to fit within the constraints above, costs dropped from $128 to $48.

 

 

[tucohoward]

Sprue still does free shipping on orders over $200 so I always do that. Even then they default to express shipping for $5.99 which I always decline. My orders come in 3-4 days anyway and I am rarely in a hurry. This minimum is probably why I have 800 bottles of paint haha.

 

Jay

[cbk57]

I try to avoid ordering just one thing, but if I do, I pay attention to shipping.  As I rule I try to order enough that I feel paying some shipping is okay.  I also look at the shipping choices and choose the cheapest that makes sense under the circumstances.  I usually find if I need paint I can order enough products to make it not seem so bad.  I usually need several things when I place an order anyway.  I order one thing when I need something really specialized and the seller maybe only has that one thing that I really need.  

 

A thought that occurred to me after posting this, is that Sprue Brothers may have made an economic decision to charge enough on shipping that people would think twice before ordering just a bottle of paint.  Keep in mind Sprue Brothers is pretty price competitive as a whole, If I were them I am fine with shipping just a $50.00 kit but don't want to get hit with shipping a lot of items under $10.00 in single shipments.  When you think about your labor costs packaging and shipping it costs you about the same to ship a $5.00 item as a $100.00 item but you are loosing money on the $5.00 item.  When you consider they probably buy the jar of paint for 4.00 if they are selling it for $5.00 and then paying an employee to pack and ship it.  I would charge more too.

Edited May 8 by cbk57

[thierry laurent]

This is typically why most online shops give a minimum ordering value. To me the main issue is rarely the shops as they have a large practice of postal service use to propose good rates and many send for free as soon as you reach a predefined amount. The main problem is rather the aftermarket you have to get directly from the producers. Typically you spend lower amounts and the postal costs are generally far higher! Currently, the worst case is possibly the books... Last, you must compare resellers as the postal costs may be very variable. As an example I pre-ordered the two new DBMK kits from Germany rather than Netherlands as the postal charge was FOUR times lower!

[Out2gtcha]

It's even tougher to swallow when you thought you had 1 single bottle of MRP to order then find out you actually need other colors too.... 

 

Well, you know how that old expression goes:

 

$#@%*!!