Pathfinder 1E Sticker shock, or Why Paizo and Other Online Vendors have sent me back to Mead

[gamerprinter]

Yeah, shipping has been my biggest obstacle in selling printed maps. I can print a full color 24" x 36" map for around $17, and can even have a laminated map of that size for around $20. The problem is I have to place that into a shipping tube which costs around $4, then shipping USPS as the cheapest route (though takes longer delivery) is around $12 just shipping in the US. If one of my maps go to Canada - it costs about the same to ship it as to produce it. Sending it to Europe or beyond costs more than the map itself. You'd almost have to order $60 or more in maps just to have the shipping costs seem reasonable.

Shipping is killing my online RPG business. Its too expensive to be practical.

 

[khantroll]

I find myself in an odd situation with this topic. On the one hand, I don't believe in complaining about the price of a vendor's wares (and when you shop online, shipping is part of that cost). Nothing against those that do, but in my world view I assume that they have a reason for charging what they do, and whether or not I want to pay it is my business.

That being said, there is another side to my feelings on this subject. I am an IT consultant/contractor. I order a lot of things from all over the world every month, at times requiring overnight or same day shipping. And it's irritating that I can get things shipped from China via EMS for 1/3 the shipping cost (or free, depending on the item) verses what it costs me to have the same item shipped from California. With a similar turn around.

Or, if and when the vendor allows it, charging the shipping to my UPS or DHL accounts. Roughly half the time, the shipping price is more then cut in half. You can't tell me that I get a bigger break on shipping then major corporations, so the only explanation hellacious padding on the handling charges.

 

[Oryan77]

So I decided to buy Paizo's wonderful Combat Pad.

You selected Priority Mail shipping. Does Paizo only offer Priority Mail shipping? That would suck.

A normal D&D book is expensive to ship priority mail. Even first class for books gets expensive. Media Mail is the way to ship books domestically.

See I know shipping is expensive but what I really dislike is seeing that while shipping cost a company $6 (according to the label on the package) they ended up charging me $11. Five bucks to put it in a box and stuff newspaper around it? No thanks.

A lot of online stores create a general shipping rate on products. It isn't very practical to weigh and keep track of the weight for every single item, and then list it on a website to get precise shipping for that weight.

For example, I don't think Amazon provides a shipping rate for The Worlds Largest Dungeon book which weighs around half a ton, and then provides another shipping rate for a Combat Pad book which weighs as much as a feather. They are both "books". So they use a "book" shipping rate of $4 or something (as far as I know).

It is even more difficult to get precise shipping when sending outside the country. There can be a huge price difference sending the same thing to Australia compared to sending it to Brazil.

It can be hit-or-miss for sellers. It's just difficult to be precise. Have you ever noticed that shipping was a lot more than what you paid when you purchased online? I pay out of my pocket for shipping all the time because it is just as hard to not overcharge for shipping as it is to not undercharge.

Five extra bucks does not seem worth complaining about to me considering the circumstances. Especially when before the internet, you were driving to the bookstore and paying full retail price + tax. How often is anyone paying full retail price on anything on the internet? It's still cheaper even when you overpay $5 shipping; and you don't have to leave the house.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

I looked into this a bit. Paizo does only have priority shipping for this item.

You could go with here:
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1601252676/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1/188-3674737-4114753?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_r=1S7FB5F768PD202YF06Q&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_i=B0010ZQCXI"]Amazon.com: GameMastery Combat Pad by Paizo: Office Products[/ame]

That's $15.98 and $5.49 shipping (often shipping via amazon marketplace is a standard cost, so sellers drop the price of the item to be competitive with Amazon when combining with shipping. So you'd be paying about $21.50.


There's this:
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Steel-Sqwire-M1000-Combat-Pad/dp/B0010ZQCXI/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1340036616&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=gamemastery+combat+pad"]Amazon.com: Combat Pad: Toys & Games[/ame]
for $7.99 plus $4.99 shipping (total of about $13 new)


Maybe one of those would suit your needs.



Also, in general, the way to get around high shipping costs is to buy in bulk. I like to save up and buy several books from Nobleknightgames...as they'll do flat rate shipping of 9.95 (I think...it's about that) for a box of books. $9.95 is a LOT on a single book...but it's tiddlywinks when buying a stack of 10 books or so.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

To everyone complaining of "insane" shipping costs: You find a cheaper shipping option. Hint: Shipping is expensive, and you probably can't.

Amazon uses shipping as a loss leader. They probably also have special deals cut with the various companies thanks to the sheer amount of business they do. Other retailers might offer free shipping at a higher threshold; for example, I like to feed my gaming habit at CoolStuffInc which has free shipping at $100.

I'm not saying "quit yer bitchin' and just order the thing." I'm just saying... quit your bitching. You're absolutely right that it doesn't make sense to order something like that online when shipping is half again as much, but complaining about the shipping prices just makes you look wildly out of touch with the real world.

Sometimes the economics just don't work out. Deal with it.

I'd say the "real world" is widely out of touch with its customers. There's a lot of stuff I refuse to buy simply because of shipping costs. It's not that I can't afford it, but I refuse to spend half again the price of something on shipping. And bitching about it is the only way companies will get the message. There has to be a cheaper way. Until someone finds it, I'll just do without their product. And I'll bitch.

 

[PaulofCthulhu]

Shipping is killing my online RPG business. Its too expensive to be practical.

You can see why more people are going pure digital.

EN World's own online shop is digital-only.

In our case we tried selling board games, but failed (could not compete due to shipping costs) and the margins on 3rd party RPG books are now so tight and distribution so variable that we've had to slow down on those too.

So now we're beginning to concentrate on producing our own stuff and where possible create things that are either very light and or highly interesting/unique.

 

[Treebore]

This is why I wait until my orders get over $100. I get seriously discounted shipping form many places, if not free, and it also has the benefit of taking the per item cost of shipping down dramatically.

So yes, I agree, ordering only one or two cheap items is stupid, but waiting to order 5 or more items at one time, or getting over that $100 hurdle, makes it much more reasonable.

If its something I would like to have sooner rather than later I wait until I go to an LGS, one of which is 56 miles away, the other is 112 miles away. Taxes around here are at effectively 10% [Cochise County], which is cheaper than paying shipping and then taxes at the end of the year. (My state taxes internet sales, even when shipped from another state. Unless they do not have a "presence" here in AZ, which is another reason I prefer to order from Amazon or other independents like Noble Knights, no taxes. But eBay is home based out of AZ, so I get 10% in taxes added to my eBay purchases.)

So yeah, you have to play it smart, and patiently, in order to save money even via internet sales in many cases.