Online shipping costs semi-rant and praise

[chunksmyhero]

I've noticed over the past couple months that there is a huge disparity in shipping costs of decks from various sites.

I just had a frustrating email exchange with a customer support agent for a company when I pointed out what I thought was a bug in their shipping calculations. The two packages I have received from them were both in small flat rate priority mail boxes specifying commercial base price, calculating the zone difference and weight - it shows $5.05, my shipping charge was $13.57. I love the cards though, so when I went to go add 4 decks and a few minis, the shipping price again came to $13.57 - which was when I decided to ask if they would investigate.

I'm not sure this is the place to air this or name names, but I don't think a company should be profiting off shipping costs - leave that to the 1 cent DVD sales on ebay.

The frustrating thing is I love the cards this company makes, how do I get the cards and not support the crap warehouse model they have?

[dazzleguts]

I've actually had to give up on card decks I really wanted exactly because of this sort of thing. Like you I tried talking sense to the seller but they wouldn't budge. One was a deck of cards featuring the work of José Posada for the courts. Since then the Calaveras deck has managed to partly fill that void.

Frankly I think slapping inflated shipping on small items that usually don't cost much is shooting yourself in the foot. It's often possible to find the item elsewhere. Are these cards exclusive to the seller?

[chunksmyhero]

Thanks for moving this to the right forum. I could probably get most of the cards elsewhere, but I don't really want to throw that gauntlet, and without naming the actual company name - that prohibition set looks dead sexy. Is this too lame to get bent over? I could just as easily have an argument with myself that "at least I'm not paying international shipping" and move on ...

Considering the last delivery was 6 decks and a deck clip crammed into a small flat rate box, having them charge $13.55 for 5 decks in my next cart is for priority mail is ridiculous. What's worse - this was the condition the package showed up in: link I didn't mention it in my email with them because the cards ended up being fine and the discussion was about shipping costs.

I figured for comparison I would post here to show what I've paid for shipping elsewhere recently:

Theory 11 - decks came in well packaged custom box with some extra stickers and wristbands link:
14 decks - $13.30
4 decks - $9.05

CollectiblePlayingCards.com:
4 decks + pen - $5.95

Richie’s Card Store:
14 decks – free shipping (will probably always check here first)

Penguin Magic (priority mail small flat rate, sent a video of it getting packaged):
7 decks - $7.95

Handlordz:
4 decks - $5.99 shipping

[dazzleguts]

Man that package was really bashed. That's the post office though, not the seller.

I can't take credit for moving your post since it was already moved when I responded. May have been Eoghann?

It is certainly NOT lame to object to overcharging.
And with so many great decks to find out there....why support that kind of gouging?

If it helps any my usual shipping cost to Canada, when buying multiples, is between $1.50 and $4 per deck, while it looks like your domestic shipping is usually around $1 a deck. Many of my decks have come from outside of North America though.

I have also seen international shipping on decks from the US be as much as 10 times what the domestic US shipping is - depending on the seller. I drop those like a hot potato. If I didn't have such an excellent local second-hand market, to off-set the online stuff, then collecting would be very frustrating.

I actually went through most of the process of purchasing the Prohibition set but backed out. My own financial state, and the shipping cost, made that a no-go. Have to say that I hadn't thought of it again until now, so it was more of a temporary want than a must have for me.

I noticed Penguin actually sent video of the packing. I always found them a great seller to deal with.

[montecarlojoe]

Not everyone is greedy - I bought an unboxed deck on ebay for 99p, and was happy enough to pay £3 postage. The guy actually refunded me £1.80 without any prompt whatsoever because when he got to the post office it was cheaper!

[dazzleguts]

Yes, I've had that happen too Joe. It really makes your day
I marked the 2 sellers who did that for me as favourites in ebay, but they did not have many card decks after that.

Many sellers are very honest, and once you know what shipping should cost it becomes easy to sift out the dishonest ones. The only problem being when the shipping isn't stated for international.