"rox formerly rmg" > wrote:
> Anyway, a lot of companies do consider their shipping charges a profit
> center. Well I had a friend who sold products on eBay and that was his
> take
> anyway. I'm surpised that line of thinking doesn't follow suit other
> places
> though. I usually just grin and bear it with the shipping and I'm sure Im
> not the only one.

I know what you mean by eBay sellers using shipping as their profit center.
I've almost gotten burned by this more than once, so now I know to get a
quote if the shipping is not listed. Luckily in those almost burned cases
the auction price was so low that it was still a good deal after the steep
shipping. I had one occassion where a listing stated actually shipping, plus
$10 packaging (which could be reasonable considering the item). I asked for
a quote, and got what seemed to be a high figure. I did my own pricing for
the same weight between the same zip codes using the same shippers (UPS and
DHL) and got a figure between $15 and $23 lower. I asked the seller to
recheck his quote and he said, yup, his initial figure was correct. I didn't
bid. On this heavy item, he made more on the inflated shipping than the
auction price itself.

Personally I'm not real fond of the free shipping offers as they encourage
buying things you really didn't want to buy in the first place. Interesting
at places like Amazon and Barnes & Noble how many single item prices are
just below the cutoff for free shipping. More often than not I can't find
anything else I really wanted, so the whole free shipping thing just ****es
me off rather than makes me a happy customer. But I realize their marketing
is effective and most people tend to take the bait.

King Arthur Flour has a different model for pricing their shipping. They are
weight based rather than price based on calculating the shipping charges. On
more than one occassion I've compared them to Penzeys for an order of the
same basic stuff to see which gives me the lower total cost.

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