Free shipping? I know comet does over $100. I think Marco has flat shipping after a certain point too.

Only if you live in the USA

Yep. The person that started this thread lives in the US.

I see. Well when it sounds to good to be true it is.

The package is exactly like what I ship. My products are no more than 2oz, and use the small padded envelope. It's like $2-something to ship, but I only charge $1.99 for shipping. I recoup the cost in the product. I'd rather have the sale, than someone who passes on a $20 order because of $5 shipping, which is what I used to charge. And I'm tempted to just do free shipping. With Amazon pretty much selling and shipping everything for their Prime membership for free, I feel that customers almost now expect free shipping. And to me, I'd rather eat the few extra dollars in costs, than not have any sale.

I've passed on ordering a few things from Marcos, PL, and non-pinball places because of shipping.

Only thing free in Canada is Health Care. Or is it?

Australia does not have the welfare and illegal immigrant issues we have.

Luckily neither do we. Now how about we move on from the public policy debate and get back to shipping and fast food sandwich pricing.

Shipping is never free and is built into the price, right? Every business owner knows what type of profit margin they require to survive and thrive.

Most of the idiots/morons/uneducated we sell to on Amazon read Free Shipping and don't bother to check other vendors who sell the same item for 15-20% less so there is certainly something to be said for your comments.

No

With pinball parts, shipping is a part of life. If you dont like it, go buy your parts at a brick & mortar store!

We keep our shipping simple. Free for orders over $100, $6.00 for orders under $100. For the longest time we kept it at $5.00 and then post office increased it to over $6.00 for our flat rate boxes.

Not a joke. Time to pack and ship $5 worth of parts ≥ $100 worth sometimes.

Be happy you can even get these parts and stop bitching about it.

shipping is ok but i hate that you have to pay $6 to $7 for something that could be mailed in an envelop for 40 cents. i needed a post that cost $2 it is small and way under the total weight for an envelop. i would have happily paid $3 but not 7 for a post.

I misunderstood a vending company recently. I got an unobtanium part to complete a project. I thought it was $150 shipped. It was $150 + 47.90 for shipping. I am happy to have the part, but will ask about shipping in the future. I am now into the machine for full retail.......*rolls eyes*
At least I don't have a brick and would happily buy from the company again.

Your purchase of a $.50 part provides almost no profit for the seller. They have to pay for packaging, and for someone to pick and package the part (the "handling" part of shipping & handling is an actual expense for a business), and then get it in the mail. They're better off setting shipping a bit higher to encourage you to place a bigger order and/or wait until you've got a number of things you need instead of placing individualized orders for small items on an as-needed basis. Also, individually calculating shipping for each little piece would be even more administrative hassle for them.

Of course I'd love it if I could get small orders shipped for peanuts (I currently needs a $.60 spacer and matching $.15 screw from Marco, and will have to wait or eat the $6 shipping charge) but that's not a realistic business model in an obscure hobby like pinball.

you always have the option, don't like the cost---don't buy!

When i sell boards and NVRAMs after more than a few pieces the shipping is "free". Essentially I have already included shipping cost in the item already.

When i sell a single NVRAM adapter or whatever, the shipping is just profit padding for the time I spend packing up small orders.

That bubble envelope marco sent you would have costed my $2.54 to ship, i would have charged $3 in shipping

High shipping costs suck. Free shipping is the best. Somewhere in the middle is what I expect. I spend lots of time waiting on parts. I have thousands of dollars in parts on the shelf and never seem to have the one I need. Yesterday I discovered I had used my last opto transmitter, now I need to find some other parts to pad an order to justify the cost of ordering a dozen opto transmitters. Every vendor out there needs to make money to stick around, so a couple extra dollars in shipping doesn't stir me up.

Most of us here have thousands of dollars in pinball machines, yet there are complaints about $7.00 shipping charges.

Some of us here have what we have because we are frugal and try to minimize getting ripped off.

Hmm.... Seven bucks.

I can buy a burger at Chili's (not quite), OR have the perfect parts for my odd hobby delivered right to my home from across the country.

Do I have a problem with the latter? No.

As far as this thread and original post is concerned, I would simply say that I'm adding a U to what's on your package.

I like to pay 5x the shipping to get it faster...I need it NOW, NOW, NOW! (Not really).

I have gotten sucked into Amazon Prime though....I order shit from them ALL the time that's like $5 or less and get it in two days shipped free. Sure I pay for that service but I think it's actually in my favor with all the crap I buy.

$7.00 isn't getting ripped off.

For those that have to have it now!

http://www.eater.com/2011/10/27/6641115/you-can-have-in-n-out-burgers-shipped-to-you-for-50

I just shipped a monitor USPS... The package was pretty big but I wasn't thinking oversized and only about 15.7 lbs... they charged me 80 bucks!

I think big volume shippers have negotiated themselves massive discounts to the point where lower volume shippers like our suppliers and us ourselves are left footing the bill.

I hate it when the shipping cost more than the damn Twinkies.

ebay.com link: Hostess Twinkies Sponge Cakes 13 58 oz 10 BOXES

OOOOOHHH!!! Gostbusters Twinkies with FREE shipping!!! I don't even have to get off the couch till the mailman gets here.

ebay.com link: IN HAND Hostess Ghostbuster Key Lime Slime Twinkies Limited Edition Ecto Cooler

I was staying at a Residence Inn in Ontario, CA two or three trips to SoCal ago and walked over to the In-N-Out a few blocks away. Brought three back to my room and had freezer bags ready and froze two of them overnight along with fries. Packed them in my suitcase for the trip home in the morning. My son who is an In-N-Out nut appreciated it.

Heading there once again and may bring more frozen ones home. Although my last night this time is at the Crowne Plaza by LAX. Probably no freezer there.

Check out post #43 in this thread: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/799-storage-drawer-bins-at-aldi-you-want-these

I have never understood. If you don't like the price then don't buy it! You agreed to the price when you paid for it. It is ridiculous to bitch after the fact.

If you bought $9 part and paid $7 shipping it's a $16 part. If you don't want to pay $16 then don't agree to it and don't pay.

Also buy more than 2 ounces of parts at a time if you expect to maximize shipping cost. You could have bought $500 in parts and likely paid $18 in shipping. It was your decision whether to buy or not. But pre plan a little bit and don't order 2 things at a time.

Fact, its not worth running $9 in parts to the post office (even for $7)...there has to be a minimum charge and $7 is fair. An order such as this is strictly customer service, they aren't making anything off of it.

If you have a paypal account, ship through paypal instead of taking it to the post office. It is probably 20% cheaper.

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now

Shipping out small and flat rate stuff (with the special paypal link) is usually cheaper at USPS.

For shipping out large and/or heavy stuff, I usually go to FedEx. I avoid UPS--they charge slightly more, and generally seem to be a bit more rough with the packages.

Honestly, I don't think the cost of shipping is too ridiculous for the most part. I usually buy a whole bunch of stuff at once to help make the shipping cost worthwhile, rather than one or two items at a time.

If it makes anybody feel better I just ordered $200 (8 lbs) worth of small parts from Marco and the shipping cost was $9.00 for Fedex.

I don't feel "ripped off".

I do realize this was a domestic, not international order. I know the difference because I lived overseas many times, and USPS was not always an option.

I should have gone FedEx now that you mention it. I had tried a couple UPS drop off locations but they all refused to cover any shipping damages unless they unpacked it, sold me their packing materials and charged to pack it, even though it was in its original from the factory shipping box/packing, thus negating any savings over usps.

That's very strange re: UPS. Generally there's minimum insurance included ($200? $400? can't remember). And if you print your own label online and then hand to a driver or arrange a pickup, they're certainly not opening the box to inspect your packing job. Sounds like you're being shaken down by the local UPS stores, might be worth a call to corporate to complain.

I've gotta admit i'm not familiar with the in's and out's of the US postal service BUT from an Aussie perspective it's extremely annoying to be paying extra postage for unused space To expand on that, i've had parts shipped in boxes that have been up to 3 times the size necessary. Is this for a reason i'm not aware of? or are the US posties so bloody rough with packages they need an extra amount of box space to cater for the crush/bang/splat factor?

in my business we are shipping stuff all the time. I have noticed ups rates skyrocketing over the last 3 years. if you order one coil sleeve at a time you are gonna eat lots of shipping. I usually dont order less than 100 bucks worth of parts. You do that with Steve Young and generally with pinball life you will get a discount on the products. 10% from Steve and qty breaks from Terry. Terry even credits you back for shipping charges that turned out to be unnecessary. I only order from marco here and there based on their higher prices and higher shipping.

UPS insurance is a joke. No matter what happens, they will claim "inadequate packing". There is even 1 instance where there was a forklift tire print across the box and they claimed "inadequate packing".

Don't blame the Post Office for the packing, blame the Vendor packing the stuff. The Post Office doesn't pack the package, and not all shippers pack that way. I will say that Amazon as of late has been good about using containers that are close to the size of what's ordered, and using sufficient, but not excessive packing.

I just paid 25$ in shipping. I am not complaining.

What was your order total? That'd make a big difference.

some of this has to do with the pricing of of shipping the standard size usps boxes vs odd sizes.

130

But the Post Office didn't pack the package.

That's reasonable then.

Size and weight are kind of important also.

Suppose so. But I'm guessing it wasn't a $130 teddy bear.

right. order 130 dollars worth of leg bolts and see what happens.

You cheapos that won't buy a part you need on that's broken on your game because you refuse to pay $7 in shipping must have some really *nice* games.

correct but if they charge you less to put it in a standard sized box so they can pack their trucks more efficiently then with your odd sized box most people will put it in a box a little bigger then needed

You could probably ship $130.00 worth of leg bolts in the next-to-smallest size of USPS flat rate box for about $12.00 since the USPS flat rate boxes are sold by size and not by weight.