Each of the big vendor sites has it's pros and cons, and I'm sure we've all at some time looked at a part and gone "wholly crap, that's an outrageous price".

If you can not see that you are the one that selects the address at checkout not them, then you are hopeless. You made a mistake, deal with it. Some people are so stubborn its pathetic.

Nevermind...

You're whining about Marco for a situation that is the same virtually every (sans Great Plains Electronics! Ed rocks). There are minimum costs for orders. You can't order a .05 screw and think you'll get it for .05 and the cost of a stamp. It costs money to process those orders.

If I goto Pinball life and order a single box of lamps.. $3.25

Price to ship??
Available shipping methods
USPS - Priority (2-3 day delivery) $7.00
UPS - Ground $13.45
FedEx - Ground Home Delivery Domestic $13.41
FedEx - FedEx Ground Business Delivery $12.32

Total cheapest cost $10.25

Same parts from Marco
Cost $4.95
Shipping? $5.99

Total cost: $10.94

You're bitching about Marco but it has nothing to do with Marco - you can't order individual bits cost effective from any online parts shop... because it's not cost effective for them to do so. If you want to buy like that.. goto a show. Otherwise own up to the reality that shipping has minimum costs.

And trust me, I love pinball life.. I've been ordering from him since 2005. But reality is pinball life had a focus on the modern games and limited inventory compared to the other guys. You can't get by with just one vendor. If it's pinrestore, pinballlife, marco, PBR, GPE, bigdaddy... I use them all depending on the part. And the extra shipping sucks.. but I don't blame the vendors. In fact, I applaud the vendors for what they do for the passion of the hobby. And Marco has blazed forward with their breadth of inventory, stocking, and especially their website. It wasn't long ago when a majority of parts from vendors didn't have photos.. especially minor parts. Marco has continued to push in that topic.. and they get a lot of my business for those advances alone.

Like others have said, Marco keeps a ton of stuff in stock and always have great customer service which you can't put a price on.

You get what you pay for some times. I,m a happy repeat customer of Marco.

I've only had great experiences with Marco. Like what others have said the shipping is really fast. I couldn't believe how fast it was. It was like ordering with Amazon Prime.

I always take advantage of their free shipping deals at shows like Expo. Like everyone else has said, their selection is top notch.

It could be worse. I bought 3 spinner decals from a company and the shipping was $4.50. And they would not put them in a regular envelope and put a stamp on it. But I needed them for a restore so I had no choice since nobody else had them at the time.

Man i think that was my first thumbs down. Complaining about 5 dollar shipping is funny, and a 3 dollar part that no one else had. Seems to me you should be thanking him.

OK how would you handle this one.....the only place on the planet that has a 75 cent spring is in Australia and they want $15 to ship it, a .09 gram spring. What would you do?

Marco is great, no complaints here.

OP must be new to the hobby or purchasing items online in general with such a ridiculous complaint.

I would order 6 springs so I would not have to pay shipping on that item ever again...

My last order from PBL shipping was $50 and then I got nailed at customs for another $45. So another $95 on top of a $250 order. I'm not complaining either because it's either pay the piper or go without. I've ordered other parts lately and have not been dinged by customs. However this last time they got me... Not sure why the difference though?

Rob

I know one day last year I ordered parts from Marco, Pinball Life, Bay Area, and MAD, one right after the other. No one place had everything I needed, and it sucked to pay all those different shipping rates instead of being able to combine them, but instead of complaining I was thankful all these companies existed so I could get the parts I needed. I think it was probably stuff for my EATPM restore, a game from 1989. That's a long ass time ago, we could live in a world where those old games just die off and rot. Instead I've got it looking great.

So thank you to all of the companies selling parts, you earn your money, and I'm happy to pay it to you.

I don't mean to aim this at anyone in particular, but I see a lot of people buy a $6000 game, and then bitch about $5 shipping, or why are LEDs 89 cents instead of 50 cents. Really? Get some perspective!

Amen

i agree. plus our exchange rate adds to the cost.

i noticed once i bought a backup a13 membrane, at $125 from marcos... they have them now at $199.
most likely the only place that has these parts.

having said that, ive purchased from both marcos and pbl on numerous ocassions and the transactions have always been great. ive been very happy with both.

Dirty Donny sez: Marco rocks!

Marco-Dirty-Donny.jpg

I met the guys from Marco at the Southern Fried Gameroom Expo. You could not find a nicer, more laid back bunch of hardworking guys. And as the OP admits, they very often are the only guys with the part you need. Instead of bitching about the cost, imagine winding that spring yourself. First world problems!!

This is nothing new and it happens in all hobbies.

Photography: people will buy a $2200.00 lens and put a $15.00 filter on it because they will be damned if they are going to pay over $100.00 for a quality filter.

Sports cars: people will buy a $75k car and use a $10.00 wax because paying $90.00 for wax is outrageous!

Home Theater: people will put $15k or more in their HT and bitch and complain about the cost of quality interconnects.

Etc.

I bet if you ask him nicely he'll throw in a lil browneye lube for free.

One more thing to share....

All websites have different "methods" for configuring shipping.

Minimum shipping
Extra fees for shipping hidden from you, behind the scenes. "handling".
Some sites will share this, others dont.
Flat rate shipping
Shipping based on $$$ spent
Shipping based on weight
Shipping based on distance.

Some site builders will take only one method, some will allow mixing of rules per product.

In setting this all up, there are mistakes, and loopholes.

As shared, in both directions.

Sometimes, a product is put on site and the wrong weight or rate code is entered.
It can go months before it is caught.

I am not saying this happened here, but understanding how this works behind
the scenes is important.

Agree completely !!!...in reference to Marco, they had a lot of stuff for my WCS ( decals, right ramp, etc.) that just simply weren't available anywhere else....in truth, I'm very impressed with overall response and turnaround from suppliers in a relatively minor industry .......

I have had ramps and unobtianium plastics broken in shipping because Marco put them in an inappropriately small box. Each time Dave had said he would talk to their warehouse guys about it... And then it happens again.
Then there was the time I ordered an nos ramp populated with switches plastics and flaps. It arrives as just a bare ramp. Their excuse was they no longer had the populated nos ramps and only had the new unpopulated ramps they sent me and that they had never updated the picture or description. I asked Dave for a partial refund and he referred me to somebody else who said no to a partial refund, but I could get a full refund for the part but not the shipping to me, if I mailed it back at my own expense.
I now only buy from Marco as a last resort

This is the part I like. You were going to order the wrong part and when you called to bitch about shipping they told you that you were ordering the wrong part and pointed you in the right direction. Instead of thanking them you start a thread about how they suck. What if you had just ordered the part you first wanted? Would we have to listen about how not only was the shipping too much but the part wasn't right when you are the one who ordered it?

hmmm..... if marco has them in stock they are not unobtainium......

Most wealthy individuals got their money by saving it and not allowing themselves to get ripped off. Maybe even by fifty cents at a time. I have found that those with high salaries/ annual household income above 400k are the cheapest bastards around always trying to chisel sellers down when buying goods or services.

I really don't think I'll ever need another one. It was a spring for one of the 9 buttons on the matrix pad on JM.

Ohhhhh I want that poster. Black light?

no it isnt. it cant be. suppose the actual cost of handling is $3 .. how do you build that into a $1 part.?

Words of wisdom. Take it from an expert.

did you need one because one broke?

well said, same here.

SST Plastics set. Marco has just bought out an operator and I was the 1st to notice the one set on their site.

Why don't you see if you can find some Mr Smarty Pants LOL!

ScreenHunter_37 Nov. 12 17.31.jpg

This thread reminds me it is time to order from Marco again. Domestic ruler of game specific parts!

But wait! There's more!

The reproduction ramp I was unwittingly sent instead of the NOS populated one was $30 more expensive from Marco than other vendors.

When I ordered the "last SST plastic set on earth" I emailed Dave, customer support, called customer support, and added notes to my order to ensure correct packaging.
They still sent it in a box so small the plastics we up against the insides of the box.
My guess is they try to save money on THEIR shipping cost by using as small a box as possible.
Naturally the only plastic that was broken on my pin...was the only one broken in shipping.

On a side note probably the most respected and oldest maker of mods / addons refers to Marco as "crooks" and "mafia"

On another side note, when I inquired why Dave was no longer attending shows the response I got was "he's not allowed"

I too didn't have a problem with their shipping costs as I was aware of them or sometimes would add to my order to make it worth while. But then again you would expect high price shipping to include quality packaging. I didn't have any customer service issues. But then they started sending me stuff that got broken due to their stupidity, and became unreasonable about refunds when they shipped me something other than I paid for = because they by their own words had neglected "to have the correct picture and description on their site", and charged more for it than anybody else. They should have created a new listing for the item rather than represent it as a product they no longer had.

As long as I don't order anything fragile, or truly "rare", and have low expectations from now on...they are the best!

But I do miss seeing Dave at the shows

While I agree that I'm often turned off by Marco's usual higher prices, I am just grateful for the few parts suppliers out there who seem to enjoy providing us with our 'fixes' and needs, whatever the costs may be. Well . . . except for MAD AMUSEMENTS! Mad Mike has great prices and a devious psycho mind!

If you want cheap, try setting an avatar picture for your Pinside account. That's free!

Sorry, just kidding. Just wanted to throw in my 2c: I think Marco is a pretty damn good parts supplier. I have used them a lot in the past 10 years when they would have parts that no one else has. And I'm located in the Netherlands. Shipping sucks, but it is what it is. Wait till you get to know the Dutch customs office. Now *that's* something that deserves a rant thread on Pinside...

sorry i have to disagree .. this place has cost me thousands of hours in lost time since i did that

If I were running a delivery business, just to get in and drive my car and drive one mile down the road to deliver you an empty envelope, I'd charge $5.

unfortunately, this problem runs both ways (especially when the only vendor with the parts in stock is pinball spare parts australia [www.pinball.co] for those of us here in the states).

like others have mentioned, when I know that I have to bite the bullet and order something from them and am going to take a hit in shipping costs, I look to see what else I may need sometime in the near future that only they have in stock and add it to my order.

very easy shipping is amortized over every part in inventory, as is the costs of employees and everything else. That dollar spring is not a dollar spring to them wholesale. That markup takes into consideration their costs (labor, storage, handling, utilities, etc) and profit.
I'm not complaining about Marcos shipping, they are way better than they used to be. but shipping is part of the cost structure of every item especially in a business where every item is shipped and there is no retail location.

cute idea but your logic fails becuase you didnt buy every item.. minimum costs for freight is the only way that works

Can you believe the McDouble is no longer a buck? It's something like $1.29 now. Thieves! And oh, they renamed the "dollar menu" the "value menu" like that will fool anyone. My god how I hate McDonalds. Anyone else think that maybe zr11990 regrets this post(however slightly).

I think the gripe is more that Marco is higher than other pinball retailers and their shipping costs stink. You can't just order other parts to make it more worthwhile, because it still ends up cheaper to order elsewhere. That leaves you trying to find things you need that only marco has.

For me if they are the only supply I will order. It hurts them, because were they competitive I'd just as happily order more. The only complaint is I have seen a number of times were they poorly packaged things. That has been going on for years though.

No, the plastic button was broken and glued in and the spring was missing, something the previous owner never told me about when I bought it. I had to fix it.

Quit bitching

Just be glad you can find the part you need and pipe down.

What he said.

I'm a courier, you want to hear about crazy shipping costs.....10lbs of meat, 130 miles one way, $400...600lbs of produce, 350 miles one way, $1700...I could go on and on and I only drive a full size van not a big rig. And we are still cheaper then the other guys too.

I've had only great experiences with Marco (I also never hesitate to shop at Pinball Life or Bay Amusements, etc either). Prices are high on certain things, I get it. But pinball is an expensive hobby and there are tons of obscure parts out there.

One thing I like about Marco especially is they have a relatively sophisticated online store. It takes a lot of work, time, money to integrate an e-commerce system like that. Kudos to them. The shipping system is simple, otherwise I'm guessing it would require a big team to manage, which is not realistic. Calculating shipping for countless envelopes of single springs and switches would not be a good move for them. Buying one small thing on there doesn't make financial sense.

Howdy, I'm just one more Marco supporter throwing in my $.02. Yes, the prices are somewhat higher there, but they have the best selection of parts (especially older stuff), the best website, and some of the best customer service. I probably buy 90% of my parts from Marco, and have been very happy doing it.