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The Growing "cost of shipping" problem

Yeah it sucks especially for larger items. I mean, how depressing to see lots of these good computers get posted for free + shipping and they end up destroyed because of the $40-120 to ship. Last thing I got from Canada was free, I don't remember the shipping cost (probably $80-120) and took 4 weeks to get here.

Crazy too that not only are parts dirt cheap in china but now so is shipping it some how. I mean I'm about to buy infrared LEDs and it's 10x cheaper having it shipped from Hong Kong assuming they don't just take my money.
 
I don't think shipping is cheap for computer sized items, they mostly sell cheap parts that fit in padded mailers.
 
Yeah, tell me about the shipping... I have a very nice HP 64110A "portable mainframe" here which several people expressed interest in, but the shipping on something this heavy just puts it out of reach. Nearly $80 shipped inside the US. (and that's for the "short haul" destinations) Sick. For that money someone could just hire the unemployed teenager down the block for a day, give him gas money, and have him go pick it up for you, and it'd arrive in one piece too.
 
Regarding the USPS flat rate boxes...it's often cheaper to do it first class or even priority sometimes if you have an item whose size justifies the box but whose weight is rather low. Size means nothing when shipping stuff, it seems...weight is everything. If a US ebay seller is offering to ship by flat rate box I go to the USPS site, get a quote, show the seller and they're often surprised. It's been as much as a $10 difference at times (and when the flat rate box is 15, that's a significant savings).
 
Volume matters quite a bit on larger boxes, not so much on small ones. Flat rate boxes are good for small very heavy items (hard drives maybe).
 
Shipping from the US is getting insane! Something must be wrong with the eBay shipping calculator for items from US to Canada. Small adapters are regularly listed as $22 -$37 shipping! These are things that normally cost about $3 to ship in a bubble envelope. How can it cost $4 to ship something from Europe, but $30 to ship the identical item 200km from the US??

My days of buying stuff from the US are officially over.
 
The only thing I can say about shipping from the US that UPS is probably one of the worst choices... the last vintage computer I looked at was $700 shipping. That's just insane!
It would probably only cost between 100 & 200 (which is still damn much, but there's still bonvu etc) if you just pick USPS. And people still claim they prefer private companies.


... they do, right...?
 
I really like the Bonvu suggestion. I'm keeping that in mind, and I'm sure that will come in handy some day. :)

But even they must somehow rely on the big companies for the eventual shipping, right? Then indirectly, you'll still be dealing with the likes of UPS or FedEx... Or do they use sea freight and buy container space directly from the bulk (sea) freight companies? How does that work?
 
Are you guys sure that the price of shipping went up that much? last week I shipped a 44lb computer in a very large box (approx 22"x22"x22") from Missouri to Maryland and it cost $31 after insurance and delivery confirmation. When you use the calculator, make sure you use parcel post (the slowest one).

Shipping cost to Canada however is and always has been bloody expensive.
 
Unknown_K said:
Well lets be realistic, there is a heck of alot of stuff coming to the US from HongKong so shipping is cheap. Shipping from the US to other countries is quite a bit because we no longer use ground shipping (even to Canada) so everything is an expensive airmail rate. As far as I know Canada still uses a cheaper land shipping unless they recently dicthed it.
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A lot of countries have lower (government subsidized) international rates to encourage export. To this date it cost less to ship from Japan to US than the other way around...
 
digger said:
I really like the Bonvu suggestion. I'm keeping that in mind, and I'm sure that will come in handy some day. :)

But even they must somehow rely on the big companies for the eventual shipping, right? Then indirectly, you'll still be dealing with the likes of UPS or FedEx... Or do they use sea freight and buy container space directly from the bulk (sea) freight companies? How does that work?
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They use DHL, FedEX, UPS - they just get huge discounts (like 65%).
If one of them has a truck going to Canada, and it's only half full, I suspect they give the discount to Bonvu, so they can fill up the truck.
 
I'd like to find a good deal on shipping, there's a laserdisk player that someone bought from me but doesn't want to pay for freight for it-- it's over 20lb., can't blame him.
 
Chuck(G) said:
I'm not the only one who has purchased something from China off of eBay for $2 or less with free shipping. Try shipping anything to Beijing from the US for less than $1.00. I often order parts from a vendor in Thailand--they offer decent prices and have a good selection without the ridiculous charges of US distributors such as Mouser or Digi-Key.
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I am ordering some parts for my XTIDEs. I compared a Thailand company called Westech to Jameco. I tend to think it could be Westech because they also sell vintage components but these prices make me think it must be some other company / parts.

74HCT688N (HCT is backordered at Westech)
Westech = $0.9632 for an LS
Jameco = $0.31

74F573
Westech = $1.1920
Jameco = $0.25
 
The cost of shipping is my biggest concern, main reason I tend to be very picky on what I buy, a nice ibm 5150 or a shitty one, the cost of shipping is the same, so the answer to that is obvious.. :)
 
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