Shipping to Hawaii?

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spmahn

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Where the hell does Amazon come up with the amout of money they credit you for shipping? I sell action figures on Amazon, and generally only have a profit margin of between $5 - $10. Generally Amazon will credit you $4.99 for shipping, which is never enough even when shipping locally, and not even close to enough if I have to ship to the west coast.

Yesterday, someone bought 2 figures off of me, and the adress they want them sent to is in Hawaii! If I can't fit both figures in a large flat rate box, and I'm not certain I can, then it's going to cost me no less than $30 to ship this thing. I guess I can hold out hope that parcel post is cheaper, but one time when I shipped something parcel to Alaska it took 2 weeks to get there and the buyer started bitching by Day 3.

Even shipping these in a large flat rate box is going to reduce my profits to almost zero. If it ends up costing close to $30, not only will my profit be zero, but it will actually be costing me a significant amount. What is the best way to handle this? And when is Amazon going to wake up and fix their stupid marketplace and allow sellers to receive reasonable postage rates?
 
1) you can set your shipping price if you pay to be a pro seller

2) If you are only making 5-10 each, maybe you should focus on other items. I heard that prices for NES carts have really taken off lately.
 
Tell the buyer that shipping fees are much higher than expected, and ask him or her if he or she is willing to wait three weeks for the package to arrive via parcel post. If he or she is okay with that, go ahead and ship it. If not, issue a refund and move on.

As someone who lives in Hawaii and has had packages shipped to me via parcel post before, I'm fine with waiting three weeks for a package if I didn't pay for faster shipping. I expect it to take that long. Any reasonable person who has had stuff shipped to them in Hawaii should share my sentiment. If they don't, then they are not reasonable, and aren't worth dealing with.
 
Apologize to the seller, say you don't have the items in stock, have Amazon do the refund or whatever, then wait a couple of months and re-list them, and hope the Hawaii buyer went away?
 
[quote name='kodave']Apologize to the seller, say you don't have the items in stock, have Amazon do the refund or whatever, then wait a couple of months and re-list them, and hope the Hawaii buyer went away?[/QUOTE]

Cancelling is a good way to go sometimes; I've done it on orders from U.S. Territories and strange forwarding services to foreign countries.

Yeah, with parcel post you're kind of screwed as the distances increase; I know in the case of Hess Trucks it's better selling them for $12 apiece locally than listing them for $20-25 on Amazon.
 
You can also try to use lighter weight packing material and keep the weight at or under 13oz and eligible for first class. I used to use priority to ship alot of things, but switched to bubble wrap and poly bags for alot of things. Action figures, or anything with a card backing, reinforce with a sheet or two of cardboard.

Saved me a TON in shipping fees, and I have yet to have a single customer complaint about it.
 
How much do these things weigh? I think you are over exaggerating. I'm very confident I could ship a console to Hawaii for less then $20; I have no idea why two action figures would cost you so much to ship.
 
[quote name='yourlefthand']1) you can set your shipping price if you pay to be a pro seller

2) If you are only making 5-10 each, maybe you should focus on other items. I heard that prices for NES carts have really taken off lately.[/QUOTE]
:applause:Exactly.

I always focus on selling only stuff that I paid next to nothing for and factor in a shitload of profit to each item I'm selling so that there's definitely a good chunk of change left after Amazon fees and shipping costs and before their piddily shipping credits.

Case in point: I've sold Battlefield Bad Company 2 guides that I either paid $.01 for from BB and GS stores or was given from a GS store in exchange for a $5 pre-order on something I'd never pick up. I've sold at least one or two of them for $60-70 EACH. So in the end I made $50+ for a penny or free item.

Another example: I paid $50 for each of four PSPGo's a while ago from Sears. I sold one already on Amazon for $170-180. After UPS Ground shipping fees(-$15) and Amazons' fees(-$20-25) and adding in their piddily $4 or whatever shipping credit, I made over $100 on an item I paid HALF of that for.

If you're barely coming out even or potentially losing money, it's not Amazon or the shipping credits fault, it's your own for setting your prices too damn low.

As for not shipping to someplace weird or that might make me less money, I unfortunately had to cancel an order to an APO address about a month ago from Amazon(another PSPGo) because I had never done shipping to such addresses before. Every reference I looked at claimed it was gonna be a major hassle/pain in the ass for me to ship it out.

But most importantly was that every source I looked at for information said there was NO WAY to get reliable tracking that covered the package from my house to it's destination overseas. So I just quietly cancelled the order. It sucks too, since I think that one sold at $190.:cry:

Oh and for an example of large items that I shipped with no issues already for UNDER $20. I shipped off a Black Ops Prestige edition(big ass box) via UPS ground in the box it came shipped to me in from BB for around $15-18 or so. So it cane be done on larger items.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']

As for not shipping to someplace weird or that might make me less money, I unfortunately had to cancel an order to an APO address about a month ago from Amazon(another PSPGo) because I had never done shipping to such addresses before. Every reference I looked at claimed it was gonna be a major hassle/pain in the ass for me to ship it out.
[/QUOTE]

I don't understand the hate people have for APOs. All it takes is a simple customs form 2976, or if you use stamps.com, you can fill in the merchandise information and it will print a combo customs form/shipping label. It literally takes an extra 30 seconds, and shipping cost is almost always the same is shipping within the US.
 
[quote name='ChosenOne1']Shouldn't cost you more than $15 to ship any items less than 70 pounds that fit in any of the Priority Mail Flat Rate boxes. For some of those, like the Padded Envelopes (which I use and can hold around 4 DVD cases) only cost $5 to ship.

https://www.prioritymail.com/flatrates.asp[/QUOTE]

I use these with a sufficient amount of bubble wrap for anything larger than a DVD. DVD or smaller gets a #0 bubble mailer, unless it's something fragile.
 
[quote name='sp00ge']I don't understand the hate people have for APOs. All it takes is a simple customs form 2976, or if you use stamps.com, you can fill in the merchandise information and it will print a combo customs form/shipping label. It literally takes an extra 30 seconds, and shipping cost is almost always the same is shipping within the US.[/QUOTE]
Up till that point I had never done any kind of shipping to anything other than continental US addresses, so I was kind of confused as to the policies/procedures that I'd have to follow.

I couldn't find a clear answer as to whether or not I could get full tracking from point A to point B, so I didn't wanna ship a nearly $200 item with no way to tell if it made it to its final destination and intended buyer.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Up till that point I had never done any kind of shipping to anything other than continental US addresses, so I was kind of confused as to the policies/procedures that I'd have to follow.

I couldn't find a clear answer as to whether or not I could get full tracking from point A to point B, so I didn't wanna ship a nearly $200 item with no way to tell if it made it to its final destination and intended buyer.[/QUOTE]

I didn't mean just you. You see a lot of sellers that specify that they will not ship to APOs, and it makes little sense, other than it's a lazy seller.
 
[quote name='sp00ge']I didn't mean just you. You see a lot of sellers that specify that they will not ship to APOs, and it makes little sense, other than it's a lazy seller.[/QUOTE]


They could be someone that ships using only UPS. It is much easier and affordable to ship outside the continental US with the post office then it is through UPS
 
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