"Shipping Profits?" Topic

I'm trying to wrap my head around a very high shipping charge, UK to USA, above 60 pounds UK on an order just over 200 pounds UK. We're talking about 700 or so 15 mm figures, mostly infantry but some cavalry so lets call it 900 figures equivalent. I checked on 2 kilogram ship rates via Royal Mail website shipped Airsure and the highest rate I saw was no more than 60% of the 60 pounds referenced above. What am I missing here? Other than a manufacturer using shipping as a profit point? Admittedly, my 2 kilograms (about 4 and 1/2 pounds in weight) is a very rough estimate of weight but I think a reasonable estimate (again, I'm giving a benefit of the doubt on the weight by trying to guess high – hopefully). Can someone enlighten me with hard facts on this matter (not conjecture – I can do that on my own)? Thanks.

Without knowing the exact weight of the package all anyone can offer is conjecture, but I know from recent experience that sending a package abroad is very expensive. It only has to go a gram or two over the 2kg limit and the costs increase horrifically – it cost me £45.00 GBP to send a 2.5kg package to Ireland recently.

I think a key thing here is to ignore value of order when looking at shipping costs.
The Royal Mail price based on weight.
So a package of stones worth £2.00 GBP would cost more to ship than an i-pod worth much more.

900 15mm figures does indeed sound very heavy.
If anyone wants to go and weigh 10 15mm figures and post the weight here then we can make a guess after adding costs for packing and the boxes and tape and so on.

If this price includes insurance it should not be passed onto the customer as that by DSR is the responsibility of the sender not the buyer, but even then that is not a lot more..

I have sent you a PM.

Michael.

Any order I get that hits the 2kg limit I split – costs really shoot up.

Have you checked whether the supplier will refund excess charges?

My shop is not setup by weight, so it allows for people ordering paint as well as figures. I refund excess postage (not forgetting that it will cover the cost of the box and packaging as well).

Mike

Check with the supplier on the exact weight of the package.

If it's over 2kg, I'd second Garrison's suggestion of getting them to split the package in two.

I used to do that as standard for customers where this occurred and it was amazing the difference in price.

It's one of the few postal 'win-win' situations too.

ask the seller to send via DHL .. check out the rates on interparcel.co.uk … the seller has no excuse as dhl will collect .

Do you not need an account with DHL to use DHL though?

As above, I split all orders that weigh over two Kg. My shop is also set up to charge postage at a percentage, so if an order is light but expensive, I need to refund some of the postage (conversly if it is heavy but relatively inexpensive, I take the hit).

"Do you not need an account with DHL to use DHL though?"

Not using Interparcel who are a courier broker.

Mike

2kg is the magic threshold over which prices shoot up.

However most of the courier brokers (Interparcel, Parcel2Go) will actually charge by 'volumetric weight' so it's based on bulk as well as physical weight.

We've been trying to find out how to ship TSS tiles to teh US. So far the bast we have is about £10.00 GBP shipping on a £6.00 GBP tile..!

Volumetric rules have changed as well recently, Parcelforce, for instance, have tightened up in a big way, and apparently no longer give you a 10% leeway.

Talking to my packaging supplier, they are struggling to find a cheap enough method to ship bubblewrap rolls which are very light but very bulky.

Mike

Reckon TMP members can club together to buy and run a small plane that travels across the pond 3 times a week with wargames orders on it?

Insurance may be the responsibility of the shipper but it still has to be paid for and, fairly obviously, this will be paid by the customer.

Couriers may be an option if you live in a city but they charge extra to collect from any distance from any of their depots. I haven't found them to be anywhere near as cheap as Royal Mail for stuff I have looked at.

900 figures in 15mm would be about 9 pounds in weight, given if they are of the standard size of most 15s' on today's market. Also, postage rates, at least here in the US, and I know in the UK, have just gone up again. Lastly, most companies have to guess at postage cost, especially if they sell a variety of items. And, with the rising cost of metal, not covering shipping cost carefully could very easily cost the manufacturer their profit on the items sold.

900 figures in 15mm would be about 9 pounds in weight

900 figures at 8 per pack = 112.5 packs
At £2.40 GBP per pack, order value = £270.00 GBP
30% postage = £81.00 GBP

9lb = approx 4.08kg (not including packaging weight)

From Royal Mail: link

Parcel force price from UK to USA = £85.90 GBP (That's only the postage, not including packing time and materials, and compensation only covers £200.00 GBP of the £270.00 GBP order value)

If the package is split into 2kg blocks, with packaging materials you are probably looking at 3 parcels. A 2kg Aursure parcel with £500.00 GBP compensation (it's that or £46) is £30.93. That's per box, so 3 boxes works out at roughly £92.79 GBP

And people wonder why we don't charge actual postage costs…

As the original poster, first, let me thank those who responded. Second, I certainly don't begrudge a supplier recouping their shipping cost. And I knew when placing the order that there would be a certain percentage of the cost as shipping. I guess the days when orders reached a certain level and shipping was included are now gone. Still, these rates seem excessive – though perhaps the excess lies on the shipping side – as in the Royal Mail and other shipping methods. Clearly, from this and similar discussions over the recent past, this is becoming a larger issue for both sides of the equation, buyer and seller.

So, I guess I'll swallow the shipping cost because I do want the figures but it means I will be extraordinarily reluctant to ever again order figures from overseas because of the premium in their cost – I can get figures for anywhere from 45 to 50 cents each plus a nominal shipping addition domestically, sometimes a little less. With these shipping chargesfrom the UK on this order I am now paying a bit over 65 cents per figure, perhaps more (US pennies). That is a steep premium.

Of course, there are some companies already charging that rate per figure and have been since before the run up in the cost of the casting metal, including here in the US. And, again, I expect suppliers to turn a profit. But there is always the force of competition and the desire of those on the buying side to get a 'fair deal'. I suspect the ultimate result of this is that – despite the advent of the internet – the hobby retreats within national borders to a greater degree (though not to an exclusive degree). Too bad that what used to be a small part of the cost has become an issue of such 'weight.'

So, let me end with a little faux-blue eloquence: "ritz-em-fratz-em-mumbledy-dratz-em-ratz-em!"

I for one have never made a profit off of shipping charges… if anything, I undercharge and end up covering the difference out of my pocket…

That's why we have Scale Creep and Miniature Armies in the US – to try and reduce shipping costs ;-)