Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

I wanted this adapter to use a different whistle on my new Wilesco… was going to buy it from Ministeam out of Ohio but total came to $15.93 with cheapest shipping option. Looked on ebay and found it from Peter in Germany (who I just bought the Wilesco from) for $10.48 delivered? Almost $5.50 cheaper and traveling 3,780 more miles 

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Nick, you will need to buy a small lathe - then
you can make such little parts also from
stainless steel.
Arnold

I don't know but I'm tired of dealing with Peter in Germany. Have sent three messages trying to get the
last D 12. I hit BIN and eBay sends a message that the seller doesn't ship to U.S.A. when his add says
that he does. Left him messages yesterday and two today requesting him to send an invoice so I can pay.
No response so I guess I don't need it, at least not from him.

As a former seller on eBay and via my own website, I’ll add that although not everyone follows the same path, they have to make money somehow, and often aren’t really thoughtful about it.  Shipping and payment options alone can overwhelm, and often the small vendors get chewed up by shippers and platforms like eBay.

At one time  it got so crazy, I stopped charging for shipping, rolling shipping into prices. The price hawks squawked. Then I priced every item at $1, rolled it all into inflated shipping.  The same customers complained about that.

My eventual solution was all prices were “straight up”, no 9.99 when we mean ten bucks, and all prices included flat rate postal shipping, and anyone wanting any other method was welcome to pay for the item, and send a prepaid label.  Nobody ever did.  I did have Canadians show up at my door at 11pm whining about wanting retail sales from a web only store. They paid the “shipping included” price, and I gave em a free Walmart bag .    We are not buying or selling oxygen. Ain’t nobody who wasn’t rich to start with getting rich here. 

Quote from: St Paul Steam on May 04, 2022, 01:22:48 pm

That...my friend is called "mark up" general rule of thumb is that every time something is handled it is marked 50% (or more) have you bought one yet ?

I did, for $10 delivered, I would feel guilty hiring someone to make one for only $5 😂

These are both being handled the same amount of times. I’m not complaining about MiniSteam’s asking price of only $1.50 more, it’s that the shipping is so much cheaper from Germany vs buying it out of Ohio 

I found out years ago that you can't buy small items from mini steam without getting ripped off in shipping. I did buy my t125 from mini steam however.
Crazydoug

  Re shipping.  There is a well-known science/educational supply
store that charges shipping based upon distance, regardless of the size
or weight of the item.  It costs the same to ship a small one-ounce
widget as it does to ship a 5 pound gadget, and 'It ain't cheap'.
The buyer of the widget is subsidizing the shipping of the gadget.
Bad mojo.  Karma no like.  Me neither.

Wayne

Don't get me started on shipping, it can drive one crazy, particularly over the last couple years. How does one explain that once a parcel is dropped off at the postal depot delivery is then out of my hands. Nobody wants to pay double for tracking yet they want to know where their  parcel is two days after it has been dropped off. Thankfully I have understanding customers in Europe and Australia that will wait weeks with crossed fingers for a parcel to arrive.

End of rant. 

I just ordered my wife a Blink doorbell video camera @ 5:05 pm today, it arrived @ 6:50 pm TODAY ! 1:45 minutes from order to delivery... How can Amazon do that ?