Your cost for cheap CDs on Amazon is about to jump $1 across the board--min shipped cost = $4.00

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by kwadguy, Feb 19, 2013.

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  1. Planbee

    Planbee Negative Nellie

    Location:
    Chicago
    Amazon (well, its Marketplace mostly) has been my go-to source and I ordered a bunch of CDs in the days prior to the shipping hike, but it'll be my third option now behind Half and eBay. I buy a lot of jazz and Amazon's own prices are usually pretty high for the titles I'm interested in (often a huge disparity between their prices and, say, I-Deals). The inability to combine shipping is an even bigger issue now with the $3.99 shipping.

    I'll still be on the lookout for ways to get free shipping over $25 when the CD prices make sense, but I foresee Amazon pocketing a lot less of my money going forward.
     
  2. slipkid

    slipkid Senior Member

    I buy from 3rd party/Marketplace sellers quite often, because what they are selling is brand new, and even with the postage it is CHEAPER than Amazon's price.

    Also some things I want are not even offered by Amazon. 3rd party is my only option. That is the bulk of the stuff I sell up there as well (out of print etc).
     
  3. Planbee

    Planbee Negative Nellie

    Location:
    Chicago
    Exactly. That's why I ditched Prime after a year. Couldn't justify throwing good money after bad trying to get my $79 worth.
     
  4. slipkid

    slipkid Senior Member

    It seems like (at least for the stuff I buy) that recently released or preorder CDs/DVDs are usually cheaper to buy from Amazon directly, but a lot of the time stuff older than a year or two Amazon has a price anywhere from $5 to $20 (!) higher than the marketplace sellers (firms like importcds, moviemars, zoverstock, & some others I can't recall now). The postage hike is going to change the way I buy some things though. It will now be cheaper to buy some of that stuff either elsewhere or direct from the 3rd party seller's real store instead of through Amazon.
     
  5. nbakid2000

    nbakid2000 On Indie's Cutting Edge

    Location:
    Springfield, MO
    With a lot of titles, it'll be as cheap to buy from my local than it will be to get from Amazon. This really blows. Yeah, it's a buck, but consider if you're going on a spending spree and getting 10 albums. That's 10 extra bucks that wasn't there before.
     
  6. KenJ

    KenJ Forum Resident

    Location:
    Flower Mound, TX
    Yep....$4 shipping makes Merketplace too high for cheap CDs vs stores and often the higher price OOP CDs are way more on Marketplace than what can be found in stores at normal prices with some patience....although some price wars between the bots can drop prices on OOP items. I saw an OOP CD go from $18 to 99cents due to zoverstocks bot.
     
  7. houston

    houston Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas, Texas, USA
    some of these Amazon sellers are amazing....I just got the Plasmatics' "new hope for the wretched" cd (Cherry Red) on Ebay, "like new" condition, for $10.....

    asking price for the 2 copies available on Amazon? $313!

    I **** you not :D
     
  8. strifeknot

    strifeknot Senior Member

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    I'm pleasantly surprised to find the higher domestic shipping fee hasn't affected my Amazon sales at all. On the other, international sales are still dead.
     
  9. pscreed

    pscreed Upstanding Member

    Location:
    Land of the Free
    Amazon makes more money (percentage wise) on marketplace sales of media than on selling new media, even before this increase. Marketplace is a margin driver for them, its in their business plan and their quarterly earnings reports...
     
  10. 8tracks

    8tracks Forum Addict

    Location:
    San Diego, CA USA
    I find this to be the case with a lot of European CDs: (Amazon Price/ Amazon Marketplace Price)
    Deep Purple - In Rock (Anniversary Edition) -$9.79 / $3.34
    Zombies - Odessey & Oracle - $11.72 / $5.42
    The Kinks - Something Else (Deluxe) - $23.99 / $15.58
     
  11. Mirrorblade.1

    Mirrorblade.1 Forum Resident

    I think in the long run , amazon has screwed itself.

    The cdr on demand has been around from decade.
    it fairs okay . But not get rid actual factory pressed cds
    it's kind of laughable. Especially when most titles
    are still in print. They try to push cdr on customers.

    Amazon won't be the big dog, forever.
     
  12. houston

    houston Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas, Texas, USA
    I'm still not used to Amazon charging tax... when I see that "estimated tax to be collected", I'm like, "what the Hell is that"?
     
  13. autodidact

    autodidact Forum Resident

    Well, I haven't bought anything on marketplace for a month. It certainly affected my my buying habits because I was scooping up many titles for around $3 - $3.75. Now marginal titles don't seem worth the extra buck. It's largely psychological, but still a barrier.

    On the plus side, my library is selling CDs whenever people donate them for 25 cents. I think I bought 8 of those last month. No disincentive to purchase there. Maybe I will hit more garage sales this year.

    As an occasional seller, I certainly won't be selling any cheap things on marketplace. Absolutely no point. I might list them here on the forum, though. That seems to make more sense.
     
  14. lv70smusic

    lv70smusic Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco, CA

    I'm puzzled by your last paragraph, and the same argument has been made by some people in Amazon's forum.

    I can see arguing that it will be more difficult for you to sell inexpensive items on Amazon now that shipping has gone up a dollar, but even with Amazon's increased fees to sellers the extra dollar charge for shipping does increase the amount going to sellers. I just sold a few dvd box sets on Amazon. Media mail shipping was $2.98. Since I was able to reuse Amazon boxes, the only cost to me for shipping was the mailing tape and my time going to the post office. With the $3.99 credit for shipping, at least I was getting a few cents for my time. At $2.99, I would have actually been losing money on shipping along with paying Amazon a hefty commission. (First class postage would have cost considerably more than the $3.99 shipping credit.)
     
  15. autodidact

    autodidact Forum Resident

    I am simply continuing my policy of not selling cheap items on marketplace. If I get a few cents more now, it is not enough more to justify the bother. IMO. My time surely has some value.
     
  16. lv70smusic

    lv70smusic Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco, CA

    I understand that, but my point is that the increased shipping cost hasn't had a negative impact on sellers (other than making their offerings more expensive); if anything the extra dollar is helping to offset the actual increased cost of postage.
     
  17. The price change has certainly affected my purchasing habits on Amazon's Marketplace. I've had to shift my low-end CD/DVD/Blu-ray purchasing almost entirely to places like eBay and Half.com. We are talking about 30 to 60 items in a typical month.
     
    autodidact likes this.
  18. Galley

    Galley Forum Resident

    I recently bought five CDs from the same seller. Four of them were rare, but paying $20 for something that cost the seller $4.00 to ship is hard to take.
     
  19. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    The "extra" dollar for shipping is just a ruse to help Amazon to pass on a $0.60 increase in seller fees.

    The ONLY thing the shipping cost does for the seller is set the minimum shipped price a seller can ask. If the "shipping" cost is $2.99, then the least you sell a CD for is $3.00. Now, at $3.99 shipping, it's $4.00.

    It doesn't benefit you as the seller AT ALL because you were always capable of selling your CD for $1.01 before, or $4.00 shipped. Now you don't have the OPTION of selling it for less than $4.00 shipped.

    That's it. Amazon hasn't handed you anything. They've just removed your options.

    And for that favor, they've added a $0.60 extra fee to your costs. So if you sell for $4.00, you now take home $0.60 less than you would have before Amazon did you the "favor" of increasing the minimum shipping charge.

    This benefits FBA sellers (who don't get the $0.60 hit until next year), Amazon (who becomes pretty much unassailable for low priced items with shipping factored in) and the huge used sellers who auto price to remain the low price sellers across the board (e.g. Zoverstocks). Everyone else, buyer AND seller, loses.
     
    IronWaffle likes this.
  20. lv70smusic

    lv70smusic Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco, CA

    I don't agree with your perspective on this, but maybe that's because I would never waste my time selling something for pennies that I'm going to have to pack and take to the post office. If I'm not going to get at least $10 for it before shipping, it just isn't worth my while. And I'm not sure it's safe to assume that if you sold for $4.00 before ($1.01 for the item and $2.99 for shipping) that you now must sell the same item for $4.00 ($0.01 for the item and $3.99 for shipping). Shipping costs have gone up; pass those costs onto your customers, and sell the item for $5.00.
     
  21. bluesbro

    bluesbro Forum Hall of Shame

    Location:
    DC
    The extra dollar has really changed my shopping habits. I used to buy used cd 90% of the time at amazon. Now its down to 50%. Spending lots and lots more time at eBay these days.
     
  22. Mirrorblade.1

    Mirrorblade.1 Forum Resident

    That many . Why?
     
  23. To fill in the holes in my collection or try new music.
     
  24. Myke

    Myke Trying Not To Spook The Horse

    Finally experienced this first hand today. I'm a Prime member, so I rarely venture into The Marketplace anymore, no reason to. Until today.
    An apparently OOP standalone Blu ray that appears in TWO box sets now.
    When I went deeper into the seller's storefront, I got very excited, seeing what titles he had, in addition to the one I'm after.
    That is, until I remembered...no combined shipping, then, when I added $4.00 to each price one-by-one, I might as well buy brand new from Amazon themselves, with myPrime !
    Poor seller went from about 6 sales to a possible 1.
     
  25. strifeknot

    strifeknot Senior Member

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    You could contact the seller and ask if he'd be willing to refund the extra shipping costs for several things ordered together, or to include a disc you want at no cost to compensate for the extra shipping. I'd honor such a request from a customer, so it wouldn't hurt to ask.
     
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