Will sellers ever admit that they charge too much for shipping?

Answer: when they notice a difference in their business.

That of course is hard to gauge when they're not aware if people are going elsewhere for the titles they stock. But is is tempting, tacking-on the "times are tough" surcharge, because the public that has gone through their own postal service woes, will likely accept that little "rounding-up". It's like when, oh, I dunno, a war breaks out anywhere, and the next morning your gas station is charging more.

Sellers would do well to get feedback from purchasers that don't complain about their postage rates, but instead just say, "this is the last time because I've found sellers with a fairer postage charge". Perhaps that will stick to their brains, when they're getting so many publicly-visible feedback responses and their sales start to go down.

 

For me, desire and condition outweigh the postage fees. I buy comics and paperbacks (a lot of both) online and I don't want them damaged in transit. Cardboard mailers or poly mailers with cardboard inserts are worth the extra nickels.

 

I just bought an $8 CD off discogs and the seller charged $5 for media mail shipping. I can see charging that for an LP but for a CD it just seems ridiculous, especially for media mail. $13 isn't a bad price for a CD, but it's the principle of the thing. If the seller wanted more for the CD they should have charged more for it and let the shipping cost be the actual cost.

 

If $5 media mail is too much, what would the correct price be?
Is a $1 cd + 5 shipping outrageous?
What about a $100 cd + 5 shipping - seem fair?
I have no problem with what people charge as long as I know the final tally.

 

i think there's a price to pay, even if small, for the time it takes to pack proper with good materials. i definitely charge for that. and i have no problem paying a seller to do the same for me.

 

Obviously people who take on an extra shipping charge for each additional item are either taking advantage of buyers or trying to dodge Discogs fees, which aren't assessed on shipping. But an individual seller like me is not making any money on shipping, as I charge $7 for insured media mail (up to 4 CDs or LPs). That costs me a minimum of $6.09 for one CD or LP and it is over a six mile round trip to the post office, so that remaining 91 cents covers the wear and tear on my car (mileage reimbursemens by any employer would easily exceed $1 for such a trip). I'm not selling on Discogs as a business but to sell unwanted music, duplicate titles, etc.

If people don't like to pay for insured shipping, that's fine, but the USPS has hardly been a resounding success with their treatment of media mail of items I have sold or ordered, including theft in transit, water damage and ridiculously slow deliveries when packages sit somewhere unknown for weeks or are inadvertently shipped across the country in the wrong direction.

 

I always use 16oz when shipping a single 12" LP, gatefold or not. Sometimes it's probably over, but USPS has never said anything.. Probably shipped 200+ this way without any issue.

 

media mail for a CD in my post office was $3.79 2 weeks ago.

i do not know if you mail something cheaper than that.

 

Flat shipping is the way to go. LP's aren't precision priced products where it makes sense to nickle and dime the shipping. To me that is one strike against the seller. Combined with two more strikes and I probably would avoid buying from them,

 

When I sell on discogs, I charge $5.00 for first-class shipping of a CD or SACD. The rate is usually around $4.35 or so, I use a bubble mailer with cardboard inside to protect the disc. So, I don't think I charge too much for shipping. I have had some really delayed shipments when I used media mail, so I no longer use it. Discogs' method for calculating the shipping cost of multi-disc sets is problematic, and several times I have refunded buyers for excess shipping charges.

 

I guess that's your choice, you're paying for there service as outlined by their terms. so you saved $.50 or so for each shipment, times 200+=$100 dollars saved. And if everyone just rounded down.. times several million packages the USPS handles daily/monthly/yearly, how much does that save shippers? How much does it short the USPS? I guess they can just continue to raise rates to make up for the losses? Do you also use their "free" Priority boxes folded inside out and shipped with the LP sandwiched in between? I've got several of those. What great way to save a few bucks, and FREE too! Do you use self checkout lanes at the grocery store and only scan 85% of the items in your cart?