Less expensive way to get parts?

shipping has become a new profit center for a lot of companies. if you order 2 of them the shipping doubles, how sick is that.

Although we do not sell "O" parts at present 99% of our orders are shipped FREE in CONUS. We absorb the shipping cost / costs. We figured out a long time ago that charging shipping cost added on to the purchase price is not the way to go.

Dave, LBR

I don't like it either, but when you think about what the company has to do when an order comes in, I'm surprised it doesn't cost more.

 

Let's say it's a phone call:

 

Someone has to answer the phone and take the order

Same person (maybe not) has to check supplies to see if it's there and pick it from the shelf

Same person (maybe not) has to do the paper/electronic work to get the part ready for shipment

Same person (maybe not) has to pack the item for shipping

Same person (maybe not) has to place the item for pickup or drop it off to ship

Same person (maybe not) has to notify the buyer item has been shipped

 

All that takes time (and $$$).  Even at minimum wage $10 sounds fair (but it doesn't sound like a deal no matter how you analyze it).  It can't be done sitting at a computer, unless the company is big enough (and they aren't) to have a fully automated inventory and warehouse, where all you do is punch in a number and a robot and the computer does all the work (wonder what that would cost???).

I know this isn't always possible, but I order a bunch of parts at once.  Been a victim of what you described and don't like it.

 

JohnS nailed it-shipping is a new profit margin for some companies. 

 

Glad I bought most of my desired pieces last year when shipping was 'relatively cheap' compared to the new rates-those same packages that were $20 to ship are now approaching twice that due to the new rates/measurements costs.

 

There are lot of parts companies on the forum, suggest you give them a call and see what they can do for you. 

Bob above is dead on. I would bet anyone the that MTH loses money when someone calls and orders that $3.50 part and pays the $10.00 shipping. Rent or building maintenance if the building is owed,phone, other utilities, wages,benefits, advertising so that you can find a phone number to call and administration cost to oversee the person filling your order all must come out of that  10 bucks. Mike is not getting rich on your parts order.

 

Brad

You have to get over the "shipping" irritation to enjoy the hobby. Shipping is a separate business. Lionel's shipping cost is $9 for the entire order, so it's not "double" for 2 items as someone stated. In the case of shipping on ebay for example, one just needs to click on "get the total from the seller" and the seller will usually combine shipping for two items.

Just thinking how many hands, transportation vehicles, etc. it takes to get the item(s) to your front door makes shipping costs an unusual bargain.

On different thinking, "free" shipping when you are selling seems to work wonders in getting buyers. While the paranoia about shipping costs exist, as a seller, you can take advantage of that. Whatever works.

quote:

I know this isn't always possible, but I order a bunch of parts at once.  Been a victim of what you described and don't like it.

 

I batch my part orders too.

Sometimes that backfires. I've had occasion where I waited to order, and the parts became unavailable by the time I went to put my order in. This is something to keep in mind, especially with Lionel, because they don't appear to have a deep stock on many items, and after a certain period of time, they sell what is left to North Lima Train Works (unless that relationship has changed).

If you use your LHS he can added it to a pending order and prorate the shipping, if he charges any at all.  Just have a longer wait.

 

I do that for customers who need a specialty part.  If you want it now, that is the cost.

 

As Bob said, some one has to process it, label it and ship it.  That cost money for a company like Lionel or MTH.   G

I have some that you are looking for. They are from the Commodore Vanderbilt.

5.00 + 4.00 ship. If interested, Email in profile.

Chuck

BTW, These are curved, not flat.

Started a thread some months ago titled "$3 part; $9 s/h--OUCH" or something like that. Most of the replies here are the same as back then.  My view is the $9+ s/h charge is meant to discourage small orders--like others have said, they accumulate their parts requirements and place a larger order--which is what I ended up doing.  (The "rest of the story" is that $3 part was a replacement part for a part I misplaced; only to find the misplaced part two months later.)

Time to come out of the basement guys. It's 2015.
newspapers no longer deliver. The average cost for a baby sitter is $20.00 per hour.
$9.00 to process the paperwork, pull from inventory, box and put it in the Ups bin or drop off at post office is an amazing deal. Plus all it takes is a couple of clicks on the computer.

Get in your car and drive to your nearest LHS, prepay and go back and pick it up in a week. Bet the gas alone, never mind the value of your leisure time is worth more than that. Plus registration, insurance, maintenance, etc....

Interesting is the thought that $9 is a lot when you are buying a $3 item, but not a lot when buying a refrigerator for example. It's still $9 however you justify it. The psychology of this is interesting. Maybe one could create a separate accounting for yearly shipping expenditures as a part of life's expenditures and not assign them to particular hobbies or needs. That might avoid some stress 😄.

quote:

newspapers no longer deliver.

 

They do here.

Here, it seems the only delivery services that will take the job of delivering newspapers are unreliable. Must be the low pay. A large portion of the days it didn't come as promised so we quit the subscription. Wish we had it, but when we had it, we didn't have it. Again 😄.

They do here, and wrapped in a nice plastic bag that's perfect for protecting trains for shipping.  And the paper's here by 7:00 A.M. every day, placed wherever you specify.

The charge for shipping is what the OP saw.  And I agree with him - it's outrageous.  If that refrigerator could be shipped for $9, now there's a deal!

Jeff can charges 4-5 bucks for shipping, try him

ttender.com

 

I went on Amazon, was going to order 4 books from the same dealer. They were

going to charge me $3.99 for each book and ship them all separate.

From the perspective of a seller at a certain venue, shipping has become problematic when it comes time to either set a low bid requirement or a "Buy it Now" format as when you add shipping, it devalues the attractiveness of the price as well as cutting into any profit. Its gotten to a point where some items are not worth selling because the shipping cost exceeds the value. I am thinking of renewing my TCA membership just to set up a table and forget about this shipping mess.

Amazon uses a different model for the shipping charge structure for associate sellers, which is why you can buy so many books for .99 or even .01 each. The sellers don't set the shipping prices, Amazon does, so the sellers are free to work within that structure. The associate pricing structure is also of a reverse auction type, so there is lots of competition among sellers to be the lowest price by a penny or two, or sit on your inventory for a long time.

 

At the opposite end of the scale is Amazon Prime where they will ship a $2.36 item(that probably costs 1.60) to you for free and deliver it to your door in two days even if it's a Sunday or holiday.

Bob, you forgot the rent, insurance, employee taxes and benefits and all the other things that go along with running an actual store. eliminating all these costs by just doing mail order is a big plus for sellers, just look at all the  LHS's closing because they cant do it at a profit. I think mail order houses can absorb the shipping costs and still make out well. shipping and handling should be part of the price, not something separate.

John S,

     You are correct that the price should be "INCLUDING SHIPPING" not an shipping extra charge. That is the way we work, "SHIPPING INCLUDED"  ;o)

 Dave, LBR

I orderd parts from Midge and some other woman and I must have recieved 3 Emails about the parts and they are busy. It took a month or so to get them.

Some, to most delivery carriers prefer that an item be purchased from manufactures located further from the customer, so's the carrier can make a greater profit, for their delivery service!!!!!!

It doesn't seem logical, but then again, money talks, everybody else walks!!!!!!!

Ralph

Lionel's shipping fee for parts has been 9 bucks since Mike Reagan took over. The parts can cost 2 bucks or 500 bucks if it fits in a shoebox its 9 bucks. As a few mentioned above if you order it from your local hobby shop you shouldn't get hit with the full amount of shipping if any at all.

Be thankful Lionel and MTH will sell direct to its customers. Many companies require you buy from a distributor. They can't be bothered with small orders.

 

Pete

 

 

here we go again with the criminals at Lionel & MTH charging too much for shipping. how about if they charge 12.00 for the plate and free shipping would that make you feel better. at some  point someone has to pay the shipping.

Bob Delbridge hit the nail on the head with all the cost to pack and ship. a small usps priority mail box is 5.95 and its 5.375x8.625x1.625 inside dimension. how many big boy chassis are you going to put in that box? My business ships 100's of packages a week and between all the costs labor taxes insurance etc to keep the business running i assure you shipping is not  profit center, plus if you sell on ebay you get to pay 10 percent to them and 3 percent to paypal. what business can absorb that.

what really amazes me though when you ship a locomotive you all complain about what shipping cost you even though most of you pass that on to the buyer. second someone stated the hobby shop/whoever can absorb all these cost yet everyone wants the lowest price and are amazed when a business goes out and the Harvard Business school professors on here all say mismanaged????

Popi the reason many company's charge seperate shipping on multiple purchases of like item i can't tell you how many times we ship the multiples in 1 package to save everyone the shipping and then have the customer tell us they only got 1 not the 4 they ordered, and i was the one who packed the order. its not the 50's anymore where people were trustworthy now with credit card chargebacks and the bay making a super buying experience for everyone fraud is easy for the buyer.

as i tell my customers if the shipping is to high come pick it up !!!!!

quote:

Be thankful Lionel and MTH will sell direct to its customers. Many companies require you buy from a distributor. They can't be bothered with small orders.

 

Lionel, MTH, and every other company in this industry are making leisure time products. If they don't want to provide good customer service, eventually their customers will leave them. Nobody needs a toy or model train.

quote:

Popi the reason many company's charge seperate shipping on multiple purchases of like item i can't tell you how many times we ship the multiples in 1 package to save everyone the shipping and then have the customer tell us they only got 1 not the 4 they ordered, and i was the one who packed the order. its not the 50's anymore where people were trustworthy now with credit card chargebacks and the bay making a super buying experience for everyone fraud is easy for the buyer.

 

I find that it is extremely rare for a company to ship the individual pieces of an order in separate packages. Everything ships in as few boxes as possible, regardless of whether a shipping discount is given, or whether the sale was made through EBay.

Wasn't Lionel making Leisure time products before 1969? How many customers bought their parts direct from Lionel back then? 

 

Pete

 

quote:

Wasn't Lionel making Leisure time products before 1969? How many customers bought their parts direct from Lionel back then? 

 

I ordered parts directly from the Lionel Corp a couple of times. There were a number of service stations that stocked and sold parts within a reasonable distance from my home. So I typically purchased my parts from them.  

 

One could obtain some parts directly from Lionel for trains that were 30 years old or more.

While I agree that there is a hidden cost in staff and overhead to get that $3.50 part to you, I'm not a fan of calling it shipping when what you mean is a handling charge.  To me having to staff your business and have someone get up and put a part in an envelope print a sticker and drop it in an outbox is not worth paying something like half their hourly wage.   This is especially true to me because those fixed staffing and infrastructure costs should have already been paid out of the $3.50  part that actually costs about $0.02 to produce.

To me this is the same deal as walking into the service parts desk at any large supplier... No one wants to get off their bottom for one part, and you have to pay to get them up.  

 

There's my two cents worth.  That will be $15 to your door.   

 

 

Yeah Pete,

 

  That Mike guy really changed things. Most people don't remember but shipping was only $5.00 before Mike, minimum, orders over $50.00 was 10% OF TOTAL. 

 

Bill  

I think Mikes positives far outweigh the negative of a shipping cost increase.

 

 

 

I'm still waiting for one of the many intelligent forum members to come up with a highly detailed, American made, DCC sound/control scale steamer, with limitless abundance of replacement parts available with free shipping...... That can be purchased at a more reasonable price, say $500 MSRP..... and of course delivered on time...... with a lifetime warranty.

I think Mikes positives far outweigh the negative of a shipping cost increase.

 

 

 I believe the shipping cost under Mike were decreased. A five hundred dollar order today cost $14.00 shipping, in the old days it would $50.00 

at least if you order 2 $5 items the shipping does not double. if you are going to charge shipping, charge what it costs to actually ship it. handling is part of any purchase, whether trains or a burger at Mickey D's. it should not be a separate charge. do any of the stores you walk into add handling to your purchase? so then why when you mail order? the items have to be handled either way.

I'm sure if you drove to North Carolina and walked into Lionel and bought your parts. You would not have to pay shipping and handling.

Bravo, Bravo.

 

 

Including shipping in the cost of an item only benefits the end consumer who buys one or two items. It would greatly increase the cost for dealers and service centers who usually buy many items at a time.

Bob pretty much summed up the labor cost but forgot to add the actual mailing charges.

Seems to me unrealistic to think a company can simply absorb these costs.

 

Pete

James did send me an email saying he found his part.

@ Pappy and Chuck: I probably should have replied here stating that I found the part (thanks to my post) but, per Chuck, I did that via email. Yes, I appreciate Chuck going out of his way.

 

I'm new here (6 weeks or so) so I find it interesting how threads take on a life of their own! I'm learning a lot!