I'm glad I looked at the shipping charges on a tapestry loom offered on ebay BEFORE I bid. They wanted $527.00 to ship the sucker from California! For that, I could drive out there myself, have a lovely trip, take some pictures, etc and pick it up! Anyway, it pays to look before you leap. Does that sound reasonable to anybody?
Sounds way too much to me. I used to get things from Ebay a lot more, but it seems to me that a lot of sellers are inflating shipping charges these days. They try to pull you in with a low bidding reserve price and then stick it to you with the shipping.
It really does pay to check out the seller as well as what else they have offered and sold in the past.
Glad you didn't get taken!
Kedela
Agreed that a lot are inflating, BUT... it's because the inflating has come down the ladder... IE: DHL, UPS and FedEx *DRIVERS* are adding gas and diesel extra charges..... JM2C, Noreen
Oftentimes the shipping estimate for those things is the walk-in counter price at one of the shipping resellers and includes the inflated packaging cost as well.
If you're interested in an item it can't hurt to email the seller and ask for clarification on the shipping charge, or to ask for the estimated shipping weight and do your own research. There's nothing wrong with obtaining shipping quotes, then going back to the seller to say "if I win the item it looks as if we [make it a group effort] can ship that puppy for substantially less than your initial estimate, here's what I found."
Then again, sometimes it is cheaper in the long run to buy the item new from a reputable vendor. Until gas prices started going through the roof there were several knit/spin/weave vendors who offered free shipping for orders over $$$.
Do your research :)
+++++++++++++Reply to the list as I do not publish an email address to USENET. This practice has cut my spam by more than 95%. Of course, I did have to abandon a perfectly good email account...
that looks like exactly the case. The bidding for this 48" gobelin-style loom starts at around $50 and I have yet to see any bids. I guess everybody else was smart enough to check the s/h. If you live in CA and can go pick it up, that would be a deal! but I bet they'd insist on shipping even if you live next door!
It all depends on the weight and the size and does it need to be crated. How big is this loom. I can tell you that shipping from Vancouver Island to Toronto for furniture is not cheap, if you do it with a reliable shipper. Otto build two small tables and one big one, we shipped it crated to Toronto for around $300 Canadian dollars. Do some comparison shopping with well known names and see if it is to exspensive.
Els
PS Noreen you have a good point, gas is now so exspensive that that will add to the price as well.
Els
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