Shipping quotes!

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4404spd

4404spd

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Location
Towanda PA.
I hate it whan people want shipping quotes with no intention of buying. Im self employeed with not a lot of spare time through the day to package stuff up and go to either ups or fedx which are a pain in the *** to get to because of traffic. MY ***** IS DON'T ASK FOR QUOTES WITH NO INTENTION OF BUYING! Anyone feel the same way? The same with emailing more pictures without intent to buy.
 
I get quotes online and tell them that it is a "ballpark" quote and it might be more it might be less. This leaves a little wiggle room and keeps me from running back and forth to the post office. Plus there are no couriers here in town, they are all 1/2 hour away..
 
I have been on both sides of this one. I have come to realize that the price of shipping can make or break a deal. Yes there are some tire kickers out there but I don't find that many. The only thing I have ever said is if you don't want to buy it, don't leave me hanging, let me know so I can move on. Maybe somebody else is waiting for the part.

Jack
 
You could box the part for sale. Weigh it and size. Put your Zip / postal code down..........Its not hard for the buyer to figure out shipping them selves. I use the Canada post online rate calculater and its pretty dam close....JM2C........I do here your frustrations though.
 
Seems to happen more on this site than most,I have a spot in the rafters of my garage that has boxes filled with parts that people asked for quotes and never contacted me back.Most think that it didn't cost me anything?really?my time and materials and then the fuel it takes to get them a quote is not free.So if a $15 fee to ship a $60 part is the deal breaker then they need to find a new hobby.
 
i have had the problem of ppl telling me they have the parts i need, so then i ask for a shipping quote because i need the part, and they seem to vanish. or i have ppl tell me that the part is not theirs but they know where to get it. usually when i ask for a part i have my mouse on the Paypal button ready to click. but few ppl follow through.


BTW thank you member "Moparparts" ...followed through and shipped very fast.:toothy5:
 
I think the fair way to go about it is to box it up and weigh it. then go to the on line calculators and enter the weight a couple pounds over what you weighed at home for the quots for "worst case" shipping. As a buyer, I would rather hear worst case shipping and be within $1 - $2 of actual shipping than to have it underestimated and have the seller hold out for the difference or tell me to send more money. I'm not going to get pissy over $2.
 
I guess my biggest ***** is after I give them the quote I never hear from them again. Not even a no thanks.
 
It is a double edged sword. If you dont ask, the guy might decide that tailight lens that weighs 1 pound costs 95 bucks to ship.

I agree that if you arent serious, you shouldnt bother the seller. It would help if the seller listed their zip code and city/state so the potential buyer can get his own ballpark estimate and then if he is still interested, he can contact the seller.

Depending on the part, I may arrange my own shipping. I just bought a rearend from someone on another site and I am arranging the shipping. All he is doing is strapping it to a pallet for me. I arranged the pickup with the truck line our company uses and I mailed him a packing list along with payment. I save money. He gets a sell without a lot of hassle.
 
I hate it when some douchehat tells you he has what you want and tells you to call him to negotiate the price, but then chews you out because you ask for pics first. Like I'm going to negotiate for something I've never seen, or something.

I don't mind tire kickers. Usually what I do is take a pile of pics, then box it and weigh it and measure it, and then USPS website allows to enter all that and a zip and costs very little time.

The ones that offer 50% of what I'm asking without any justification at all are the ones that get old fast...like they have a damn coupon or something. At least contact me and say, 'hey, it's got a scratch in it' or 'my wife just left with my dog' or something!

I got ripped on shipping a couple times on ebay so I will only ever sell shipping for what it costs me (+/- 50 cents because sometimes the post office gives a different quote than the actual charge). If a guy is pleasant to me when I buy something, I usually throw in a buck or two to make sure he gets his ends covered.

What the OP said is truly annoying but sometimes the part is the right price but the shipping is just too much. The no call back is what sucks. The buyer should keep trying! A sob-story goes a long way!
 
I can't see why anyone would bother to put an item up for sale without pictures. Common sense should tell you that. As far as shipping quotes I have to agree with weighing it at home, adding a couple of pounds and using an on line calculator. I usually firgure out a price to ship to the far northeast and the far northwest of the country and include that information in my original ad. That way the buyer can see what is for sale and what the top price range would be for shipping. I seldom ship out of the lower 48 just because of having to deal with the additional forms and the fact that I do everything incuding print the shipping label from my computer. I either give the package to our carrier or make one trip to the post office.

I do have to agree that if a buyer doesn't want the item then he should let the seller know. That way the seller can move down the list of other interested buyers.
 
moparclown said:
Seems to happen more on this site than most QUOTE]

I can agree with this to some extent - but would add that it's not just this site but seems to be on open forums like this one in general. The most reliable way to sell items is using one of the online auctions (Fleabay) but then everyone gets scalped on their darn selling fees.:protest:
I recently had a fellow here that was going to buy an item I had. Went back and forth for a month with the "I'll get the money out tomorrow" line and eventually he just disappeared. In the meantime I had a couple other people inguire about the item and told them it had been sold.... This, I think is uncalled for. A simple, I changed my mind - or can't come up with the funds would have been a whole lot better..
Click to expand...
 
I go online to calculate shipping, both UPS and USPS both have online calculators. Then once I do that for someone I put the size, weight, and zip code in the ad so any other buyers can figure it out. Then once an agreement on total price shipped is I ship it. If shipping is more shame on my. If its a little less so be it.
 
Don't want to hijack the thread here. I like our friends to the north, But!
Went to the post office and to ups to ship a set of valve covers. They are
only worth $50.00. Post office said $43.65 to ship, ups $38.00. WTF!!!
I don't know about anybody else. I can't afford that. I just might have to give the guy his money back.
:protest:
 
briankaplan said:
Don't want to hijack the thread here. I like our friends to the north, But!
Went to the post office and to ups to ship a set of valve covers. They are
only worth $50.00. Post office said $43.65 to ship, ups $38.00. WTF!!!
I don't know about anybody else. I can't afford that. I just might have to give the guy his money back.
:protest:
Click to expand...

That is why you put the price shipped to the lower 48 when you are offering free shipping. Our friends to the north are used to having to pay additional for shipping because they have no choice.
 
Crossborder shipping is EXPENSIVE, no doubt.

I used to get things ready to go and stopped after getting "left at the alter", so to speak, a few times. If you say hey I want it, then change your mind, let the seller know, most won't care especially if other buyers are waiting. Now, I don't do anything until I'm paid for the item.

Here's a one for sellers if you have multiple buyers for an item... DEADLINES!!! If buyer number one gets a shipped price tell them they have a defined time to pay for the item, 24, 48 hours whatever you decide. Have the price for buyer #2 ready to go. If they don't pay within that time, you are moving to buyer #2 and so on down the line. Cuts down on the left hanging deal.

Buyers tend to forget it takes time and material to ship things. I usually never charge anything if it's tape or cardboard/boxes, however, if it's conduit tubing I have to pay for to ship something safely, the buyer is paying for it.

I usually get on one of the shippers sites; fedex USPS, to get an idea of shipping to the farthest point in CONUS, and use that as an estimate. I also either try to find the most reasonable shipping rate and sometimes suggest to sellers a method so the "ALL IN" cost is less than some alternatives. Some people are OK with it, others ship one way only. Never hurts to ask or suggest.
 
I only charge what the shipping co. charges and most times I us the USPS and get both the priority and parcel price and let the buyer decide.But it would be nice to atleast let a poor guy know either way.
Their is a giant box in those rafters with an entire ground effects kit for an early daytona shelby(black and gold edtion) that I did not want to ship and I had a guy from another site beg me for a week to box all of it up and get him a quote because he needed those parts so bad.The killer was I kept telling the guy that it would cost around $80 to ship the box and the actual quote was $72 and poooooof the sob disappears.
 
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