Tuesday, January 08, 2008
What's The Big Deal About Shipping
I've been known to put an ad or two on Kijiji, selling items that are no longer of any use to me, but could be for someone else. For the most part this has been highly successful.
The price I put on things is quite reasonable. I try to figure out a price that makes it worthwhile for me to go through the process, and at the same time give the buyer an excellent value for money spent. That means in most cases, prices are firm and cannot be negotiated.
Since Kijiji is quite vast in the areas covered, but city specific, lately I am getting emails asking if I would be willing to ship items to certain areas, even as far away as BC, which means from coast to coast. Requests for shipping are usually for items in the $10. to $25. range. Most often my answer is no, it is not worth going through the hassle of shipping for such a low cost item.
Follow up emails will ask why, since they are willing to pay for reasonable shipping and related costs.
Here's why:
To ship an item I have to go buy something to pack it in. Box, protective material such as bubble wrap, paper and so on. I would never ship enough stuff to make it worthwhile to have this stuff on hand. So that is one trip, eating up time and gas.
Then I would have to come home and wrap and pack the thing. My wrapping skills are about the same as a gopher trying to dig a hole in concrete.
If I got it successfully wrapped, then I would have to make a second trip to the post office or courier to get it weighed, fill out the paper work and send it on its way. More time, more gas, not to mention frustration.
So in a round about way allowing for time involved, shipping a $10. item would cost me in the vicinity of a little less than $40. Most buyers would feel slighted at paying $50. for a $10. used item.
So that is one reason why I don't ship, even if you do pay me by paypal first.
-=One Day At A Time=-
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The price I put on things is quite reasonable. I try to figure out a price that makes it worthwhile for me to go through the process, and at the same time give the buyer an excellent value for money spent. That means in most cases, prices are firm and cannot be negotiated.
Since Kijiji is quite vast in the areas covered, but city specific, lately I am getting emails asking if I would be willing to ship items to certain areas, even as far away as BC, which means from coast to coast. Requests for shipping are usually for items in the $10. to $25. range. Most often my answer is no, it is not worth going through the hassle of shipping for such a low cost item.
Follow up emails will ask why, since they are willing to pay for reasonable shipping and related costs.
Here's why:
To ship an item I have to go buy something to pack it in. Box, protective material such as bubble wrap, paper and so on. I would never ship enough stuff to make it worthwhile to have this stuff on hand. So that is one trip, eating up time and gas.
Then I would have to come home and wrap and pack the thing. My wrapping skills are about the same as a gopher trying to dig a hole in concrete.
If I got it successfully wrapped, then I would have to make a second trip to the post office or courier to get it weighed, fill out the paper work and send it on its way. More time, more gas, not to mention frustration.
So in a round about way allowing for time involved, shipping a $10. item would cost me in the vicinity of a little less than $40. Most buyers would feel slighted at paying $50. for a $10. used item.
So that is one reason why I don't ship, even if you do pay me by paypal first.
-=One Day At A Time=-
RSS Feed : Get the Rose Garden updates automatically with your RSS feed reader.
It's easy, Just drag the icon from the address bar to your feed reader, or click on 'Subscribe to Posts' in the right hand menu.
This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
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