Camera shops must be hurting

[false_Aesthetic]

$39.99 for an enlarger lens.
$40.00 s/h.

No, not 3-day, not 2-day, not overnight not even sonic. From Seattle to Los Angeles.

I get that packing supplies and packing time add up but this shit better be padded with nougat and kinder eggs.

w0rd

[Brian Ellis]

An empty box for a Leica Noctilux lens recently sold on ebay for $2,000 and the shipping charge was $45 - for an empty box.

[false_Aesthetic]

I've heard of paying for box but that's ridiculous!

[Brian C. Miller]

Is that charge really from a camera shop? You do realize that there's some of us who live in the area and it might not be that difficult to do someone a favor?

-- Brian "Will do favor for print, or just to be psychotically nice" Miller

[Brian Ellis]

Is that charge really from a camera shop? You do realize that there's some of us who live in the area and it might not be that difficult to do someone a favor?

-- Brian "Will do favor for print, or just to be psychotically nice" Miller

I don't know who the seller was. And I for sure wasn't the buyer.

[Drew Wiley]

Heck - ever looked at the fine print on one of those $19.95 TV ads (that flashes past
in about 2 sec). Paying three or four times as much for "shipping and handling" as for
the product itself is routine. I know parts houses that have a $25 min charge on a fifty
cent part. Otherwise, they wouldn't even bother. Sometimes you gotta wonder, however. Like the dude at the burger stand driveup window who was getting six hundred bucks per bag of "french fries".

[rdenney]

Heck - ever looked at the fine print on one of those $19.95 TV ads (that flashes past
in about 2 sec). Paying three or four times as much for "shipping and handling" as for
the product itself is routine. I know parts houses that have a $25 min charge on a fifty
cent part. Otherwise, they wouldn't even bother. Sometimes you gotta wonder, however. Like the dude at the burger stand driveup window who was getting six hundred bucks per bag of "french fries".

I bought an O-ring kit for my Kodak thermostat valve from the local distributor for Lawler Valve, who made it. They sold the kit for $25 or thereabouts. But the distributor called me back--Lawler had a $200 minimum order which could be waive in favor of a $25 handling fee. That pissed me off for two reasons: 1.)Lawler sent me to a regionally protected supplier who, despite that regional protection, does not routinely order more than $200 at a whack (I was told it might be several months), and 2.) Lawler was extorting money from end users merely because they don't want to mess with them, despite that most of their products (shower valves, for example) sell to end users. But after a short cooling-off period, I realized that if the distributor had told me the rebuild kit was $50 instead of $25, I'd have probably just paid the price without being too pissed. I've paid more for such specialized stuff before, even though the components are themselves quite cheap. I'm paying for someone to put together a kit that includes just the right items.

And it is quite nice to have that ancient Kodak valve able to hold temperature within a quarter degree with nary a drip. Lesson: If the total price is still within reason, just pay it and shut up. (I have a total of $125 into that valve--it's $475 new.)

Rick "who happily paid $20 to ship a Pentax 6x7 TTL prism shutter speed ring from Japan, because the ring was also $20--far less than the usual price" Denney

[jayabbas]

Shipping and handling -- the new cash cow of the internet !!

[Harry Ogloff]

$39.99 for an enlarger lens.
$40.00 s/h.

No, not 3-day, not 2-day, not overnight not even sonic. From Seattle to Los Angeles.

I get that packing supplies and packing time add up but this shit better be padded with nougat and kinder eggs.

w0rd

Let's break it down:

$15.00 for actual shipping
$5.00 for box and supplies
1/2 hour for packing = $12.50
1/4 hour for internal processing = $6.00

You see, I think the cost quickly adds up. I just sent off 4 packages yesterday and it took me the better part of 2hours to package and label. We take this time for granted, but a business must cover this extra costs.

[Frank Petronio]

This was on eBay, not the store's own site? Because they are just circumventing the eBay rules by jacking the handling fee in the shipping and handling calculation.

I just bid on item without realizing the seller had a shipping and handling fee that was at least twice as high as actual postage, for a simple item. It was still a low bid but they "got" me and I probably should have canceled my bid out of spite.