Closing Tonight: Love of the Game Auctions

[Peter_Spaeth]

I would look at it that you got a bargain on shipping for the more expensive cards.

At first blush I agree with you that that language doesn't make sense. I assume it's just boilerplate and that if an item did get lost Al would cover it and submit an insurance claim, but I can't speak for him of course.

[tonyo]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

I would look at it that you got a bargain on shipping for the more expensive cards.

Nice point, I remember holding those big boxes that they shipped the T3's in and thinking $8 or $9 seemed about right for those.

[BeanTown]

Good catch Tony. I think what most AHs do is they have a third party insurance carrier. All the packages are covered if they use USPS and send certified. USPS also gives unlimited free boxes to use for their USPS shipments. There are a few AHs that do NOT do this and they still use shipping/handling as a profit center. Plus I know there is one other AH (advertiser on net54) that wont use a third party umbrella policy for their customers and just pays the ripoff off rate that UPS/Fed-x charges for insurance and passes it along to their customers.

[Al C.risafulli]

There seems to be no correlation between value/size and cost to ship.

I'm just curious if anyone can shed some light on that?

Hi everyone:

Happy to do so; I like to think the LOTG shipping, for what it is, is among the cheapest in the hobby.

My shipping costs are based on three factors: 1) the value of the package, 2) the weight of the package, and 3) some arbitrary sorcery that I'll try and explain below.

First, with respect to insurance: I do not charge bidders for insurance unless the total value of the package is greater than $25,000. I have to have insurance to keep my inventory secure, and insurance on shipping is part of my policy already. If I need to purchase a temporary endorsement on a high-value package, I do pass that cost along.

There is an indirect insurance cost that I pass along in that I do have to ship certain ways based on the value of the package, simply because I have some requirements for how I have to ship. Any package valued over $500 needs to have a signature requirement, which costs $2.35 or something like that (if you've ever gotten a package valued over $500 that didn't have a signature requirement, that was a mistake on my part - don't tell the insurance company!). Any package valued over $2,000 needs to go via Express Mail. Any package valued over $25,000 goes via FedEx. So those are some "forced" costs, I guess, that are driven by my insurance requirements.

The important thing to note, though, is that for my Premier auctions, everything is shipped via Priority Mail at a minimum. That's what's responsible for the majority of the cost. For instance, for me to ship a small parcel weighing around one pound from my office to Tony O, the cost is $7.55. I use Priority Mail because it's safe, quick, and because I can track every package if something gets lost.

From there, anyone who has received a package from me knows what is involved. I take pride in how I package people's winnings, to the point where I still package most of the boxes myself. Even a single card is packed very carefully, with a host of different types of material protecting the card - typically a fresh, triple-walled corrugated outer box, some heavy duty bubble wrap, some corrugated interior pads, AND a bubble wrap bag, at the very least. None of my packing materials are freebie, USPS material, and I almost never reuse boxes (exceptions being for odd-sized or custom-packed items). There's somewhere between $2 and $4 in packing materials involved with each package, depending on what I'm shipping.

Beyond the postage cost and an estimate for packaging materials, the "sorcery" that goes into it is simple: My SimpleAuctionSite software automatically calculates shipping costs on every lot. Before I send out invoices, though, I review each one manually, just to see if any of the shipping costs seem excessive to me. Typically, I reduce about half the invoices by a couple of dollars or so - it's done completely by my gut, it's a reduction from the actual cost to ship, and it's always based on something simple, like "That just seems like too much to pay for that." I never increase a shipping cost, only decrease. That's why sometimes you see a shipping charge for $9.20, and then the next auction it'll be $8.75 for something similar - because I'm randomly reducing the actual cost by a few bucks to a number that feels more fair.

In each auction, I lose money on shipping. It's definitely not a profit center for me in any way.

I hope this explains things a bit, since it's not often I hear my shipping is expensive!

-Al

[BeanTown]

Al, you have a great auction and your shipping charges have always been more than fair. My earlier post about some AHs was not directed at your company at all, and sorry if that was implied. The only auctions that have better shipping than you are Ebay where shipping is free. Keep up the great work and hopefully other AHs will follow your blueprint.

[Al C.risafulli]

Hi Jim!

I didn't think you were complaining at all; it's not every day I have an opportunity to explain something as mundane as this, and since it came up in two different threads today I thought this was a good time. And thanks so much for the kind words.

-Al

[tonyo]

Hi Al,
I won't prolong this mundane topic beyond saying thanks for explaining why there is no correlation between value/size and shipping costs.

By the way I loved your story about swinging the Gehrig bat in a diner and enjoyed seeing it in Chicago

Have a great weekend!

Tony