Memory Lane Excessive Postage ???

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Posted By: Carl Lamendola

I just saw my invoice for the 20 scard SGC lot from Memory Lane I recently won. The lot was $200 + $35 hammer + $30 postage. I looked at the back of
an SGC form. They charge $13.40 for return postage with regular insured mail and $18.35 for registered mail. So, effectively I paid a 22.5% Buyers premium. Anyone have similar experiences - this is a real problem on Ebay, but I expeceted more.

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Posted By: scott brockelman

I believe they stated the invoices right after the auction would be incorrect and adjusted after 48 hours. Mine was only $20.00 and it was for 1 regular and 1 oversized item with a total jsut over 2K, which seemed about right. You may want to refresh the invoice page, if that doesn't change anything give them a call.

Scott

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Posted By: Jason

They adjust them. Usually on Monday.

On a lot I won the shipping was 30 bucks but a couple days later it was 10 bucks.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Good auction software can perform an incredible number of tasks, including invoicing every winning bidder. The one thing it is unable to do is calculate postage.

A $1000 invoice could be made up of one card or fifty pounds of hard cover books. So it has to be done manually, often a couple of days after an auction closes.

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Posted By: jay wolt

Barry - why can't an auction house list the shipping it will charge in advance
for each lot and state a discount of x% for multiple lots?
eBay auctions have shipping listed and as a seller I'm delighted when
I think a card of mine should bring $50 so I'll charge $3.95 for shipping
& insurance and then if it brings in several hundred, fantastic!
I'm happy to lose a buck or 2 on shipping costs knowing I made out handsomly
w/ the auction price.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I wouldn't know how to do that. I suppose you could list reasonable postage for each lot, but how would you get the computer to recalculate it if a bidder won four different lots? You would still have to do at least part of it manually.

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Posted By: joel

my shipping charge was $320 for one graded card and one 5x7 photo. total before shipping was $2236. I left a voice and email message. I really hope this is a mistake..like an extra zero added on.

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Posted By: leon

Scott and I use the same type s/w that Memory Lane does. The real shipping charges will be put on the invoices later. I think I saw an email to that effect too. I doubt they will gouge on shipping. Just hang tight for 2-3 days and I am sure they will get the shipping charges all worked out.

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Posted By: Felicia

Actually it is very possible to have a software program calculate correct postage, There are scripts/programs that have been written (very inexpensive) which calculate weight, size of box needed to ship (based on dimensions of items), and any additional shipping fees you want to add. It will take the final value fee and calculate the insurance charges for the items sold. It allows you to pick the carrier amongst other things.
I have this program for the thousands of items that I sell, I ship all over the world, weights vary from 2oz, to 2400 lbs.
I am surprised that any auction house that sells millions of dollars of items, makes hundreds of thousands in fees doesn't invest less than 1000.00 in software of this type that will take additional headaches out of the action process.

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Posted By: Bob Freedman

Our software calculates actual shipping based on carrier (we use actual real-time data from all the major carriers), weight, dimension and, price of winning lot(s). Currently several of our clients use this feature and others do not as it is an optional feature (some clients wish to calculate the the prices themselves).

Apologies for the self promotion.

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Posted By: Rick McQuillan

With a 17.5% buyers fee plus the commission from the consigners - why isn't the shipping free?

Just a thought.

Rick