Today I want to go over something I came across that's rather interesting..
As you know, I collect Canadian born players. Well, I came across one that I have one or two cards of that I wanted to get as many of as possible to maybe complete the player collection.
That player is Matt Maysey. He was born in Hamilton Ontario and for the most part spent his time in the minors. He did get some Major League time with the Expos and Brewers.
So I headed to COMC to see what I could pick up of Mr Maysey.
I found 16 cards that I needed (there is actually one on COMC that I still need to get there)
Add to that a couple Peter Hoy cards
Peter Hoy, by the way, pitched for the Red Sox in 1992 and is from Brockville, Ontario.
The 18 cards I picked out.. $31.94.
Shipping would be generally around $5-10
I went to Sportlots to see what I could find for Mr Maysey and Mr Hoy..
32 cards... $10.47
Here's where it gets fun...
My options for shipping..
Shipping costs ranged from $3.66-$99.99
OR.. I could use the box shipping option, where the sellers send the cards to Sportlots, they box the cards up for me, and when I request a shipment, they send it and I pay a shipping cost.
Doing it this way, I have a postage fee of $13.69, so $24.16 total.
The figure it gave me for what I saved made my jaw hit the floor..
According to Sportlots, I was saving $1200 by box shipment option.
$1200!!!!
So today I wanted to verify this again..
So I looked up the cards I needed to finish 1992 Studio..
I didn't bother to check it out on COMC this time around.. My concern was the shipping part.
So I found the 37 cards I needed to finish the set.
This time I saved the screenshots.. The first one has the list of cards I picked up and the sellers/shipping.. Look at some of the prices..
The second one is after I chose the box shipping method.
Now.. Am I right in reading this as saying I'm saving $1303.70 in shipping costs by doing the Box Option? Or am I just completely insane?
I just wanted to cover this today..
There is something very wrong with their math. I have no idea how they got to the $1303.70 figure.
ReplyDeleteI gone the "Box Order" route nine times now and I always check what I would save on shipping and it's usually in the $5 to $10 range.
In this case, Sportlots states you're saving $1303.70 on top of the $22.20 you're going to pay to ship the box. So, shipping directly would be $1325.90. I added them up from the screen shot and got $143.35, which includes that crazy $99 "premium" from bandit24.
You're going to pay $5.41 for the dealers to ship to your box and then another $10 (???) for Sportlots to ship to you. I don't know what the going rates are for Sportlots to ship to Canada. So, maybe you'll spend $15 in total shipping costs using the "Box Order" method. So, by my calculations you'll be saving around $130 or so, not $1303.70.
I dare say Sportlots needs a new algorithm!
Yeah I couldn't see it being that much. I was trying to figure it out myself.. That's partially why I wanted to write about it.. Is Sportlots on Social Media at all?? I'd like to link this to them if they are and maybe they could explain what I was looking at.. I'd rather have clarification and possibly find out they mucked up their algorithm than to think they're wilfully gouging collectors outside of the US..
DeleteWow. Bandit24 charges $99 to ship 15 cards? He must be using Sportlots algorithm.
ReplyDeleteFrom what Sportlots told me, that happens when the seller chooses not to ship directly to Canada.
DeleteA few things Sportlots does makes my head hurt and the shipping options is one of them. I can't even begin to understand it.
ReplyDeleteIt is a little tough to wrap my head around..
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