SHIPPING

OK, so as a buyer on okay, what do you do? Shipping and Handling is so hard to understand. I myself did not get it, until I became a seller. It's multi-layered.
When I started in 2004,shipping items was about 40 cent a pound. UPS did not measure box sizes, it was all by weight. To ship a pound was about $3.50-$4.00. And then it changed drastically - wow, greed and $$$$ came into the picture, and now shipping is big business.
Shipping is about getting an item to you, while it passes several sets of hands, gets stacked on top of items that weigh more, bumps around in trucks and airplanes, and then needs to arrive like a gift. HIDDEN COSTSSo it's geplicated how to acgeplish that when you don't know. Shipping involveshidden costs- boxes, tapes, filler, bubble wrap, paper, stuffing, things that need 2 boxes, buying of boxes, driving to post office.there is the weight of the item, the box, the filler, the bubble wrap, etc,costs do have to be covered by the shipping fees. Big businesses have payroll costs to hire shippers.
HIGH GAS PRICES - The newproblem is gas prices. The saddest part of this increase is that the huge boxes now, even if they are light in weight are effected. If you ship 2 pounds of weight in a 24x24x12 box, the shipping can be $15.00. It's insane. What we have to do, is look for items that are close to us in distance, or a few states away, because shipping in our closest region is far less than coast to coast. So if you live in Calif and want something from Oregon, it's far cheaper to ship, than from Calif to Boston. They consider that the best way to "overcharge" for shipping. It used to be the same price all over the country for a single pound, but now it's by distance.
BREAKAGE - Buyers also may not understandthat if you have a lightweight item, you may think that it's easy to ship and arrive safely, and why so much for shipping. But it leaves our hands, goes into large shipping dolly's, and containers, then squished into piles of other boxes, thrown, moved from one person to another, until it reaches you. Boxes are the only way to get even light things to you. In envelopes, sometimes they are just crushed.
SHIPPERS DO NOT COUNT PARTIAL POUNDS, ONLY FULL POUNDS OF WEIGHT - SELLERS ARE CHARGED FOR TOTAL WEIGHT INCLUDING THE BOXIf an item weighs 1 pound and 1 ounce, we are charged for 2 pounds. The "weight" is geprised of the item you are buying, plus any filler, and the weight of the box, tape and label. - the total taped up package. Boxes can weigh 1 pound by themselves, and larger boxes can weigh 3-4 pounds just for the box for larger items and furniture. Our shipping costs to you have to include the weight of the entire thing all done up, and the costs it involved to get it packed.
COST OF SHIPPING PEANUTS