I bought a license plate topper from Route 32 this past weekend. The shipping came in at $33!!

Is this typical? While I understand the time and packaging materials, it could be put in an $8 priority box with peanuts. After the five minutes of time, I can't imagine it costing more than $20.

Is it possible to question them on it?

Did it arrive safe,and was it packed properly. You can look up shipping cost online and add box bubble price ,and salary. If the markup for service isnt reasonable ,then consider total cost to you as price of item. Would you pay that to buy it again? I KNOW HIDDEN FEES,suck but shipping was a cost. but going in person has cost and rewards like having priority bid over online similar bid at alot of auction co.

It hasn't been shipped yet. Yeah, overall, including shipping, the price was fine. But in thinking that way it seems like i'm justifying high shipping fees for something that shouldn't be that high.

If someone charged that for a shipment on ebay, would anyone be ok with it? I doubt it.

Call it what it is--rip off on the shipping,greed has no bounds!

Hey, Alan, if you want peace of mind that you gave it your best shot.....Call Route 32, indicate it was hard to understand the shipping cost, ask for an explanation, and then still ask, if they can give you a little "help" on that shipping amount. Of course, if this inquiry seems like a lot of work (like safely packing items for shipping is!), then just move on with life. John

Not to defend them but shipping costs have gone up again. Over $10 to ship a visible nipple cap to Ca. from Wa. just the other day so maybe over $10-$15 for actual shipping cost and $8-$10 for labor and $8-$10 for supplies ads up quick. You are at the mercy of the seller and their experience shipping items when buying online. I recycle shipping supplies and have a fair amount of experience building boxes and crates for safe shipping so I usually don't charge for my time and supplies are usually almost free but a auction house has costs + labor + overhead, so what they charged may seem high, it's seems reasonable to me. But if they were above $50 for a license plate topper, then I would start questioning what's going on.
I hope it arrives safely and if not, that they properly insure it!

Thanks guys. I understand the charges to an extent, but it still seems a bit excessive. Oh well, I didn't overpay for it anyways.

IMO It's a whole lot easier for us to ship items cheaper! Picture shipping out 300-400 items of all different sizes to different people in different locations and the amount of people involved to make sure payments are received and the right stuff goes to the right person......lots of overhead I'm sure so my thoughts are there are set costs for different size packages so that billing can be done up front so that both billing and shipping can be done in a expedited time to the customers.

Having bought items at this auction, I learned that they use an out of shop packing/shipping company. The auction house has a very good company doing the shipping. Packed professionally, fully insured, etc. Although, not inexpensive, they did a great job. They probably just use Fed Ex or UPS....for everything? The point is It goes without saying that shipping is the responsibility of the buyer. Other option is to attend in person. Paul www.severngaspumps.com

Yeah, you know going into an auction that everyone is making money off of us. Unfortunately we are at their mercy once we win an item.

One thing I do is call ahead the auction houses I’m bidding through to get estimates. I just bid in a North Carolina auction and they outsource shipping. So I called ahead to get an estimate on shipping. I was interested in a few 48” signs and they told me $400-500, so I knew going in. Which sometimes plays a role in my bidding.

You’re not alone. I was recently quoted $26 to ship 5 maps won in auction. When I pointed out how absurd it was, I was told to shove it and that they’d be happy to keep it. Needless to say, I won’t be supporting that auction house in the future. This seems to be the new trend alongside those ever-rising BP’s...

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but, I guess I really want to.

I just purchased a few minor items from Matthew Auction. The items were no bigger than the ones from Route 32, and the shipping total came in at a third of the license plate topper. A big thank you to Matthews!!