As a longtime member I have bought and sold many items here on Flying Giants, mainly my “Ed’s RC Field Stands”! And I say thank you to all those who purchased one from me! And thank you to all those who sold me some great items as well!
However here lately there are those who do not or will not understand when we list something we allow a bit of fudge room on pricing but when we say buyer pays shipping we have not added that into the price. These are the ones who offer you your asking price with shipping included.
Shipping prices today have risen nearly 200% from 6 years ago. Why, fuel surcharges, residential delivery charges, oversize charges, all over the basic rate. Now with Covid-19 FEDEX is adding up to $35.00 dollars per package. My last stand shipping cost, $96.00.
I cannot in good concious charge that much shipping for a 135.00 or 155.00 stand.
I sold a 100cc wing bag today and shipping was 46.06 to Virginia. I only asked $70.00 plus shipping but ate 16.00 to cover shipping out of my price.
So, “Ed’s RC Field Stands”, is out of business, and Iam slowly getting out of the hobby! It’s been a wild ride, many memories, but you have to face reality!
Thank you friends, customers, sellers and buyers!
Ed Waldrop

Shipping costs will be the death of this hobby.

The 1st death was of the LHS as everyone switched to online ordering. Now that shipping costs have skyrocketed....where does that leave us? Are we ourselves to blame?

pay the shipping or you don't get !!
LHS been gone a long time

It's a tough nut to buy something small and relatively inexpensive and have to turn around and pay twice as much for shipping. We have lucked out so far buy finding a fairly cheep shipping option for our fittings and such for our customers.

Bob

For smaller items, I ship USPS 1st class mail in these inexpensive lightweight poly bubble envelopes. They come in a variety of sizes. Last week I mailed something across Florida and it was actually faster (2 days) and considerably cheaper than Priority Mail (3 days) according to the post office mailing machine.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01J9...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Originally Posted by RCAddiction

For smaller items, I ship USPS 1st class mail in these inexpensive lightweight poly bubble envelopes. They come in a variety of sizes. Last week I mailed something across Florida and it was actually faster (2 days) and considerably cheaper than Priority Mail (3 days) according to the post office mailing machine.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01J9...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

while an option to be sure...having worked in the industry for years I can attest that while bubble envelopes have been tried, a very large percentage never made it to their destinations as compared to boxes, and an even larger percentage was ripped in some way with some or sometimes all of the contents gone........

This morning I received a surprise, the person who bought my wing bag sent me the difference in shipping costs after reading this post! I am beyond words! He is a true representative of our hobby!
Thank you!

I understand everything you said in your post. All I can say is, just be thankful you live in USA. I live in Canada. I have had all my rc things shipped to a UPS Store , just 35 miles from me in Michigan, thanks to COVID I can't cross into your country to get my things. A carburetor and exhaust gaskets shipped from DA on JUNE 11 to me here in Canada, been sitting in LA since June 13, at $19 shipping, $78 head gasket in Flint, Michigan cost me $129 to ship to me here when it was $23 to UPS Store and took three weeks to get here a 125 mile drive for me...just the cost of doing business today with the restrictions added by COVID...oh and yo can be sure that the increase i prices of everything is going in some one pockets, pretty much everything here has gone up 20% since March 1. and I am not just refering to rc things, I mean everything.

I hope I did some business with you in the past here, because you are an upstanding businessman and I wish you the best in the future, stay safe....

Wow! I am shaking my head here reading your story. And I am pessimistic that pricing will go back down again... I remember when gas prices shot up a few years ago businesses started adding fuel surcharges/delivery charges (ex: Pizza delivery)... and when fuel prices went down the extra charges stayed.

Originally Posted by dmichael

Wow! I am shaking my head here reading your story. And I am pessimistic that pricing will go back down again... I remember when gas prices shot up a few years ago businesses started adding fuel surcharges/delivery charges (ex: Pizza delivery)... and when fuel prices went down the extra charges stayed.

Yes they did! And in the past few months oil hit rock bottom and we saw 1.98 a gallon for gas here in Oregon, lowest in years! But shippers continue with those surcharges.
Let me explain what I was told by the owner of a Heavy truck maintenance shop of which I was the Service Manager. He said I did not understand!
“ You can buy a bottle of water at Wal-Mart for $.25, at the airport you will pay $3.00! Whatever the market will bare is what we will charge! We have their truck, we charge what we want!”
Needless to say I did not agree with him! I brought 23 customer accounts with me when I took the job! I stressed they would not tolerate his jacked up prices when we should go by the flat rate book! Besides that it’s not ethical! Treat people as you would want to be treated! Within a year we lost over 75 accounts, money got tight and he came in one Monday morning and gave me a choice, keep doing my service managers job as well as turning wrenches! My reply,”You put yourself nearly out of business, hell no!”

Originally Posted by edwal07

Yes they did! And in the past few months oil hit rock bottom and we saw 1.98 a gallon for gas here in Oregon, lowest in years! But shippers continue with those surcharges.
Let me explain what I was told by the owner of a Heavy truck maintenance shop of which I was the Service Manager. He said I did not understand!
“ You can buy a bottle of water at Wal-Mart for $.25, at the airport you will pay $3.00! Whatever the market will bare is what we will charge! We have their truck, we charge what we want!”
Needless to say I did not agree with him! I brought 23 customer accounts with me when I took the job! I stressed they would not tolerate his jacked up prices when we should go by the flat rate book! Besides that it’s not ethical! Treat people as you would want to be treated! Within a year we lost over 75 accounts, money got tight and he came in one Monday morning and gave me a choice, keep doing my service managers job as well as turning wrenches! My reply,”You put yourself nearly out of business, hell no!”

Ha,ha,ha....Ed, seeing you on a public forum pontificating about ethics is about as rich as three foot up a bull's ass. I guess you move out there on the left coast and try to forget about some of your dealings back in Bama. Hey man, it's your lie I guess you can spin it any way you like.