Question about adventure path subscription

[Constantine]

So, I just was about to order the bestiary pawn set, and have it shipped with my adventure path order to save myself some money. Imagine my surprise when, after clicking on ad to existing order, it did so, but added another $7 shipping and handling fee to my order, eating up the 15% discount, and actually making the product cost more than if I went down to my FLGS and bought it off the shelf. So, to ship these two items to me, its going to cost $14 dollars shipping and handling!?!? For regular ground shipping??? Looking on some competitors website, I see shipping for the pawns between $4 & $6. So, if I'm adding this to an existing order that I'm already paying shipping on, why another $7??? Is the system working as intended?

[StanC]

That seems about right to me. I just added one to my cart and the shipping was about $14. The shipping for the AP is around $6. Not sure about the other websites but some may take a loss on the shipping, which Paizo has said they would not do.

[SirUrza]

Probably has something to do with the size of the box changing and thus putting it into a different category.. but that's just my silly assumptions.

[Sara Marie]

The dimensions for the Bestiary Box are 11.50 x 9.00 x 2.70 in. and 4.25 lbs.

Because the package would not be least 50% "bound printed matter" we cannot use the standard shipping option. The next least expensive method is UPS Ground.

We charge what it costs to ship your package. This includes postage, packing materials and labor. We do not profit on our shipping, and in some cases, we do take a loss. We cannot, however, afford to take steep losses on shipping. Some companies are willing to take losses in shipping with the intent of making it up on sales. Some companies ship enough to get bigger bulk discounts with different shipping services.

We do understand that for some customers, directly purchasing from paizo.com is not economical or they wish to support their local game store, and that's fine! While we love when customers choose to place orders with us, our goal is that you are happy with your Pathfinder products where ever you purchase them from.

thanks
sara marie

[Constantine]

Well, regardless of how the shipping works out, even if the package is bigger, $14 shipping and handling seems excessive to me.

[Joana]

Check out the USPS shipping calculator for yourself. Cheapest cost available for a package that heavy is over $12, and that doesn't include the packaging material.

Plugging the same dimensions and weight into UPS's calculator gives a cost of over $17 for UPS Ground, to my ZIP code at least, so Paizo (and you) are getting a discount there.

Shipping's just expensive.

[Cori Marie]

If you want shipping to go down, add more bound print books. If the package is 50% bound printed material Paizo can ship it cheaper.

[Skeld]

Yep, Amazon's cheap/free shipping has really hurt smaller companies (and individuals!) in the book selling business. Consumers have been lulled into thinking that shipping is basically free when, in fact, it's quite the opposite.

A couple of years ago, I sold a bunch of books through Ebay. I would charge $3 for shipping and each book would usually cost me $3.06 (that's box, binding, shipping, & delivery confirmation). I would get emails from people telling me that $3 shipping was outrageous and that it should be free. People didn't get it: that $3 has to come from somewhere and I couldn't eat it because my margins weren't that high (and couldn't be without pricing myself out of the market). :|

-Skeld