Cost of rough

[vegasjames]

Apr 25, 2023 5:52:20 GMT -5 rockjunquie said:

I know the USPS shipping went up. I also know sellers get a break on costs. I try to shop free shipping or first class. I am usually only buying one or 2 small slabs at a time. A frb is a waste to me.

The padded flat rate envelopes are great. You can even fit 2 SFRBs in the envelope and it ships for something like 10 cents more than the SFRB. With postal prices the way they are it is worth the cost of a padded flat rate most the time. For example I had recently bought a SD card that turned out to be faulty, so I had to send it back. I put it in a small normal padded envelope that hardly weighed anything as the SD card barely weighed anything and hand written label, not a priority label, with shipping from Las Vegas to Southern California. So I figured shipping would be a dollar or two. Nope, almost $6 for that little lightweight package. I hate to think of what it would have cost if I was shipping a couple slabs that actually weighed more than a couple of ounces.

[rockjunquie]

I use Pirateship.com. I just looked at a few of my last shipments. I can mail a few small slabs in a bubble envelope with cardboard for under 5. I can send a SFRB for 8.10. I'm sure paypal and ebay offer similar discounts. I often buy slabs on ebay for 5 or under for shipping. I like when the seller offers me a choice of fr or 1st class. I won't pay full usps counter price for a SFTB for one or two small slabs.

[roy]

yes i have mostly on imported items though due to what Tony said duty taxes i tend to stay at the smaller scale however so those fee's dont apply but if try to buy the same item from a USA dealer the cost of that same item doubled

[Mel]

I quit buying a lot of lapidary stuff because of shipping, though I'm up north so we were already in expensive territory. Need to find someone near the border....

I haven't priced out much for slabbing material so can't say prices there, but even tumbling rough has gone up a buck or two.