Shipping Fees = Prohibitive

[nozkcb]

Why would you think shippings costs now would remain the same as in the 90's?

Should I craft a doctorial thesis on the topic for you?

I wasn't suggesting that the shippings costs would be the same. But compared to the price of the thing being sold, the fees and shipping have disproportionally skyrocketed. For example: A Mexican P bass in the late 90's would sell for about $500-$700. Today, the same bass sells for about $600-$1000. About a ~30% increase in value. Meanwhile fees and shipping have more than doubled.

Whether or not that clears things up for you, have a good day.

 

[Alkali Ike]

FedEx’s profit margin is <5% lately. That’s pretty thin.

“UPS annual net income for 2023 was $6.708B, a 41.91% decline from 2022. UPS annual net income for 2022 was $11.548B, a 10.41% decline from 2021.”

This information is all easily found since they’re publicly owned. I completely agree shipping costs have skyrocketed but it’s hard to see a price gouging pattern when their revenues and profits are declining.

 

[moon-bass]

A fun little shipping cost anecdote: Just recently a guy committed to buy a bass of mine off of Reverb, and then messaged me saying that he wasn't going to pay the shipping because he "just got 2-day shipping from Musician's Friend for like, 1/4 the cost." I offered to show him the actual shipping quote/cost, but he insisted that I was robbing him because of Musician's Friend.

I ended up cancelling the order on his request.

No real point to my story, I guess, other than ppl are definitely looking for cheap shipping and either can't or won't understand the difference between an individual and a corporation getting volume discounts.

Also, holy crap, I used to like TB much better than most of the Facebook bass groups due to the rampant arguing, snarkiness and lies on FB, but TB is slowly sinking.