On Nov 21, 9:42*am, Larry Jaques
wrote:
On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:33:15 -0600, the infamous Dave Balderstone
scrawled the following:



In article , Doug Miller
wrote:

Easily. Hell, I can manage that in my old truck -- 85 Dodge, 360 4bbl, about
17mpg on the highway -- and most cars will do far better. At the rate I paid
last time I filled up, $11.50 is 4.75 gallons, which will take my Saturn SL2
considerably farther than 80 miles. Like more than *twice* that.

Of course, that disregards the value of my *time* to drive 80 miles...

I didn't ask "can you use less than $11.50 in gas to drive 80 miles?",
Doug.

I asked "Can you drive 80 miles for $11.50?"

Your answer appears to be "No."

The real ****er is that the other item he bought last week, for
example, cost $1.80 for the same size and weight but from a longer
distance. And the book from across the country cost $2.37, etc.

Some of us feel that exorbitant shipping fees are unfair. YMOV

--
We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond
with them. * * * * * * * * -- Abigail Adams, letter to John Adams, 1774

I've been ebaying some books in recent weeks. Through eBay most ship
for a mailing cost of $2.57. I charge $3.99. The envelope costs me 95
cents, and I have to make a 22 mile round trip to hit a post office
with them--they're all over 13 ounces, so cannot be shipped unless you
personally hand the package to the postal clerk. I'm sure I could get
the cost down by buying 200 envelopes, but I doubt that I'll sell more
than another two dozen books, so that doesn't make sense. Too, that
doesn't take into consideration the cost of a sheet of paper, tape and
ink to print and affix the labels and postage.

In recent years, shipping has turned from an important but low cost to
an important but much higher cost. People think they're getting
screwed. Maybe they are in a few cases, but in general, flat rate
shipping seems to me to be a break even deal for most items shipped
for most companies.