Padding.  And not the kind you use to protect your merchandise.

I have found that some of the high volume Sellers implement a system that is easy for them based on priority mail. It is all automated and shipping is way too high.

My one order from Troll and Toad, they charged me about $30 for shipping. When I got it the postmark said $15. I complained - because getting ripped off on postage is pretty rare - they checked their records and immediately refunded the $15.

Some other Sellers like Coas Books for instance or when you buy something on abebooks have the same problem. You either can't combine shipping or they have some dumb automated system where you pay $12 for the first book and $6 for each additional book. So it does not pay to combine shipping.

Because of their volume, it seems too hard for many of these big volume Sellers to deal individually with customers  - they don't seem to have heard of flat rate envelopes and perhaps it is not cost effective for them to bother. I only buy from such Sellers now when there are individual items I desperately want.

I'd have to agree, I'd place these guys in the same category of the Coug, purely because you don't know what you're going to get and will be shafted on shipping...

I don't even bother looking at either sellers items anymore as a result.  

ashmire13 wrote:
I don't even bother looking at either sellers items anymore as a result.  

Whenever I see "VGC" I skip gaily onto the next page on  Ebay...

If you want to see the weight T&T assigns to a lot check their website.  Here is the DCC bundle:

http://www.trollandtoad.com/p232404.html

It is listed at 10 pounds probably because they don't seem to assign real weight values but instead want to charge 1 pound shipping for a single module so then 10 are 10 pounds.

Having been through the process of ordering a bulk lot from T&T, I wouldn't do it again.  I wouldn't say that a lot of the weigh goes toward "packing".  Some items may be wrapped in the cheapest bubble wrap I have ever seen but they are also typically right beside the box side.  So the best of their packaging consists of box, 1 sheet of bubble wrap, then the actual book.

Here's my T&T Experience...

They had a sale a while ago where modules were $1.00 each, so I purchased a lot of them and received them in a Priority Mail flat-rate box.

Instead of any type of real packing material though, they had some sort of shreded paper:

1) Which didn't fill the whole box, hence it shifted (but caused no damage to the modules), and

2) Since they used shreded paper, it got into all the modules I purchased, so I had to fan them all out.   

And I have no problem with them using shreded paper per se, as long as they had just wrapped the books seperate of the shreded paper  

I can't believe anyone here is surprised or affronted at the lies on a T&T auction. They've been caught lying and exposed on Acaeum for these things ever since they started trading on eBay. It's just the way they do business. If people get stiffed by T&T either on described condition or overpayment, they only really have themselves to blame.

A fool and his money....
There's one born every day, and all that.

Prufrock wrote:Well here is the next email they sent me after I sent them one stating there was no way 10 Goodman Games mods weighed 10 lbs.

Hi,


This lot does weight 10bls we have to consider the weight of the shipping products and the products. The estimated shipping cost for this lot would be as follows:


FedEx Express Saver $15.50
FedEx 2 Day Air $17.55
FedEx Standard Overnight $30.89
FedEx Priority Overnight $33.22
UPS Ground ( 2 Business days. ) $12.88
UPS 2nd Day Air ( 2 Business days. ) $17.49
UPS Next Day Saver ( 1 Business day. ) $27.39
UPS Next Day Air ( 1 Business day. ) $30.22
USPS Media Mail $8.71
USPS Priority Mail $14.06


Martin

So if you just pay their $29.61 for shippping do they credit you back the difference or are you supposed to wait for them to invoice you?  Seems a sloppy way to run a railroad IMO.