Veterans Day Sale

Steve H

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Hmmm...I wonder if Broken Ground Design has a similar plan? I still need his PTO counter sets!
Alan...are you watching??
 

Yuri0352

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So...
This evening I selected 3 non-ASL products which were listed in this sale. The sale prices are certainly a significant discount from the normal retail prices listed. My order subtotal for these 3 products (one of which was in 'zip lock' form) was $40. When I proceeded to the checkout on the MMP website, the shipping for this order was calculated at $29 and change. To be clear, one of the items I was ordering was in 'zip lock', and my address is within the continental U.S. I'm certainly not any sort of math wizard, however to me at least, a shipping total to an address within the U.S., which is approximately equal to 75% of the order seems quite unreasonable.
Order cancelled.
All future MMP ASL purchases (including pre-orders) will be made exclusively through Ritterkrieg.

On a side note, navigating through the dreary, visually unappealing MMP website to compile this eventual non-order was excruciatingly slow, and took over 30 minutes before I was hit with the huge shipping costs. The only thing missing were the hisses, shrieks and twangs of a dial-up modem to really cap off the experience.
 

von Marwitz

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I seem to recall that, the actual shipping costs are often lower than the ones displayed for shipments within the US (but I don't know why and may be mistaken).

For shipments to Europe, shipment costs are so forbiddingly high that I was forced to give up ordering from MMP directly years ago - even taking pre-order discounts into account. Especially as Europeans are usually hit by customs for boxed products - and you also pay customs duties on the shipment cost.

The outrageous shipping costs are not MMP's fault, though. Notably, shipping the same product from Europe to the US is by far cheaper than the other way around.

von Marwitz
 

Scott_Blanton

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Just want to clarify, shipping cost are based on weight of the items on the order, not the price of the item. We double check shipping cost and adjust down as needed.
 

von Marwitz

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Just want to clarify, shipping cost are based on weight of the items on the order, not the price of the item. We double check shipping cost and adjust down as needed.
Maybe you could kindly clarify further how the shipment algorithm works:

Example:

Weight of up to 3 ounces = 2 US$ shipment

I order three items of 2 ounces weight each.

Does the auto-calculation of the MMP website calculate

A) 3 items @ 2 ounces = 6 ounces => 4 US$ shipment
B) 3 items of up to 3 ounces => 6 US$ shipment
C) other?

If the answer is B) while you actually only finally charge A), there might be room for improvement of the algorithm and fewer customers would shy away due to shipment costs.

von Marwitz
 

Yuri0352

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Just want to clarify, shipping cost are based on weight of the items on the order, not the price of the item. We double check shipping cost and adjust down as needed.
And just to mention again, my order was for 3 items, one of which was in 'zip lock' form. If all 3 items were 'boxed' and not in zip lock, would MMP charge shipping at the rate of 80 to 90% of the product price instead of the 75% rate assessed on my order? No wonder some of the overseas customers don't order factory direct.
 

klasmalmstrom

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No wonder some of the overseas customers don't order factory direct.
I think another reason oversees customer don't purchase directly is the risk/chance of getting hit with customs/VAT fees as well.
 

von Marwitz

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I think another reason oversees customer don't purchase directly is the risk/chance of getting hit with customs/VAT fees as well.
Well, it is more the customs rather than the VAT. After all, if overseas customers buy from retailers, they have to pay the VAT as well.

However, customs not only to be paid on the product itself but also on shipping. So if the shipping cost is excessive, you get hit again paying 19% customs (VAT) in case of Germany on the already excessive shipment cost (and the product, of course).

Just for the record:
My intention here is not to bash MMP for the excessive shipment cost that carriers charge in the US. That's not MMP's fault.

von Marwitz
 

klasmalmstrom

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I'd say on an "intercepted" package+shipping it is more (at least in Sweden) about the VAT than the customs fee. The former is usually higher.
 

Gamer72

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I looked at ordering three games, but the S & H cost to the UK was $100.10. Mrs Gamer 72 had some robust things to say about that, so no order. ☹
 

von Marwitz

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The solution for us customers is basically to have patience.

MMP can ship bulk to selected retailers via ship and not aircraft and that way take the carriers with the ridiculous shipment charges out of the equation. This is basically, what I do when ordering from UGG (Udo Grebe Game Design) in Germany. It takes sometimes months longer in the end and I might also miss out on some sales, but on the other hand I have enough stuff & scenarios to get me over these extra weeks of waiting.

We want to get the money to MMP and not the carriers for ripping us off after all.
Which the carriers definitively do, because into the other direction it is much much cheaper just have a look:

15424

Due to Corona, its a bit more expensive currently, but this is what you normally get for Germany to the US.

I don't know what weight Gamer72's shipment would have had, but let us assume it would be between 2 and 5 kilograms. This would put roughly 40 USD shipping from Germany to US vs. 100 USD into the other direction. Add customs for the shipping cost only of 20%, this would be raised to 50 USD vs. 120 USD. Basically for the same service... @%§* those carriers, I say!

von Marwitz
 

Scott_Blanton

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would MMP charge shipping at the rate of 80 to 90% of the product price instead of the 75% rate assessed on my order?
Shipping charges are not based anything to do with the price of the products. If the 3 boxed items weighed more than 2 boxes and zip lock, then the shipping would increase some. If we sold stuff at $1 each, shipping would still be based on weight.
 

Scott_Blanton

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Maybe you could kindly clarify further how the shipment algorithm works:
I am not 100% on how the MMP website gets the shipping calculation, but it does do a real time lookup based on weight. From my understanding, there is not a per ounce charge for shipping.

Since I don't know 100%, I'll tell you how The Gamer's Armory website works (it is similar). Everything is based on the USPS shipping rate tables.

Each item is assigned a weight, which is close to the physical weight of the item. (normally I round up to the next ounce)
Each order has a tare weight, which is an estimate of the empty shipping box/packing material.

The weight of all the items is combined with the base tare weight to come up with the order shipping weight. This is then combined with the destination address and shipping address and sent to the USPS website for a lookup of the shipping cost.

If you have several items in the order, then the shipping can be higher than the actual amount since there is some rounding and adding of those rounded up ounces.

Hope this helps.
 

boylermaker

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Why are prices different going in the two directions? Is there more demand for space on US -> Europe planes? More planes that go Europe -> US? Is it a regulatory thing?
 

Gordon

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Every plane that goes to Europe from the US eventually needs to come back or Europe would be up to their ears in airplanes. ;)?:p:whistle:
 

boylermaker

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Not necessarily true--you could imagine that a lot of planes go Europe->US->Asia->Europe, or Europe->US->South America->Africa->Europe, or what have you. If there were not an equal number of planes doing the same loop, but in the opposite direction, that would lower Europe->US prices relative to US->Europe prices.
 

von Marwitz

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Why are prices different going in the two directions? Is there more demand for space on US -> Europe planes? More planes that go Europe -> US? Is it a regulatory thing?
Once someone has said that US Postal has screwed up investments for pensions of its employees and has been forced to make the customers pay for this - but I am not sure about this.

So I suspect it is more a 'greed' thing, especially if other carriers are concerned. Same with life sciences in the US. The same medicines are most expensive in the US (and Japan) world wide, so that the profits made can be beyond 15%. At least I challenge the notion that this can be reasonably explained by 'supply and demand' and 'free market blah blah'.

von Marwitz
 
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boylermaker

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I don't find that convincing at all. I can ship back and forth with both UPS and Fedex, no? If they were greedy, wouldn't they lower their prices to undercut the other and take over market share, thus making more money? Now, as long as we are "blah blah blahing", you can propose some sort of oligopoly dynamic where they conspire to fix prices, but that doesn't explain why they only conspire to fix prices going in one direction.

Drug prices are a bad analogy because they involve intellectual property. It's not like you can have a copyright on flying a plane to London.
 

von Marwitz

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I don't find that convincing at all. I can ship back and forth with both UPS and Fedex, no? If they were greedy, wouldn't they lower their prices to undercut the other and take over market share, thus making more money? Now, as long as we are "blah blah blahing", you can propose some sort of oligopoly dynamic where they conspire to fix prices, but that doesn't explain why they only conspire to fix prices going in one direction.

Drug prices are a bad analogy because they involve intellectual property. It's not like you can have a copyright on flying a plane to London.
Well, I am open to hear sound explanation from you if you have one.

I believe drug prices are a very good analogy. Because exactly the same drug by exactly the same company has prices that can differ by far more than 100%. I have worked for a medical company and have seen the prices 'from the inside'. You cannot explain to me why intellectual property should make the identical product by the identical company priced like US$ 250 or 200 in countries like Japan or the US but only US$ 100 in Italy.

But I will leave it at that, because I digress too far off topic.

von Marwitz
 
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