FAIR shipping fees for live coral and fish.....sticker shock?

[Evan28395950]

$25-$30

 

[Cassian]

out of curiosity, what do you guys typically pay to overnight ship coral at Fedex or UPS? is either one better?

 

[ca1ore]

I only sell (mostly trade actually) locally. I only buy when I can get to the free shipping threshold (twice as much half as often). Doesn’t really require advanced planning skills .

 

[vetteguy53081]

This is so wide ranged. Some companies at $25 and others as high as $50-Why??

Usps 2 day lg priority is under $20. I often wonder if some of these companies are making money off the shipping as they ship in bulk and get a good discount. places like live Aquaia offer free ship after $99 and saltwater.com often after $79.99. If they can do this, then comes the question- “ what is the real cost of shipping “

 

[hyprc]

This is so wide ranged. Some companies at $25 and others as high as $50-Why??

Usps 2 day lg priority is under $20. I often wonder if some of these companies are making money off the shipping as they ship in bulk and get a good discount. places like live Aquaia offer free ship after $99 and saltwater.com often after $79.99. If they can do this, then comes the question- “ what is the real cost of shipping “

Coral needs to be shipped overnight in many cases (FedEx/UPS). As some have mentioned earlier in the thread, a regular individual might be charged around $100 to ship a bag of water overnight. That changes when you're a large company doing volume business, that price drops dramatically.

 

[Rakie]

Shipping is very expensive, especially seasonally. Selling corals to people is outright painful, as soon as they realize shipping isn't free, they freak out or just ghost you. I've had people expect me to ship corals to them at a net loss of $20, when told how the numbers work their response was "Take it or leave it".... Are you serious?

During winter shipping goes up BIG time. In December I had someone want something shipped in state. Lowest I could get was about $80 using Shipnex and FedEx. When I showed them, they of course backed out.

Packaging isn't free. Shipping isn't cheap. Supplies are not cheap or free either.

 

[Jvesche20]

Shipping is very expensive, especially seasonally. Selling corals to people is outright painful, as soon as they realize shipping isn't free, they freak out or just ghost you. I've had people expect me to ship corals to them at a net loss of $20, when told how the numbers work their response was "Take it or leave it".... Are you serious?

During winter shipping goes up BIG time. In December I had someone want something shipped in state. Lowest I could get was about $80 using Shipnex and FedEx. When I showed them, they of course backed out.

Packaging isn't free. Shipping isn't cheap. Supplies are not cheap or free either.

$80 that’s insane. For my secret Santa I sent a package that wasn’t even 2 day shipping from Michigan to Cali and it cost me almost $20. The package weighed 5lbs. Thought this was insane. But I never buy corals or fish online unless shipping is free. Saltwaterfish.com usually has great deals where’s if you pay $150 you get free shipping and a free gift. I just wait till the right items are being given away and I snag it and get free shipping. Other than that I’m not paying $50 for 1 coral. It just seems insane to me to pay more money for shipping than what one coral is worth. I rather stick to the swaps, local reefers and my lfs

 

[NowasReef]

Shipping is unfortunately the bane of existence for many! I run a fulfillment company and we get outstanding shipping rates and the number one complaint we still get from customers is shipping costs. When you factor in, as some have mentioned, the cost of a stryo and heat pack, anything under $50 should be considered a steal, especially if its overnight. Many people don't realize that the carriers now use dimensional weight when calculating shipping costs. What that means is length x width x height of the finished box size then divisible by a # usually between 130 and 150. So if you were shipping a 12x12x12 box you will probably be getting charged for at least 12-13 lbs minimum, no matter what the weight is inside the box. Where the box is coming from or going to obviously makes a big difference as well.
Many people don't realize that Amazon LOST over $5 BILLION in shipping costs in 2017. Of course is was made up elsewhere. It is just something that we have to deal with in the online age. Your best bet is always combine and bundle whenever possible!

 

[JMM744]

No matter how much it costs it’s still cheaper then we taking time away from my busy schedule and driving to pick it up. Think about it, you get something shipped from California to Ohio ,for example, and it costs 50-75 overnite, what’s to complain about? That box was packaged by someone who got paid to do it, the box was a cost as was everything inside to make sure the coral/fish made it alive, then the box goes by truck and eventually by plane to another truck and finally to your door. Folks, that 50/75 is cheap!!!
Try running a business like fedex or ups or just dealing with a small business of your own and you learn real fast that the cost of shipping is well earned and usually a better deal then the client will admit.
I have never been in a hobby where people complain about the cost of shipping and such but then spend 50-100 bucks for a 3/4 inch frag all day long. Shipping is a real bargain.
Oh, and I own a small business and ship.
Jim

 

[PaulPerger]

While I fully understand shipping costs etc and while I know that $40 for an overnight package is a steal, I do a lot of online shopping and shipping is very often free or MUCH less than to ship a coral or a fish.

I am an Amazon Prime member, so most of my shipments are free when buying from Amazon. I think that is part of the problem though... I will admit, I have come to expect free shipping. However, I have also learned that when ordering online, the shipping IS part of the cost I am paying. So saving $20 by buying online is only saving $2 if I pay $18 for shipping. Taking that into consideration is vitally important if you are being conscious of how much you are spending. And, YES, I will absolutely buy another $50 fish to reach the "free shipping plateau" and save $35 on shipping, it's like getting a $50 item for $15!

 

[FishLipz]

I certainly will not call out a vendor for trying to cover shipping costs and for small volume vendors I would expect and be willing to pay a little more. I also appreciate when vendors like WWC who have a huge volume pass their savings on to the customer. I generally will only do business when shipping is included with my order over a certain amount or $50 or under for something I REALLY want under the free shipping threshold.

 

[LMDAVE]

As much as I hate the cost, I'm pretty impressed when something leaves California or up north and is on my door step in Louisiana the next day at 10 AM. As for the cost of Styrofoam and heat pack, I'm sure these vendor are buying them in bulk and getting good prices. I door feel they should cover some of the shipping with their profit. Part of selling corals is knowing they have to ship them and it's somewhat hidden in the price I would think.

If I'm buying from LA and my total is like $70, I look for something for $30 and it's like getting a free coral/fish, so I do like their shipping policy.

 

[Mike1995]

Most of the time shipping costs are fair. However there is a few fish stores like that fish place that's actually 90 minutes from me, they'd charge $40 to ship. Definitely isn't 40 to ship a short distance. I mean for how close i am they could probably send it regular mail and I'd still get it the next morning.
But then there's other companies that are very fair at $25-$30.

 

[ReefyB]

It depends on the availability to the consumer. For me, I have a ton of LFS’s around within an hour drive, so I have no real need to buy livestock online. Because of that, paying for shipping always feels like a waste, and I’ll rarely order online if shipping isn’t free or less than $20. Not to mention, online vendors already charge more (usually) than the local shops for livestock, so shopping online just tends to be way more expensive. To be competitive I think an online vendor needs to take on the responsibility of mitigating shipping costs, in whatever way they can. Few sites do this by offering very reasonable free shipping thresholds ($99 or $150) while still having very competitive pricing on livestock.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I made previous comment and Not saying it is high or crazy- Just hard to believe that a place like live aquaria can ship two fish already cheaper than my LFS with Free- no charge for overnight.
When I say packages can be shipped lower, to clarify, Why cant vendors get a lower price. It would make a difference of one , two or even three added frags to an order.
On the other hand, If you buy one or two frags at $5-10 and pay $40 for shipping - thats' your own fault. The idea is to buy 8-10 frags then when you divide with shipping..... its only 2-3 dollars more per frag

 

[Devaji]

having no LFS within hundreds of miles of me each way, all my reefing gear and live stock is shipped. so my yearly shipping cost is in the hundreds.

it sucks big time but it is what it is. sure I wish shipping was $25 or more free shipping at X amount. the problem I have when online shopping is one vendor with have one fish or coral I want and another will have one and yet another will have 2 more. so to get what I want I would have to pay 3X shipping fee, yeah I dont do that. but shipping fees are killing me if I place 10 orders a year that $400 just in shipping.
one place I want to buy 3-5 softies and shipping is over $100 bucks. wanted to get them for over a year but cant stomach the shipping...

a while back I was talking about making a nonprofit for coral shipping could start out with aquacultured fags and go from there. if we as a hobby group together and every last reefer can use the group discount to trade or sale there frags I think even @ the normal rate of $40 I think that could bring the price of corals down a bit. as more trading and transactions from reefer to reefer would = more on the market and bring the price down some. + would be a very big step forward in the aquaculture of corals.

just a though but if we as hobbyist can in some way take a bit of control and action I really think there could be something we can do.

 

[MnFish1]

I remember the first time I found out you had to pay an extra fee to have coral shipped to you! I was sticker shocked! But after thinking about it of course it made perfect sense. Shipping live goods can get quite expensive considering the weight and location and it's just a fact that it has to be factored in.

What would you consider to be a FAIR price to have a regular sized box of coral frags shipped you?

What is a 'regular sized' box of coral? I only ask because (when I ordered online) I tended to order larger specimens which then required more water and larger boxes. I now tend to go to a store that grows out large colonies from frags - and buy those - thus avoiding the shipping.

I voted 'include in the price of the coral' - because it seems to be what most vendors are doing (i.e. 'free shipping if the order is more than xxx') - of course the shipping isn't free - but...

 

[MnFish1]

When I started this Hobby I thought shipping was downright ridiculous. But I went on UPS and FedEx websites check out overnight shipping and I quickly realized that the companies were charging me less than what it would cost me to ship overnight to them. So I'm not too worried about it.

However when I order fish I wait until I have X amount to get free shipping.

And it drives me nuts when Live Aquaria runs a special order $179 and get such-and-such percent off because that usually means I get a free fish so with this little tactic they get more of my money. Lol

I know this thread is about fish and corals but I wasn't very enthused about the flat $19 shipping from LiveAquaria for frozen fish food but when I received my package I had 22 of those reusable ice packs so my thoughts quickly changed.

I had to send an overnight "folder" 39.95 at Fedex. Unfortunately it was a day when the USPS wasn't open - that would have been 9.99.

 

[MnFish1]

This is so wide ranged. Some companies at $25 and others as high as $50-Why??

Usps 2 day lg priority is under $20. I often wonder if some of these companies are making money off the shipping as they ship in bulk and get a good discount. places like live Aquaia offer free ship after $99 and saltwater.com often after $79.99. If they can do this, then comes the question- “ what is the real cost of shipping “

I would say that reliability is key with Fed EX better than UPS better than USPS. This is the logic some of the Discus shippers use. I also have bought some expensive art - and sent it back. The price to ship it (for me - with insurance) was $500. The price to charge it to the merchants account was $75. Their insurance, for example would only cover the item if it was shipped with FEDEX due to reliability.

 

[MnFish1]

A funny (true) story - this is not a criticism of BRS its just a computer glitch. I happen to live in the same city as BRS - its a 15 minute drive. I ordered a bucket of salt and something else. Usually go to pick stuff up there - but couldn't this time. The amount was over the limit for 'free shipping' - which it said would arrive in 4 days. then there was 2 day which was 4.99 and overnight was 39.99. The funny thing is that the 'free shipping' will likely arrive in 1 day either way. The shipping calculations are crazy. Also the prices that places like FedEx and UPS charge for boxes, bubble wrap, etc are crazy