Clear Plastic pots with cheap shipping?

[silken]

Originally Posted by ToddsterVonCattMan

Me thinks not!! I just placed an order with Quarter Acre Orchids for pots (they had every size and style I have used and adore), and the shipping costs were OUTRAGEOUS!

Almost 50% of the total order cost! A $55 order was $25 shipping! YIKES! I stuck with the order as they are the only supplier I have found that has ALL the styles and sizes I like. I use to get these all at a great supplier in Southern California (Danigers Orchids), but here in the San Francisco area, NO ONE carries clear plastic pots...

But with these shipping rates, I consider Quarter Acre Orchids far, far from reasonable with their shipping costs! There selection is great, however...

I think as discussed, small orders from most places, likely don't come out with good shipping, compared to larger ones. I just checked my invoice from Quarter Acre Orchids and I spent $314.25 on pots and paid $71.00 for USPS priority shipping from U.S. to Canada. I do consider that reasonable since I checked with another VERY popular company and theirs came in a bit higher for pretty much the same amount of pots. Her initial quote was a bit higher, but she was likely covering her butt as she doesn't know the exact cost until it is packed and weighted at the post office.

I should add, that I am sure she also stated that she only charges a $5.00 fee for packing material (boxes and peanuts etc.) and the rest is strictly what the shipping company charges. She does not add onto that. Can't do much about the U.S. postal service rates really.

[FairyInTheFlowers]

Sweet, thanks for the post, know I know where to order from.

[silken]

Originally Posted by TheBlazingAugust

Sweet, thanks for the post, know I know where to order from.

Cody, if you need more pots, I have them for our society members.

[Baz in Oz]

Originally Posted by Ray

Yeah...So?

So, I didn't think pots with big green blotches inside looked all that attractive plus the algae coating defeated what I believed was the purpose of clear pots.

They seemed to have made a very brief appearance here in Oz as I haven't seen any for ages.

Baz

[littlefrog]

I ship consistently using USPS, because at my volume it is the cheapest. But I think sometimes people have unreasonable expectation about cost. You see 'free' shipping all the time, and I don't know how anybody makes money at that - perhaps if you ship 10,000 boxes a week using robots to pack the boxes. I always assume 'Free shipping' means 'we added the cost into the price of the item for you'. Now that you've seen 'free shipping' offered, you assume that anybody can ship you things for free. It ain't true.

When I started shipping I could ship a pound box for ~3 dollars, now it is well over 5. As soon as you go to 1 pound one ounce, it gets expensive quick. Sometimes twice as much to ship to California as to Cleveland. And if I make a mistake in estimating the weights of what I am going to ship (plants have variable weights), then I can get really screwed. Especially when I'm shipping $3 plants - not much room for error if I want to stay in business.

All that said, it annoys me more when somebody charges way too much for shipping. Was going to order some sticky traps last night ($6) and the shipping was going to be $13 (for less than a pound). Really? I know what that costs, and somebody is getting screwed (it isn't them). Of course they wouldn't ship anything other than UPS Ground, maybe that is what a pound costs that way. Flexibility in shipping carriers would help.

[ToddsterVonCattMan]

Originally Posted by silken

I think as discussed, small orders from most places, likely don't come out with good shipping, compared to larger ones. I just checked my invoice from Quarter Acre Orchids and I spent $314.25 on pots and paid $71.00 for USPS priority shipping from U.S. to Canada. I do consider that reasonable since I checked with another VERY popular company and theirs came in a bit higher for pretty much the same amount of pots. Her initial quote was a bit higher, but she was likely covering her butt as she doesn't know the exact cost until it is packed and weighted at the post office.

I should add, that I am sure she also stated that she only charges a $5.00 fee for packing material (boxes and peanuts etc.) and the rest is strictly what the shipping company charges. She does not add onto that. Can't do much about the U.S. postal service rates really.

I think you are very right, Silken, about smaller orders being more pricey in terms of shipping... And I do think your shipping to Canada was VERY reasonable!

As Ray mentioned, shippers now use dimentional shipping, which makes bigger boxes more expensive. My new 30 lb. Orchidarium cost $70 to ship, even though it's 2/3 lighter, but a few inches longer, than a mini fridge (90 lbs) I ordered not too long ago online and had shipped for $39...! Plus, I do see many, many e-retailers (and eBayers!) making more than a few extra bucks via shipping costs.

The days of economical shipping are OVER. And sites like Zappos.com that have strong relationships with Big Brown and offer unconditional FREE shipping, always get my business first, over other sites like Amazon.com or their new site, endless.com, that only offer free shipping if you jump through hoops and qualify.

sigh—it's like my brother says, there are NO more jobs in the USA, and it's now a crazy free-for-all to make any kind of money for the middle class in this formerly lucrative country...

Did it take, Silken, a while for Stef to ship your order? I know she states she ships out on Mon. & Tues., but it's been almost a week since I ordered, and no word from her...? Maybe I'm just a little spoiled from David at repotme.com, who seems to ship moments after you order online...!

[silken]

It took her a week or so to get some Superthrive in a larger size for me that she didn't have. But then she seemed to get things packed and sent fairly quickly. I was on a tight time frame by the time she sent it as I wanted these supplies for our last orchid society meeting before we break for summer. Luckily I got them Friday and the meeting was Sunday! Somewhere on her site I got the impression she is rather busy and jumps around between two locations in the U.S. Not sure if she has an 800# but maybe you should call. She e-mailed me with tracking info as soon as it was shipped so you should have that if she already shipped it. Has she already replied to you at any time. I tried for a while to contact her before I actually placed my order and my e-mails were going into her spam garbage. Maybe that's what happened to you?? Hope you get your pots soon and are happy with it. We can't find much of anything in this part of Canada so I have to order a lot of it for our orchid society members as I am in charge of having supplies available for them.

[orchidsamore]

I found this tread interesting.

I have shipped commercially for the last 40 years and if you understand the system there are deals out there. Most shippers are not willing to spend the time to look, but in fairness time is money.

I use USPS almost exclusively but you have to realize that they use Fed Ex to air lift their packages. As a result they have a 1 cubic foot maximum before volume rate kicks in.

UPS has a 2 cubic foot max. Fed Ex does whatever they want.

If you understand the rules you can live within them. Instead of a common 20 x 10 x 10 box I use 48 x 6 x 6 which while large for shipping orchids is only 1 cubic foot. I have packed as many as 10 - 4 inch large Cattleya in this box.

USPS also has the advertised flat rate boxes but less known regional boxes which can be much cheaper than the flat rate boxes. Often with orchids the weight price is the cheapest for the shippers home state and close by states.

As a result I can offer a maximum shipping charge on my web site for $15. 98% of my shipments come in under the $15. Like the free shipping orders sometimes I can lose on shipping a large order to a far state like California from Florida. We really do absorb the cost.

I consider it advertising.

When you consider the cost of even a small ad in a magazine like the AOS journal it is really cheap advertising. It often is the factor that gets the order.

There are many order factors in shipping. I get a FedEx box 76x20x18 weighing 80 pounds from Hawaii to Florida for $64. Like Ray said that is the discount price to a very large shipper in a State were there is no cargo for the outbound planes. But I do not complain when the shipper charges me $12 for the cardboard box, they are that expensive.

Shipping inside a single state is very cheap since USPS uses trucks. I have never had a Florida shipment exceed the $15 maximum unless it was really big. Then you have to look around.

I shipped a 6 foot Vanda with two 4 foot Vanda to a Florida location recently. It was in the 76x20x18 Hawaiian box weighing 28 pounds. USPS would not accept it priority mail and wanted $78 parcel post. I friend has a 50% discount with FedEx and overnight was $176 whereas Home delivery was only $23. I dropped it off at 8PM and it was delivered 11AM the next day by truck although 2 days is their normal time. The rate without the discount was still under $30.

All this takes time and time is a factor. But if you check out suppliers you can avoid the shippers that make more money on shipping then the order.

But I can not help anyone with clear pots, they are just not used commercially in Florida or most of the US. They deteriorate too fast in sunlight. The green pots will last 3 times as long as the clear. They are so bad we throw used ones away rather than wasting the time to wash them.

[silken]

Supposedly some of the clear pots that Quartre Acre Offered were UV resistant and while they cost a bit more, weren't prohibitive. Having said that, I know they will still break down, but so do the green ones.

[Ray]

Just some comparisons I had to do today, that really shows the broad range of shipping costs:

Someone wanted to know the shipping cost from me (southeast PA) to the Florida panhandle for a bag of PrimeAgra, weighing 24# when boxed.

Priority Mail: $40.15
2 Large Flat-Rate Boxes: $29.90
2 B1 Regional Rate Boxes: $21.02
Parcel Post: $18.84
FedEx Home Delivery: $14.51
FedEx Ground (to a business address): $10.96