Dover Thrift Editions;'sourcing fee'?!?
07-18-03, 12:30 PM
#1
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Dover Thrift Editions;'sourcing fee'?!?
Amazon.com has 500+ 'Dover Thrift Editions' of books for less than two bucks, which are useful to bump an order up to get free shipping.
But on the two I just checked, they were each 1.50, with 1.99 'Sourcing Fee', plus shipping of course if the order is less than 25 bucks.
What the heck is a 'sourcing fee?' Doesn't a store have to source everything they have? Isn't that what markup and profit margin is for? Is this step one toward Amazon becoming like the phone company, and passing all their taxes/charges/regulatory costs on directly to us? If they're losing money at 1.50 an item, well gee, raise the price. Don't add some silly fee to try to recoup it--I would assume/hope there are enough people out here who will not buy a product where the 'fee' is 133% of the product's cost.
But on the two I just checked, they were each 1.50, with 1.99 'Sourcing Fee', plus shipping of course if the order is less than 25 bucks.
What the heck is a 'sourcing fee?' Doesn't a store have to source everything they have? Isn't that what markup and profit margin is for? Is this step one toward Amazon becoming like the phone company, and passing all their taxes/charges/regulatory costs on directly to us? If they're losing money at 1.50 an item, well gee, raise the price. Don't add some silly fee to try to recoup it--I would assume/hope there are enough people out here who will not buy a product where the 'fee' is 133% of the product's cost.
07-19-03, 01:30 AM
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The "sourcing fee" has most likely been added to stop people from adding these to their orders to bump them up over the free shipping. (They could lower the price, and then add the sourcing fee to make up for the lowering of the price and still come out even.)
I did find some that did not have the fee and have used those in the past.
I did find some that did not have the fee and have used those in the past.
07-19-03, 01:50 AM
#3
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Or the profit margins on them are too low.
If the books are, $1.99 each, then you have to wonder if it is even worth Amazon's while to carry them. That two dollars has to cover the cost of the book from the publisher, the order processing, the credit card charge, and the shipping (if the order is shipped free).
If enough people are using them to "bump" their order into the free shipping level, it could cost Amazon some serious money.
They ship everything I buy UPS -- and in seperate orders. So they would, in effect, be shipping me a book for which I paid $1.99 for about four dollars UPS. They've already lost three dollars on that one item.
If the books are, $1.99 each, then you have to wonder if it is even worth Amazon's while to carry them. That two dollars has to cover the cost of the book from the publisher, the order processing, the credit card charge, and the shipping (if the order is shipped free).
If enough people are using them to "bump" their order into the free shipping level, it could cost Amazon some serious money.
They ship everything I buy UPS -- and in seperate orders. So they would, in effect, be shipping me a book for which I paid $1.99 for about four dollars UPS. They've already lost three dollars on that one item.
07-20-03, 01:56 AM
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Originally posted by Josh-da-man
Or the profit margins on them are too low.
....
They ship everything I buy UPS -- and in separate orders. So they would, in effect, be shipping me a book for which I paid $1.99 for about four dollars UPS. They've already lost three dollars on that one item.
Or the profit margins on them are too low.
....
They ship everything I buy UPS -- and in separate orders. So they would, in effect, be shipping me a book for which I paid $1.99 for about four dollars UPS. They've already lost three dollars on that one item.
I can second what you say about shipping things via UPS. I've had many times where I've had multiple DVDs with different release dates and they've split up the orders by their own choosing when I've used Free Shipping and they have all been sent via UPS. To me it seemed a bit ridiculous that they would pay that much to send them. One time, one thing I got was a single $9.99 DVD and then I believe the other time they did just as you had said UPSed me a cheap book that I had ordered. Although I'm not going to complain if they want to ship things separately and get them to me quicker than if I would have to wait to get it all at once.
