You may have heard about various companies having problems filling orders because of supply chain issues. They can't get the merchandise or parts because of foul-ups in Chinese factories, or ships not being able to dock in American ports. Or they can get the part or merchandise, but it's delayed for weeks or months, so are delaying or cancelling orders. No-one stores any significant amount of merchandise anymore, so any disruption in the supply chain quickly fouls things up. Because of these problems, many vendors are raising prices, or limiting order amounts.
I am happy to announce that NONE of that is happening with us. In fact, every single one of our items listed for sale is safely tucked away in our storage facility, located in the United States (in other words, all of our listed items are located on the property). All we need to do when we recieve an order is have the Shipping and Recieving Department (i.e., me) go and retrieve the item from the Storage Facility (the garage), package it, and send it on it's way. No waiting for third-party vendors, no issues with parts or merchandise waiting on ships at sea, and no customs problems for items shipped to the US.
That's not to say we're perfect, of course. On rare occasion something goes wrong and we can't find an item. In that case, we will, of course, refund you or offer other merchandise (worth more than the original) as compensation, along with our deepest apologies.
So please feel free to browse our virtual shelves (on
eBay or
Bonanza) with the knowledge that the supply chain problems you have heard about in the news don't exist here.
Hi folks!
The United States Postal Service is having a great many problems lately. Covid-19, funding disputes, and other challenges have hampered its ability to deliver packages in a timely manner. We have had several of our packages take upwards of a month to get to their destinations.
Those of you who are anxiously awaiting their items, right now the only advice we have is this:
Be Patient.
So far, the vast majority of packages are getting to their destinations, if slowly. So, please wait.
We are working on some ways to expedite deliveries, but there is only so much we can do.
As always, if you have a problem with a package, PLEASE CONTACT US AND GIVE US A CHANCE TO HELP YOU!
Stay safe out there!
Bookwyrm
Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the US Postal Service is delivering packages slower than they used to. This is not only because of an increase in volume, but USPS has staffing shortages because more people are sick.
What does this have to do with us? Simple:
Expect packages we ship to take longer to get to you. We try our best to get orders packaged and shipped as soon as possible. Once we place the package in the hands of the Postal Service, it's up to them to deliver it. Although we have had packages delayed (sometimes for an extended period of time), we have yet to have a package permanently disappear in the mail system.
So have patience with us as we are trying our best to deal with the situation. As always, if you have questions or problems with a package,
contact us first!
For more information on USPS's Covid-19 response, see here:
USPS Coronavirus Updates: Expected Delivery Changes
Hi, everybody.
It seems people have reacted pretty strongly to the recent shipping price increases we made. OK, we hear you. It sucks when things get more expensive. Unfortunately, some of this we have no control over. The Post Office raised its prices on us, so we had no choice but to raise ours. Now, it's not just the price that the Post Office charges. We have to pay for our envelopes, tape, and other shipping supplies, as well as the fees the listing and payment websites charge us.
That said, we are trying some methods to make shipping easier and cheaper. First, we have started to implement free shipping on certain items. It looks like a standard practice for certain categories of items, so we're going with the crowd here.
Second, we are looking to rejigger our shipping prices, to make it cheaper. We will analyze our sales, and see what we can do to shave some off of our fees. We don't know specifics, because we haven't done that analysis yet. Just know that we are trying our best to make things easier for you, our customers.
If you have any suggestions on how we can do this, please let us know.
Hi, everybody!
This should be the place where we give you more information about who we are and what we are doing (and why you should care). Maybe we'll do that next time. Now, however, we need to talk about shipping on eBay.
First, let me say this: Yes, we combine shipping, on eBay and on all other sites we sell on. We do this so we can pass on the cost savings to you. In fact, if you spend more than $40 on an order, then standard shipping is FREE!
Now, the US Postal Service is raising its rates, so, unfortunately, we have to raise ours. We take care to charge as little as possible for shipping, while still covering our costs. So that's one thing we have been doing: changing our flat shipping rates to conform to the new USPS rates.
We have also been exploring ways to save on shipping. We briefly flirted with the idea of offering free shipping, but realized pretty quickly that would remove our ability to combine shipments to save money. Then we tried to figure out how much more it would cost us to ship a (bigger) package with two or more items in it, and came up with a number. Originally that was $0.50, then realized it was closer to $0.60. However, that doesn't cover many of the possible combinations. Therefore, we are dropping that.
If you want to combine shipping on two or more items you are buying from us on eBay, here's how:
1) Use the "Add to Cart" button (DO NOT use "Buy Now"!)
2) Do that with every item, then use the "Request Total" option.
3) We will then send you an invoice with a (reduced) shipping cost.
4) Pay the invoice, then we ship the item.
Now, for various technical reasons, the procedure described above doesn't work for some people. If that's the case for you, and you still want to combine shipping, please SEND US A MESSAGE, _BEFORE_ YOU BUY ANYTHING! Tell us what items you want to buy and combine. We'll then make arrangements for you to buy the combined items in a single lot, for the (lower) combined shipping.
One more note on combining shipping: We usually use Media Mail to ship our books, since it is significantly cheaper. However, the USPS has strict rules on what can and cannot be shipped that way. In particular, magazines CANNOT be shipped via Media Mail. Unfortunately, that means if your combined lot contains a magazine, Media Mail is NOT available as a shipping option.
In the course of trying to change the prices, we tried to use a "shortcut" method that eBay provided. Boy, was that a mistake! Instead of making things go faster, it fouled up many of our listing, specifically the shipping prices. We are in the process of fixing those, but that will take a couple more weeks. In the meantime, if you have a question on shipping (or on anything else), please contact us. We'd love to hear from you.