[Arm-netbook] Shipping costs

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

---
crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68


On Thu, Aug 11, 2016 at 9:19 PM, Wolfram Kahl <kahl at cas.mcmaster.ca> wrote:
> Hi Luke,
>
>   I didn't mean to be confrontational, and even included a smiley in
> an attempt to document that. ;-)

 thxman.  doing too much, here.  nights are... rough.

> I wasn't arguing at all against your choice of the US as shipping hub;
> you discussed that before. Instead I was trying to get more attention
> the point that Wolfgang had raised, and that I havven't seen really
> addressed yet:

 ... i forget whom i've repeated things to, it's been so many times

>> On Thu, Aug 11, 2016 at 02:56:51PM +0200, m016fec3 wrote:
>>> I have pledged for more than one item and have the question, others have
>>> them too, if the items will be send bundled and if yes, will the
>>> shipping costs nevertheless be summed up as if the items would have been
>>> sent seperately?
>
> You somewhat anser this by the following:
>
>>  from there, the costs of shipping are known to be more expensive
>> outside of the US, due to surcharges which are *totally outside* of
>> our control.  this isn't something we can ignore.  more experienced
>> people than i have set the shipping costs based on years of direct
>> experience.   i don't know what they are - but crowdsupply (and
>> thinkpenguin) definitely do.
>
> I can perfectly take that for an answer, but I probably am not alone
> in feeling that this is suboptimal. To exaggerate the situation a bit:
>
>>  my experience has been limited to using DHL and Fedex for personal
>> shipping of items: the costs for sending a 40 gram Computer Card were
>> something mad like $75.
>
> Now if you had had them send you two 40 gram Computer Cards in a single
> package, would you have been happy to pay $150 for that,
> even though you accepted to pay $75 for the single card?
> From my experience with DHL etc., I would expect the two cards to cost
> the same $75, since they fit into the same (rather oversized...) envelope.

 ... because they go approximately in 0.5kg increments, yes.

 no, for the "budget" international shipping they go strictly by
weight.  yes you can put 2 computer cards into a bag and it will weigh
less than 2 bags + 2 computer cards... but not a lot less.

> Perhaps more directly relevant to the project, I was trying to make
> the following argument: If shipping costs for multiple items
> can be reduced, then people outside the US will likely order
> more of the small items together with the cards and micro-desktops.

 honestly i'm inclined to trust the experience of both thinkpenguin
and crowdsupply, both of whom have an extraordinarily large amount of
experience with world-wide shipping costs.  crowdsupply's numbers are
*average* numbers not actual costs.  certain locations will be lower
cost, others will be so ridiculous you'd be hard pressed to believe
it.  certainly i know that chris knows (and we do as well, way back
when arm-netbook ml started up) that stuff sent to italy has a
tendency to... disappear.  you do *NOT* send stuff to italy that is by
standard international post, even if it is insured.  it just...
doesn't arrive - period.  so you have to send it by courier.

 honestly i have so much to deal with already i'm inclined to just
hand it off to crowdsupply and say, "here - you deal with it" - that's
one of the key reasons why i picked them, so that that can be done.
luckily though my sponsor thinkpenguin deal with USPS and
International Shipping all the time.

 we'll sort it out.

l.