-holiday76

What do you guys consider a fair price for shipping a frame from the UK to the US ? I'm outside of Philly if that matters. I won the Jack Taylor on Ebay and it was listed as a flat international rate of 85 pounds. The seller (who claims to be new as a seller on ebay but has 280 or so all positive feedback) is now trying to charge me 120 pounds. That's like $193 or so USD just for shipping. He's doing all of the box making and whatnot, this is just the charge for the actual shipping. Doesnt that seem high? Even Hillary Stone only seems to charge 90 pounds...

I'll walk if he doesnt honor the 85 pound shipping rate and I'll have no problem getting my money back , but it kinda sucks, not that I needed to buy this frame in the least...

Thoughts?

Here it is BTW:

https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...K%3AMEWNX%3AIT

-holiday76

technically the buyer does state this:

"overseas buyers should contact me for an estimate of cost and insurance.."

and I just realized I did actually ask him for a quote and he never answered.

I'm not really sure it matters though...

big chainring 

Negotiate somewhere inbetween? Shipping from the UK is crazy expensive. I bought a frame on ebay from a guy in Poland, and shipping was $50. See if you can meet in some middle ground.

Thats an amazing frame. I wouldnt want to loose it.

randyjawa 

I have shipped lots of frame sets overseas, from Canada. The quote I sent my Buy It Now customer in Hong Cong was $204.00 USD. So, in my opinion, the price you are presented with is legit.

To that add that you were invited, as an overseas buyer, to contact the seller for an estimate of cost and insurance. With that in mind, in my mind, you owe the money. You could try to negotiate and ask for a break, which the seller might allow. I have from time to time, keeping in mind that not everyone on our planet speaks, reads and/or writes fluent English.

Hope that is a help.

Daveyates

His other frames are £65 or £75 for international shipping.

Velognome 

yep, it's high

-holiday76

well, yeah. this isnt really black and white. We'll see what happens. I did email the seller, about 24 hours before the auction ended for a quote which he never responded to. That's kinda beside the point.

I think the reason that if this doesnt work out is that the text in an auction doesnt trump how it is set up. It was set up as international shipping at 85 Pounds. So if we can't agree on something then I'll proceed with getting the auction nullified on those grounds, because I would not have bid would I have known the shipping would be substantially more than was mentioned in the auction. I even did take the extra step to try to get a quote to no avail.

I don't think he's trying to get one over on me or anything, I just think he's inexperienced shipping frames overseas and I'm not willing to be the one to bear that burden by paying an unfair price.
I really do want the frame. In fact my wife claims it was my fathers day present

-holiday76

If Hillary Stone of all people can ship frames to the US for 90 pounds anyone can.

randyjawa 

I do my best to keep shipping costs down for people I send bicycles to. And it almost comes in close to $200.00 for overseas. Remember, some people are not shipping from a large center. Thunder Bay, though a fair size city at 120,000 people, is somewhat remote, hence my higher costs to ship.

Daveyates

The problem here is that he has told you the price is a lot higher , but still he leaves his other auctions at the lower price.
If he is inexperienced but now knows the price then he should adjust his other auctions to the new shipping price.

JunkYardBike

Have to wonder if he wasn't happy with the closing auction price and is attempting to squeeze more money out of it, or dissuade holiday from buying it.

I think you're in the right there, holiday. He provided contradictory information in his listing. Not your fault.

rhm

Is the seller at all apologetic about the higher price, or his failure to get back to you about it in a timely manner? And has he specified what carrier he's using, with the implication that there might be other options?

Since you mention Hilary Stone, I have to point out that even he is not always able to ship a frame at the price quoted and is not above passing increased cost on to the buyer, even if the buyer has already paid. I don't know what the profit margins are on old bike frames, but I can imagine they are low enough that the seller has no option of absorbing the cost himself. I just don't know.

I would say, the real question is, do you want this frame. If you're looking for an out, you have it. If you want the frame at cost A but not cost B, tell the seller you're not in a hurry, he can ship via steam ship if that's what it takes, or that you have a friend who will pick it up from him in July. Or something like that. Do you know anyone who visits England periodically, or has stuff shipped from there in bulk?

-holiday76

well, after I won he wanted my address (which clearly shows after i won the auction, but ok) so that he could get the shipping number from the shipper (probably fed ex, according to him). So I sent it to him right away. Then, last night, I got a reminder that i needed to pay so I just went ahead and paid the invoice with the 85 pounds for shipping. I honestly was thinking if anything he thought maybe the shipping would be cheaper, but I'd just give him the full amount and figure it out later.

then today, the morning after I made the payment, I got this from him:

"
Apologies for not getting back to you earlier, but I have been nhaving problems with the shipper's website wich crashed several times yesterday.leaving me unable to get an accurate figure.

The £85 quoyed on the auction is only a guide price. I am new to selling and have not managed yet to be able to get a table of costs covering the countries I am prepared to sell into.

Shipping costs have shot up in the last two years due to the 'Green Agenda' over here, carbon-offsetting etc etc. I think that the true cost for the Taylor will be in the region of £120, but i am trying to get the frame into the smallest possible packing box as size is critical - a few centimeteres here and there and £20 could be saved.

I am going to try again to get a shipping figure...but the trouble is that there is no access by telephone to the company..just their website."

so like I said, I feel like I can get out of it, but I dont think he's tryng to rip me off, he's just kinda clueless. I mean, he can't call Fedex and the site is down?
I like the frame, but it was a stretch buying it right now and I'm really not ok with spending another 40-50 pounds on shipping.

We'll see what happens.

lunch money

That seems a little high to me. I won a frame from germany awhile back. I can't remember what I paid in shipping exactly, but I think it was around $80 usd. The seller shipped it DSL. It came over by ship and took about a month. Pretty sure DSL International is going to be the cheapest option. Ask him to look into that.

ColonelJLloyd 

I would avoid shipping by boat. If you go that route, just forget about the frame all together, and in four months be surprised when it arrives.

Daveyates

Well he seems like a genuine guy from his reply.

-holiday76

yup, i agree.

robertob

Yeah I am ALWAYS shocked at how expensive it is to ship from the UK. It's usually double shipping from the US > UK.

fender1

It is what has kept me from buying many cool frames on ebay. In addition much like holiday, when I have asked for shipping quotes, I never seem to get them.

There was a beautiful, Carlton that I was following a while back and was going to bid on. The seller never responded to my questionabout a price on shipping so I did not bid.

As for the OP, I think if you want the frame you will have to pay more than the 85 pound rate. Good luck "cause its a very cool frame.

lotek 

Not certain but if Hilary has a business account his costs could be considerably lower than what
the avg, person is going to pay to ship the same item.

Some people are mentioning other countries in Europe, I don't think that's quite fair.
I know the Netherlands used to be very inexpensive to ship a bike box (not a pared
down one either), about $65 US. Now it's up to about €85 for a frame and fork
sized box. Prices vary wildly by country.
I think 120 pounds sterling is an accurate quote.

Marty

-holiday76

Worked out in the end:

"I tried both Fed-Ex and DHL ( now Yodel in the UK)..as I always do. Fed_ex works out quite a lot cheaper ie for a 3+ day Economy deliecery with tracking the cost is £85.88 compared with £101.57 with DHL.

Addi9ng in full insurance up to the full cost of the Taylor xxx, brings the total shipping cost to £97.88."

I was happy to send him another 12 pounds to get the frame to me. Though it certainly isnt cheap to be shipping bikes from the UK either way!

rhm

No, it isn't cheap, but for that you get a pretty unique frame. I look forward to seeing this beastie! Now, tell us about the build plan.

-holiday76

the obvious IGH of some sort is all I can really say right now. Havent given it much thought yet, but I will want it to look old obviously. The bike is built more like a bike from the 50's, so I'll probably do something like that. Perhaps similar to your Father Gills , though I don't think I can live with the bars you're running on it.

Dawes-man

I've had a couple of frames shipped from the UK to Japan, which I believe is the same rate as for the US, and they were both around the £100 mark.

RobE30

This is the #1 reason I don't buy any bikes on Ebay from Europe. Although Hilary Stone has some cool stuff....

I'm looking forward to seeing your new bike man!