GROUP BUY - W123 Book - reply by Sunday, Dec 7th - Page 2 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

uberwasser · #16 12-03-2014, 01:38 PM

Good question. That had crossed my mind too.

Regrettably, I can't promise anything. Too many variables (how quickly the seller gets back with a quote, what the best price on shipping is and how fast or slow said shipping is, how quickly or not the media mail gets to you after getting to me, etc). The sense I get is this is a small operation, with a self-published and self-distributed model. So it will probably take a while.

Sorry if that dissuades you! The link I posted has a way to directly email the seller so you could contact them directly if you want to ask about expediting an order.

uberwasser · #17 12-03-2014, 03:30 PM

A quick update -

I've been emailing back and forth with John. He got back to me on the weight of a single book. They are 1.45kg each.

He says that they way they currently ship (Parcel Force Worldwide 2-5 day delivery) it costs £30 to ship one book! Wow. That's a bit over $45 for shipping.

I asked him if he'd be willing to help us find another way to ship (something like UPS or better yet a freight company) if we got a big order going. I hope he says yes. I threw in some numbers over on Mammoth Parcel Delivery and a 60kg package (about the weight of 40 books) can be sent from the UK to the US for about £200 ($313) which is less than $10 USD per book, a potential savings of at least $37 per book in shipping cost.

I also let him know we had almost 40 books on the list already and asked if with such a large order we could get a discount on the book purchase price. We'll see what he says.

He seemed interested in this. He said back when the book was being produced he contacted various Mercedes-Benz Clubs around the US and got little response. He was checking to see if any of them would want to do what we're doing, a large order to distribute to members. So I hope he's open to this offer.

Zacharias · #18 12-03-2014, 04:32 PM

The per-book postage price his is batting around is for a premium service, I think the USPS equivalent is Express International or something like that. Parcelforce is the UK postal parcel service, widely known in the UK by its nickname ParcelFarce. (They begged for that one, didn't they?)

I am sure he could send the book via regular air mail for $15 or so. (I bought an SLS pump, which weighs about the same, on UK eBay last year and it cost the vendor less than $12 to mail it to me in Canada and took about 7 business days.)

They obviously want insurance, tracking and signed-for delivery on their orders (and the post office probably comes and picks up from their office for that price), and that is their business decision to make. But if he threw around those kind of shipping numbers when he inquired to US-based clubs, I can imagine why he didn't sense much enthusiasm

.

83TD · #19 12-03-2014, 05:26 PM

In for one book. Thank you for undertaking this project.

Peter

uberwasser · #20 12-03-2014, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zacharias

The per-book postage price his is batting around is for a premium service, I think the USPS equivalent is Express International or something like that. Parcelforce is the UK postal parcel service, widely known in the UK by its nickname ParcelFarce. (They begged for that one, didn't they?)

I am sure he could send the book via regular air mail for $15 or so. (I bought an SLS pump, which weighs about the same, on UK eBay last year and it cost the vendor less than $12 to mail it to me in Canada and took about 7 business days.)

They obviously want insurance, tracking and signed-for delivery on their orders (and the post office probably comes and picks up from their office for that price), and that is their business decision to make. But if he threw around those kind of shipping numbers when he inquired to US-based clubs, I can imagine why he didn't sense much enthusiasm

.

Yup, agreed.

He seems amenable to trying a different route for this order. And said we could work something out on book price if the amount of orders was right. We shall see.

83TD, got it, you're on the list. That makes 39 books.