Mongoose shipping costs - why far more than Amazon?

[nats]

If I buy Traveller Traders and Gunboats from you but via Amazon it would cost me £19.79 versus £21.68 direct from you. If I bought two £30 books it would cost me £65.60 at Amazon, but a whopping £69 from yourselves - a £9 mark up on the base price. This isn't taking into account Amazon discounts either from other sellers - a lot of their books are available cheaper than your base price from others. Obviously Amazon doesn't have all your books so I would like to get them from you, but shipping costs are very high!

I would like to know why you are charging much more for selling your books directly to me than it would cost getting them from Amazon? Is there no way you can afford to sell your books with free UK shipping?

Admittedly it does sometimes encourage me to use the local Travelling Man shop when I buy RPG books but in this age of internet shopping I don't often actually bother to go to town to shop any more, price of petrol being what it is, time required out of my busy day, and all that - unless I need something else from town.

Just asking anyway because I would like to buy some books, but the shipping costs are a put off to be honest, especially when money is tight as it always is these days! My hobby is starting to suffer.

 

[AndrewW]

There is free shipping on all orders over £100 or $150 to the US and UK.

Also the shipping you initially see is the highest you'll pay for shipping, it could end up lower.

 

[nats]

There is free shipping on all orders over £100 or $150 to the US and UK.

Also the shipping you initially see is the highest you'll pay for shipping, it could end up lower.

Yeah but there's no way I would ever spend £100 on Traveller books in one go. I think the most I've ever spent was £60 and that's a lot for books, my wife would hit the roof if I ever spent more than that!

I don't understand how shipping could end up lower than what is shown on the website - it's clearly stated that shipping is £3 plus 10% of the order value? Its not a maximum - its a fixed ratio. How could this end up lower?

 

[jwpacker]

My guess? Economies of scale. Amazon has many warehouses and entire teams that focus on nothing but shipping books an other goods. They're big enough, they might warrant a Vice President in charge of Shipping, honestly.

Mongoose is small enough that, when things get backed up, Matt is in the stockroom, helping out!

 

[tneva82]

My guess? Economies of scale. Amazon has many warehouses and entire teams that focus on nothing but shipping books an other goods. They're big enough, they might warrant a Vice President in charge of Shipping, honestly.

+1

They probably have pretty decent deal with the post office.

If you really want to wonder ask how there's book store in UK that can ship books for free world-wide...With no minimum order size. Just ordered book for 8€ from them.

(pity they don't sell RPG books)

But then again that store sells tons of books. Some time ago they had special deal and they sold 500 copies of one book in matter of minutes. I actually missed out on the book...Somehow I doubt Mongoose is selling QUITE that fast books. Post service is likely giving good discount to ensure loyal customer that ships crapload of books every day.

 

[MongooseMatt]

The more you post, the better the deal the Royal Mail gives you, it is true.

Also, Amazon does not care how much a book weighs, as all their shipping costs are fixed. Ours are based on an average weight versus cost to ship.

There are other benefits we can offer, of course - the full range is always available on our site, whereas Amazon is somewhat slower to bring new titles to their site. We often include freebies, even in quite modest orders. If there is a problem with the shipping, we can usually sort it out immediatly (and you can always give us a call and get to talk to a human being ).

In the (hopefully not too distant) future, I can foresee us doing free shipping on everything or, in the very least, bringing the post free limit right down. However, we just cannot do it at the moment, I am afraid.

 

[nats]

That's fair enough, no harm in asking

 

[Treebore]

Here in the US I usually have to wait an extra month or so. but we have places other than Amazon that offer good discounts and pretty decent shipping costs. So I just wait.

Having tight money issues myself, I wish you had similar options.

 

[nats]

Here in the US I usually have to wait an extra month or so. but we have places other than Amazon that offer good discounts and pretty decent shipping costs. So I just wait.

Having tight money issues myself, I wish you had similar options.

Actually I've found 'Games Lore' in the UK who aren't bad for Mongoose books - prices are generally 3 to 5 quid lower than base price, they have a good stock, and with only around £3 shipping per order it works out pretty good - especially if you get more than one book from them. Can't get them cheaper than that even on Ebay and Amazon these days except for the older books.

 

[nats]

Can't get them cheaper than that even on Ebay and Amazon these days except for the older books.

Well I certainly didn't expect to get six Mongoose Traveller full size books on Ebay new for £5 each this week, all the ones I wanted in fact. Got to love that Ebay!

There are more cheap new books by the same seller up this week for the same low price in case anyone else is interested. You can't argue with getting Spinward Encounters new for £5 and the CSC etc for £15. He must be getting rid of stock or something to be selling them at that price.