I agree - Handling is a fact of life, however you choose to distribute it.

$0.99 for a pack of seeds and $3.00 for S&H = $3.99
$3.00 for a pack of seeds and $0.99 for S&H = $3.99

Either way you look at it, it's $4.00 for a pack of seeds, shipped. Is it too much? Depends on the seeds, but overall, I don't think it's all that bad.

Let's take it a step further. Let's say I buy 5 of those seed packs.

$0.99 each for 5 packs, plus $3.00 S&H = $7.95
$3.00 each for 5 packs, plus $0.99 S&H = $15.99

Wow.. suddenly, we're looking at TWICE the price for one... and that's the one with only 99 cents for Shipping and Handling!!

One is $1.59 for each pack, shipped.
The other is $3.20 for each pack, shipped.

Which would you prefer?

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This is a subject I deal with at least twice a month on Ebay. I sell, and I list $4.99 for shipping & handling. Every so often, I get some idiot messaging me, carrying on..

"[FONT=Arial, Verdana][SIZE=2]I want to know why shipping was 5 dollars for this item when it only cost .63 cents to get it here?"

Did it??? Sure, $0.63 for the actual postage cost.. PLUS $0.50 for the padded envelope.. PLUS the cost of the label.. PLUS the labor time in labeling and packing said envelope (whoah, wait.. my time is WORTH something???).. PLUS the travel time and cost to deliver it to the post office.. and do I add the listing fee?

It adds up. Of course, this person, and many people for that matter, seem to think the product just magically GROWS a padded envelope around itself and FLIES itself to the post office.

*grumble*

:arrow:
[/SIZE][/FONT]

[quote=Soilsniffer;53089]What on earth is 'handling' anyway? I went to the store and bought some cornflakes ... 2.99, zero for handling. Bought a couple Papa John's pizzas ... $20, zero handling. I tipped the guy though, is that 'handling'? I'm sure I don't have to give more examples.
[/quote]
You think the grocery store buys the corn flakes for $2.99 and then sells them to you for that price? Heck no. Stores typically pay 50-80% of what you pay and the rest of that money goes towards salaries, profits, etc. You are paying $2 plus shipping, handling, etc. etc. If you want to spend less money on those costs, go to CostCo or other wholesale club.

Totally Tomatoes chooses to list their seed prices closer to the actual cost and then adds $5 shipping, packing, packaging, employee wages, phone, lights, etc. Their seed packets are a very reasonable ~$1.75 for 30 seeds.

If you would prefer, they could set their prices 25 to 50 cents higher per packet of seeds and then drop the shipping to $2. For small orders, you'd come out ahead. For large orders, it would be more expensive than other websites. Why would they want to encourage small orders?

I don't actually have a huge quibble with paying for shipping and handling - or even the price this company charges, high though it is in comparison to others. What I have a quibble with is paying a top-end S&H fee and getting the lowest end service for the money. This kind of payment should mean that the seeds are shipped daily via first class mail.

I don't know how much my order cost to mail via "bulk" mail...but for $4.95...I have to believe that sending it first class could not have been much more. Mailing a package from Wisconsin on 15th and having it reach me in Philly on the 31st seems a bit long to me.

Maybe Ruth can clarify if the website notes the method of shipping. I pretty much thought everyone sends out stuff first class. I probably would not have placed the order on the 9th with TT if I had known how long the delivery would have taken.

I would agree that bulk mail for seeds is absurd.

I wonder why some companies can offer seeds for 1/2 price and sometimes less (maybe less seeds per package? more common seeds?) AND only charge something like 99 cents for shipping and handling for any sized order.
Then other companies offers seeds at reasonable costs (more seeds per package? maybe something a little different/difficult to find?) but something like $4.95 for S&H for any sized order.
Then others offer a little of everything and offer S&H based on how much (or little) you order.

Small orders; lower S&H rates equals more repeat business.

Can you guess which companies get most of my business?

That said, after checking on my tomato and pepper seeds sown on the 31st of March, two out of four showing signs of sprouting already are from Totally Tomatoes. (The other two are from trades/sase offers).
I placed the order on-line 2/10, but invoice says 2/12 and it arrived 2/21. Not too bad.
But a company that charges $1.89 S&H, gets their seeds to me within days!
I guess it boils down to just how badly do you want THOSE seeds? Perhaps that's what part of it is, those seeds that you just can't find anywhere else! (And they know it!:mrgreen:)

Just my thoughts...
Cathy

I think TT ought to switch to 1st class shipping. The rest is semantics and disagreements over pricing.

[URL="http://www.HeirloomSeeds.com"]HeirloomSeeds.com[/URL] is by far the cheapest, with most tomato packets $1.50 or so and shipping is $3. I ordered both from HeirloomSeeds.com and [URL="http://www.TomatoGrowers.com"]TomatoGrowers.com[/URL]. Of course then I started trading and now I am buried in tomato seeds. ;)

Have you bought from HeirloomSeeds before feldon? Good germination rates etc.?

Yes. I bought other things than tomatoes, although I have not tried those seeds yet.

Granny:

There is a thread on Heirloom Seeds...all good reviews. I have ordered from them the past two years...great prices, seeds and service. I placed two orders with them this year...got seeds in the mail within 6 days of placing the order...though I am in the same state.

Morgan, I don't think Heirloom seeds is the cheapest, as you call it, and there are many other variables that come into play when trying to find the lowest cost for X amt of seeds.

SandHill lists at least four times the number of tomato varieties than does HSeeds and Sandhill 2007 prices are $175 each ( were $1.50 last year), and 10 packs for $1.60 each, any 20 packs for $30.00 and each pack has a minimum of 25 seeds, and usually 50 to 100 as their blurb says and all who have received seeds from them have said they send a lot of seeds.

Standard Sandhill shipping is FREE unless your total seed offer for all seeds is less that $10 and then they ask for one dollar, yes one dollar.

I know Tom Hauch at Heirloom Seeds and have for many years and I do think he runs a fine business. I'm just citing Sand Hill re shipping costs and prive breaks on volume packs in answer to your comment about $3 at HS being the lowest price as well as them having the lowest price for inidividual packs.

Sandhill Preservation has a nice website and your continued praise for their company has not gone unnoticed. I do hope in the future that their website will quickly reflect when a variety is sold out.

Ruth at Totally Tomatoes (here at Tomatoville she's known as jungseed) went out of her way to assist me with placing an online order for Tomato Tone (which I cannot get locally). [B]Excellent customer service[/B]!

I've ordered seed from this company in the past, and I'll surely be a repeat customer.

Sherry

I echo Sherry's comments! Ruth (jungseed) also went out of her way to help with my order at Totally Tomatoes, so I will get to try Tomato Tone for the first time after all! This is my first order w/ TT, but I'll be a returning customer, because of Ruth's exceptional customer service.

Sandhill
 

Feldon I've found they are much better at posting when they are out than Baker Creek. I guess BC just reorders so they never say they are out but like my order they were out of two varieties out of ten or so. Sandhill had everything I ordered and I ordered many. Also germination and leaf type were true on their varieties. I have been very impressed. I do suggest to order early. My order took 2 1/2 weeks.Just my experience. Jay