Is ammo shipping a hidden cost or does it really cost ~$15 to ship 5 shotgun shells...

[cigars]

Shipping and handling is about right. I did a fedex estimate for shipping a box the size of a 5 round shotgun box with minimal weight and it was $9

Online ammo purchases should be for bulk, get your small boxes locally at a shot.

Ammoman.com. Free shipping on bulk. Usually pretty good prices too. I get most of my 7.62 from them. Oregon Rifle Works also carries bulk. Also excellent pricing.

 

[antonio97b]

As a business owner I can tell you that it costs me money to handle any transaction under about $35. A $35 dollar sale equates to $7-ish profit. The overhead cost, cost to generate and process an invoice and labor cost all wrapped up are in that $7 range to make the transaction happen which means zero bucks net profit. Of course you have to service all customers and do the best you can to take care of the their needs no matter how much they spend. I get how you are looking at this from the consumer side. $15 seems like a lot in today's world to put an item in a box and ship it, What you fail to understand is every one of these companies who is selling you a $8 dollar item and even if they are charging you $15 shipping and handling (remember only $6 of that would go to them best case) are losing money to get your business. There is no better example of this than Amazon. They managed to sell $35 billion dollars' worth of items and lose $126 million doing it last year.

Yes you can walk into a store and buy the $8 box of ammo... They lose money selling that to you then as well. They are counting on the average transaction being profitable enough to average out guys who come in and only spend $8

None of this makes you feel any better about it but thinking they are ripping you off is simply not true.

Well, to be fair, I never once said they were ripping me off. I understand how shipping and handling works. But, it just seemed that online ammo sales are unique in tacking on a higher than average baseline S&H cost. My post was less "why am I being ripped off" and more "why is the fee so high?" Many other stores don't have such a high entry level S&H fee. Having a past life in retail, I can say that in my experience, profit was dollar of sales per hour was the emphasis and not dollar of sales per transaction (minus the card merchant fee).

Obviously you operate a business so I can't discredit your claims to not making any money under $35 but I imagine that is a variable that fluctuates from business to business depending on the product being sold and a number of other factors.

I guess I should state where I discovered the discrepancy. From Brownell's website:

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

I chose those items because I wanted to find items of similar weight and size (stock is bigger but less padding I would assume)

It is in my experience that ground shipping is typically cheaper and UPS website even states that ground is the economy version (yes, I've geeked out and done homework) so it would seem that they are tailoring the fee based off is it ammo or not ammo.

 

[3MTA3]

Did you check Cabelas? I found some there a while back. I purchased 00 buck and slugs.

Also if it's out of stock locally they will ship to the store for free.

 

[F2CMaDMaXX]

You made me go looking for .357mag, whilst storing new 9 and 45 last night, it turns out i have less than i thought.

Cabellas is still cheapest with a sale on right now, but shipping is either $10, but $5 if i spent $100 or, free & $20 off if i spend $150.

I'd love to get the $150 deal, but this is the wrong time of year to be be making a "rash" purchase on my least fired calibre

If anyone cares, they have 142gr Fiocchi for $18.99 and 158gr PMC Bronze for $19.99

 

[Alexx1401]

You made me go looking for .357mag, whilst storing new 9 and 45 last night, it turns out i have less than i thought.

Cabellas is still cheapest with a sale on right now, but shipping is either $10, but $5 if i spent $100 or, free & $20 off if i spend $150.

I'd love to get the $150 deal, but this is the wrong time of year to be be making a "rash" purchase on my least fired calibre

If anyone cares, they have 142gr Fiocchi for $18.99 and 158gr PMC Bronze for $19.99

Don't they have something else you need? The $150 does not need to all be the same ammo.

 

[F2CMaDMaXX]

Not right now, i've kinda been busy lately, extra ammo here and there and 3 firearms.....

Seems like a great discount though, shipping (no shipping) makes it convenient, and the $20 off makes it very cheap, maybe i should just do it.....

142gr or 158gr for another $1 a box though......


*Edit, ack, they're both sale items so it doesn't apply. Can get $5 shipping on $100, but, i wonder how much BiMart is for 357 right now.

 

[bolus]

Good idea!

Looking for Winchester PDX1 (slug/buck combo) 12g, Brenneke THD, Federal buck w/ FliteControl were a couple on my list.

Fred Meyers has some

 

[F2CMaDMaXX]

Sheesh, Bimart seems to be about the same price as Sportsmans, low to mid twenties, Cebellas really are the cheapest, but i hate driving there just to save on shipping.

 

[IronMonster]

Well, to be fair, I never once said they were ripping me off. I understand how shipping and handling works. But, it just seemed that online ammo sales are unique in tacking on a higher than average baseline S&H cost. My post was less "why am I being ripped off" and more "why is the fee so high?" Many other stores don't have such a high entry level S&H fee. Having a past life in retail, I can say that in my experience, profit was dollar of sales per hour was the emphasis and not dollar of sales per transaction (minus the card merchant fee).

Obviously you operate a business so I can't discredit your claims to not making any money under $35 but I imagine that is a variable that fluctuates from business to business depending on the product being sold and a number of other factors.

I guess I should state where I discovered the discrepancy. From Brownell's website:

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

I chose those items because I wanted to find items of similar weight and size (stock is bigger but less padding I would assume)

It is in my experience that ground shipping is typically cheaper and UPS website even states that ground is the economy version (yes, I've geeked out and done homework) so it would seem that they are tailoring the fee based off is it ammo or not ammo.

My costs are high. I have 17,000 sq foot of buildings, a few hundred tons of (steel) inventory and it takes a minimum of 2 people to deal with a customer that buys $35 worth of stuff. On the other hand not everyone can stock and sell the material and labor I do and most transactions are hundreds or thousands of dollars so my business model is not geared towards $35 sales.


I was just trying to make a point and share another perspective

In your example above it might be as simple as you cannot ship ammo USPS which could be the cheaper way they are sending the stock.

 

[deadeye]

Free shipping if over $25 If they don't have something check back in a few days. Good place for rimfire not found local also.
Shotgun Shells | 12 Gauge Ammo, Shotgun Ammo | Academy

 

[Alexx1401]

Ammoman.com. Free shipping on bulk. Usually pretty good prices too. I get most of my 7.62 from them. Oregon Rifle Works also carries bulk. Also excellent pricing.

I bought a lot and I do mean a lot of stuff from him for years. Shipping was pretty fast considering he's on the other coast. I would get my stuff in a week. Then the last panic hit. I stopped bothering to look at his site finally. He had joined the scalpers. Even after the ammo was back he was trying to get way to high a price on everything I looked at.

 

[Alexx1401]

I bought a lot and I do mean a lot of stuff from him for years. Shipping was pretty fast considering he's on the other coast. I would get my stuff in a week. Then the last panic hit. I stopped bothering to look at his site finally. He had joined the scalpers. Even after the ammo was back he was trying to get way to high a price on everything I looked at.

Well it looks like Eric has had to come back down to earth. I had stopped even looking at his site. I went back after this and the prices have come back to the way they used to be. Will be ordering a few cases from him again.

 

[mjbskwim]

$6 for handling extreme?

Ammo takes special paperwork and stickers and is a general PITA.

Seems reasonable to me.

No one is making anything on your $20-something purchase. Not the seller, the shipper or anyone else (once you figure in labor costs). It's the kind of sale they do simply to service the customer and that's what you are paying for is the service, not the 5 rounds of ammo.

Do people think it gets wrapped by itself then the package magically ends up in the mail?
It takes a person to put it in a box,at the least put it on a conveyer belt,run it thru a mail machine,blah blah blah.
They actually pay that/those person/people to do that.

 

[antonio97b]

Do people think it gets wrapped by itself then the package magically ends up in the mail?
It takes a person to put it in a box,at the least put it on a conveyer belt,run it thru a mail machine,blah blah blah.
They actually pay that/those person/people to do that.

and when I buy stuff at a brick and mortar store here isn't an extra fee for the handling. Hamdling typically refers to paying for materials, which I doubt costs $6 seeing as they buy packing materials in bulk.

 

[EPS]

Trying to buy some HD shotgun loads to try/test and I can't find them locally. Cheaper Than Dirt, Lucky Gunner, Cheap Ammo all wants to charge me ~$15 to ship 5 shells. I would understand shipping 1000 rounds and my pounds of weight, but this has to be like 1/2lb max and palm sized.

Are they having to pay extra to ship these to me from UPS/FedEx/USPS or is this just part of their hidden cost? It's quite annoying that the shipping is more than double the price of the ammunition.

They consider it haz mat

 

[Alexx1401]

They consider it haz mat

Ammo is ORMD much cheaper. Powder and Primmer are HAZ-Mat. Those add that fee to them. The ammo is the same as things like aerosol sprays. Just not supposed to end up on a plane. Even "ground" shipping is often done on a plane. Just the way the shipping Co. works it out. When the box is ORM-D it means that even if it's more convenient for the shipper the box in supposed to stay on the ground all the way. Normally by a combination of rail and truck.

 

[EPS]

Ammo is ORMD much cheaper. Powder and Primmer are HAZ-Mat. Those add that fee to them. The ammo is the same as things like aerosol sprays. Just not supposed to end up on a plane. Even "ground" shipping is often done on a plane. Just the way the shipping Co. works it out. When the box is ORM-D it means that even if it's more convenient for the shipper the box in supposed to stay on the ground all the way. Normally by a combination of rail and truck.

OK but guess what ammo is explosive so if it's on a train or truck that car or trailer has to be marked with a HAZ MAT PLACARD and if you think fed ex is going to ship a trailer marked HAZ MAT with five shell's for get about it it will sit in a transfer site till they have enough to mark trailer HAZ MAT THEN IT WILL MOVE why does it take a ammo order 5-7 day's to Cross the US and a letter 2 day's

 

[antonio97b]

why does it take a ammo order 5-7 day's to Cross the US and a letter 2 day's

Because ammo ships by ground. There is no 2 day ground shipping for any letter/hazmat/ORM-D

 

[Alexx1401]

OK but guess what ammo is explosive so if it's on a train or truck that car or trailer has to be marked with a HAZ MAT PLACARD and if you think fed ex is going to ship a trailer marked HAZ MAT with five shell's for get about it it will sit in a transfer site till they have enough to mark trailer HAZ MAT THEN IT WILL MOVE why does it take a ammo order 5-7 day's to Cross the US and a letter 2 day's

Don't know for sure. Get ammo weekly from FedEx and UPS. Never noticed if they had the placards on the trucks delivering the stuff. The letter gets across the US on planes. Both planes that are cargo only and commercial flights. Space is often offered for shippers on a plane when there is room. When something has to move by train there is no 2 day move. They have to load the cars, train makes how many stops along the way. Then the cargo is offloaded on truck for the last part often. The someone has to sort it all out on to the trucks. That is a lOT of handling time.
When I buy powder and primers it comes either Fed-Ex or UPS too. Those packages have the large HAZ-MAT label on them. If I catch the truck next time will see if they have those placards on them.
Things like OC spray and gun cleaning spray all come in the same ORM-D labels. Same reason. Stuff is not supposed to end up in the cargo hold on a plane. Makes sense to me.

 

[Alexx1401]

Because ammo ships by ground. There is no 2 day ground shipping for any letter/hazmat/ORM-D

This is what used to impress me about Ammoman. Not sure why but stuff normally arrives 5 business days after I order. Pretty impressive to me since it's coming from NJ and I'm in the PNW. That's a long damn haul.