Spreading out hazmat and shipping fees.

[arakboss]

If you were going to split an order of powder and or primers with another buyer(s), how would you split the haz mat and shipping fees?

I would suggest that you divide the total hazmat/shipping cost into the total price of products to get a percentage, then multiply each buyers product total by that percentage increase.

Example:

4 buyers split $1000 order. Total hazmat/shipping adds $100 to that total for grand total of $1100. Dividing $100 into $1000 gives us 10% hazmat/shipping percentage

Buyer 1 is buying $630 worth of product. His total is $630+$63=$693

Buyer 2 is buying $170 worth of product. Her total is $170+$17=$187

Buyer 3 is buying $120 worth of product. His total is $120+$12=$132

Buyer 4 is buying $80 worth of product. It's total is $80+$8=$88

This seems more reasonable than splitting hazmat and shipping cost evenly four ways.

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[Certaindeaf]

Individual dollars / total dollars x hazmat and shipping = Individual shipping and hazmat

 

[arakboss]

Individual dollars / total dollars x hazmat and shipping = Individual shipping and hazmat

Using that formula with buyer one example above.

$630÷$1000=.63×$100=$63

Looks like we arrive at the same answer, yours just looks better

 

[OregonForest]

While it seems fair for each buyer to pay a % equivalent to what they are buying, the group purchase wouldnt exist if buyer1 wasnt paying ~2/3 of the total cost, so IMHO maybe buyer1 shouldnt owe as much as the rest for shipping/hazmat.

 

[arakboss]

While it seems fair for each buyer to pay a % equivalent to what they are buying, the group purchase wouldnt exist if buyer1 wasnt paying ~2/3 of the total cost, so IMHO maybe buyer1 shouldnt owe as much as the rest for shipping/hazmat.

The tough part in doing a group buy is finding the person who will make the purchase and deal with getting everybody to pay for and pick up their product. That is probably why they don't happen more often.

 

[OregonForest]

The tough part in doing a group buy is finding the person who will make the purchase and deal with getting everybody to pay for and pick up their product. That is probably why they don't happen more often.

all the more reason why the tax/fees should not be equally distributed... the person who is willing to deal with the headache of making the purchase and getting everyone to pay should probably not be expected to pay as much as people who are just passive buyers IMHO

 

[arakboss]

Even bigger savings could be had and more variety of powders purchased if buyers could figure out an easy way to split 8lb jugs of powder.

 

[Stomper]

Individual dollars / total dollars x hazmat and shipping = Individual shipping and hazmat

Using that formula with buyer one example above.

$630÷$1000=.63×$100=$63

Looks like we arrive at the same answer, yours just looks better

Less syllables ALWAYS wins!

 

[American123]

If I were to set up a group by there would be a few stipulations because I'm not going to get hung out to dry by flakes. All the order details and prices would be determined in advance and money would be paid up front. Because if money is paid up front I can trust they will want to get in contact with me for their purchases, conversely if I paid my money and I had their product, they could just as easily decide they didn't want it after all and I could be stuck holding the products I potentially never wanted.

 

[DizzyJ]

I'd say the fees are split evenly. 4 people=fees split by 4.

My take on it.

 

[bpyycpyy]

Plus 1 for DizzyJ.

 

[arakboss]

I'd say the fees are split evenly. 4 people=fees split by 4.

My take on it.

That would be the simplest method but I was thinking if one buyer was only in for a pound or two of powder and the others were buying 8 pounders it might seem a little lopsided. Splitting evenly may still end up being cheaper for the lightweight buyer depending how much the hazmat fee is.

 

[American123]

I'd say the fees are split evenly. 4 people=fees split by 4.

My take on it.

I agree, hazmat is regardless of weight (until the max freight it covers). Split that evenly, for shipping though. If I buy 32 pounds of powder and you buy 1, splitting shipping evenly wouldn't be a fair deal for you. I'd personally be inclined to see what the shipping cost is for everyone's purchases and then make sure they not pay more than what it would have been had they just bought there items individually, otherwise they'll be paying the freight for someone else.

So for example, if the total shipping cost was $100 for 5 people's orders, split evenly that's $20 a person, but if they bought the item by themselves it would have only been $9 because they had less weight they shouldn't have to have an equal share of the shipping costs if what they bought is represents a fraction of the total weight.

 

[bpyycpyy]

That would be the simplest method but I was thinking if one buyer was only in for a pound or two of powder and the others were buying 8 pounders it might seem a little lopsided. Splitting evenly may still end up being cheaper for the lightweight buyer depending how much the hazmat fee is.

I believe that Hazmat fees are generally what they are even when you purchase 1 item, so if the person buying the least would still pay that set amount it seems more fair to split equally. If one of the purchasers' cause the Hazmat fee to increase over the set nominal amount, then they should alone bear the burden of the increased amount over what the minimum fee would be.

Edit: Just saw American123 post and I would agree that shipping does play a percentage over the Hazmat fee.

 

[arakboss]

I agree, hazmat is regardless of weight (until the max freight it covers). Split that evenly, for shipping though. If I buy 32 pounds of powder and you buy 1, splitting shipping evenly wouldn't be a fair deal for you. I'd personally be inclined to see what the shipping cost is for everyone's purchases and then make sure they not pay more than what it would have been had they just bought there items individually, otherwise they'll be paying the freight for someone else.

So for example, if the total shipping cost was $100 for 5 people's orders, split evenly that's $20 a person, but if they bought the item by themselves it would have only been $9 because they had less weight they shouldn't have to have an equal share of the shipping costs if what they bought is represents a fraction of the total weight.

Way to complicated for me to deal with. I would rather split evenly.

 

[bpyycpyy]

I'd expect personally to just split evenly. To make it simple, I just wouldn't order for people who are going to nitpick over the small details and would be grateful that someone was willing to share in the cost of the extra fees anyways.

 

[American123]

Way to complicated for me to deal with. I would rather split evenly.

No worries, that's the great thing about a group buy, people get to decide if they want to participate or not.

If everyone views the deal as square it's irrelevant. But if I bought 50 pounds worth of components and you bought 3, you'd be subsidizing my purchases if we split the shipping evenly.

 

[arakboss]

No worries, that's the great thing about a group buy, people get to decide if they want to participate or not.

If everyone views the deal as square it's irrelevant. But if I bought 50 pounds worth of components and you bought 3, you'd be subsidizing my purchases if we split the shipping evenly.

I agree that's why my original idea was based on dollar amount ordered per buyer.

 

[American123]

I agree that's why my original idea was based on dollar amount ordered per buyer.

Yeah, that might work, especially for a place like powdervalley where they charge freight by the dollar amount of the order and not the actual weight of the freight in most instances.

 

[OldBroad44]

I'd say the fees are split evenly. 4 people=fees split by 4.

My take on it.

Sometimes to figure out what's fair it helps to change the situation to one exactly parallel but with numbers more extreme. What if one buyer was buying $1 worth of goods and one was buying $40,000 worth? If they split the shipping and hazmat fees the guy with the $1 order would have to pay $1000 in shipping and fees. This theoretical case makes it clear that dividing the shipping and fees evenly when different people have different size orders is not fair.

One often runs into this situation when several people eat dinner, and split the check. This really only works if nobody cares too much about paying a bit more than their share and everyone keeps their choices within an expected range. Say 30 to 50. If there are four people and one orders a $2,000 bottle of wine, there are likely to be real problems. Unless everyone is wealthy and generous, if one person orders even twice as much as the next highest order there might be resentment. Unless these four eat together regularly and split checks, and the guy with the high order this time usually has average or low orders. But notice that in the gunpowder order one person ordered more than three times as much as the next highest. So while plenty of times people ordering dinner split the check, it isn't a good model for how to split the gun powder fees because the amounts each are buying are too far from equal.