Buying from Carcassonne Shoppe

[Gerry]

Just received my first shipment from the Carcassonne  Shoppe and I must say I am very pleased, everything was delivered as promised and in good order.



Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=996.0

[Paul]

I'm not sure I follow what you are trying to say in this thread.

The title sounds like you have an issue with the store but the content says mixed thoughts about this.
  As for the shipping, he clearly states you can place an order and ask for exact shipping cost before finalising the order.

[Gerry]

I'm not sure I follow what you are trying to say in this thread.

The title sounds like you have an issue with the store but the content says mixed thoughts about this.
  As for the shipping, he clearly states you can place an order and ask for exact shipping cost before finalising the order.

No -  absolutely no issue with the store - like I said - I am very pleased

Only point I was making was that there is an overhead with mail order and to make it cost effective - I bought extra items.

If anything I was making fun of myself

[Paul]

I'm not sure I follow what you are trying to say in this thread.

The title sounds like you have an issue with the store but the content says mixed thoughts about this.
  As for the shipping, he clearly states you can place an order and ask for exact shipping cost before finalising the order.

No -  absolutely no issue with the store - like I said - I am very pleased

Only point I was making was that there is an overhead with mail order and to make it cost effective - I bought extra items.

If anything I was making fun of myself

Ok, then.

Just try be more concise about what you type here. This is a community not a self-ranting (even if innocent) forum. If I could mis-interpret this, undoubtly there could be more.

And then there is this: http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=29.0
  Please read the forum rules within each section before posting.

(Topic moved from Marketplace)

[Rosco]

Yellow, I think you misinterpreted what was originally being said. I read and re-read what was said and I can't for the life of me understand what you understood by the message. I honestly thought it was really concise and clear. It was a positive report about buying from that shop.

[Paul]

Yellow, I think you misinterpreted what was originally being said. I read and re-read what was said and I can't for the life of me understand what you understood by the message. I honestly thought it was really concise and clear. It was a positive report about buying from that shop.

Gerry has edited the original post and removed pretty much the entire content that was relevant to as to why I was asking.
  The thread was moved solemny based on breaking the Marketplace rules, which is only for posting if to trade, buy or sell.

[Rosco]

oh ok - lol - fair enough

[Carcking]

I feel like something uncomfortable happened here. I read Gerry's original post and found it comical, as he intended. It was self deprecating and picked on his own compulsion to keep adding expansions...something many of us can relate to quite easily. I know I can relate.

In any case, if there was an opinion even espoused in the post, it was not offensive and I don't see why he would not be entitled to state it. It feels like he was herded into self-censureship of a fairly benign post. Am I in the minority on this?

(I'm putting aside the fact that the post was in the wrong forum. That's an easy mistake that anyone can make, and doesn't warrant treatment other than polite advice and assistance.)

[Paul]

Just to be clear:

- I, nor anyone else that I am aware of, forced him to remove any content
- People are different, what you saw comic, I saw confusion, maybe just because it was in the wrong forum area
- Again, as I stated, I only moved the thread because it broke the Marketplace rules, never edited it in some way

[Carcking]

...- I, nor anyone else that I am aware of, forced him to remove any content

It could be that Gerry acted a little rashly in retracting his post. I wish he had held his ground.

[Gerry]

I was genuinely concerned that I may have inadvertently caused some offence to the good people at the Carcassonne Shop this was definitely not my intention.

They are up front with their prices and when you go to checkout they are upfront with their (perfectly reasonable) estimate for shipping and handling.

But this is how I see it.

You go to your local games store to buy a generally available a mini expansion  costing $5, you pay your $5 and take it home.

You go to Amazon to buy Hills and Sheep for $20 and they offer you free shipping and handling if you spend over $30.  So you buy a copy of the Tower which maybe was not your initial intention but it gets you free shipping.

You go to Carcassonne shop to buy something more rare and not generally available because they will sell it to you at a reasonable price.  There is however a shipping cost which makes one small rare item hard to justify.  So you pick a few more rare and fairly inexpensive items to justify the overhead.

My only messages to other forum members were

1.   Its a good place to go and buy the rare item you want.

2.   It is best to group your purchases to get the best value.

Now I realise that not everyone gets my sense of humour and it can be taken the wrong way. For this I apologise.

[danisthirty]

I love your sense of humour Gerry and wish I'd got to read this post in it's original form!  )

In any case, you're certainly correct in that Carcassonne Shoppe is a great place to get hard to find Carcassonne loot for a good price.

[Scott]

There is a bit of a limit to economies of scale for me when buying from Carcassonne Shoppe. This might just be from USA to Canada, but we've found that over 4 pounds the shipping cost skyrockets. When I was working to complete my spin-off collection, Carcatronn weighed everything I needed and we divided it up into three shipments and staggered them over 3 months (to help spread out my costs a bit). The point of my story is this: talk to him about what you want; flat rate shipping is not always the best.

Now with regards to shipping cost in general, when Amazon gives you free shipping, they still have to pay for it. Their shipping costs are very cheap compared to most other companies because they deal in VERY high volumes. The company that I work for has very good rates with a particular courier company for similar reasons. Amazon absorbs the cost of shipping in the profit they make from selling each item. Giving you free shipping encourages you to spend a little more, which increases profits to help cover the additional shipping cost.

Turning our attention back to the Carcassonne Shoppe, his volumes are very small compared to Amazon and his profit margin is also less than other retailers, so he can't afford to give free shipping over a certain amount without raising prices. I'm not saying this to make anybody feel bad, just trying to explain the economics of logistics. My company gives free shipping to some of our customers, but they are spending a lot of money with us and we ship full truck loads so we get good rates.

[Carcatronn]

I certainly appreciate everyone's comments about our shipping options at the Shoppe. Our next redesign will be including weighed shipping as an option at checkout for the smaller items to hopefully have more potential customers and less people having to send us an email for quotes. Eventually, the larger items will be included  as well once we have a handle on the USPS rate rotations.

Although it's not listed on the site, we actually weigh every order, regardless of being contacted, and automatically reduce shipping costs for both domestic and international customers. Only about 15% of our orders are actually best with the default flat rate shipping. The only reason why we've left it as default was to prevent having to contact customer for more shipping. That would be a much worse customer experience by far.

[Gerry]

just wondering when you expect to have blank tiles back in stock.

tanks