Hey all, I was wondering if you have found that Dillon's shipping charges are getting not-so-good nowadays? I was floored how much they bumped up the charge when adding a pack of loading data labels to an order.

Now to the specifics. I went to order a new caliber conversion kit for 45 ACP, as I recently bought a 1911 and have started loading that caliber. And I'm getting tired of loading it on my old single stage press. So I went and added the conversion kit in my cart and entered in my zip code to figure shipping. With that input, the shipping was $9.99, which is on the high side of reasonable to me, no bigger than a conversion set is (blue box is about 4" x 3" x 1" and weighs no more than a lb or 2). I decided I might as well go ahead and add a pack of loading data labels while I was making the order since they are 4" x 2" and can't weigh more than 4-5 ounces so I added them to my cart and shipping jumped up $2 more to $11.99! Needless to say, the labels promptly came out of the cart before I placed my order, as that kind of bump up in shipping charge is just uncalled for, as adding those to my order wouldn't have needed a bigger package than what was already needed to ship the conversion kit.

It's a heck of a deal to see a company who used to have reasonable shipping charges going down this path. I know shipping has gone up for everyone, but they could have put both of those into a USPS small flat rate priority box for way less than $9.99, much less $11.99 and had room to spare in the box.

I'll bet they use a graduated shipping system where when you go over $10 but under $15 or $20 it adds 2 bucks, and if your total is over $20 but less than $30 it will add another couple of bucks, etc.

I'd be willing to bet that you could add another pack or two of labels and the shipping charge would stay the same - unless your order exceeds $30 or whatever the threshold is for the next shipping charge increase.

I've done that with Numrich before - just kept adding small, low-cost items to my cart until the shipping took another jump - just to see what the thresholds were.

The $2 is probably to cover the labor cost of the person picking the labels out of stock and packing them.

BC38, you might be right about that. Adding the labels brought the before shipping total over $50 from $47.95. Still, I wasn't about to pay $2 more in shipping for an item that costs $6.95 to start with and isn't heavy.

Shipping Info Shipping charges for the 48 contiguous United States:If your order totals shipping and processing is $0 - $14.99 $7.49 $15.00 - $49.99 $9.99 $50.00 - $74.99 $11.99 $75.00 - $99.99 $13.99 $100.00 - $124.99 $15.99 $125.00 - $199.99 $18.49 $200.00 - $299.99 $21.49 $300.00 - $399.99 $23.99 $400.00 AND UP $25.99


Shipping Info

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Science plus Art

So something big, heavy and cheap ships for less than something tiny, light, and expensive.

I. thought they were always high..
I agree with you...

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NRA Benefactor

Well, there you go....

My last business would import stuff from India(wasn't made anywhere but China and India)I live 30 minutes south east from Montreal.
It cost me more to bring a pallet from Montreal to my warehouse than from India to Montreal.Go figure!

SHIPPING COSTS ARE OFTEN A DEAL BREAKER FOR ME---UNLESS, I AM REALLY IN DESPERATE NEED, OF A PARTICULAR ITEM, OFFERED ONLY BY A CERTAIN VENDOR.......

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'Nam 1968-69.DAV,VFW,NRA Inst.

[slight thread drift]
one of the 'better/cheaper' changes I've made in my own reloading process, was to abandon the paper labels. I've taken to using a sharpie to write the load specs on the plastic box, which helps me more than the paper labels ever did. A little suitable magic fluid will allow easy removal of such if I reuse with different load data.

To assist in managing use of various loads, I use different colors of sharpie along with listing the powder type/charge/fps. It may be quite some time between loading a specific box and actual use. Without having to dither about recipe details, I can take a variety of boxes (say, my 'blue load' and my 'black load' and my 'red load') depending on the range/field needs of the moment. Works for me, YMMV.

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

Simple solution. I buy the stick-on labels from wally world. Cheap. Works great.

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S&W Accumulator

If I wanted stick on label, I could use the free ones that come with some of the reloading components on hand.

I was gifted a couple crates of the plastic 50-count boxes, each of which had a printed sticky label included. Since my recipes often change during reevaluation or reloading, the sharpie marker serves better for my purposes.

Back to the 'cost of shipping', that indeed has continued to escalate more.

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

I rather write on something I can cover over or remove as my loads change. But I do use different colored Sharpies when working up some ladders, testing different powder charges for the most consistent groups. I will use different colored Sharpies to tint the primers of the different powder loads for easy identification.

Yes, I've done that myself, but I also like the Dillon labels and since I was making an order for the conversion kit I figured I would pick up another 100 pack of labels. But not at that added shipping cost.

re: "since I was making an order"....LOL......

I've noticed an incredible drift of my own orders, from something small & easy, step by step to ever more $ out-of-pocket, often times for stuff don't really need.

Each of those little expenses add up and I've grown wary of my own tendency to do such.

In the last few weeks major debris/surplus reduction has resulted in surprising sale of excess used brass & etc gave a pleasant major step towards adopting some currently homeless pistol needing guidance.....

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

My guess is they use a cost average type system. As others have shown pricing is based order total. They come out ahead on some and lose on others but it averages ok. Remember, you are paying for someone to pull the order off the shelf, pack and seal it, packing material, a box, preparing the shipping label and of course the shippers fee. The alternative would be to weigh each order. They do that and you’ll really see shipping prices rise. If two bucks bothers you that much buy some scotch tape and print your own.

Clearly this thread is a violation of the Dillon Code of Ethics and Membership.
Any negative comments will result in the termination of membership in the Dillon Club and those offenders shall be banned by the current ruling Smurf.

You have been warned!

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Still Running Against the Wind

LOL at Rule3!!!!!

That's a good one man!

This is NOT just Dillon!! UPS, FEDEX, and USPS has all gone up a while lot lately! Now that Amazon will be dropping BILLIONS of dollars of business from FEDEX & UPS because they are going to start their own delivery service, rates will climb once again! Hey, someone has to pay for all the expenses and benefits.

What Amazon has taught us to is that shipping need not be expensive, order fulfillment doesn't need to take several days, and transit need not be slow.

Alas, many firms in the firearms space still operate like it's 1998. I've bailed on many an order after seeing the percentage of my total outlay that's going to shipping.