Shipping has been suspended for the holidays...

As is usual for this time of year, I am suspending all shipments until after the first of the year. This is to avoid the huge crunch of packages being shipped every day around Christmas. The more that are being moved, the more likely some things are going to get screwed up. So I feel it is best to just avoid the whole situation completely by holding tight until the storm passes by.

My next scheduled shipping day will be Tuesday, January 4, 2005.

Hope you all have a very nice Christmas and a happy New Year.

Thanks for all of the support and encouragement you have all given me over the years.

:santa: :santa: :santa:

Picked a good time to cut that off. It's been COOOOOLD lately, I guess it's about time.

Out of curiousity, is shipping still the same $30-40 for stuff sent to Tallahassee?

Actually Joe, I have never shipped locally like that, but I suspect that FedEx is still going to be expensive, considering what it costs me just to ship to Gainesville. Generally I just charge a flat $50 per order, no matter what size it is, as long as it is going FedEx to simplify things. This price includes everything associated with the shipping, including heat packs, box, packing materials, etc. I've sent large boxes out to California that just shipping alone cost me $110, so I lost money on them. Then on much closer shipments, with small boxes I make a few bucks. I guess it is all breaking even in the end. But if I start charging less for those closer shipments with small boxes, what do I do about those larger boxes going further away? I would have to charge more for them, wouldn't I, to make ends meet?

Once I would start "zoning" the packages, meaning I would charge less for shipping to someone closer to me, that could open up a whole can of worms, because then I would have to figure out where that "line" should be drawn to divide people who are "close" to me and get cheaper shipping, and those who are on the other side of the line and pay regular shipping charges.

So no matter how I do this, someone is going to be unhappy with the way I do it.

Hope you see my side of this.

Happy holidays Rich! Thanks for running such an interesting and entertaining message board - your patience is much appreciated.

Rich-

Totally understand with regards to shipping, and I know you dont do local sales. Just wondering because I know next year I'll be placing an order so I was just curious about the shipping stuff.

I'd love a caramel motley, but it's just not worth it to pay $50 or $60 for the snake, and then $50 for it to be shipped, ya know? Again, I certainly understand the no local sales, it's just unfortunate for the undo stress on the little guys having them sit overnight when the destination is all of 15 miles away. Anyway, I totally understand and I'll just have to add a caramel motley to my order for next year.