Shopping for Silver Online at Goodwill...something odd!

This is a bit long so I apologize in advance....

Don't know if anyone uses Rakuten when they shop on-line. If you don't, you should! Anyway, through Rakuten, they were offering 15% cash back from Goodwillfinds.com

So I thought I would look for some sterling. Heck, with 15% cash back and my credit card kicking in an additional 3%, that's an 18% discount on silver!

I found most prices sky high but located a few decent buys. Got a Gotham sterling serving dish (910 grams) on sale for $585.00. Take off 10% for 1st time buyer, then kick in the 15% cash back and 3% credit card kickback and it's a GREAT deal!

Tax and shipping added about $40 but it was still worth buying. I got $85 back to my Rakuten account immediately.

Now, this is the odd part...

I found several other bowls and three lots of jewelry that were very near scrap prices. With the discounts and cash back from Rakuten, I would get the lot for a good price.

When I went through the check out process, the shipping total for ONE LOT was $171.45!!!! Yes, ONE HUNDRED and SEVENTY ONE DOLLARS and 45 cents.

Naturally, I thought it was an error. I added additional lots and these were averaging $150.00 shipping per lot!!! No combined shipping.

So I deleted everything and picked out a random shirt--nothing else. The shipping total for the shirt was $8.85.

I then added the shirt with a silver bowl and the shipping total was now $158.85!!!

I played around some more with silver jewelry lots and each time the shipping costs averaged $150 per lot with no combined shipping.

Any one else go through this?

 

Thats insane. Maybe it has something to do with shipping precious metals. Id be calling them and asking WTH ?!?

 

maybe something to do with the 1st purchase ......

they hook you......and then they make all their money back on subsequent sales....

for Rake u ten to toss you 15%......they gotta be getting 25% , somewhere else....

they're no charity..

 

My friend used to buy thru that site till the prices to ship stopped her cold.

 

That looks crazy! I've not been to that site before but in the past I occasionally used the other site shopgoodwill.com which is mostly an auction site.

 

No combined shipping makes sense because each item may come from any Goodwill store in the country. You might pick two items and one will come from a Goodwill in California and one will come from a Goodwill in Michigan. (Just examples.) As for the shipping price charged for each of the items... well, I'm just flabbergasted!
I was aware of the shopgoodwill site (never bought anything because the bidding always seemed to go much higher than comparable on ebay), but not the goodwillfinds site, thanks for mentioning it! (Though with shipping prices like that, I may not buy anything.)
I, too, use Rakuten.

 

I wonder if it is maybe private sellers hired to sell for Goodwillfinds, and trying to make more money in their pockets by upping the shipping. Maybe the proceeds for the item goes to GW, but not any profit on shipping. Just a guess here. Good point they may not be able to combine shipping as things are sold from all over, but $150 for a single bowl seems like something fishy is going on.

I remember in the old days folks did somewhat similar on Ebay. Where an item would sell for .99, but the shipping would be $35 dollars. That was to save on Ebay fees because in the beginning Ebay didn't take fees out of shipping.

 

From the goodwillfinds website:



Still doesn't explain the exorbitant shipping quotes. I'd email and ask!

 

@bluumz I have sent 4 different emails with no response.

 

they're easy to ignore.......

now...if u were standing in front of the agent.....and shoved 2 fingers up his nostrils..

THAT , would be hard to ignore !!!!