You kidding me?
[Shipping cost now reduced dramatically. Thanks Paul.]
I just punched "from St. Louis, MO to Portland, OR" into the Fed Ex rate calculator, guessing the box would be 5 lbs. (no idea how much it actually weighs), and it came up with $14.81. Assuming that the correct weight and your correct location would change things by $4, I guess you're upset with FedEx, not Greater Than Games, for charging so much for shipping?
Eh, last I checked you could still ship things USPS for a few bucks. And 2 decks of cards weigh about 5 oz, nothing close to 5 lbs. That's a ridiculous shipping charge, period.
Well, they are shipping from China. That kind of makes it a bit expensive.
If you can make it to any of the conventions they'll be at this year, they usually have plenty available for sale at the booths. I don't know if they're going to be at PAX Prime this year or not (although they were last year), but if so, that may be your best bet if you want to avoid the shipping costs.
I’m pretty sure it is not direct from China.
It's not direct from China. The boxes come from China, land in Long Beach, CA, get trucked to St. Louis to the SotM Lair, then are shipped from there, if I understand the process correctly.
>G will be at PAX Prime -- I'm helping work the booth!
I actually agree that the shipping costs are way too high. My aunt just bought an expansion for one of my nephews and had the same complaint.
Hmm... All of our shipping charges are pulled in directly from FedEx. I will look into the shipping charges and see why FedEx is reporting them as that high. That seems a bit high to me too...
Ok! It appears to be fixed! FedEx arbitrarily decided to put each item in a separate box for some reason, which is clearly wrong (and makes shipping much higher). Things should be resolved now.
Paul -- when my Aunt ordered a copy of Infernal Relics, the least expensive shipping option was over $10. That struck her (and I think I agree, but admit I haven't fact-checked) as unnecessarily high. She thought that UPS or USPS could probably deliver it for just a few dollars at most.
The cost to ship the two mini expansions is now about half what it was when I originally posted. Still a bit more than a USPS flat-rate box, which would be $5.75 in this case, but no longer completely (in Liz Lemon's famous phrase) a deal-breaker.
I've got a friend bringing me my kickstarter rewards back across the pacific ocean from PAX, but I recently had the thought that maybe my nephew might like Sentinels as a Christmas present. Went to the store to see how much shipping would cost...$42
Fair enough, I live on the other side of the world, and shipping is a pain. It's not really a surprise that it costs as much to ship as it does to buy (that brings it up to a little below the price I'd expect to pay if I found it on the shelf at a bricks 'n mortar shop here in Australia (The land of overpriced board games!)
The issue that happened with your US customers also happens internationally - buying the base game and both expansions would cost $104 in shipping to Australia. I know the boxes are a bit heavy and bulky, but that seems a bit steep, and makes for a really expensive christmas present.
When you guys get back from PAX and are done shipping kickstarter rewards, and are finished writing up the villain creation contest, and have read through all those submissions, and have maybe had a weekend holiday with your loved ones, perhaps you could check into this? I'd love to be buying Sentinels as gifts for people, but it's a little hard to justify with those shipping prices.
Cheers!
On a related note, keep your eye open for PAX Australia, announced for 2013, though I haven't seen a date or location yet.