St. Helen's Shipping Charge?!

maybe the book comes on a little velvet pillow to keep it cushioned during shipping?

It fucking better.

Your sig pic is hilarious, by the way.

I think that's their way of saying, 'buy more than one'. I bought two last year, a friend and I split the cost. Still a bit too pricey for me. 2 years ago, I believe it was a bit more reasonable.

I've got enough signed Chuck books in my life. No need to have em all inked, I'll be getting Pygmy from amazon or something cheap.

the only reason to order from St helen's is to get chuck's signature. isnt that worth ten bucks? for real, a copy of homeboy might set me back three bucks, but i paid 13 last year and i got morgan's john hancock. if anyone whines about paying more for something that's more rare than the one they want thats anywhere else, they should be slapped.

also. being that im an oregonian, i know most of you dont know this, but saint helens is just some little tiny place (the town, i mean), and chuck palahniuk is doing this store a huge favor by giving them something to keep them in business against amazon and borders and shit. all of you support independent shit, bands, authors, and a lot of you here and on the velvet preach your love for the indie bookseller. now buck up and show it.

Totally read that as "I got Morgan John's Hancock."

Why slapped? They didn't hurt anyone. At most, they should be told, "quitcher complainin!"

its the same fucking thing, dude. i could call it the handling fee, the jack off fee,, the whatever the fuck i want to fee, and you're still only paying it because you want a signature. if they called it an autograph fee, people like you would bitch that chuck doesnt need the goddamned money, and you would begrudge them because of that.

I wouldn't, because I don't believe in paying for autographs.
But any added fee for whatever reason people will complain about. The thing is the disguising it as something else that's shifty. If you want to charge more for an autographed book then just sell the book for more.

also, what is the shipping charge for an un-autographed book there?

i dont know. they ship things priority, or they did for me, but only because they told me they had the book i wanted, and they didnt when i called back to give them my card digits. i really dont think its terribly much less. i dont remember, but i know i get nailed for something like five to seven bucks everywhere i ship from, so they arent ripping you off by any means. is three bucks really so much of an issue, if you want the autograph?

hell once powells charged me 12.50 for an ARC of dermaphoria, a book which the cage sent out for free, and even clevenger seemed annoyed i paid for it, let alone 12.50. but i did it because i wanted craigs name (written by craig) in it. did powells jack me around? yeah. but is it bad business? fuck no.

was just thinking about it nate, and i sent my girlfriend a book back when we were just friends on the internet, right? and it cost me 11 bucks to have it shipped ground from portland to california,

hope that takes the edge off this for you somewhat.

they sell books. i collect books. its a symbiotic relationship

It's not bad business if their business doesn't think it's bad business.

I think St. Helen's shipping is bad business (Though I honestly wouldn't mind if the book itself just cost $30, and I don't know why that is). But I'm done with spending money on sigs anyways. Unless you get them yourself, there's no story behind em.

Some exceptions though, such as, if you really, really admire a celeb, like, human connection, through the generations. Or if its Willy Mays or something.

but either way its thirty bucks. your argument isnt even flawed, its non-existant.

anthony bourdain had a book signing in houston recently and it was 75 bucks to get in. 75 BUCKS. dave eggers signed my boook for free and there were people in line with like 5 books for him to sign. don't charge money for autographs, people.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize we were arguing

I paid 15 FRNs for George Romero to sign a copy of Creepshow, but considering that the event (Q&A and double feature) was only five bucks, I didn't mind, its how he makes money.

Not to mention, this is the first book for which the shipping has been so much. In the past, shipping was as shipping should be: menial. For some reason, here, they are charging outrageous "shipping" costs, for what? I used to really respect St. Helens Book Shop for this "service" they provided, but I've lost that respect.

And in regards to the comment about St. Helens Book Shop being small, so they should be able to charge more, fuck that. They are selling books to a much wider audience than they would normally gather, due to the signatures. Those sales should be enough incentive. Charging more for a signature is ridiculous.

It was menial when Rant came out, but I remember thinking with Snuff that it was high enough that I wouldn't get it again, partly cause of the price, partly because I don't need more signed books.

$10 to ship a book priority mail doesn't seem like much to me. Just a few months ago i was $6-$11 (depending on weight of package) to ship my Ph.D. applications as priority mail to universities. St. Helen's doesn't control how much the USPS charges them for shipping.

I wrapped a copy in bubble wrap, put it in a sturdy box with crumpled paper and weighed it. I checked the shipping from my zipcode to one in NY and the cost was $8.70. (1 lb, 2 oz.)

I don't think a $1.80 "handling fee" is excessive. That might be to cover the credit card fees, packing tape, and packing materials (The boxes are free, but the P.O. no longer lets you bring home their Priority tape, you can only use it there.)

I bought two books from two different places online last week and the shipping was only 3.99 for each of them.
I haven't gotten the books yet, so maybe they'll never show up or something. But if they do, 10 bucks for 1 book seems excessive.

They're probably getting sent via media mail, a special book rate the USPS has. It can take weeks to arrive, but is usually about 6-10 days. Also, the USPS website only lets you ship priority, not first class, nor media mail. They also only provide free envelopes and boxes for Priority. They set the prices.

If you want to ship using an electronic shipment method and print labels, you have to pay a monthly fee for the service, plus you have to buy your own boxes and envelopes.

Nobody should pay for boxes and bubble mailers, so long as they receive more than they ship. I keep bubble mailers and boxes when I get stuff and reuse them (works well at kwanzaa time too). Just tape a new piece of paper over the old shipping info and you've saved yourself a buck or two...or more with boxes, depending.

Oh yeah, and hippies will be all proud of you for reducing waste and re-using and shit like that. Great side effect, but I just do it to save time and money.

You make good points, gig, but we are talking about a business. You think a bookstore has 650 odds and ends laying around to ship 650 books? You think people wouldn't bitch about having their signed collectible shipped wrapped in a recycled paper bag?

It's what postage costs. If you are upset by your shipping charges visit www.usps.com and put in the information.

got my first one today. postmarked on the 4th. postage was actually only 2.99 for it, but it's a paperback. I'll see how/when the hardback arrives...

I'm not sure how that's possible. I ship using Priority all the time and the cheapest rate online is $4.80

Did everyone get their order? I ordered mine before the deadline and haven't received it, moved from Idaho to L.A. so it took me a while to remember about the book, so I checked the status and it says cancelled nothing else. I emailed them but haven't heard back, just wanted to know if everyone got their order from them, Thanks.

its possible that it was lost in the mail. i have ordered from them in the past, and been fine. but i ordered from a warehouse one time in roseburg, oregon and the the order number which i got was originally tied to 166 other items or something like that, and my books fell off the truck.

oops

fuck comcast, it happened again

bottom line....I paid that extra shipping money to get a signed copy of Survivor (my favorite book of all time!) and I will gladly do it again for any other book I choose to have sent from that bookshop. It's a business and they provided me an excellent service. Hear that, (enter in name of anybody who cares)? Repeat customer...

im a repeat customer too. the ladies there took my order and politely did as i asked and didnt process my debit card until i got paid the following monday.

And I will say that $10 shipping from Oregon to Alabama that arrived in THREE DAYS with a bonus item (analbeed bookmark - "For your book not you bum!") I didn't pay for made me smile for a week. Chuck is great, Chuck is good; let us thank him for this...awesomeness!

caleb - did you try a nice email to st. helen's to ask about it? i also bought a signed copy of pygmy from them this year, since chuck won't be coming anywhere near me - i just checked mine and it was $10 as well...i wouldn't get too upset about it, they are an independent bookstore - i get that sometimes on ebay too, people will charge more for a book to ship, and then i'll get it, and it'll show $4, when i know i paid $7 - i see st. helen's as a bit of a charity case, so if you don't and you begrudge them this little transgression, then don't buy from them any more - or just see it as a little donation - pygmy is selling for $30-99 signed on ebay

plus shipping

hahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...sorry, made myself laugh

i know how you feel brother, i do

About St. Helen's being a charity case, I don't get it. They are making great money off of the sales of these books, even without shipping charges. After all, selling books is how any bookstore makes its money.

I hear you. It only makes them look greedy. Seriously, why not shoot them an email. If they have a good reason I'd like to hear it too.

This is a pretty ridiculous argument. Part of the charge is a handling fee. This has existed for as long as companies have shipped goods to people. In the case of St. Helens they probably do more actual "handling" than most other companies do, especially when it comes to books with unique inscriptions.

It may not seem like much to you, but when you order from them, they have to process your order, make sure Chuck signs your copy with the message you want, then verify that the correct copy of the book is sent to you. That requires more time, and businesses have to charge for their time.

It's completely unrealistic to expect them to give you a breakdown of every item that makes up that charge. But it's not just shipping. It's the handling of your book, the packaging (sorry businesses don't use scrap boxes like you do when you sell something on ebay) and the shipping charge.

If you don't like paying for the convenience, your option is to go into the shop and pick one up.

I think what Caleb was complaining about was being told there was a $10 shipping charge and then seeing only $4 on the box. Now maybe they said shipping AND handling, or maybe it could be spelled out in greater detail. Either way it doesn't bug ME too much, but I can see why Caleb was bothered by it. I think what St. Helen's does is great, and I love buying from them, but I can see how somebody might get irked by this discrepancy. Personally, I trust St. Helen's and to get a signed copy from them knowing Chuck has a personal relationship with them, it's fine with me.

No biggie, I don't think.