<p>Down to the wire for holiday gifts. We typically have not made the best use of on-line catalogues, but thought we’d try this year. The first site we visited, had an $8 shipping fee for a $20 item. (This was a small item, of little weight). So we thought we would purchase two items. $15 fee. This was for “regular rate”. If we wanted faster delivery, it was a lot more. We considered local movie tickets for a friend in another city. $8 shipping for $25 worth of tickets. How expensive can it be to ship tickets? After checking a few more sites, we were not impressed. </p>
<p>I realize you save taxes, time, gas money. I also realize that we pay for it one way or the other. Either it is built into the cost of the item, or it is tacked on at the end. But we couldn’t convince ourselves to pay a 40% mark-up for shipping.</p>
<p>What are some of your favorite web sites for gifts that have either no, or more reasonable shipping fees?</p>
<p>Oh this is a good thread…we need to list websites with free shipping deals. (It does make a difference).</p>
<p>So far, I’ve come across the following:</p>
<p>Frye’s Electronics (outpost.com) - Certain items
Best Buy (bestbuy.com) - Certain items
Victoria’s Secret (victoriassecret.com)- Minimum order Amazon.com - Certain items, very good selection
Barnes and Noble (bn.com) - $25 of eligible items</p>
<p>Today is the last day, but JC Penny-free shipping with 49+ order
Lord and Taylor-free sh. w $100 order
LL Bean-$10 gift card with $50 order-great backpacks, down comforters
sierratradingpost.com-free with $150 order-love the deals from time to time
Hermanscentral.com-$50-150-shipping is 7.95; free with order over $150-I like this site for small power tools, nice pocket/utility knives</p>
<p>I got emails in my inbox yesterday from Neiman Marcus and Sharper Image both offering free shipping. Amazon also has free shipping if you meet a minimum $ amount, which I believe is $39.</p>
<p>Amazon has free shipping for orders over $25 for most items–I did about 75% of my shopping there this year and am very pleased. Also reviews on items to compare. Ships quickly, and will even send something if it is ready to ship before the rest of the stuff.</p>
<p>powells has freeshipping for orders over $50</p>
<p>Jcrew has free ship over $175 orders ( not hard at Jcrew0</p>
<p>Amazon is free ship over $25- but since they are in Wa we pay sales tax which is pretty hefty.</p>
<p>Today is the "last " day for free ship at Eddie Bauer</p>
<p>Zappos is a good one- their shoes might be a tad more than what you can find if you really looked, but they always up grade the shipping to just a day or so.( for free)</p>
<p>DeepDiscountDVD.com - no shipping on “standard” delivery (see below)</p>
<p>Love them!</p>
<p>DeepDiscountDVD.com ships your orders at no charge via USPS Standard delivery, allow 5 to 10 business days for delivery.* Expedited delivery via USPS Priority Mail and UPS Next Day Air service is available for a fee. </p>
<p>*International orders (including Canada) are excluded.</p>
<p>I have often gotten free “SHIPPING” but still pay a fixed “handling” charge!! I am pretty used to paying some type of extra charge on an order (somewhat offset by no sales tax) and try to decide if I want the item at the all-in cost. </p>
<p>I have also seen online vendors operate a business model that seems to be to sell stuff at their cost (or even less) and add on very large shipping and handling fees. Consumers get very angry when they see the large fees, thinking they were suckered by the low low prices. But I wonder if this business model has tax advantages.</p>
<p>There was a recent article in the WSJ - if I can find the link, I will post it - talking about how your online shopping behavior can yield discounts. The example I remember is that, if you appear to be “waffling” (maybe clicking back and forth between checkout/your cart/shopping), you will get a pop-up offering free shipping or some other deal.</p>
<p>Obviously, nothing you can necessarily plan on. But I plan to behave a little more “skittishly” when I’m shopping on line in the future. See if anyone will sweeten the pot.</p>
<p>Buy.com has many items with free shipping. Even better, use google checkout and get $20 off each order of $50 or more or $10 off orders from $30 to - $50.</p>
<p>With a rebate I got a standalone photo printer (no computer required) for $10.</p>
<p>They also had 2GB flash drives, in the shape of surf or snowboard, for free after rebates. :)</p>
<p>The L.L. Bean Visa gets you free shipping of products from Bean website or catalogs to yourself or anyone else, no minimum order, plus rebate certificates.</p>
<p>As for Target, yes the specials (different items each month) can be a good deal on shipping, but their regular shipping rates are outrageous. Pay close attention before you order. I almost paid over $100 shipping on a $300 chair last year.</p>
<p>see last year’s thread on bargains, deals and coupons <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=63103[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=63103</a>
Lots of great recommendations on how to find deals… this includes free shipping in many cases. Personally, I like <a href=“http://www.edealinfo.com%5B/url%5D”>www.edealinfo.com</a>. Lots of great deals. Be sure to select all deals for the past 4 weeks, not just the past week’s deals. Also, at ebags.com, if you leave items in your shopping basket they do usually send you discounts to lure you to buy. The discounts can, however, be routinely found through on-line coupons.</p>