Where to begin?

Let's start with shipping;  We want to say "Shipping costs, there's no way round it, get over it", but we're not that rude!

However, it doesn't cost that much to most places unless you need to send it really quickly.

We'd love to be able to absorb the cost of shipping on all our orders, but it just can't be done.  You can't sell a product for $5 or less, with a profit margin of just $1 or so, and ship it across the country (or the world) for free.

So what's the answer?  Well the alternatives are to either charge the exorbitantly high prices for products that you'll see elsewhere, or we could charge a reduced shipping amount on a per item basis.

We don't think either of those works well.  If we sell at a higher price, nobody will buy anything in the first place.  If we charge per item, and you want 2 or 3 of those $5 products, you'll end up paying more.

We think we have a reasonable solution - we charge a flat rate for small orders, sufficient to cover our costs in most (not all) cases, and for orders over $100 it's free for most items (unless they happen to be bulky or heavy),  We offer $10 off a second order for $25 or more when you place your first order - giving new purchasers (in the U.S.) the opportunity to spread the cost, even over a relatively small dollar purchase.  And we DON'T charge per item!  We've seen online stores that will charge you more if you spend more.  That's crazy!

So that's shipping covered - and yes, sometimes we lose money on the deal - but that's okay, we just want our customers to keep coming back for more.