I’d say that the vast majority of people have shopped online at this point, but it’s more often been new merchandise than used. I did just the other day. My wife bought a used Singer Steam Press locally that had a cross-threaded (plastic) water tank drain cap. I found two of them online; one in Australia that doesn’t ship outside of Australia, and one in the United Kingdom that I bought. The shipping was more than the cap, and it came in a bubble envelope 16 days later. I’m sure there are some of those caps here in the states, but I couldn’t find them. The press is worthless without that cap.
That may have been my first international online purchase where the item actually came from outside of the USA. I’ve ordered other things from international websites, but the items have been drop-shipped from a warehouse in the US.
Shopping online is no doubt here to stay, and not really the point of my thread. I’m more interested in how everyone thinks that we’re going to physically get everything where it needs to go, and at what cost, specifically the used things or anything that is out of production like vintage sewing machines and the parts that we need for them that no one is reproducing. And are we going to want or have the flexibility to send the item back once the hands-on inspection has taken place, or is it going to be “No Returns - No Refunds”?
I bought a treadle sewing machine off of that auction site last winter that was “pick-up only, no returns, no refunds”. The “pick-up only” part was the reason that I bid on it, since it was about 60 miles from me. I estimate that it cost about $50 to go get it. (It was a personal purchase and not business related, so I didn’t keep exact cost figures.) I made a special trip to get it, and that’s the only reason the trip was made, so the entire cost has to be charged to that one treadle sewing machine.
The Sellers didn’t have any other sewing machines (I asked) and had snagged that one at a farm auction for the specific purpose to flip it and make a profit, which they did. Nothing wrong with that, but it would have been handy if I could have spread the transportation cost out over multiple items. I put about another $60 into replacement parts to restore it to functioning condition, and I couldn’t see all of that damage in the auction photos. I don’t know if the Sellers noticed the damage or not. That’s neither here nor there. They sold it “as-is”, and I bought it knowing that. I’ve got to say though, it sure looks nice setting in my sewing room, and probably wouldn’t look near as good if I hadn’t have spent so much money to get it to where it is today. LOL
But with the increasing cost of fuel and vehicles, are we going to be able to continue running all over the country gathering up our collectables? And how is that cost going to compare to having a shipping company bring it to us?
CD in Oklahoma