Baldo by Hector D. Cantú and Carlos Castellanos for February 15, 2025

It’s his hobby.

Haggling over price?

Shipping was going to cost $4.95 and tax was $1.20.

In that case, pay the freight!

Wait…we’ll have to add in the tariff…

I have a friend who waits until stock in the big box stores is reduced in cost so that they can clear their shelves. He buys all types of items for fraction of what they cost mainly shopping in discount bins. Then he sells them online at a mid price partway between what he paid for it and what the going rate is. He has made his living doing this for over 20 years.

Aaand that’s why ours is $9.95 instead of $6.95 … because we have to put up with that B.S.

Sorry, but the regular retail price is 9.95, but with the AH tax it is 17.95 and goes up the longer you talk!

Why is it floating in his hands?

We had a local camera store. There was a web site, same name and logo. I saw something for $90, so I went into the store, it was $105. I asked why, they said the web site was a different company somehow. I bought it online, free shipping. And we wonder why local stores are closing.

So he’s lived to that age and still doesn’t understand that sales people don’t set the prices. Got it.

Okay, the price is now $10.95!

If you shave off those silly sideburns, I’ll knock the price down.

Call the manager Baldo…….

“Let me introduce you to my manager, who is in charge of setting prices.”

Is that “Biff” from “Back to the Future”?

it would cost more to ship

He also wanted to avoid the $4 shipping fee.

Go to Tijuana. They do that all day every day.

By the time he orders it online, it will cost him quite a bit more than the store price because he has to pay shipping. Buy it from the store and help your local business.

Yes, because the sales people are the ones that set the prices. Dude is just a bully

I did this once with a water pump I needed. I bought one at the local parts store for something like $200 and installed it that day so I could drive to work on Monday. Then I ordered the exact same Bosch pump for $100 online and when it got there a week later, I stuck it in the same box that came from the auto parts store and returned it for a full refund.

So the typical ackhole

The online merchant has much lower overhead and does nothing to support the local economy.

Unfortunately, with some parts it’s absolutely worth the extra expense to be able to open the box on the spot and verify that it’s exactly the right part. I have, among other things, gotten the wrong fuel pump or throttle position sensor or the like packaged in the correctly labeled box, or other times there have been “running changes” in either the car’s manufacture or the parts production, or even a point so fine as “DON’T get the motor mount with the frowny-mouth cut-out; get the solid block one which only two companies make anymore…..”

In addition, the shipping charges from the online e-tailers can eat you alive, especially if the parts ordered come from three different warehouses……….

We don’t buy anything other than in a local store unless we ABSOLUTELY NEED the item and there is ABSOLUTELY NO OTHER WAY TO BUY THE ITEM.

We have found that if we order anything there will be problems with the item and its delivery. And that is before taking into account that the item WILL be left on our front steps without even a ring of the doorbell by the delivery person – even if it says that a signature is needed – and we live on a 4 lane main road with our house about a car’s length from the street. I have in the past before we figured this out come home and found a stranger taking the item which was left. When husband was still Director of a private local school we could have items delivered there to avoid having the items stolen, but never solved the problem of the item was not as represented.

And back when Etsy actually really only allowed hand-made items to be sold we were selling online items we had crafted and never had a problem with the delivery to the customers who must have all lived in more rural places than we do.