Anyone know how PartSouq determines shipping cost?

[Hatsuwr]

It seems to be a combination of size and weight, but there are inconsistencies.

For example, for a particular bearing, below are my increases in shipping cost for successive additional bearings added to the cart. I setup a very large cart before adding the bearings to get me over any initial thresholds that might throw things off.

1st	$10.52
2nd	$7.83
3rd	$11.13
4th	$7.83
5th	$7.82
6th	$10.52
7th	$9.54
8th	$13.72
9th	$9.54
10th	$13.11

I'm interested in this because I was thinking about making a database of PartSouq vs Lexus vs Toyota prices, but (for the US at least) shipping and import fees can be a very significant portion of the total cost. Some parts even have higher shipping costs than the price of the part itself.

 

[OGBeno]

Email them and ask them. Or call them. I’ve called them before. MUD is not going to have any answers for why something costs X.

 

[Hatsuwr]

Email them and ask them. Or call them. I’ve called them before. MUD is not going to have any answers for why something costs X.

I did email them, no luck unfortunately. This seems to be a factor of the shipping cost calculations, in which case I wouldn't be surprised if someone here generally familiar shipping costs had some insight into it.

 

[OGBeno]

I did email them, no luck unfortunately. This seems to be a factor of the shipping cost calculations, in which case I wouldn't be surprised if someone here generally familiar shipping costs had some insight into it.

They have a phone number. Call them.

No one on MUD is going to know the internal shipping calculations of a private company. You are going to get 1000 different opinions.

 

[Hatsuwr]

They have a phone number. Call them.

No one on MUD is going to know the internal shipping calculations of a private company. You are going to get 1000 different opinions.

Not sure why I would get a different result calling vs emailing, but I might give it a try anyway when I have some time.

Opinions are welcome though. My two guesses are that it's either a packing volume consideration, or a weight threshold one. The latter doesn't seem very likely because I've seen shipping cost increases of just a few cents for some very small parts. But it also seems unlikely that something this dense would have its shipping cost determined by volume.