Smart string shipping costs

[pokey]

Is there any reason to rush on these?  Presumably the supplier will make these available for some time.  Before everyone rushes to order, it might make sense to get some people in reasonably close locations to group buy (see -- I didn't say Co-Op!!!).  Clearly the price per pixel drops as quantities drop...to less than $0.70/node for Smart Strings.

If anyone is in CT, RI, or MA - I'd be happy to take this offline and discuss how we can combine our orders to save on shipping.

[Corey872]

First - thanks to everyone for their hard work in setting this up.

RE: shipping - as of this morning, it looks like even quantities of 1000 smart strings, shipping only drops to ~$10 per string.  By contrast, [4M flexible] LED strips @ 1000 strips, shipping is about $3 per strip.  I'd definitely be interested in knowing if there is a slower/cheaper method of shipping for the individual nodes.  As long as they are here by ~September, I'd be super happy!

[galgon]

Rigid Strips shipping is still showing at $13 per even at order quantity of 20.  The shipping cost is doubling the price of the strip and making them more expensive than the flexible strip now (per node).  Maybe the solution is to buy flexible strips and cut them to the needed length instead.   

[lightguy]

20 rigid strips still asking for $160 bucks

OUCH...........

Will be selling my ssc/hub kits when they arrive..........

[CaptKirk]

some places offer free shipping using the slow mail method.

I dont like it, b/c it gets scary close to when your payment goes through...  if you didnt get what you ordered, and that time passes (close to 30 days, i think) then they get their money, and you dont have many options to open a dispute with a merchant.

I've ordered from there and used the slow method. My item came with only hours left on their payment countdown.
Plus using this method, the tracking option isnt as often updated like here in the US.

my item said "leaving origin outward exchange" for almost a whole month, then finally changed to "out for delivery" after it already came in my local post office here in town" It's a big difference from the "package handled by post office A, package handled by post office B(5min down the road, 15min later)" that we're used to here in the states.

I'm kinda glad to only have a faster option here, as the smart strings i've been anticipating ever since i became a member here. 

I've always gotten my free shipped stuff from DealExtreme within 2-3 weeks of when they said they shipped.  I would gladly wait that extra time to save the shipping costs.  When it took longer, it was because they did not ship it which is likely the issue with your orders.

[ptone]

From a couple different cart configurations, it looks like shipping ends up being about 12-15% of your order (DHL).  Doesn't look like there is a slow-boat option.  The formula they used really seems to punish the wire (weight?).

1 100-node pixel string was the same shipping cost as 4 lots of 20 (80) of the rectangular nodes (~$25)

I've place a rather minimal order to sample some of these.  I would rather pay shipping twice and make sure I'm getting what I want.

For me the most interesting thing would be a domestic coop on the wire.  I don't need 300ft, and would pay more per foot to be able to order smaller qty.

Also - have the links the the stranded cat5 been posted anywhere yet - haven't seen them.

-P

[Trepidati0n]

Some shipping costs seem to be out of "whack".  The square ones are $17.15 or "one lot", but if I put 20 in, it is $65.37 which is very reasonable.

Side question....for the square ones, there is only three wires but I thought the systme needs four (data, clock, power, ground)?  Is the metal case the "ground"?  Or, is it the wrong picture?

[rrowan]

Some shipping costs seem to be out of "whack".  The square ones are $17.15 or "one lot", but if I put 20 in, it is $65.37 which is very reasonable.

Side question....for the square ones, there is only three wires but I thought the systme needs four (data, clock, power, ground)?  Is the metal case the "ground"?  Or, is it the wrong picture?

All SS lights are 3 wire. Power ( + and -) and Data

Rick R.

[taybrynn]

Thanks Rick.

I noticed on the rectangular modules ... it shows a picture with 4 wires.  Can we safely assume that 3 wires is what we get?

Also, I know we can use Cat5 wiring ... so when would I use cat5 vs. these 3 wire ribbons?

I'm assuming that each module (square or rectangular) comes with a short amount of wire attached, but I'm assuming its fairly short per module.

[gophergrove]

Cat5 from SS Hub to SS controller, 3 wire cable from SS controller to nodes.

[egenoup]

Placed my order... the change that was made last night made a HUGE difference.  The final price per node was 0.6754 for 16 strings of 75.  Not used to the shipping costs.  Other Chinese outfits I have ordered before have not been that "shocking."  Thanks once again RJ and Company for all the time, money and effort you put into this small hobby.  Now if I could only land another job and clone myself!

Charles S.

[taybrynn]

And people have been buying LED retrofit C9(s) for $1.00 per node for the last couple years and they can only do one color.  So I still think its a major breakthrough.

[RJ]

FYI,

   I went to ups and got a price to ship a box big enough to carry 20 ridge strips from them to me. I weight them and sized the box just big enough to put some packing around them.

The cheapest was the economy express for $351   

So they get a lot better deal than I can on the shipping.

RJ

[Pete]

FYI -
  I contacted Ray Wu directly and he created a link for my order. When I first tried using the links given to order each item I wanted the shipping added up to $367 (yesterday).  After I contacted Mr. Wu directly he made a special link for my order and the shipping dropped to $132 and this is something that I can live with.   This is no bad at all considering the size on my order of 32 smart strings, 1 square RGB, 3 Rectangle RGB, 2 Flex strip RGB, 1 Wire and 3 connectors. 

Thank you RJ for providing the tip on this!

Pete

[zwiller]

Seems like the shipping charge issues have stabilized.  Will the customs, brokerage, etc charges be luck of the draw?  I am waiting to see if any of you guys are as "lucky" as me     Maybe as long as the order isn't large it won't cause any issues...