Prices of many Lost Art Press products will increase slightly on Jan. 1, 2015 – our first price increase since we started the company in 2007.
During the last seven years, we have absorbed the increasing costs of paper, printing and several postal rate increases. So to keep our business running smoothly, we need to cover these increased costs and help pay for improvements to the way we ship our books.
Most of the books will cost about $2 more on Jan. 1. There will be no increases to the Lie-Nielsen DVDs we carry. So if you were thinking about buying a Lost Art Press book in the coming months and want to save some money, you might want to visit the store before Jan. 1.
— Christopher Schwarz
Chris – I have been meaning to ask. Does the “E” within the divider stand for anything particular?
Unemployable.
meanmna Look in the book,The Art of Joinery by Joseph Moxon to find your answer about the “E” in the center of the compass. Or look at the “plate”.
I don’t have that book but will add it to my list. What, or which, plate are you referring to?
That’s fine, and since I only buy the digital versions I won’t be affected by these increased printing and posting costs anyway. 😉
You’re an optimistic, Mr. van der Heiden.
Price increases have this nasty habit of contaminating everything around…
Price increases that, over the course of a year, will amount to no more than ten to twenty dollars, if even that much, are well worth it for products of high value and quality, as opposed to say, taxes, insurance premiums and even groceries, where the costs go up substantially more, and no additional value is ever seen. It’s a shame more companies don’t take care of their customers as well as LAP does.
Didn’t the post office and shipping companies say they had to increase prices a while back because of rising fuel costs? Well, with falling fuel costs, they’ll be lowering their prices soon!
I’ll hold my breath until then. Can’t wait. Any day now!
UPS and FedEx, at least, do use formulas for their fuel surcharges. The formulas track the spot price of diesel and jet fuel, so they will go down over the next few months.
For example, the UPS surcharge is down this month from last month, 7.0% to 6.5% for ground and 9.5% to 8.0% for air. The air surcharge is scheduled to be further reduced to 7.0% for next month.
LAP has never charged its customers what it costs them to ship its products, see the last comment by Chris at the end of this discussion from a few weeks ago: https://blog.lostartpress.com/2014/12/11/lost-art-press-now-ships-priority-mail/#comments
We have been enjoying a discount without ever being aware of it. I doubt they will be charging full price even now (or when prices go up).
I think it’s fair for customers to pay their own shipping costs. It’s definitely worth the convenience of not having to drive to the midwest or one of the distributors, and it doesn’t seem fair or wise to concentrate such a fluctuating cost on two or three people . . . especially if it’s the ones that are working to bring us a product that cannot be found elsewhere. I recognize that the company may have to eat the differential between what it is charged for shipping compared to some of its distributors’ costs in order to be competitive, and it may have to offer shipping if it wants to do business with a large number of people nowadays. But it doesn’t seem fair to thereby take advantage of the company’s size and force them to eat a dollar or two for each of us and shoulder a much larger burden over the two of them when we could all shoulder it together with little pain.
If only all the world’s companies would charge properly. Take airlines, my industry. If they charged just £2 more per passenger, all people involved in the industry would have a sensible lifestyle. Everything would run on time, smoothly and safely. Would a passenger notice it? No, because they’ve no idea what the price would have been. The price is the price. If you want to go on that flight, you pay what’s being asked. If the price is perfect, all involved cover their costs and make a modest living.
But most companies think that price is the ONLY thing that matters to a customer and they will get their knickers in a twist and s**t on their staff from orbit in order to offer unrealistically low prices. Everyone miserable, rubbish products and service; low, negligible or negative profit margins.
If Chris now asks £35 for a book instead of £33, are you seriously going to complain? Chris, pass on ALL your costs to your customers. Charge sensibly, so that we’re ALL happy. You and yours deserve it; we can ALL afford it. Please don’t apologise or feel guilty. You’re doing us the favour.
Roubo on Marquetry? For the price of a mediocre meal for two? How fortunate are we!
meanmna
It is plate number 5. The letter “E” is a footnote for the reader, directing you to a description of the “dividers” in the book. the plate has several tools with letters next to them. Hope this helps.