How is Shipping Calculated on Speaker Cable, and Why?

Our Speaker Cable Shipping Policy:

Our shipping policy on speaker cable is as follows:

When speaker cable lengths are shippable in US Mail flat-rate boxes, we charge shipping according to our standard shipping table, which ranges from $4.60 for an order under $10.00 up to a maximum of $12.50 for orders over $100. This is the same shipping rate applicable to all of our other cables, and for that rate, we do Priority Mail shipment, which will reach most destinations in two to three days. We will ship, at that rate, ANY QUANTITY of speaker cable, without limit; however, to qualify for that rate, you must order in lengths which will fit in flat-rate boxes. These lengths are: 200 feet or less in 10 AWG cable, 400 feet or less in 12 AWG cable, or 100 feet or less in Canare 4S11. So, if you need 800 feet of Twelve White, for example, you can have it shipped to you by Priority Mail for $12.50; however, to do so, you must break your order into two lengths of 400 feet, which will then be shipped to you in two boxes.

Beyond these limits, there is a shipping charge which is based upon the cable length, and which is calculated to pay for Priority Mail shipment by normal (that is, "not flat-rate box") Priority Mail rates. This charge varies depending on the type of cable, since the various cables have different weights.

Why the Surcharge on Long Lengths?

Admittedly, the above policy is a bit counter-intuitive; but it flows directly from the actual cost of shipping. The United States Postal Service, in 2004, introduced a product called the "flat-rate box" for Priority Mail. The flat-rate box is a box of fixed dimensions, which can be shipped anywhere the USPS serves, regardless of what it weighs, for a fixed rate. Depending on the type of cable, we can get as much as about 25 pounds of speaker wire into one of these boxes, and it ships at a rate which is about the same as the cost of shipping three pounds across the country.

Speaker cable is heavy--much heavier, by volume, than any other product we sell--and under standard Priority Mail rates, costs a lot of money to ship. At current rates, for example, a 1000-foot spool of Belden 5000UE sent Priority Mail from Seattle to Philadelphia would cost us $107.15 to ship. Broken into flat-rate boxes, the same length of cable would cost us $24.30 to ship.

Given that extremely non-linear relationship between weight and shipping cost, we found that if we priced speaker cable to adequately reflect the real cost of filling the order, there was no ideal price; short lengths had to be grossly overpriced, or long ones grossly underpriced. By setting a threshold for speaker cable length and calculating shipping separately for long lengths, we are able to make the relationship between price and shipping better reflect the underlying costs, and keep prices on speaker cable reasonable.

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