I ordered an item today from Penguin Magic and noticed for the first time that they no longer offer free domestic shipping. Now you need to pay $5.00 flat shipping fee for one or more items. They do offer free shipping if the order is more than $100.00. Inflation and cost of doing business.
Michael

I ordered something from them 2 days ago that cost 49.00 and shipping was free.

Not anymore. Go check for the same item today. You will probably see $5.00 flat rate shipping.

There was an email I received explaining this recent change. I'm just going by memory so I may not do it justice but they've said that the cost of individual items in the marketplace have increased to build-in the 'free shipping' cost (so we've been paying for shipping through product inflation), and they hope to try to change that by talking with their suppliers. And if you buy multiple items, you're paying more than it would have cost to ship those items in one bundle. Or how small dollar orders with free shipping end up with them losing money; I understand that math especially with shipping to other countries. Shipping costs ballooned several years ago and has significantly my buying and selling patterns.

There was more to it than that, but just wanted to give some context. What they wrote made sense to me, and I don't know whether it will result in more or less costs to me as a consumer, but I appreciate having more information to understand this change from their perspective. Others may disagree, but my opinion is it's a fair and understandable policy change; I was expecting this to happen at some point.

I wrote a blog post on this last year (2023): https://ellusionist.com/blogs/news/revea......ng-taxes

I'm surprised it took Penguin so long to get rid of their free shipping.

In 2022, free shipping initiatives lost us $113,000 - so I can't even imagine how much Penguin lost. As I'm sure they ship more packages than us.

THE PROBLEM
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"Amazon has spoiled the world into believing shipping is free.

It's not free. Someone has to pay. Whether it's you or the retailer.

Amazon actually lost money for the first 5 years. Without outside investment, they'd be dead."

But that approach is not sustainable for small, privately-owned businesses like Penguin.

Cardboard has gone up, bubble wrap has gone up, labor has gone up, rent (on their warehouse) has gone up, utilities on their warehouse has gone up, shipping rates have gone up, inbound shipping to get things to the US has gone up. That's not even accounting for the raw materials to make the product itself. That's just 'shipping costs'.

I can't comment on their business specifically - but I can comment on business in general and say that for companies that need to remain profitable to survive - free shipping with no minimums is dead.

Best of luck to Penguin.

- G

Penguin's email:
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We've noticed a growing problem, and we're going to try to reverse inflation in magic trick prices. We're going to start by reducing a lot of prices. And then we're going to continue reducing even more prices moving forward.

Why?

We've determined that Free Shipping has created inflation in magic trick prices across the whole industry. Especially in the lower priced ones. What used to be a $10 magic trick now has to be a $15 magic trick, because shipping costs at minimum $4.50 for a parcel in the US, and much more internationally. You're essentially paying for shipping by having it added to the price for you. What if you buy 2-3 of these inflated items? Well, then you're paying for shipping 2-3 times!

The worst category is playing cards. Nobody wants to sell you a $5 deck of cards anymore it seems. Well, we do!

Offering free shipping with no minimum is even worse because it means we can't sell you tricks that cost $1 or $2 or $3. In fact, we lose money on any order that costs less than about $15, and often many more.

We're changing this today, and we're talking to all our suppliers to let them know our new policy.

How?

As simple as it sounds, a low $5 flat-rate shipping fee, with free shipping on orders over $100 changes the whole equation (Outside the USA a $10 flat-rate shipping fee and free shipping on orders over $100). This $5 is less than what shipping costs us, but it makes a huge difference. It means we can offer you tricks for $1 and $2. We could never do that before. It means that tricks that would have cost $15 can again cost $10.

Why is this good?

First off, unless you're someone who only orders $2 silks, this will save you money long term. As new tricks come out, they can be more reasonably priced instead of having shipping built in. If you buy 2-3 items at a time, this will mean you're not paying secret shipping 2-3 times.

Another interesting thing to note about Amazon - the vast majority of their profits (approx 75%) come from their AWS services, not their ecommerce site.

The new Penguin rates feel very fair to me. For example, if I'm buying a heavy book for $50-75, it'd cost more than $5 to ship in most cases, but I'd only be getting charged $5 for the shipping. And, based on my 30+ years of magic buying... it's pretty easy to hit $100 in an order and get free shipping.

Five dollars is no fortune, but shop around. I was about to order a $40 item today when I noticed the shipping charge. The item is the same price everywhere, and other dealers do offer free shipping. So, that's what I did.

I've got several items in my cart that I placed there before this policy change. I haven't noticed a reduction in prices on any of those items. They are the exact same MSRP prices. However, I now I have to pay shipping on top of that. So that means as it stands today, I'm paying the same old MSRP price where the free shipping was apparently already included in the price plus an additional shipping?

I think I'll just buy elsewhere until I can actually see the savings.



Does this mean Penguin hasn't actually negotiated with their suppliers yet?

I previously used Penguin for 90% of my purchases because the free shipping to the UK made it the cheapest option around. A flat 10 dollars to ship to the UK will still make it cheaper than sites like Ellusionist (where advertised prices are comparable but don't include taxes and shipping costs to the UK are usually much higher). But this change will make it expensive to buy smaller value items like decks of cards.
I'll switch to Vanishing Inc, who still offer free shipping. Things rarely if ever get cheaper in modern capitalism, so I'll believe Penguin's "reverse magic trick inflation" when I see it.

They have to make money. I’m always shocked how people fall for “free” anything. All that happens is it is baked into the price and you don’t notice.

It happens anywhere you buy something that is shipped. I’m glad they pay enough attention to their business model to notice the difference.

You're assuming people are incapable of making relative price comparisons.

If something is the same price in two places but one offers "free" shipping, which one do you choose as a consumer?

I used to get everything from Penguin - Vanishing Inc. is slowly getting all my business. That was already happening before Penguin dropped the free shipping but now there is another reason to order from Vanishing.

With the streaming of all masterclasses when you buy a month subscription, e-books available for all titles, and free shipping... how can you go wrong!?

Agreed Thomas. VI's Masterclass is head and shoulders above anything offered by the big name magic dealers, especially now you can access their entire back catalogue for the same price. Their books are consistently topnotch and the tricks they put out are usually well thought out and warranting of a new release.

Penguin, by contrast, have put out some really ropey guff over the last few years. Middle Seat sticks out as a particular low point, but they've also been increasingly dependent on repackaging old tricks (Free Will, Entourage, Paul Wilson's packet tricks, Mullica Wallet, etc etc). Penguin Lives are a long way off the Masterclass offering despite only being about 10 bucks cheaper.

Things like VI Masterclass and subscription services like Ben Earl's amazing The Family feel like the future of magic. I'm glad Penguin have persuaded me to take my business elsewhere.

Seems like a good opportunity to consider supporting local - either your own, or someone else’s. They may not have the inventory Penguin or VI has, but they often have in person support which can help any number of people feel connected to the hobby.

Penguin Magic has been for MANY years a reliable and valuable resource for me. I NEVER had an issue that wasn't resolved.
The resources (Dvd's, effects and supplies) and services played a vital role for me for my years of restaurant work and shows. The economy (inflation) SUCKS. Business has to make adjustments. I'm not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Sure business practices can change, some better, some worse but if shipping costs are the reason for jumping ship then let's not forget who brought us to the dance. Fwiw

That's a good point. I always found Penguin took a long time to respond to queries, whereas the likes of Monster Magic get back to me in no time at all. The reality is the economy isn't just affecting businesses, it's affecting all of us. So unfortunately I'm not in a position where I can simply go local without considering the relative cost. But all other things being equal I'll try to always shop with my local dealer going forwards.

Nice sentiment that is but may be a bit late. Not too many local dealers left.

Better now than later - there are still some left and they could use our support.

Granted, Penguin no longer feels they need to take the loss on shipping because they have won much of the business and so many local shops are now gone but things can grow back.

How will that happen exactly?

Too little too late. The shops are not just going to suddenly appear. Nobody is going to suddenly just decide to start to pay more. The generation of magicians that wanted everything now and online and cheap drove them from existence. The time to support them was when it was happening, not later after they are gone.

Like I said nice sentiment but a couple decades late.