Metric Gear Source

erco

A China Ebay seller has a pack of 49 nylon gears (standard 0.5 module) for sale at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260763538940 These are quite useful for repairing vintage toy robots and/or making your own gearboxes. Frankly, finding a good supply of gears is a very difficult thing to do. I'm going to order some for my own evil purposes. His 99-cent price is offset by his high $4 shipping, so I asked about combined shipping to reduce costs, purchasing 10 or 20 packs at once, and got this first reply:

Thanks for your message. 10 kits less than 500g. EMS shipping fea is 15.7USD
20 kits is 700g. EMS shipping fea is 25.6USD to USA.

Better, but not great. I'm used to getting free shipping from China. I'm negotiating with this seller now to get the shipping price down. I'll buy 100 packs for a buck each if he ships free! The dance continues...

Spiral_72

I really want these, but I ain't paying $15.75 + $5 for five packs! ......even though that's still a good price for open gearing.... That's the cheapest I've ever seen even with the shipping.

HA! Hobby Lobby had a 12? pack for $11 by Stevens International. I had em' in my hand.... walked around a bit with em.... but that's just too much so I put them back.

erco

They're playing hardball on shipping. I tried to get 100 for free shipping, but no go. My latest offer was $80 for 50 packs; still a deal. Will advise!

markaeric

Like so many items listed on eBay, I'm assuming the seller is making all his/her profit off shipping fees.