Eric Group
Masterpiece
the othe piece I feel nobody takes into account when ordering a tree or pot (more so the trees I think) is time- sure, the shipping costs money- most sellers do it at cost- the materials (boxes, packing peanuts, tape...) cost money and most of us eat a majority of that cost, but the TIME it takes to pack a tree well, especially a larger one... most of us do not bill anything for that and it can take HOURS to do it right! For anything with any weight, you cannot really just slap it in a box with some peanuts and let it ride- you typically have to wire it in there, sometimes you have to reinforce it with wood or more cardboard where it is wired, sometimes you have to reinforce the sides or top of the box too... if the tree is in a ceramic container, and you are shipping it in the pot, there is a whole other set of issues- whether ceramic or plastic or bare rooted, you have to wrap the pots in plastic to keep the soil from coming out and most of the time adding a layer of wet newspaper under the plastic to prevent drying out is a good idea, then bubble wrap the ceramic pots in multiple layers to prevent cracking, sometimes I wrap them, box the post in a smaller box within the big one then put a layer or two of padding under that pot also... this is a LOT of work! I bet if I aligned the time I spend doing this with the money I actually clear on most sales, it comes out to less than minimum wage some weeks.
