Help with additional items shipping rates

Alright, I have checked the forum over as much as I can tolerate looking for the exact answer I need. I sell baseball cards, Hot Wheels, and Shoes. All of these have such drastically different weights that I cannot come up with a table rate that would accomodate all of them without charging incorrectly for something.

One baseball card is $1.22 for S&H. A customer would have to add 4 more cards for that to go up $1.39. Now here is where the trick comes in.

One hot wheels costs $2.07 for S&H and adding one more jumps that to 2.58. One more level to go.

One pair of shoes is 11.57 for S&H. Adding a second pair go up to 13.03.

Now we can all see that I can't just set up a table rate that will satisfy all of these different weights and spaces between first and second items. I tried different mathematical solutions, but all have failed and I am now here to find someone that actually knows what is going on instead of myself just guessing. Any help will get my head to stop pounding. Thanks ahead of time!!

Kristofer Benham

Are those the only 3 Products you sell?

You could make a formula up to determine how many of each are in the cart based on a number of things ...

If ALL Baseball Cards are always $1.22, and then alter on the price based on quantity, you could customize them to have their weight be 1.22 ...

If ALL Hot Wheels are always $2.07, and then alter on the price based on quantity, you could customize them to have their weight be 2.07 ...

If ALL Shoes are always $11.57, and then alter on the price based on quantity, you could customize them to have their weight be 11.57 ...

Now, you can test for how many are in the cart:
$baseballcards_qty = $_SESSION['cart']->in_cart_check('products_weight', '1.22');
$hotwheels_qty = $_SESSION['cart']->in_cart_check('products_weight', '2.07');
$shoes_qty = $_SESSION['cart']->in_cart_check('products_weight', '11.57');

Next, figure out your formula from the results ...

I know this is confusing, it has been killing my head for days. There are more products than three, but I can figure it out by someone showing me three in an example. The first card is 1.22 ( 1 ounce). The second card adds nothing. The third card adds nothing. The fourth card pushes the weight to the next level adding .17 to the existing charge of 1.22, making the running total 1.39 (2 ounces). So the first three cards is 1.22, four-nine cards is 1.39, 10-14 cards is 1.56 (3 ounces), etc. Finding a formula for this would be easy, yes. But adding in Hot Wheels eliminates this option because one hot wheels car starts at 2.07 (6 ounces) and adding another car pushes it to 2.58 (9 ounces). The rate is not the same so I can't go that route. Now shoes are in the pounds range with one pair starting a 11.57 (4 pounds). A second pair takes it to 13.03 (6 pounds).

I have absoultely no idea how to create a way to accomodate all of these without creating a different database for each product type. EBAY figured out a way to charge for the highest shipping price and then gave sellers an option to give each item a regular shipping price if it is a first item and an additonal price in case it is a second or third item. It would be wonderful if I could enter somewhere on the product entry page:

"1 = $2.07, >1 = $0.51"

That would solve every problem that anyone would have with individual shipping prices. I am just not sure if this has been done or even if it can be done. Thank you for trying so hard on this one. Your example looks great except all items are not the same shipping price. Each additonal item after the first only increase S&H by a small amount.

Maybe this might be easier to read:

Cards
1-3 1.22, 4-9 adds .17, 10-14 adds .17, 15-19 adds .17, etc.

Hot Wheels
1 is 2.07, 2 adds .51, 3 adds .51 4 adds .51, etc.

Shoes
1 is 11.57, 2 adds 1.46, 3 adds 2.00, 4 adds 1.74, etc.

I hope this helps out. The first item is always the most expensive, any additional items only add small amounts on top of the first large amount.

Thank you very much for trying to get this figured out for me!!

Are you meaning to say:

Cards
1-3 1.22, 4-9 adds .17, 10-14 adds .17, 15-19 adds .17, etc.

Or are you meaning to say:
Cards
1-3 1.22, 4-9 adds 1.22 + .17, 10-14 adds 1.22 + .34, 15-19 adds 1.22 + .51, etc.

where each price break of 5 more cards adds another .17 per 5 more cards? so 3 sets of 5 is 3 x .17 ...

I am sorry this is confusing for you, please don't give up on me. The first 1.22 is only charged ONCE on any order. After that, I only add .17 for each ounce added. I do NOT add 1.22 again on the same order and the .17 increments do NOT double at any point in the same order. EX:

Customer buys 12 cards:

1.22 + .17 + .17 = 1.56 S&H for this order of 12 cards.

Customer buys 3 Hot Wheels:

2.07 + .51 + .51 = 3.09 S&H for this order of 3 Hot Wheels.

Customer buys 3 pairs of Shoes:

11.57 + 1.46 + 2.00 = 15.03 S&H for this order of 3 pairs of Shoes.

None of these examples include items prices because I feel that will make this thing even more confusing.

These shipping prices are from the USPS.com website. These are REAL prices for the shipping through the U.S. Post Office. If I have to come up with an even rate for the shoes, I can use 1.75 instead of the 1.46 + 2.00 scale. So Shoes could look like this:

11.57 + 1.75 + 1.75 = 15.07 S&H for this order of 3 pairs of Shoes.

Just in case it makes it easier for you to figure out. Thanks for your patience. I believe we can get this figured out.