A message from Jeffrey, August 6th 2010.

Occasionally we'll get an email asking why we cannot put a stamp on an envelope and mail a package for a dollar or two. It's usually from someone who buys one or a small number of inexpensive accessories. As with any Internet company that ships everything, we simply would not have enough hours in the day to use postal mailing methods, nor would we be able to manage all the fallout from lost packages, late packages, torn open packages that arrive empty, five week remakes, etc etc.

There is no escaping the fact that if you place a $10 order, you will be paying a disproportionately high price for shipping on those one or two items. So if you are sure your hair is not somehow growing back, buy larger quantities to save money.

Of course most clients are more informed than this and understand the nature of Internet shopping and the reasons behind the choice to use UPS or FedEx to get everything where it's meant to be.

For years CoolPiece offered flat rate shipping. The idea was, if you bought ten extra accessories, then the profit on the extra accessories would cover the cost  of the increase in shipping weight. So we plodded along for nine years offering, for example, flat rate second day air for $9, and other such bargains.

But it was not until an analyst came in and informed us that we had spent a terrifyingly huge dollar amount more on shipping than we had charged for shipping that we decided we had to pull the plug on flat rates. Our primary focus is on quality hair, and we offer a small selection of the very best, highest rated, accessories at very small profit, to better serve our clients.

It made no sense to continue to lose the price of a modest condominium for the sake of saving you a couple of bucks on shipping, so now we have the actual rates reflected in our prices and heavier items in your cart will increase the weight of your cart, and extra pounds will push your shipping price up a little per pound.

It's still far below retail shipping prices, and you can try using the shipping calculators at UPS.com or FedEx.com to see this for yourself, but it's the best we can do without continuing to lose the farm, or the condo. And it's still better than tossing goods into the one way vortex of the postal system, only to have them vanish forever.