I have recently preordered some stuff from BBTS and decided to use the pile of loot for the first time since I'm waiting on the preorders to be fulfilled. I preordered the wave 2 combiner wars, the PE Add ons and Apollyon. The Combiners are in and they charged my credit card. That's what I expected but they also charged the shipping on the figures as well. I was under the understanding that the shipping wouldn't be charged until I have them shipped in order to save on shipping. I figured if I waited until all the preorders came in I'd save on shipping by having them all sent together. But if they are going to charge for shipping on each order, my question is, what's the sense of pile of loot? If I have to pay shipping on each order anyway then why would I want to wait to get my items?
They charge the shipping to the first item in the pile. Everything else will be by the pound. Say for Super Saving shipping it's $0.25 a pound.
You'll still get charged shipping for most items, but the thing is that the shipping cost for each item after the first is very, very low. For instance my last PoL had Voyager Brainstorm, Q Transformers Wheeljack, a Robot Spirits Bandai figure, and MMC's Felisaber. I was charged a total of 10.99 for shipping for all items combined. Felisaber, which comes in a large, heavy box, I was only charged 2 bucks to add into my POL. Basically, when combined, your total shipping charge will be about what you expect from a box that's going to be packed with stuff. The deal with the POL is that you get everything at once and you ship when you want it to ship, with combined shipping. For me it's a huge convenience and the big reason why I go with them.
Yup they charge the shipping as each item comes in. For the first item it's basically the cost to ship that one item. For each additional item they charge by the pound, which is where the savings comes in. For Fedex/UPS, for me in the past it works out to about $0.90 per pound.
Even better - because it is based on weight, many times adding a small item here or there won't change the price at all.
I have a question, how do I add an item to my pile of loot? POL is on and credit card is updated. Do I have to check out first?
Anything purchased automatically goes into your POL as long as it's on. You do have to complete the transaction.