factoring in refractors but not at that price

last year i placed a bunch of orders on sportlots. 61 orders to be exact, which has me wondering why i wasn't a bit more organized. sure, some of those orders were placed separately to take advantage of optimizing shipping costs (sometimes it's cheaper to order cards from sellers in separate orders rather than pay a higher shipping cost in a single order) and i did use the box order option a couple of times, but i probably could have done a better job to consolidate some orders.

when it comes to sportlots, i am a proponent of adding cards to max out the shipping cost per card value. for example, if i have 3 cards in my order from a seller, i will add a fourth to get one more card without increasing shipping costs. one way i do this is to search for refractors within sellers' inventory. they are easy to find and easy to confirm a need on my part. as a result, i added quite a few refractors to my dodger collection this way.  here are some of them in no particular order:

2018 topps chrome sapphire logan forsythe

2004 topps chrome refractor shawn green

2006 topps chrome refractor jayson werth

2004 topps chrome refractor todd hundley

2011 topps chrome xfractor matt kemp

2011 topps chrome xfractor andre ethier

2018 topps chrome prism refractor corey seager

2018 topps chrome sapphire dodgers team card

2018 topps chrome sapphire tom koehler

2018 topps chrome pink refractor alex wood

2018 topps chrome pink refractor kenley jansen

2018 topps chrome pink refractor kenta maeda

2018 topps chrome xfractor kenta maeda

2018 topps chrome pink refractor corey seager

2018 topps chrome sapphire chris taylor

2018 topps chrome xfractor justin turner

2018 topps chrome prism refractor alex wood

2018 topps chrome update refractor kenley jansen

2019 topps chrome refractor clayton kershaw

2018 bowman's best refractor clayton kershaw

2018 bowman's best refractor brian dozier

my attempts to maximize shipping backfired a bit, unfortunately. one of the orders i placed that included a couple of these refractors added to get to the seller's shipping limit resulted in the worst sportlots experience i've had in the 9-plus years i've been using the site. i ordered 4 cards in may of 2020 from a seller named jordan25 using the budget shipping method. a week or so later, i received this from my mail carrier:

yes, there was $7.50 due in postage because this seller slapped a tracking number on a pwe.  there was a letter explaining the charge attached to the envelope:

a couple of things there. the letter says the item was being returned, which in hindsight would have been the best thing. however, someone decided to go ahead and deliver it to me postage due. i have a great postal carrier, and i am not blaming him if in fact it was his decision to bring this to me rather than return to sender. i figured that i wanted the cards and that this was clearly a mistake on the part of the seller, so i had no problem accepting the envelope and heading off to sportlots to be reimbursed.

i am not completely sure how the $7.50 amount was arrived at, but i filed an issue with the seller to let him know that the cards had arrived with this postage due. long story short, after a bit of back and forth, he denied my request which, by that time, had been reduced to just the value of the cards (about a buck) since the issue resolution within the sportlots site does not allow for more than that. even the sportlots site moderator pushed back on me, asking if i could have rejected the delivery of the envelope. well, yes, but i assumed that since it was not my mistake i would be reimbursed. anyway, i wound up with no reimbursement and no relief. very frustrating as i was not the dumbass who put a tracking sticker on a pwe. the seller even told me that if i had given him the receipt, he would have reimbursed me (this is after he denied my request). i informed him that the fact that i have the cards is the receipt, but he never responded. 

anyway, i've placed a few orders on the site in 2021 but i think i will try to sell my inventory that is currently listed there (about 50,000 cards) locally on marketplace and be done with it.  no amount of shiny refractor goodness will fully remove the stain of this experience.