Spending My Winnings...

Flush with my $100 voucher I sat down on the Wargames Factory website last night plotting what to spend it on before encountering a major problem - USPS postage rates. A few months back I'd looked at buying some of Wargames Factory's Horse Sprue Bundles (an excellent 12 horses for just $3.50) but baulked at the shipping costs that was more than the cost of the models.

I had a similar problem last night, shipping from the US isn't cheap and once the parcel gets over a certain weight (4 pounds) it is phenomenal. In the end almost half my voucher went towards the USPS postage charge! I'm not blaming Wargames Factory, the USPS costs are what they are, but it was a shock.

So what did I go for in the end? Well determined to make best use of the voucher I went with the old communist maxim of 'quantity has a quality all of its own' and ordered three of Horse Sprue Bundles to use to make some more centaurs and eight of the Persian Infantry bundles (12 infantry figures for just $2.40). I am not sure whether they will be painted up as Persians (I never planned to expand the Greek project to include the Persian Wars), fantasy Middle-Eastern types or even Martians (see here). I also added a box of the new Samurai Cavalry...

Whilst the postage costs took a little of the gloss of spending the voucher I'm taking a pragmatic view in that I've a box of 96 infantry, 12 cavalry and 36 horses crossing the Atlantic which cost me just $0.06 (the extra I had to pay over the voucher!)

Amusingly I received a shipping email from Wargames Factory tonight with my USPS shipping reference number. Entering it on the USPS website a message flashed up: "Your item was delivered at 3:08 pm on March 29, 2011". Obviously the ability of USPS to travel backwards in time is reflected in what they charge! :-)