As stated in a prior post, other people's situations are different than mine. I was giving my point of view, not to defend Wyrd's shipping practices. Honestly, I agree with you that a flat rate USPS solution would have been nice to have considering the inherent delay in shipping due to GenCon.
However, as has been stated multiple times on multiple threads by the staff rep of Wyrd: They have no intention to change their shipping policies.
I usually buy local or through another online retailer, only buying direct for GenCon or other sales. The one or two times a year I purchase direct I am willing to pay the premium shipping.
Again, this is only my opinion on how I rationalize my situation. My wife is recovering from surgery and I had two coworkers have deaths in the family that I attended services for in the last week. I have too much stuff going on in my life that for me, shipping charges for an order for toys falls pretty low on the scale of things to get upset about.
I would have preferred a cheaper option and I actually paused in placing my order when I saw the cost for shipping. But I knew I wanted the items as soon as possible, knew it was the only way to get Miss Ery without paying an arm and a leg, and I bit the bullet.
I could have waited to get the other items at a later date (discounted) and bought Miss Ery on a third party site, but I probably would have ended up paying around the same as I did by getting everything direct from Wyrd when all was said and done.
Averageboss, that is awesome!! People like you are what grows the local gaming community!