Flat $4.99 shipping. Free on orders of $35 or more.

Shipping Policy

Last updated: September 17, 2026

$4.99 under $35 and $0 from $35, by USPS, to the 48 contiguous states and DC, in 3 to 9 business days. That is the whole policy in 1 sentence. The rest of this page walks an order from the moment you pay until the parcel lands, in the order it happens, and every number here is the number checkout uses and the number printed on each book page.

The clock, as a sum: 1 to 3 business days of packing + 2 to 6 business days with USPS = 3 to 9 business days, counted from the order day.

You are buying from Tennessee, and the parcel leaves a warehouse in the United States

Before anything ships. The seller is KENNETH COLBAUGH LLC of Decatur, Tennessee, and the books never pass through Decatur: each copy is bought new through wholesalers licensed for the US book trade, sits at a distribution partner's warehouse inside the United States, and is picked and packed there when your order comes in. The office at 1015 Sneed Rd is a desk. No stock, no parcels.

Nothing on the shelves is used, remaindered or ex-library, and returns go to the partner's returns dock, whose address arrives with each return number. We hold no partnership with Amazon or Barnes and Noble, nor with any publisher whose books we stock; we buy from them at trade terms like any small bookseller, and our part is choosing the titles, buying them new, and answering the email.

You pay $4.99, or nothing from $35

At checkout. A cart under $35 pays $4.99, 1 flat charge per order, and a cart of $35 or more pays $0; the figure that decides it is the book subtotal once a discount code is applied and before tax. No packing fee. No handling fee. The shipping line you see in the cart is the whole delivery charge, and nothing joins it at checkout.

A worked example. The Amish Canning Cookbook at $17.99 and The Vegetable Gardener's Bible at $17.99 come to $35.98, so that pair ships for $0; either book alone ships for $4.99; Plantopedia at $38.99 clears the line on its own. $35 was set where 2 books usually land.

You live in the United States, and your address is on this list

At checkout, too. We deliver to street addresses in the 48 contiguous states and Washington, DC, and no parcel crosses a border, so there is no customs paperwork and nothing to pay at the door. Checkout stops before payment for an address it cannot serve.

  • No shipping option for Alaska or Hawaii.
  • None for Puerto Rico or the other US territories.
  • None for any address abroad.
  • A PO Box, or an APO, FPO or DPO military address, can get through the form; if it does, the order is cancelled the same business day, the reason goes out by email, and every cent comes back.

You see sales tax on the checkout page, never afterwards

Still at checkout. Sales tax is charged on the books, at the rate of the destination state, wherever our checkout has a rate set for that state; it is not charged in the states with no statewide sales tax, and a few states have no rate set in our checkout at all, so an order going there shows no tax line. The tax line appears as soon as a shipping address goes into the form, before you confirm. The $4.99 shipping charge is never taxed, and tax is never folded into the book price or added later.

You have until 4:00 PM Central for an order to count as today's

Hour 0. The cut-off is 4:00 PM Central Time, Monday to Friday, so an order placed at 4:30 PM on a Thursday is a Friday order, and a Saturday order is a Monday order. These 11 federal holidays are not business days either, and USPS does not deliver on them.

  • New Year's Day, January 1.
  • Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the 3rd Monday of January.
  • Presidents' Day, the 3rd Monday of February.
  • Memorial Day, the last Monday of May.
  • Juneteenth, June 19.
  • Independence Day, July 4.
  • Labor Day, the 1st Monday of September.
  • Columbus Day, the 2nd Monday of October.
  • Veterans Day, November 11.
  • Thanksgiving Day, the 4th Thursday of November.
  • Christmas Day, December 25.

You have 12 hours to fix an address

Hours 0 to 12. You have 12 hours from the order confirmation to change the address: email [email protected], quoting the order number plus the corrected address, and the fix costs nothing. After 12 hours the order is with the partner and cannot be redirected, and a parcel that goes to the wrong door because of a typo we were not told about is handled under the refused and undeliverable rules in the Refund and Returns Policy. Read the address on the confirmation email once. Then read it again.

You wait 3 to 9 business days, door to door

Days 1 to 3. Handling at the partner takes 1 to 3 business days and covers the trip from our system to the partner, then the pick and the pack, then the hand-off to USPS. Heavy week, 3 days. Quiet week, 1.

Days 3 to 9. USPS then takes 2 to 6 business days: a parcel headed for the Southeast can land in 3 business days from the order, and a parcel headed for the Pacific coast tends to use most of the 9. The figure on each book page comes from these 2 numbers. Nowhere else.

You get a USPS tracking number the day the parcel leaves

The day it leaves. USPS carries every order from the partner's dock to your door, and the tracking email goes out when the partner hands the parcel over; the first scan usually follows within 1 to 2 days of that email. Look the number up in the tracking email, or on the order tracking page with your order number. Same number, both places. Tracking sometimes shows nothing for the first day or 2 after the email arrives; that is the label waiting for its first scan, not a lost parcel.

You get an answer inside 5 to 7 business days when a parcel goes wrong

The parcel arrives damaged. Write within 7 days of delivery, with 1 photo of the book and 1 of the packaging, and keep the box until we reply.

Tracking says delivered, and nothing came. Check with neighbors and the mail room first, since the scan is made at the building; then write within 48 hours of the scan and we open a USPS trace, which USPS answers in about 5 business days.

Tracking has not moved. Write once it has sat still for 5 business days and we open a USPS inquiry.

In all 3 cases the outcome is the same: once the parcel is confirmed lost or damaged, you pick another copy of the same title or every cent back, and the case closes within 5 to 7 business days of the day we hold the photos or the carrier's answer. A damaged parcel is our problem to solve, not yours.

You hear within 2 business days if a title is held up, and you choose what happens next

A title runs out after you order. It can happen at the wholesaler in the hours after you order and before the pick; when it does, you get an email within 2 business days of the order, with a date when we have a date, and you choose 1 of 3 things: wait for the restock, swap for another title with the difference refunded or charged, or cancel with every cent back. Nothing is quietly substituted. Ever. Storms, USPS service alerts and the holidays above stretch the transit days, but they do not change the handling days, and they never add a charge.

You can send a book back within 30 days

After delivery. The return window is 30 days from the delivery scan, and the restocking fee is $0; the Refund and Returns Policy carries the condition rules, who pays the postage in each case, and the refund clock. Questions about a parcel in flight go to the desk below.

The bookseller

Ainekay is the trading name of KENNETH COLBAUGH LLC, a limited liability company formed in Tennessee.
Employer ID: 99-4178666
Registered office: 1015 Sneed Rd, Decatur, TN 37322, United States
Email address: [email protected]
Telephone: +1 (615) 809-1356
Message form: ainekay.com/pages/contact
Open: Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM Central Time
You hear back: within 1 business day, from a person