The majority catteries in the US are family run. They have physical locations. The majority of them allow on-site visits. They do shipping if it is necessary. But you know where they will ship from. There is no such thing as an internet purchase. You will talk to the owners. The real cattery owner would love to talk to you in person.
There are two GROUND carriers for pet shipping in the US, which the majority catteries are using, citizenshipper.com and uship.com. You can determine the delivery cost by checking with them. Some airlines in the US do cargo shipping. But the pet is required a 10 days' valid health certificate. It is $80 to $150 depends on veterinary you go to. American Airline and United Airline charge over $300 for one cat shipping. There is about $40 for an airline approved carrier. That is around $450 for AIR shipping. Certainly, you can consider passenger luggage shipping in cabin. The cost is the round trip ticket plus pet charge from the airline.
So you know, some catteries do early spaying/neutering. But they don't pay the commercial rate. The owners are in the veterinary industry themselves. The veterinary cost for spaying/neutering varies differently. In some states, the low cost spaying/neutering can be from $40 to $120. However, the ordinary veterinaries are charging more.
When you see a website stating a ragdoll for sale, you should learn their location. You can determine the cost. $200 shipping to anywhere in the state is too good to be true.
The true cattery owner will require nonrefundable deposit to hold off a kitten from the market for you. It is a fair game. However there are some websites claim “deposit refundable”. It is a scam. You will not see a penny back later.
There are some websites listing each ragdoll as a line item in a shopping cart. They don't have contact number. They have emails and web contact forms. Plus they have very low priced cats. Those people don't have a single cat. They may not not even be in the United States. They have bank accounts to collect your money. They don't accept PayPal. Some people have tried to file police report / FBI report. But you can not get them. They are still there to scam. That is the way they make a living. If you fell for the trick, I'm sorry, you've lost your money.
This site is dedicated to people who've lost money and trust. It also serves a warning to those who may fall victim to the trick later.
For those who lost money in those scams, you should know there is a saying that one third of the money in the bank belongs to you, one third of belongs to the tax man and the last one third belong to the thief. All you fight for today is to keep what the thief wants to your own pocket.