Shipping - what services do you use?

[R U INJRD]

Sold some excess diecast recently, and also some camera parts, and I was shocked at what it cost to ship UPS. I thought I had a good handle on shipping costs so that I could put a fixed shipping price in my auctions and not lose my ass, but stuff that would have shipped for around $5 six months ago is now going for around $12-$13! I'm talking 1 pound, 8x6x6 inch boxes. I thought the place where I ship UPS might have been making some sort of mistake on my account, but their price is the same as what I come up with online.

When I checked the post office they're only a buck or two cheaper when you add in insurance and signature conformation (which you have to do on expensive things now or paypal won't cover your ass), but I like UPS's tracking system better so that's worth a buck or two to me. But it's getting to the point where you can't make cheap things available to other people without losing money. Don't even get me started on ebay fees. I know they need to make a buck, but with anything under $10 it seems like there's no way to even break even.

[60Crown]

USPS is only of "value" when under 10oz so it ships 1st Class. I've even split smaller diecast shipments up into 2 boxes to stay under that weight - which still comes in cheaper after insurance and DC than being bumped to Priority. As an example I recently sent two that were $2.87 and $3.01 each respectively (each w/ DC) that would have been almost $8 if packaged together. Granted, I'm using free boxes from Walmart and not paying for them.

USPS Priority Flat Rate boxes are better than multiple 1st Class boxes to same address. Granted there are different sizes but you're still limited to using their boxes - which isn't always the most efficient means for diecast.

PayPal only requires signature confirmation on items over $250 to cover your ass. Not worth $$$ otherwise.

[pyro]

I ship mainly by USPS. Heavy or large items go UPS. I give the customer a quote, and its up to him/her if they want to get the part and pay shipping.

[Creepy Cruiser]

I ship 5-25 orders a day out of the shop here, and they go all over the world. We use USPS for about 90% of it, because it pretty much all goes first class. Did you hear that they are killing off the 1 day first class thing now too? That sucks. Just about every order ships out of here in less than 24 hours, and gets to our customers in just a couple days. It's going to suck that we won't be able to offer that kind of killer customer service anymore, because they will have to wait at least a day longer after it leaves here.

[R U INJRD]

Ok, I must be doing something wrong if I can get this box shipped to my door for $50, but it's costing me $13 to send out 3 hotwheels...

[Boogeyman Con Carne]

I just shipped 10 Matchbox cars via USPS Priority for about $7...

[Creepy Cruiser]

You can ship up to 4 (full size card) Hotwheels in a small flat rate usps priority box for $5.20

Size
8-5/8" x 5-3/8" x 1-5/8" (and the box is free at any post office)


PriorityMailSmallFlatRateBox.jpg

There are even cheaper ways with first class, but not quite as easy or fast and no tracking.