Shipping costs

[driver211]

Hi all, I have been away from selling for a long time. Our special items were 1/18 diecast cars and trucks. I am wanting to ask opinions on where I can ship these for a good price. gone are the days of 6 or 7 bucks to ship anywhere in the US. I am just asking if anyone has found a real good shipper with real good prices. I may be asking too much I know, just curious... Linda .. I am in Wis. if that makes a difference.

[nobody*s_perfect]

Packages up to 15.99 ounces can be mailed as First Class packages if you purchase your postage online; at retail (i.e., at the Post Office counter), the weight limit is 13 ounces.  Online postage cost for First Class packages ranges from $3.37 to $6.28 depending on eight and distance.

For heavier items, most sellers use USPS Priority Mail.  Some non-eBay postage sellers (such as Pirateship) offer economical services which eBay doesn't offer, such as Priority Cubic.

[candd205]

You could try grouping the diecast cars and trucks in to groups, to make it more profitable for the cost of the postage.

[tkrliquidations]

eBay typically offers the best discounted rates around. I've looked into sites like Stamps.com and Endicia.com but they seem to be the same rates that eBay already provides, and without a monthly fee. Shipping is just expensive all-around. Not much you can do about it unfortunately.

[sassykzt]

Look at Pirateship.  I sell on 5 platforms and ship around 100 packages per day.  They have some better rates than eBay.  They have eBay integration and a much easier navigation and accounting reports.   Good luck to you😄!!!

[lepke1979]

As mentioned Pirate Ship is good. Can play with box sizes and rates there.

They offer cubic shipping which eBay doesn't. It can sometimes be worth using. Particularly if your item is over a few pounds. eBay is still cheaper with Priority mail if you're Top Rated. But not by much. $8.20 on eBay for Padded Flat Rate vs $8.30 on Pirate Ship for instance. If your items are over a pound and can fit in a small enough box to fit in a flat rate envelope/bag, you should look into that. Can do the same with cubic shipping too.

XPS Ship is another, but prefer Pirate Ship. Main benefit to XPS is you can link your UPS and FedEx accounts if you have one. But don't like that you have to prepay for shipping. Whereas, Pirate Ship you can pay as you go if you want. Better customer service too.

[lepke1979]

Oh, Pirate also started offering UPS as an option recently. I don't send stuff UPS very often, but would compare the rates with eBay when it made sense (over USPS; gotta be more than a few dollars difference for me to bother dropping it off vs USPS pickup). And the rates seemed to be the same.

I've never had to deal with FedEx/UPS overcharging me through eBay. But if it happens via Pirate Ship, you'll probably have a better/easier experience. This is just speculation though. But the few times I've disputed a USPS charge, they came through.