First: me: been on this forum since 2000. Always a small seller, never interested in growing beyond the one man operation I started in 1999 as a retirement hedge.
So you know where I'm coming from.
Shipping is about two things: service to the customer and cost to the shipper (in this case the seller).
Service is easy: you want the customer to receive a watertight package that protected the contents from your shop to their door. Costs takes some thought.
I have never been to the point where I can ship enough books to qualify for a volume tier price. You have to ship hundreds a day, and I simply don't want to work that hard. Over the years, I've developed a reasonable scheme to keep shipping costs as low as possible while maintaining the cash flow necessary to my life style.
So: the item gets bagged. I buy rolls of unprinted produce bags big enough I can fit three hardbacks in a single package. I buy enough to not pay for shipping.
These days, with shipping so costly, margins so low, and demand only starting to recover, I tend to avoid that interior bag for shipments less than $15 or so. Not so much the cost of the bag, but the time it takes.
Besides, I buy Tyvek mailing envelopes (bags really) in several sizes, as well as take advantage of eBay's branded padded envelopes when I can get them free. I used to use Kraft paper, but Tyvek is lighter and when you buy a Chinese brand they are less than a nickel each for the bigger ones.
So, bagged or not, the book gets wrapped in cardboard which is always recycled. It makes sense to note what kinds of cardboard you get: rice cardboard is soft, heavy malleable and bulky. You don't recycle Chinese boxes if you are shipping a cubic rate and the item to be wrapped is anywhere near the tier level: a 1/2" can make a monetary difference, just like a 1/2 gram can.
Finally postage. I have shipped as many as 20 books a day for weeks on end and come nowhere near the discount volume, so I gave up before I started looking for cheaper postage. When I was selling 20 books a day, I could make a half a buck on the shipping from Amazon (or more) if the book weighed less than a pound. I got $3.50, paid $1.79.
Today, I use Pirate Ship. Because it automagically gives me the best rate option I can get. It does not have bound printed matter. Services like Stamps.com will provide that cheaper service but the savings are pennies to the pound which means it takes a lot of pounds of books to get to the $15.00 break-even cost of Stamps.com.
A single MMPB goes from my home in Ohio to Seattle for Ground Advantage in the same amount of time for less money than media mail. Once the package goes over 8 oz. you are paying media rate. The same rollover of savings occurs when a lot is shipped: 2 hc together might or might not flip the script back to GA from Media rate, but 3 or more most definitely will.
All my offers are free shipping (except Fiesta, because it has to go Parcel and distance matters).
And now we move to the really interesting part of our essay: volume discounts. eBay has a fixed offer type that is accessed by a button called variations. It makes that single listing actually up to 50 listings. Each one gets 12 pictures and a header line full of keywords; a separate price; and anything else you might want to say in the description section which mostly nobody reads, but does CYA in case of dispute if you use it right.
So let's say I have a pile of Executioner novels, I might get $3.50 for one, mebbe a bit more. They sell to action novel fans, who are not collectors (for the most part). I can list 50 titles in the same listing, eBay will handle the logistics of orders, and I can offer any volume discount I like.
The early Executioner novels are about 3.5 oz each, the later closer to 5.5. I can ship a minimum of three and a maximum of five for the same cost. At this point, the upcharge from one to two pounds is about 75 cents, while the first pound is $4.63 (today). If I can incentivize someone to buy 5? How's it shake out?
Well, the minimum I can charge for a single book is $5.39, breaking even on eBay fees, and not paying for my materials. Tape, tyvek bags are my majore costs, about 4 cents a shipment. Let's say $5.50 absolute rock bottom price and I make nothing for my time in wrapping the shipment, acquiring the book and listing it.
My acquisition costs tend to zero, so my minimum is 6.00 unless the item is dead common and battered.
What is percentage of $4.63 is 75 cents? roughly 12% so worst case scenario, when setting the volume discount depth, is to make sure I win as much or more than the customer. OK, I sell 2 mmpb for $12.00 and I can ship them for both $4.65 (for simplicity) what should my discount be? The second book is pure profit.
So that's the process I go through. I use 20%/30%/40% and it works pretty good. For commodity books.
