Shipping

[bristol_automotive_parts]

Good day fellow eBayers!

I work for a little home-town automotive business. We decided to open up an eBay store to help circulate our NOS (New Old Stock). When I say NOS... I mean it...over 45 years of it! This has been quite the challenge...starting from scratch. I am having a difficult time with the shipping options for some of our items. We started with our exhaust y-pipes. Yes, probably some of the most difficult to ship. We have figured out our shipping details.

My question is, now that I finally get to it, we have thousands of items to list. There is no way I can manually check each part for the proper shipping dimensions and weights. It is not cost effective to do this and is way too time consuming. We have made contact with some of the vendors to assist with information gathering but it has not been helpful in this situation. I wasn't sure how to tackle this so I have most of our listings at "Local Pick-Up"... with the option for a shipping quote. Is there anyone who can tell me how I can successfully list all these items, with shipping options included, without the chance of getting axed on shipping or manually gathering all the info I need? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Here are a couple of pictures to show you what I am dealing with. This is a very small percent of inventory. I greatly appreciate your time!

Melanie

[ripsmc]

When it comes to mufflers and exhaust pipes, etc I think you've got a tough row to hoe and the endeavor may simply not be worth it.

It might be easier to offer it as a lot to local muffler shops and do the same if you list it on eBay with pick up only.

[mr.elmwood]

If you want "exact", which is a misnomer considering eBay fees, discounts, etc, you can't. 

Calculated shipping? You still have to weigh and measure everything. 

Flat rate shipping. If you are going to do flat rate, might as well incorporate the cost into the price and call it "free" shipping. You will "make a buck lose a buck" depending on where it is going. 

I was in a discussion about how to ship an exhaust pipe, too long. Right from the get-go I said "Cut it in half". At the end of the day they did that.

What is your method of delivery?

[legitimate_bidder]

I have to agree with Rip- it's just not worth it. The time and labor of doing all of that, vs. what the items might sell for and the high cost of shipping such, will mean that it will cost you (or your employer) much more than you could ever hope to make off of the parts.

And when viewers see "local pick-up" they will just move on, unless they are local...but Ebay is a very inefficient way to reach locals.

Rip's suggestion to offer them as one complete lot, is a great idea. Probably won't get a lot of money for 'em....but whatever you get will beat investing many, many hours for a handful of sales.

[bristol_automotive_parts]

We have an agreement with UPS. I have been looking into the Shipping Rate Tables. Any suggestions for that?

[divwido]

I don't see such huge issues.  Go to a website like Uline and figure out a couple basic box sizes.  They have options for everything.  Buy the boxes,  list the items and ship.  The only real issue I see if the older items.

But this isn't that hard, I'm about to do the same thing with scuba gear.  It just takes preparedness.

[tony1963]

I've had exhaust pipes come through USPS, FedEx and UPS without a problem.  The irregular shaped pipes that won't go in boxes can be shipped as is.

A suggestion - the pipes that I have bought have come with the ends heavily padded and taped up, sort of like a big Q-Tip.  The padding protects the ends from being damaged and damaging other articles.  Use plenty of wrap and tape it up.

List the parts with free shipping and build what you think it will cost (from research) into the cost.

[sockmonkeydave]

@bristol_automotive_parts

The long pipes will be oversized, and that will cost more.

I once sent a brake line to Pearl Harbor.

I had to buy a lamp box 15 bucks

Then cut it down, still over sized.

And it went by slow boat, a month to get there.

Good luck... local?

[marinermikes]

Every thing you can fit in a flat rate priority box do so and as some one else said since you know what the cost will be just add it to the cost and make it free shipping.

The items you have that won't fit in a flat rate box will need to have calculated shipping. That's not so bad especialy if you have more than one of the same item. The first one is always the hardest.

[atikovi]

I just see a lot of relatively newer pipes with the yellow stickers that probably still can be ordered new. Not much value when you consider the time required to measure weigh and describe each in a listing. A local muffler shop may give you pennies on the dollar for the whole lot but that's still better than scrap.

[flyerfandan999]

Here's a thought.

Sell popular domestic and import part numbers yourself, listing them on eBay, and either keep doing what you are doing with Local Pickup only, but make it perfectly clear in the description that you will ship upon request for a detailed quote.

As you sell a popular domestic part number for which you have more stock, that first sale generates the dimensions & weight you need to change the listing of additional stock of that part number to calculated shipping.

This approach prioritizes your time and effort into getting the listings up yet does not waste it doing painstaking research for items that may not sell for months.  As sales occur they will naturally apportion and channel the time it takes to gather data needed for calculated shipping into part numbers that are selling and therefore "earning" your time.

For the obscure or orphaned domestic and imported part numbers that might take years to retail to an end user on eBay, consider selling them in brand name or specific model lots to online niche parts sellers.  Take a specific classic import make such as FIAT (I own a classic FIAT and am very familiar with our stable of parts vendors)---you would make a list of all of your classic FIAT part numbers, send the list to the several classic FIAT parts vendors and request offers from them for the lot.  

[roblinsgarage]

Start with the mufflers.  They're all boxed and relatively the same size.  Take one big heavy one and use the same shipping rates for the rest.

Once you find out that no one is going to buy any of due to the cost to ship, you;ll give up on selling exhaust parts.

I've sold and shipped a few mufflers, tailpipes, y-pipes etc.  They are all a real pain.  And yes, I've cut them in 2 at buyer request to save on shipping.  

[legitimate_bidder]

---

@roblinsgaragewrote:

Once you find out that no one is going to buy any of due to the cost to ship, you;ll give up on selling exhaust parts.

---

Exactly! Who buys exhaust parts on Ebay, and pays a premium to have 'em shipped, unless it's something extremely rare and hard to come by?

I live in the middle of nowhere, 2 hours from the nearest mid-sized city. I can call up my neighbor at his muffler shop in the town 10 miles away (Population: 1500 people) and he can get just about any pipe or muffler for anything foreign or domestic made within the last 60 years, and have it here tomorrow, for as cheap as you'll get it anywhere.

[autopartspuller]

I bought my last set of cat backs for my '93 vette on ebay.  They were cheap though.  So probably viable to sell on Ebay but, it would have to be under B&M market value.

I would suggest offering a frieght option because it wont be cheap to ship.

[vikingsandpintos]

Yep, I would think shipping would be a huge challange...

I sell parts from our salvage yard, mostly light, plastic parts like taillights. Although heavy, the size still makes shipping expensive if going very far. (I'm in Michigan, so West coast or Florida is high!) That is thru USPS, maybe UPS or FedEx would be better, I really need to look into them.

I started out with "Free shipping", which of course is just built into the sale prices. But the drastic shipping price differences between an item going to Ohio vs California were stupid high, and of course the buyers were ALWAYS in California, lol! To be able to actually price competitvely and make sales, I had to go to calculated shipping.  Prob lose sales to out west at times, but better to have less sales, than sales where I lose money to the post office.

So watch your shipping, guess a little high on weights and size just in case, and good luck!