Has anyone tried Pirateship.com for shipping

[tvr-inc]

Has anyone out there tried Pirateship.com for your shipping. They say their Priority mail pricing is cheaper because they use Priority Mail Cubic pricing.

[twtgrl96]

I hope this thread is still active!  I’ve been wondering about using pirate ship for awhile but I’m confused about something.  It seems like you need to know the buyers address in order to get the shipping rate.  When I create a new listing on eBay, I obviously don’t know who will be buying the item yet.  The point is to get the buyer the cheapest rate possible, so how I can I get my post to show them that rate?  When I put in my weight and dimensions on eBay and choose Priority shipping it automatically shows the range the buyer will have to pay.  

So I feel like I’m missing something obvious here...unless everyone is offering free shipping and just taking a chance someone in the expensive zones don’t purchase the item?!

[jrenfro66]

yes they have been a cheaper option for me.

[chapeau-noir]

I've used Pirate Ship for quite a while - they are no cheaper than eBay save for soft packets and international shipping.  For those two classes they are cheaper due to the cubic shipping.

The site is easy to use but I wouldn't look on it as a huge price saver or anything.

[equid0x]

---

@slippinjimmy wrote:

---

@tvr-inc wrote:

Has anyone out there tried Pirateship.com for your shipping. They say their Priority mail pricing is cheaper because they use Priority Mail Cubic pricing.

---

Stamps.com also offers Cubic Pricing, as far as I know most Internet Postage Providers offer it....Pitney-Bowes is an outlier in that regard.

---

I may be mistaken, but I think Pitney-Bowes owns Stamps.com.

Also, how did you manage to post two days into the future? 🙂

edit: Just realized thread is from 2019

[equid0x]

I just checked into it recently since I've heard about it a few times. The pricing doesn't look any different than any other commercial base pricing. Cubic may or may not be cheaper. 

[mvls1]

Their cubic rates for items over 1 lb have always been less than eBay labels rates.

[bitsofsiliconvalley]

---

@remote_controls_and_more wrote:

L x W x H / 1728 then round up to .1  .2  .3  .4  .5 those are the five tiers

---

A small correction: L* x W* x H* / 1728 then round up...

Where L* is L rounded to the nearest 1/4 inch, W* is W rounded, etc. Note that you round to the nearest 1/4", not up to the next 1/4".

[bitsofsiliconvalley]

---

@slippinjimmy wrote:

---

Stamps.com also offers Cubic Pricing, as far as I know most Internet Postage Providers offer it....

---

I believe that Pirate Ship is the only one that does not pass on the USPS minimum shipping requirement of 50K pieces/year to each individual customer. Please correct me if I'm wrong about that.

[bitsofsiliconvalley]

Anyone who has used priority cubic shipping, please comment: how do you arrive at a shipping charge that is fair to both you and your customer? It seems to me that one has to work very hard to trick the shipping calculator into quoting accurate rates to most zip codes, and it simply can't be made to do so everywhere.

Of course, the same problem applies to Priority Regional.

[chapeau-noir]

---

@equid0x wrote:

I just checked into it recently since I've heard about it a few times. The pricing doesn't look any different than any other commercial base pricing. Cubic may or may not be cheaper. 

---

I noticed that, too, with boxes, but it really changes with soft pack (envelopes and boxes in envelopes).  I usually use eBay labels for boxed items and Pirate Ship for soft packs - this comes after my comparing both for weights up to about 10 lb, but boxes no bigger than 36" aggregate. I shipped a DVD player tonight - I'm kind of wishing I had tried PS for that to see if the rates changed with dimensional shipping. Maybe the cubic calculation has more of an effect on envelopes and the like?  Dunno - I'm just reporting my experience.  I find using both works out.