If they buy something big and heavy, I'm going to have to make sure I charge enough for shipping

[sin-n-dex]

I ran auctions today, a few stamp albums. I'm not known for doing that, so it was a bit of a bust. One buyer won most of them. In fact, he won so many, I don't even have a big enough box for all of them at once.

Now he's complaining about the shipping because it goes in two boxes. Like dude, you won one album for 99 cents, and another for 3.25. I'm sorry if you have to pay $22 and $18 to ship your two giant boxes of albums.

It would actually be a blessing in disguise if he refused to pay and cancelled... then I wouldn't lose money on the order. I took a gamble and lost, and lost money on the items. I'm not about to lose money on shipping too.

And not only do they stall on paying and fuss, but want me to ship "right away". Well if you want it shipped right away, pay right away when I send you the invoice after the auctions end. If you fuss with me about it for two hours, then you can wait until tomorrow or the next day when I do my next round of shipping. I'm done packing orders for tonight. His would have been one of them if he paid me before I was done packing the last order.

C.

[toysaver]

Complain with him about the cost and offer to compromise and ship the pages without the binders.  

[dbfolks166mt]

     Mixed views on your post. First the buyer/bidder would have saw the shipping cost when they were bidding on the item so they knew in advance what the cost was going to be to ship each item. On the flip side you could have gotten a box big enough to handle both items and combined the shipping into a single box. 

     From you post I cannot tell what the size and weight are on the items and you indicate "standard shipping" which I am not really sure what is. If I had bought both items the shipping for each individual package is shown at $15.50 or $31.00 combined. Taking a guess at the size being 11" x 12" x 3" and the weight at 8 pounds if the items were combined into a single box and you had shipped to me in Virginia following are some of the Pirate Ship label costs for shipping the item. Even if you charged me full retail for the combined shipment there is a considerable savings from a combined shipment. 

[femmefan1946]

you indicate "standard shipping" which I am not really sure what is.

When we ship from Canada we cannot use Calculated Shipping, and must use Flat Rate.

We can't use USPS or any US -based courier rates.

Even if we use a forwarder like chitchatexpress, we are including their very reasonable charges to that Flat Rate.

So we are given generic terms like "standard shipping".

There are nearly 200 members of  the Universal Postal Union and every system has its own service names.

This also gives the seller the opportunity to upgrade or downgrade the service to fit their needs.

[sin-n-dex]

---

@byrd69er wrote:

As many would say...do a buy it now at the lowest price you can accept....with fees in consideration. Move that carp out.

---

I'm a bit of gambler... which is why I take risks that don't always pay off.

I'm not happy about how the auctions ended, but I'll deal with that by not doing it again (at least not with that kind of stuff). I've been thinking of a plan to move the rest of the albums which are taking up much space.

I just don't want hassles on shipping these big heavy albums on top of the loss from poor auction results. I mean, I've lost money, why lose more money if I don't need to.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

---

@adamcartwright wrote:

Raise your prices! You seem like nice person and a conscientious seller.

I hate to see you work so hard to make so little.

---

I think I was blinded by how well my competition does with these types of albums I thought I'd try it... but I'm not known for this, so people don't come every week to see what stamps I have.

I'm working on a new solution to sell them, but I need a better solution for storage. There's no space at the store and my livingroom is not very big.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

---

@femmefan1946 wrote:

"I regret that you are not happy with your purchase. If you prefer, I can cancel these transactions with no problems for you."

"I regret that you are not happy with your purchase. If you prefer, I can cancel these transactions with no problems for you."

"I regret that you are not happy with your purchase. If you prefer, I can cancel these transactions with no problems for you."

"I regret that you are not happy with your purchase. If you prefer, I can cancel these transactions with no problems for you."

I hope you use Calculated Shipping for bulky listings.

Since listing here means we Canadians have to use Flat Rate shipping, I list my heavy or bulky items on dotCA and use Canada Post pricing.

Our US sellers will see those prices in both US dollars and in loonies.

---

I can use calculated shipping, but I have applied shipping to each individual item, to combine in one box is cheaper. Buyer would have paid 15.50 x5, but together it's $40 USD. He didn't think $40 for five large heavy albums was very fair.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

---

@femmefan1946 wrote:

There's a point where you just donate a few boxes of almost empty albums to Value Village or St Vincent.

---

I'm going to return everything I don't want to deal with (like albums that don't have pages I can just remove) back to the store, let it be their problem. they can sit on it for a year trying to sell it if they want... I did the no reserve no minimum auctions to try to move them fast, I was anticipating getting around $35-40 per album, but I was so wrong about that.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

---

@misterskullhead wrote:

Don't list an item for any less than you're willing to sell it for if it gets only 1 bid. 

Weigh your items before listing so you don't get underpaid.  If you combine shipping and send them an invoice with a reduced amount, that's just a bonus for them.  But never try to charge more for shipping than the listing initially shows.

---

I did weigh each item and figure out the shipping. Each one fits into a $15 medium priority box, so I put 15.50 in shipping. He bought 5, and I combined them in two boxes for him to save money, but $40 to ship all wasn't enough of a savings to him.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

---

@toysaver wrote:

Complain with him about the cost and offer to compromise and ship the pages without the binders.  

---

I broke down the second box because it was half full, and he actually went ahead and paid. I'm going to refund a few bucks if that box reduction in size makes much of a difference. It's heavy, so I doubt it, but it was worth a shot.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

---

@dbfolks166mt wrote:

     Mixed views on your post. First the buyer/bidder would have saw the shipping cost when they were bidding on the item so they knew in advance what the cost was going to be to ship each item. On the flip side you could have gotten a box big enough to handle both items and combined the shipping into a single box. 

     From you post I cannot tell what the size and weight are on the items and you indicate "standard shipping" which I am not really sure what is. If I had bought both items the shipping for each individual package is shown at $15.50 or $31.00 combined. Taking a guess at the size being 11" x 12" x 3" and the weight at 8 pounds if the items were combined into a single box and you had shipped to me in Virginia following are some of the Pirate Ship label costs for shipping the item. Even if you charged me full retail for the combined shipment there is a considerable savings from a combined shipment. 

---

To ship the 5 albums, I need two boxes that are eBay's biggest box, or the size of 10 reams of paper from Business Depot. The second box is half full, so I broke it down to try and save him some money. (It saves me packing materials too, so I see it as a win. I have to scavenge free stuff from work and they can't supply my entire operation). I did look for a bigger box but the only box I can find that's bigger/big enough, is the giant #0 bubble mailer box in my living room which is entirely huge. So big in fact I'm not sure if my shipper would take it with all the albums.

I did expect someone might win a few albums, just didn't expect I'd need two boxes for the order.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

---

@femmefan1946 wrote:

you indicate "standard shipping" which I am not really sure what is.

When we ship from Canada we cannot use Calculated Shipping, and must use Flat Rate.

We can't use USPS or any US -based courier rates.

Even if we use a forwarder like chitchatexpress, we are including their very reasonable charges to that Flat Rate.

So we are given generic terms like "standard shipping".

There are nearly 200 members of  the Universal Postal Union and every system has its own service names.

This also gives the seller the opportunity to upgrade or downgrade the service to fit their needs.

---

If it's one album, I'm using a Priority Flat rate Medium box and buying postage on eBay (the cheapest solution, because it's difficult to get the right sized box for just one album). If it's multiple albums I'm using an eBay box and sending it Ground Advantage which is how I define "standard shipping". Stallion Express has an "economy" option that is handled mostly by partner carriers, but they won't let me use it for something so big/heavy, and Ground Advantage is the cheapest. Priority doesn't appear to cost a whole lot more on Stallion Express portal, but if I can save the buyer a few dollars and use GA it seems reasonable. I can use calculated shipping since I'm shipping from within the US, I just choose not to and make all shipping the same.

Buying postage for priority flat rate items on Stallion Express is a very bad idea... the small flat rate box cost $17.20 to ship, I wasn't expecting that when I did one of those last week. It's around $9 on ebay. If I ship priority I'll buy postage on ebay provided I don't need any additional insurance. If Stallion loses it, the insurance with USPS won't help because they didn't receive it. (And Stallion has actually lost one of my packages never to be found again, no coverage with USPS because Stallion lost it in their warehouse).

C.

[dbfolks166mt]

07-15-2024 01:58 PM

@dbfolks166mt wrote:

     Mixed views on your post. First the buyer/bidder would have saw the shipping cost when they were bidding on the item so they knew in advance what the cost was going to be to ship each item. On the flip side you could have gotten a box big enough to handle both items and combined the shipping into a single box. 

     From you post I cannot tell what the size and weight are on the items and you indicate "standard shipping" which I am not really sure what is. If I had bought both items the shipping for each individual package is shown at $15.50 or $31.00 combined. Taking a guess at the size being 11" x 12" x 3" and the weight at 8 pounds if the items were combined into a single box and you had shipped to me in Virginia following are some of the Pirate Ship label costs for shipping the item. Even if you charged me full retail for the combined shipment there is a considerable savings from a combined shipment. 

To ship the 5 albums, I need two boxes that are eBay's biggest box, or the size of 10 reams of paper from Business Depot. The second box is half full, so I broke it down to try and save him some money. (It saves me packing materials too, so I see it as a win. I have to scavenge free stuff from work and they can't supply my entire operation). I did look for a bigger box but the only box I can find that's bigger/big enough, is the giant #0 bubble mailer box in my living room which is entirely huge. So big in fact I'm not sure if my shipper would take it with all the albums.

I did expect someone might win a few albums, just didn't expect I'd need two boxes for the order.

     Home Depot will have a single box big enough. The other option would be to tape the two eBay boxes together and send them as one package. Not sure of the dim's or weight but it would be cheaper than sending two boxes and buying two labels I would assume. 

‎

[dbfolks166mt]

you indicate "standard shipping" which I am not really sure what is.

When we ship from Canada we cannot use Calculated Shipping, and must use Flat Rate.

We can't use USPS or any US -based courier rates.

Even if we use a forwarder like chitchatexpress, we are including their very reasonable charges to that Flat Rate.

So we are given generic terms like "standard shipping".

There are nearly 200 members of  the Universal Postal Union and every system has its own service names.

     I could understand that if the OP was in Canada but they are in the US, specifically Niagara Falls, NY. 

This also gives the seller the opportunity to upgrade or downgrade the service to fit their needs.

[sin-n-dex]

---

     Home Depot will have a single box big enough. The other option would be to tape the two eBay boxes together and send them as one package. Not sure of the dim's or weight but it would be cheaper than sending two boxes and buying two labels I would assume. 

‎

---

Home Depot is a 45 min drive, I live in a small town. I scavenge boxes from local businesses and where I work (biggest box is for photocopier paper). Taping boxes isn't allowed by Stallion Express, and I'm not sure how I feel about taping two boxes weighing 35 lbs combined together. I'd be concerned about the weight breaking it apart (plus it's $3.50 for a roll of tape, I think I'd need the whole roll to tape those together... not in favour of anything that increases my losses).

When I cut the second box down it lowered the shipping price and I refunded $5 to the buyer, so hopefully he's happy with that, having agreed to pay my invoice.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

---

@dbfolks166mt wrote:

you indicate "standard shipping" which I am not really sure what is.

When we ship from Canada we cannot use Calculated Shipping, and must use Flat Rate.

We can't use USPS or any US -based courier rates.

Even if we use a forwarder like chitchatexpress, we are including their very reasonable charges to that Flat Rate.

So we are given generic terms like "standard shipping".

There are nearly 200 members of  the Universal Postal Union and every system has its own service names.

     I could understand that if the OP was in Canada but they are in the US, specifically Niagara Falls, NY. 

This also gives the seller the opportunity to upgrade or downgrade the service to fit their needs.

---

I changed everything to "Standard" or "Economy" because of the First Class fiasco a year ago where we were all told our listings wouldn't have proper shipping rates and people wouldn't be able to buy our stuff, and we had to update 10000 listings (which was an issue because everything had different rates, I spent a week updating in batches). Someone in the forum said they use standard shipping to avoid that noise and not be committed to a specific service. So when USPS changes what their services are, it doesn't affect me anymore.

I do standard shipping for anything I intend to ship by Ground Advantage, and Economy shipping for anything that's a letter with a stamp or an ESE. So it has meaning to me, but I'm not committed to a specific USPS service. For international I use Economy for shipping everything, and just hope it doesn't take too long. Using Economy shipping will also give me the maximum time before they can file an INR.

C.