Shipping help

[cflannagan]

About to set up auction on ebay. The LEGO set box itself measures exactly 2" x 7.5" x 13.5". Weight: Unsure - this is for Friends "Flying Club" (set 3063), Amazon details on their page says 2 lbs, but I see references to 0.65 pounds elsewhere when I google on this set. Looks like I'm going to find a packing box to put the set in - what is a good amount of clearance on all sides? Which service would you use? (USPS, Fedex, UPS)? (below is sample pricing on shipment from Florida to South Carolina) According to this site (recommended by pickleboy - thanks!) http://shipgooder.com/ the cheapest non-ground service would be $11.35.. does that look right? Seems a bit high to me, but I was afraid of that, seeing how one length of the LEGO set is already over 12 inches to begin with. :-/ Edit: I think there's a bug with shipgooder.com - I chose "advanced options", put in dimensions with 2 inches added (4" x 10" x 16"), and on the next page, it was showing me $11.35 for US priority, but box dimensions was set to 12" x 12" x 12". I fixed that, setting values back to 4" x 10" x 16", and it says $5.35 now - is that correct?

[pickleboy]

11.35 is probably the rate to ship the furthest from where you live. Your final cost is going to come down to where the buyer lives. Anytime someone within a few states buys from me it is almost always cheaper through USPS and sometime priority is even cheaper than parcel post and you get to use a free box!!! If the buyer lives far and the box is a larger box, the better UPS and FEDEX is. (both which also have free boxes but i have never used them. I am just now starting to use both fedex and UPS.) The weight should be the weight of the set AND the box you use to ship it in. That is why you see different weights on line. Some just weigh the set, others weigh the set and what they are shipping. You want to use the weight of the set plus the weight of box and packing materials. When you set up your sale in ebay, you can test to see what the rates are directly in the ebay listing. Put in your final shipping weight and the dimensions of the box and play with the settings...it will show you the various prices. (They are typically a bit cheaper through ebay...you get a 10% fedex discount for example. Deciding shipping costs when operating on such a small margin is difficult b/c you can't control the locating of the buyer. It's easier to decide shipping when you are making 100% etc per sale. Is this your first sale? Unfortunately, for me, it took me a while to learn shipping and now i just have a good feel on what to charge.I made a couple of expensive mistakes. I got a scale and quit guessing... I know where most the people who buy from me are located etc. so it's much easier for me to do shipping now.

[pickleboy]

From Florida to SC 5-6 bucks sounds about right.

[cflannagan]

From Florida to SC 5-6 bucks sounds about right.

I thought so too.

Be forewarned - there's a bug with shipgooder.com: when you use advanced options, and put in specific dimensions, it for some reasons resets back to 12x12x12 when you submit, which threw me off for a loop. Simple enough to fix it again in the results page though, for the "more correct" estimate.

[pickleboy]

From Florida to SC 5-6 bucks sounds about right.

Anytime i do shipping, I put (standard shipping 1-5) that way I get to pick the service I want to use when the sale is completed. (I can use fedex, USPS or UPS...which ever is cheapest depending on where the buyer lives) When you put "standard shipping" you have to use priority mail from USPS. If you want to be able to pick ANY service you want parcel..priority...fedex...whatever...specify you do "economy shipping 1-8 days"

Hope that makes sense...it barely does to me

[emes]

I just weighed one of my 3063's and it came out to 13.2 oz. I would say with a box and packing material you're probably looking at a little over 1 lb.

[cflannagan]

I just weighed one of my 3063's and it came out to 13.2 oz. I would say with a box and packing material you're probably looking at a little over 1 lb.

Thanks!

[cflannagan]

I'm looking for a good precision digital scale to weigh shipments.. any recommendations on Amazon? I checked out the stamps.com offer in other thread and don't think it's for me (seeing how there's $15.95/month charge after trial period ends)

[cflannagan]

Apologies for multiple posts in a row - I seem to have confused myself even more. Can someone tell me what the cost is going to be for using USPS Priority Mail for a package that measures: (in inches) 4 x 10 x 16 weights: 2 pounds Going from zip code 29206 to 95747 ? Shipgooder.com shows: $5.35 "USPS Flat Rate Box" $16.70 "USPS Priority Mail" Those costs seems backwards to me? I thought "medium rate flat boxes" at USPS typically go for $11 or more? Also, USPS.com's own calculator said $11.25 (retail price), or $9.88 (online price), for regular "priority mail". For the flat rate, says $12.35 retail, $11.30 online price. Which figure(s) is correct? Again, apologies for so many questions - $5.35 vs $11 will cause me to determine if I want to sell this item now, or to put off, and I don't want to start an ebay auction and end up paying more s&**** costs than I expected :-D

[Jackson]

Anytime someone within a few states buys from me it is almost always cheaper through USPS and sometime priority is even cheaper than parcel post and you get to use a free box!!!

Do you know if USPS has any non-flat-rate free boxes that are around 24x14x6? I haven't found any.

[Anakinisvader]

I'm looking for a good precision digital scale to weigh shipments.. any recommendations on Amazon? I checked out the stamps.com offer in other thread and don't think it's for me (seeing how there's $15.95/month charge after trial period ends)

Many sellers on Ebay have digital scales for sale. I bought one a few years ago for around $20 and it was the best money I have ever spent. Printing and shipping direct from Ebay is easy and the USPS will pick up from your house for free if you ship priority. Saved me a bunch of money and the scale paid itself off in a couple of days with the money I was saving in fuel and time.

[Darth Lego]

From Florida to SC 5-6 bucks sounds about right.

Yes it does.

[cflannagan]

Many sellers on Ebay have digital scales for sale. I bought one a few years ago for around $20 and it was the best money I have ever spent. Printing and shipping direct from Ebay is easy and the USPS will pick up from your house for free if you ship priority. Saved me a bunch of money and the scale paid itself off in a couple of days with the money I was saving in fuel and time.

Cool, can you point out features I should be looking for in a digital scale? I just did some cursory ebay searches and a bunch of "86 lbs" digital scale showed up, but I probably want scale that measures up to lower maximum weight for better precision don't I?

What's the model/make of your digital scale (for my own reference)?

[pickleboy]

Do you know if USPS has any non-flat-rate free boxes that are around 24x14x6? I haven't found any.

I haven't found any that big...most of the boxes are pretty small.

The biggest I have found is 12x12x9. I actually can't fit a lot of LEGO sets in free boxes from the post office, but I use them whenever I can and I try to pass along the cost for a box when I can not.

[Darth Lego]

Many sellers on Ebay have digital scales for sale. I bought one a few years ago for around $20 and it was the best money I have ever spent. Printing and shipping direct from Ebay is easy and the USPS will pick up from your house for free if you ship priority. Saved me a bunch of money and the scale paid itself off in a couple of days with the money I was saving in fuel and time.

Cool, can you point out features I should be looking for in a digital scale? I just did some cursory ebay searches and a bunch of "86 lbs" digital scale showed up, but I probably want scale that measures up to lower maximum weight for better precision don't I?

What's the model/make of your digital scale (for my own reference)?

I would also like to have some info on a scale too. I'm looking into increasing my eBay selling activity and I would like the convenience of having my own scale. I was planning on getting one soon, but I'm not sure exactly which one to get. Going to the Post Office sometimes takes a good 10 to 15 minutes if there is a line.

[pickleboy]

I got the stamps.com scale off ebay. I think I paid 20 for it. It goes up to 25lbs. and make sure it does oz. I ship more than just LEGO sets so I wanted one that could do a little higher weight. You could probably get away with 15lb scale but its a lot easier to pay a little more and have room to grow with your scale then decide you need a bigger scale and then have to buy a new one. Might as well spend the 4 or 5 dollars to get one that does up 25lbs. If you are patient and you look for an auction you could probably get one for 10-15 bucks,

[JulieReeves]

I ship all of my eBay items through USPS. By using paypal, it is integrated with www.parcelbound.com shipping program, so I can hit a few buttons and print out a shipping label. It is so convenient, that all I have to do is bring the box to the post office, or even schedule a next day pickup. Probably the greatest thing other than sliced bread.