Step #6.2 Help me ship my package!!!

Written by Texas Tracy on February 23, 2008

For those of you who have sold on ebay before, you are allowed to skip this post, and maybe many other posts, and read something else. Many of you have entertained the idea of selling before, but for whatever the reason, have never taken the plunge. One reason may be that you are intimidated by the thought of mailing a package. Or, maybe what stops you in your tracks is having to figure out first how much it costs to mail something. It can seem a little overwhelming. Hopefully I can help clear the fog.

To start, if you are going to sell on a regular basis it behooves you to purchase a small postal scale. They are available on ebay, at most office supply stores, and anymore you might be able to find one at Wal-Mart or Target. The scale I have I purchased at an office supply store and it has served me very well. I think I paid around $49 for this Pelouze scale back in 2000, just to give you an idea (my scale still has January 1999 postal rates on it-those were the days!).

But wait Tracy-I don’t want to buy a postal scale!

Now, if you are waffling back and forth on if you want to sell on a regular basis and not sure that you want to puchase a postal scale, you do have another option. The other option is more time consuming, but will still work. First, after you decide what you want to sell, find a box to ship it in. Priority Mail boxes are free to you at the post office so it is handy if you can get one of those first. Once you have secured a box, take it to your local post office and weigh it there-most post offices have a scale for public use somewhere in their lobby. If not, ask the postal clerk to weigh it for you. Write down the weight. This is all you need to get started.

When picking carriers, it seems that you have multiple choices, or at least that is what UPS, FedEX, and others want you to think. Personally, I ship 99.9% of my packages via USPS Priority Mail. For one, you get a box from them. Second, I have found them to be a tad bid cheaper than UPS. Also, Priority Mail shipping is generally faster than UPS ground, so your customer gets it faster. Last, I can never correctly estimate shipping costs via the UPS website. I am always pretty much dead on right with the USPS website. So, personally, this is my carrier of choice. On occasion I will use UPS for a large item, but it is a very rare occurance and you have to take it to a UPS store. So, in a nutshell, I would consider that USPS Priority Mail to be the method of choice. Please note that if you utilize the services of a mail store they will add a charge onto your bill above just the postage price. This is a very expensive route to consider if you wind up mailing multiple packages.

Sometimes you will have a customer who wants the cheapest method of shipping possible. I understand them wanting to save money, but it is often a hassle for you as a seller. Parcel post vs. Priority mail generally only saves the customer $1-$2. But, some people still ask for it. Don’t forget to change boxes when you ship parcel post.

You must become very comfortable using the USPS website. You will often need to use it to compute your shipping. Ebay has a handy shipping calculator but there will be times you need to compute it yourself (say, if someone wants an overseas quote). Email me if you need help at first.

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