Shipping Tips

On this page you will find shipping tips that I have used to ship my eBay items. I hope you find these tips helpful and they save you time and money. These are just suggestions and some of my ideas may not work for your operation. If you need any assistance please feel free to call me at my store 989-871-6045 M-F 10am to 5pm & Sat 10am to 2pm eastern time zone. Thanks Ed Zaker

Shipping

One of the most important things to remember when shipping items you sell on eBay is that your customer wants it fast. By shipping the order the same day or the next day shows your customer you care about service. Also important is that you take the time to package it correctly. Remember once it leaves your hands many of the people that will handle your package will not really care about handling it carefully. So you should pack all items with the plan it will get dropped kicked. There is nothing more disappointing to a customer than receiving a damaged item.

How Should I Ship It

I use USPS priority mail or FedEx ground for 99% of my shipping. If you are starting out than you will want to use UPS instead of FedEx because of the convenience of Paypal shipping. This will be better explained later. By using priority mail or UPS your customer will receive their order in 6 or less business days. Priority mail averages 2 to 3 business days and UPS will take between 1 and 6 business days depending on where you live and where your customer lives. I ship from Michigan so the most any of my packages takes to arrive is 5 days. But if you live on the east coast and ship to the west coast it can take 6 days.

Before you make your auction you need to determine a shipping cost for your item. You will need a scale to weigh your item. ( This is where I come in, I sell scales! ) When weighing your item you should weigh it in a box with packaging to determine your shipping weight. Once you have the weight of your package now you need to determine the cost to ship it. USPS and UPS both have free shipping calculaters you can use. For USPS  http://postcalc.usps.gov/ and for UPS http://wwwapps.ups.com/calTimeCost?loc=en_US

Both USPS & UPS base their shipping rates on shipping zones. Zones 1 the cheapest and zone 8 the most expensive. If you are using a flat rate shipping (all buyers pay the same rate no matter where they live) than you should figure the most it will cost you. For example I live in MI so I use a CA zip code because that is the most expensive zone to ship to. A good tool I use is a zone chart based on my zip code. You can print a custom zone chart for your zip code by going to this link http://postcalc.usps.gov/Zonecharts/ After you print your custom zone chart you should print priority mail shipping cost rate sheet by zone. You can find this rate chart at  http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/123.htm#wp1071591 A great program the USPS has is their flat rate boxes. No matter how much the box weighs (up to 70 lbs) you only pay $9.30. This works well for small items that are heavy.

When Should You Ship USPS

I use Priority mail for all my packages 1 to 3 lbs. Than 4 lbs packages can be either Priority mail or UPS depending on the zones. But once a package gets over 5 lbs I use UPS 95% of the time because their cheaper. Priority Mail virus Parcel Post. To me there no better choice than priority mail. First of all there is usually not the much difference in cost. With priority mail your customer gets their order in 2 to 3 days virus 5 to 7 days or longer. With priority mail the USPS gives you FREE boxes. Also you get FREE delivery confirmation with priority mail if you use Paypal shipping or the USPS Click N Ship programs. This saves you .75 cents. To get FREE boxes from the USPS delivered to your home for FREE go to http://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductCategoryDisplay?catalogId=10152&storeId=10001&categoryId=13354&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=11820&top_category=11820

When To Ship UPS

UPS is a good choice for packages 5 lbs or heavier. In June at the eBay Live convention it was annouced UPS will be giving all eBay sellers their daily rate when using Paypal shipping program. See UPS has different rate costs, they have their regular rates which you would pay at a UPS store than they have their daily rates which are usually 20 to 30 % less. You can get a FREE UPS account by going to http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/index.jsx and sign up. Once you sign up you can print your UPS shipping labels using Paypal shipping. Than you can give your package to any UPS driver you see. Most office supply stores have daily pick up and take your packages for FREE. If you ship over $70 in UPS every week you can get daily pick up at your location for only $8.00 per week. Once you have a UPS account UPS will give you FREE shipping labels https://www.ups.com/myups/login?returnto=https%3a//www.ups.com/wbso/supplies%3floc%3den_US%26WT.svl%3dSubNav&reasonCode=-1&appid=WBSO

 I hope my sharing this info with you was helpful. Like I said in the begining this is what works for me and it may not work for you. If you got anything from this page that helped you or saves you time or money than great.

Thanks,

Ed Zaker