Shipping costs. Shipping and handling costs. What is fair? How can you as the seller keep these low enough to keep your buyers happy and not adversely impact your ability to provide your customers with their purchase in a timely manner and in the best possible condition. How can you, as the buyer, help keep the dollars you spend on shipping and handling to a minimum?

As the buyer, use these tips to help ensure you get the most for your shipping dollars.

1. Research! Before purchasing from the seller, check out his published shipping rate for the item of interest.  If it seems reasonable and you are happy with it,

• look to see if he has other items for sale that are also of interest
• determine if he has a published shipping discount for multiple purchases
• contact the seller, in advance of paying for the initial item to determine whether he will offer you a shipping discount if you purchase multiple items
• Ask if he will use alternate shipping methods

Judy's Corner Shipping Costs

2. Understand! Know what constitutes shipping and handling charges.

• Shipping heavy items over long distances costs more money than shipping those same items over short distances.  Pay attention to the location of the item you are interested in buying.  If it is close to you, geographically, you can expect to pay less in shipping costs than purchasing the same item located across the continent, or overseas. 
• Handling costs are a very real part of shipping.  With a variety of shipping methods, also come a variety of costs.  USPS Priority Mail provides free boxes and envelopes, but remember, not all items fit conveniently into one of these free boxes. Plastic bags and packaging materials used by your seller to protect your purchase and get it to you in the best possible condition also cost money. Printing labels on their computer costs money, but provides a better chance that the label will be readable, and therefore, will get to you in the shortest time possible. I use a single handling fee of $1.50, no matter how many items are purchased and shipped together.  This $1.50 is already reflected in my posted flat rate shipping and handling charges, and is built into my calculated rates.  Other sellers charge a different amount, or a percentage of the total purchase price to cover these expenses that make up the handling fees.  Some sellers also include in their handling fees, the costs of listing, Final Value Fees charged by eBay, and PayPal fees charged.  I do not include thes in my handling fees, but choose to ensure they are adequately covered in the actual price of my items offered for sale.

3. Communicate! Be willing to work with your seller, to get the best rate possible. 

• Ask your seller to provide you with  the combined shipping weight of the items you are interested in buying.
• Use the on-line calculators available for UPS, USPS, and FedEx, to determine the ball-park figure for shipping. 
• If his total shipping and handling charges far exceed these estimates, ask him to break out the handling fee charges and determine whether he is willing to negotiate these. 

4. Reward! Become a repeat customer. 

• Add this seller to your list of Favorite Sellers and sign up for mailings from his store. 
• Often, he will offer special discounts, coupons and shipping deals to return customers.  Why? because they are a known entity.  They have been satisfied customers in the past and have transacted their business in an acceptable manner. 

Judy's Corner Mailing Lists

5. Feedback!  Finally, and I always stress this to eBay customers making their first purchase from an eBay seller, check the seller's feedback. 

• If his previous customers have been happy, your chance of a positive transaction is better than if he has a marginal record of customer satisfaction. 
• Also, remember to leave feedback for your seller. 
• As a seller, I always check both the feedback left for my customer and that left by my customer.  It helps me gauge whether I have a good eBay customer, or one who tends to have issues with the merchandise purchased. 

Judy's Corner Feedback

Sellers, as a seller, I use these techniques to help ensure I get the lowest cost shipping for my customers.

1. Have as many shipping options available to you as possible.

• USPS, Priority Mail, Parcel Post, First Class, etc. are all at your fingertips through Paypal.  You can print your postage on-line, using your own paper (affix to the package with tape) or self-adhesive labels.  The benefits of using the on-line printing include the automatically included Delivery Confirmation (free for Priority, 14 cents for others).
• UPS - also at your fingertips through Paypal. The benefit here is primarily in the reduction in standing in line at the UPS shipping facility.  No additional discounts are given, though free tracking information can be specified to be sent directly to your customer, via email.
• FedEx - FedEx Ground can often offer a significant savings for heavier items shipping long distances.  Though not available through Paypal, you can establish an account with FedEx and use their on-line system to print your labels and prepare your packages. Even if you are only an occasional user of their services, the savings can be worth the extra effort. However, make certain their drop of facility is reasonably convenient. It makes little sense to save $10 in shipping, but spend it taking the item to the shipping location!
• DHL - This is an option I am still exploring myself.  Their rates can save you money, and, similar to FedEx, they provide an on-line shipping system to allow you to print your own labels.
• Local Pick-up - Even if you are running your eBay business out of your home, it is always good to consider the option of offering local pick-up. 

2. Packaging options:

• Obviously, use free shipping supplies when you can
• Know the weight of the various standard boxes, so that you can list your shipping weight accordingly.
• Reuse packing materials from shipments you receive (peanuts, bubble wrap, etc.)
• Purchase additional shipping supplies on-line, where you can get pretty reasonable rates.

3. Labels

• Print your own using the various on-line services available
• Purchase refill ink for your printer - I typically refill a name brand cartridge at least ten times before I have to spend the money to buy a new cartridge.  For my cartridges, this results in an overall savings of over $100.  That's a LOT of printing!
• Don't waste your color ink on printing labels - always check your printer options and select to print everything using black ink, and fast print works fine, no need to use normal or better or best. As long as your ink cartridge isn't running low, you labels will be dark enough to read and the barcode will be readable by the scanner.

4. Invoices - I always include an invoice with my customer's order.  Why?

• Because it helps the customer who buys from multiple sellers easily identify the item he is getting, and,
• should the package I ship the item in get destroyed in the mailing process, the shipping service USPS or other, will have a copy of the sender and recipient information INSIDE the plastic bag in which I wrap my items, before putting them in the shipping box or envelope.

5. Transporting your items to ship

• Save gas money, by having USPS pick up your items. This will add a day to your shipping time, so let your customers know, if you use this method.
• If you have a lot of UPS, FedEx or DHL, you might also save money having them pick up, though they do charge fees for this service.

6. Insurance

• Offer insurance as optional on all items
• Look into third party services such as Auctiva who provides double the insurance offered by USPS for the same price.

Basically, consider all aspects of the shipping costs to determine the best choice for each particular shipment.  Below, I offer some examples to demonstrate my point:

Example 1:

Shipping a single T-shirt:  Weight: 11-12 oz  Shipped from zipcode 23061 to zip code 75205

Cost option 1:

• USPS First Class $3.03, shipping time 3 days, Label w/ delivery confirmation .14, Tamper evident poly mailer.40
• Total Cost  $3.57

Cost option 2:

• USPS Priority Mail $4.05, shipping time 2 days, Label w/ delivery confirmation .00, USPS provided Priority Mailer .00
• Total Priority Mail costs:  $4.05    

Cost option 3:

• USPS Parcel Post $3.95, shipping time 6 days, Label w/delivery confirmation .14, Tamper evident poly mailer .40
• Total Parcel Post costs:     $4.59           

As you can see, the choices are really options 1 and 2. The slowest service actually costs the most in this case.

Example 2.

Shipping 5 T-shirts, total weight 60 oz - 3 lbs 12 oz. from 23061 to 75205 (same as above)

Considerations: USPS Priority Box, or Fedex provided box - Total shipping weight now = 4 lbs 6 oz

                        Poly Tamper-evident mailer - Total shipping weight  now = 3 lbs 15oz

Cost option 1:

• USPS Priority Mail: (using provided box) $10.40,  shipping time 2 days, Label w/ Delivery Confirmation .00
• Total cost of UNINSURED shipping $10.40
• Use the Flat Rate Box and shipping is reduced to $8.10!

Cost option 2:

• USPS Priority Mail (using Poly Tamper evident mailer) $8.95, shipping time - 2 days, Label w/ Delivery Confirmation .00, Large Tamper evident poly mailer .60
• Total cost of UNINSURED shipping $9.55      

Cost option 3:

• USPS Parcel Post using recycled box $ 9.04,  shipping time - 6 days, Label w/ Delivery Confirmation .14, Recycled box .00
• Total cost of UNINSURED shipping  $9.18

Cost option 4:

• USPS Parcel Post using Tamper evident mailer $7.53, shipping time 6 -days, Label w/ Delivery Confirmation  .14, Large Tamper evident poly mailer .60
• Total cost of UNINSURED shipping $8.27      

Cost option 5:

• UPS Ground $8.38,  shipping time 4 days, Label w/ tracking .00, Recycled box .00, Insurance included .00
• Total cost of INSURED shipping  $8.38             

Cost option 6:

• UPS Ground $8.02, Label w/tracking .00, Large Poly Tamper evident mailer .60, Insurance included .00
• Total cost of INSURED shipping $8.62                                

In my second example, the best choices appear to be UPS Ground with a recycled box, or USPS Priority, using the flat rate box.

In Summary:

Keeping the shipping costs as low as possible can help sellers retain repeat customers and entice first time customers. All of the above examples exclude the handling charges. As mentioned earlier, sellers must determine what, if any handling charges they feel they should/need to include in the fees they charge their customers.

I hope this guide has been helpful to you in your eBay transactions.