Choosing a Shipping Method

You have a number of choices when it comes to shipping your package. You can use the various services offered by the U.S. Postal Service (First Class mail, Priority Mail, Express Mail, Media Mail, and so on) or any of the services offered by competing carriers, such as UPS or FedEx. You can deal directly with any shipping service, or you can use a local shipping store to handle the ship-pingand even the packingfor you. (Know, however, that having another company do your work for you will cost youwhich means it's preferable to deal directly with your shipping service of choice.)

Which service should you use? That's a good question, but not always an easy one to answer. Ultimately, you have to strike a compromise between cost, convenience, and speed. Pick the cheapest method possible, and customers will gripe when they don't receive their merchandise in a timely manner. Pick the fastest method possible, and customers will gripe that they're paying too much for shipping/handling. (You also may turn away potential buyers with your high shipping/handling fees.) As I said, you need to strike a balanceand also choose a shipper that is easy for you to deal with.

And here's what makes the decision particularly difficult. Once you start checking around, you'll find that shipping rates vary wildly from one service to anotherand I mean wildly. For example, the costs for shipping a two-pound box from New York to Los Angeles range from around $2 (USPS Media Mail) to more than $45 (UPS Next Day Air and FedEx Priority Overnight). That's a big difference.

This variation in shipping costs is yet another good reason to standardize the type of merchandise you sell in your eBay auctions. If you sell only one or two types of items, you can easily calculate your shipping fees ahead of timeand know that they'll stay constant from auction to auction. If you're selling a wide variety of items, calculating shipping for all those different items becomes extremely time-consuming. (Standardizing the merchandise you sell also helps when buying your packing boxes; you have to buy only one or two types of boxes, instead of having to keep a wide variety of packaging on hand.)

Note

To compare shipping costs for a variety of services on a single web page, check out iShip (www.iship.com). This site not only lets you compare shipping costs, but also provides tracking services for all major carriers.

Of course, cost isn't the only factor you want to consider. You also want to compare how long it takes the package to arrive, what kind of track record the shipping service has, and how convenient it is for you to use. If you have to drive 20 miles to get to a UPS office but you have a post office just down the street, that might offset a slightly higher cost for Priority Mail.

Note

You may need to factor weather conditions into which type of shipping you choose. If it's summertime and you're shipping something that might melt in extreme heat (like an old vinyl LP), pick the fastest shipping method possible.

The main thing to keep in mind is that you want to, as much as possible, settle on a single shipper and method of shipping for your eBay auctions. The last thing you want to do is to make trips to multiple shipping stations each day, and deal with a myriad number of packing boxes and shipping instructions. Standardize on a single shipper and method, and you'll make your shipping "department" much more efficient. Don't, and you'll waste a lot of time unnecessarily.

We'll look at each of the major shipping services separately, but with a decided emphasis on the U.S. Postal Servicewhich is the shipper of choice for a majority of eBay businesses.

U.S. Postal Service

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is used by almost all eBay sellers, for at least some of their shipping needs. Dealing with the Postal Service is convenient, as most sellers have a post office within a short driving distance, and it is set up to easily handle the shipping of small items from individuals.

Note

The cost to ship a particular package is based on a combination of weight, size, and distance. The heavier an item is and the farther it has to go (and the faster you need to get it to where it's going), the more it costs. And when you're factoring package size, you'll need to measure the length of the package and add it to the girth. (Length is the longest side of the package; girth is the distance all the way around the package at its widest point perpendicular to the length.)

The Postal Service offers several different shipping options:

Priority Mail. This is the preferred shipping method for a majority of eBay sellers, big and small. Pricing is generally quite reasonable, and if you're shipping out a small item that can fit in one of the flat-rate envelopes, you can quote a simple rate of $4.05 (as of August 2006), anywhere in the nation. Service is typically in the one-to-three day range, andas you learned in Chapter 7the postal service has lots of free Priority Mail shipping boxes you can use. You can also print out your own Priority Mail shipping labels and postage, direct from either eBay or the USPS websitewhich we'll discuss in the "Printing Labels with Prepaid Postage" section, later in this chapter.

Express Mail. This is a less-used option, primarily because of its high costconsiderably more expensive than Priority Mail. Express Mail is the Postal Service's fastest service, offering guaranteed next-day delivery 365 days a year, including weekends and holidays. Merchandise is automatically insured up to $100.

First Class Mail. This is an option if your item fits into a standardsized envelope or small box. It also provides the benefit of shipping directly from your mailbox, without necessitating a trip to the post officeassuming you can figure out the correct postage yourself. Delivery is similar to Priority Mailtypically three days or less. If your item is relatively small, First Class can cost somewhat less than Priority Mail.

Parcel Post. This used to be known as the "slow" USPS service for larger packages, but it's gotten faster of lateand it's priced much lower than Priority Mail. Still, shipping something Parcel Post from coast to coast might take seven to nine days, as opposed to Priority Mail's two (or three) days.

Media Mail. This is a hidden treasure. Media Mail is what USPS used to call "book rate," and can be used to ship books, DVDs, videotapes, compact discs, and other printed and prerecorded "media." The rates are much cheaper than Priority Mail, especially when you're shipping heavy items, and delivery times are somewhere between First Class and Parcel Posttypically less than a week. This is a good, low-cost way to ship many popular items; it's especially good for heavier media items, such as books and CD/DVD boxed sets.

Note

You can't use Media Mail to ship every type of printed material. The service is reserved for publications without advertisingso you can't use it to ship magazines, newspapers, or comic books.

You can find out more about USPS shipping at the USPS website, located at www.usps.com. You can also access the USPS Domestic Calculator (postcalc.usps.gov) to calculate postage for all levels of service.

FedEx

FedEx is probably the fastest shipping service, but it can also be the most costly. FedEx tends to target the business market (which can afford its higher rates), so it isn't widely used for auction or retail shippingwith one significant exception: FedEx Ground.

FedEx Ground is a terrific choice when you're shipping out larger items. It's designed for bigger and/or heavier packages, and its rates are well below similar services offered by the Postal Service and UPS. I use FedEx Ground to ship DVD players and various audio equipment, and it's extremely cost effective. For example, FedEx charges almost $5 less than Priority Mail to ship a five-pound item from coast to coast. That's a big savings!

FedEx is also a convenient choice for many sellers, especially since you can now ship from any Kinkos location. (The stores are now called FedEx Kinkos, by the way.) You can find out more about FedEx shipping at its website, located at www.fedex.com, and can access the company's rate finder directly at www.fedex.com/us/rates/.

UPS

While UPS is a little pricey for small, lightweight items, it's a good option for shipping larger or heavier packages. UPS offers a variety of shipping options, including standard UPS Ground, Next Day Air, Next Day Air Saver, and 2nd Day Air.

Note

Less-experienced or occasional sellers might choose to do their packing and shipping through a professional shipping store, such as The UPS Store (www.theupsstore.com) or FedEx Kinkos (www.fedexkinkos.com). Because of the high fees these stores charge, this really isn't a good option for high-volume sellers. Still, you might want to go this route if you have the occasional large or overly fragile item to ship.

You can find out more about UPS ship-pingand access a rate calculatorat the UPS website, located at www.ups.com.

Other Shipping Companies

USPS, UPS, and FedEx are the three most popular shipping services in the U.S.; they're not the only services available, however. Among the other services available are DHL (www.dhl.com) and Purolator Courier (www.purolator.com).

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Choosing a Shipping Method