Shipping costs

CandyFactory

Hey all

I wanted to know- how much do you charge for standard shipping. Do you mark it up for handling? I've never had anyone question me, but there is such a variance on sellers. Is $2.00 fair for shipping without insurance? Do you charge more or less? What is your fee to actually go to the post office and mail it (aka handling)

As well, I live in Canada and often a US seller will increase the cost about $2-3 to ship here. Why?

Ryan

mrmr

What are you shipping?

CandyFactory

A standard graded card in an envelope.

nearmint

I try to set my shipping prices such that I don't lose money on shipping. I might come out a dollar or two ahead, but I certainly don't consider it a way to make money. Savvy buyers subtract shipping costs from the amount they are willing to pay for a card, anyway, so sellers who jack up shipping costs don't come out ahead. In fact, when an ebay seller is selling multiple items, I subtract the shipping cost from each item, in case I win only one, thus my bids are lower on all of the items.

Mike

MorrellMan

Ryan - good question; ditto what Mike said. My shipping costs involve the bubble mailer, which I buy in bulk for about 12 cents a piece and postage, for which a single card is usually 40-60 cents. That way, at $2.00 shipping, I figure I have a buck left over to defray auction costs. Canada is a different story, but, like Mike, I just want to make sure I don't lose money in shipping. I think most buyers react adversely to sellers who use shipping and handling as a profit center.

cardfan07

I charge $2 for shipping. I dont sell much so I don't buy bubble mailers in bulk to lower the per unit cost of each. In fact, the last packages I shipped cost $1.06 at USPS (without insurance obviously). I figure the other .94 is eaten up in the package cost and my handling-cardboard covering for the slab and getting to the post office.

packCollector

1 card to canada will not cost anymore than25 cents more than to a us buyer. i think the good sellers don't even bother to ask for anymore $$

CandyFactory

I ask because to send to the US, I charge $3. I clearly state this on my auction page. However, now that I am more familiar with shipping slabbed cards I find out that at $3 I am actually overcharging to ship from Canada. However, it is all subjective- what is my time worth to go to the post office?

What really annoys me are those who clearly are profiting off of postage. I don't ever leave a negative because 99% of the time the card I receive is exactly as described and that's all I really care about.

I've even been in a situation where I won an auction for much less than SMR and the buyer knew it. So, he told me shipping was $12 and tried to get me to back off so he could say I was a non- paying bidder....

SoFLPhillyFan

$2 for up to three cards. 50 cents for each additional after that.
Bubble mailer always, with the cards in a penny sleeve, most also in a toploader.
Sandwiched in cardboard.
$3 for a slabbed card.

aro13

candyfactory - Dealers that do a lot of selling to Canada usually charge the same amount as they do to ship to the U.S. Dealers like denver724, joe tuttle, etc. charge the same. I think many dealers think it is going to cost significantly more so they charge more and than once they ship the card they realize it is the same. I have had a few deals where the seller sent me some money back because they overcharged by so much. What happens to me more is that Canadian sellers charge in U.S. Dollars and still charge a hefty fee to ship locally.

roastedcat

To all my friends on the PSA Board.

Since everyone on the board always has to say something about shipping, it gave me a great idea to write this post. I'm offering FREE 1st Class Shipping for this month of May 2004 to all PSA board members that win any of my Ebay auctions. All Auctions start at .99 cents and will continue thru the month of May. I have listed a bunch of PSA cards to start off, but I should have a bunch more more PSA & SGC & GAI cards listed real soon.

All you need to do is Print out this Coupon with your printer and mail it back to me with your payment and you get your item shipped free. Free shipping doesn't include Delivery Confirmation or Insurance, any item that has to ship over $3.50 is considered Priority mail and not 1st class. But I'll pay up to $3.50 and let you know the remaining balance when the auction ends.

If you perfer to pay with Paypal, (just type in "PSA Board special-Free Shipping #1957) somewhere on the paypal memo and I will honor it. I ship quick, I'm at the post office everyday.




So come on check out my Ebay auctions!

Once again, This is a free plug for "FREE SHIPPING"
Enjoy
Jery

CandyFactory

Wow- look at that, my post managed to get the board a sale ( Sweet plug RoastedCat !)

Rainman

$2 raw cards
$3 graded cards

those rates apply to the US, Canada, + Taiwan/UK/Germany (only countries I've shipped to so far)

While I may not "profit" as much on the shipping to Taiwan/UK/Germany (actual postage usually comes to $1.75), I don't feel like it's right to jack up the price to foreign countries. I also give Canadian and other foreign buyers the option of GLOBAL PRIORITY MAIL for $5- the actual cost. I also combo shipping- $.50 for each additional card. It bothers me when I see sellers charging $4-5 to ship cards- or when they charge $5 for PRIORITY MAIL (which only costs $3.85). Priority mailers are free so they can't use the "supplies cost" argument that you can use for bubble mailers.

Fabfrank

I was going to start a separate thread about this, but I'll jump in here. Obviously many sellers set a price for shipping and add a few dollars for handling. I've had a recent vendor send me 3 separate packages via registered insured mail. Each package contained between 75-100 graded cards. I was told the shipping and handling charges on each package would be $28. No problem. There were quite a few 10's in the lots and I wanted them shipped securely. I get the packages recently and the postage stamp shows that the actual charges were between $10.50- $12. Now I can understand maybe an extra $2-$5 per package to cover the cost of packing materials and someone's time to prepare the package. But $18 over the actual shipping cost on each package
That seemed excessive. I'm going to call the vendor to comment on this. But if this overcharging seems outrageous, you'll never guess who the vendor is.

nearmint

Frank,

Judging by the amount of the postage, your vendor has its own insurance. That would make up some of the discrepancy.

It could have been worse: you could have placed your order after May 1.

Mike

Fabfrank

Judging by the amount of the postage, your vendor has its own insurance

Nope. You misread Mike. This is USPS Registered mail. The insurance was through United States Postal Service (for the benefit of those who don't know what USPS stands for )

The postage sticker on all 3 packages showed the total cost for each package to be between $10.50- $12. I can see being overcharged by a nobody on Ebay, but this vendor really surprised me.

nearmint

You can send something registered--via the USPS--without insuring it. There are checkboxes on the form you fill out when you send something registered, one for "With Postal Insurance" and one for "Without Postal Insurance". The cost for registering a package without insurance is $7.50, and that's in addition to the postage. If the postage sticker says $10.50 to $12.00, that sounds to me like postage plus the registration fee, with no insurance. Surely your vendor insures its packages, though, and my guess is that they do so through a third-party insurer. In that case the insurance cost would not be included in the postal sticker.

I could be wrong, but $10.50 to $12.00 sounds awfully cheap for 75-100 cards sent registered *and* insured. I send registered packages all the time, and with the PO's insurance the total per package is typically around $16-20.

Mike