Multiple Wax Box Shipping Suggestions?
mouschi
Posts: 695 ✭✭✭✭
Does anyone have a recommendation for the best way to ship some wax boxes? What do you recommend when shipping, say, 9 wax boxes? Thank you in advanced for any help!
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I recently received a mixed lot of 20 wax boxes that were just packed inside of a generic brown box with bubble wrap, and enough air bags (whatever they're called) to fill the gaps, and they arrived in perfect condition. It was around $30 to ship to me if I remember correctly.
$30 for 20 wax boxes?
No way that was the actual shipping cost.
Flat rate priority boxes, even using multiple boxes is the most cost efficient way I’ve found.
Not trying to be a jerk, but that’s a case.
Last case I shipped was $70 and that box was the exact size of the boxes and I took it to UPS and the Post Office for prices, UPS was cheaper that time.
I'll look to see if I still have the box they came in with the shipping on it. Search eBay for "Topps lot 20 boxes" under sold items. It was $25.44 plus $29.99 shipping. I want to say actual metered postage was like $32.65 or something. If I have the box, I'll take a photo for you later.
If so I’m getting screwed and would love to see how they shipped it & would owe you a big thank you.
maybe they were the tiny blaster boxes he was taking about?
That’s definitely possible with blaster boxes, but not wax boxes based on my experience.
Blasters are tiny and light
Check the sold listing. It was actually 22 boxes, as they threw in a couple of surprises not shown in the photos. Seller has 14,000+ feedback. Contact them about it. I have no reason to embellish.
Don’t think you are! I will absolutely contact them.
Update: just sent them a message
I just got home and checked, and no longer have the box. It is very possible that I'm completely wrong on the actual shipping cost, but it was never my intent to mislead or embellish. I just know I got a hella lotta wax boxes for around $55 delivered. I don't know how they did it, but somebody with 14,000+ feedback isn't selling on eBay at a loss very often, so I'm assuming they had the cost of shipping pretty well pegged before listing the lot.
Oh for sure, I wouldn't think you'd try to mislead or anything. It sounds like you got an awesome deal! I know sometimes I've goofed up and would have to eat the cost myself, so perhaps that happened here, but I guess you never know!
If they indeed are selling them with costs that low and still making money then my only guess is they take a risk and ship as media mail, and the cost would only be about $12-15...
FYI: I do not believe it is illegal, but unethical. They can ask to inspect the package. Not sure what happens if you are lying and would strongly recommend against this.
Well, it was sent priority mail with tracking. I see 20 box wax cases, both current listings and sold items, all over the map on shipping, anywhere from $35-$70. My boxes were a mix that included some stickers, action All-Stars, Topps Super, tripleA cards, etc. Not sure that matters in the whole scheme of things, but the weight may have been a bit different than the heavy brown cardboard. Probably just negligible, though.
Also, and I've pointed this out several times already on other threads, but eBay has manipulated things tremendously with their promotions that everyone seems to love. I've only sold a couple of items, so have minimal experience with that side of it, but can only imagine, just like for their top buyers, that they offer crazy specials to their super sellers, in fees reductions or eliminations, eBucks or cash back as a percentage of sales, and perhaps even better shipping rates in conjunction with the USPS and eBay for their volume sellers. We really have no idea what prices constitute a profit anymore when researching other seller's business practices.
This particular listing was up for a whole week, with a starting bid of $19.99 plus $29.99 shipping. It didn't garner a single bid. I don't even know why I didn't bid the first time, other than I must not have realized the volume of boxes in the listing, even though it says 20. It was relisted a second time with a starting bid of $16.99, and of course, this time, several bidders jumped in. The seller had ample opportunity to adjust the shipping charges on the re-listing. If they were counting on generating a lot of bids with under-priced shipping, you'd think they'd have realized that was a risky bet, since the listing received no interest the first time.
I'm well aware that sellers manipulate their shipping charges. Just because they list it as "free shipping", it's not really free. And it would stand to reason that a large volume of boxes listed at $29.99 shipping could realistically cost more than that. My mistake was in saying that I thought that was roughly the price on the box when I got it. I no longer have the box, and can't prove or disprove. I receive stuff almost daily, so I very well could be thinking of a different shipment.
I'm operating under the assumption, and perhaps this is my mistake, that an experienced seller, a high volume seller, isn't going to price things at a point that they expect to lose money. Is it going to happen occasionally? Sure. But just looking at raw numbers without knowing all of their kickbacks doesn't really tell us if it was feasible for them, or not.
Back to the OP question, I really intended my answer to be a "bubble wrap and air bags in a box" and no worries, it'll arrive safely. I didn't think the shipping charges I casually mentioned would be the thing that was focused on. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I only paid $29.99 for shipping, and only about $55+ for the whole transaction, to a 14,000+ feedback operation. I'm guessing they're making money somehow, or they won't make it to 15,000 feedback.
Thank you for your input, I really appreciate it!
I'll add one last thing, and I hope this is helpful to everyone. The USPS offers an online calculator for figuring up 2 day priority rates. Factors that determine your shipping rates is the originating and destination zip codes, the size of the box, and the weight. Your rate is also determined by whether you're paying the retail rate while physically at the post office, or printing online, as well as your volume of shipping business. The package was being shipped from the Chicago area to the Kansas City area, and while I'm just guessing on the size and weight while at work today, I assigned my imaginary package high volume status, and the various numbers I plugged in all got me in the ballpark of $30 to ship. I recommend anyone that's planning on shipping items to Google the USPS calculator and play around and see for yourself. Maybe the same box from Chicago to Orlando or wherever would have in fact been 2 or 3 times as much.