how to set shipping costs for speakers?

I think it pays to make the sale easy. I would build in PayPal and shipping in the asking price, so that the customer is attracted to the mention of free shipping and no PayPal fees.  You never see a heavy shipping cost or credit card fee on a site like Best Buy, so better to buck the bad trend on audiogon and include it.  What I do, living in miami, is to calculate shipping to Denver and use that as my base cost that I need to recover in my total proce. If someone from Atlanta buys, I save a bit, if someone from Seattle buys, I lose a little.

if you have large or giant  speakers, that makes it a bit more challenging as the normal services have maximum sizes.  However there are crowdsourcing shipping companies such as youship that can help you run some price options. You can also offer a discount for local pickup.

good luck!

Hi  hifineubee

In my recent experience with selling speakers and using Audiogon's shipping calculator I found the shipping fees they were coming up with were dollars short vs. what the outside estimator or FedEx estimator came up with as the shipping cost. The Audiogon estimator also doesn't factor in insurance as well as special situations like having a signature required. All these options cost more money that you may be on the hook for.

If I was in your shoes I would put in the shipping dimensions and weight in your listing and have the prospective buyers try to figure out their shipping. Also you should put in your listing that shipping will be specified after the listing ends. Be ready to make estimates on shipping. I had the FedEx shipping calculator website on my screen when I was selling speakers.

If the prospective buyer is legitimate and not just a lowballing tire kicker they will do the research on shipping pricing.

Best of luck with your sale.

+1 jedinite. IME,  speaker buyers know they will have to pay for shipping.