When shipping, weight is a factor, but the size of the box is more problematic. There's only so much volume in a truck and many things can't be stacked. Shipping went through the roof during Covid and like many other things, has never come back down. I doubt it ever will.
Shipping costs- WTF
I just need to vent. A couple days ago I tried to ship some Target speaker stands from Oregon to Ohio. I bought them from a guy in NJ and he paid $60 to ship them FedEx ground. Using the exact same box and packing materials I went to FedEx and they said to ship them to OH would be $170. So I went to UPS: $169. I went to the USPS: $180. Granted it's a large box (30" x 17" x 17") but weight was about 15 pounds and it's easy to handle. So yesterday I took the stands to the UPS store to get an estimate on them boxing them separately. $33 x 2 for the boxes and $104 x 2 for shipping. So $274. For $200 speaker stands. Obviously I'll only be able to sell them locally....
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You walk into a retail shipping outlet and you pay 2-4 times as much, or more, than you pay if you box at home and print out your own labels. I just shipped a heavy piece of machining equipment across the country for $50. It would have been at least $200 to walk into a UPS store. I get things that I bought arriving with ridiculous shipping charges on the label and I think "if this guy knew how to ship we could have split that extra $100". but you can’t tell the seller how to ship. You can, however, figure it out yourself. Jerry |
I shipped a CDP (probably 2’x1.5’x1’ and about 20 lbs) from Tacoma, WA to the Midwest vis UPS and it cost me close to $150. I couldn’t believe it! I had shipped a similar sized box down to CA and it cost me about $40 so I was expecting it to cost a bit more but definitely not that much more. Of course I listed the item price “shipped”. Won’t do that again. |
+1 @carlsbad2 I have a friend who used to own 3 UPS retail stores in the area. After he sold the stores he let me in on the secret. Every shipment they took in was marked up 2.5 times over the price you would pay if you went to straight to the customer counter at the UPS facility. Most people never questioned it. They just forked over the money. He made a bundle every year at Christmas time. And UPS had no control over what they charged. He just paid UPS a yearly flat fee to use the name/logo and to have a truck come by at the end of each day. |
The large UPS facility located about 1/4 mile from my house that I have successfully used for years just closed its customer counter, along with several other UPS facilities in the region. I just paid $200 at a UPS Store to ship a DAC to CA, largely due to the claimed value/insurance. I will for sure try something different next time. |
I've been shipping stuff for 30 years. Prices in the past year have almost nearly doubled. That started in January for FedEx and UPS. Not sure why but they have easily gone up close to 40% for the same shipments it seems. Here is definitely the way to save money. Always ship ground. It's the cheapest no matter what service you're going to use. If you're going to use FedEx, try and use their FedEx 1 rate boxes. The weight doesn't really matter and they ship for about 30% less than using other methods. UPS try to use their bulk rate for packages. FedEx or UPS always sign up for an account, it's fairly easy. That's the best way to get a discount on shipping. You can save considerable amount of money. The insurance really kills and you have to be careful, especially when shipping really expensive audio equipment. A lot of the insurance taps out at $1,000 or $2,000. Even if you insure it for more, the coverage will only cover so much. This is a huge rip-off. You have to be very careful. If you're going to have stuff picked up by the carriers, it's usually about a $20 fee. Don't waste your money on signature confirmation on any cheaper stuff and anything that you put additional insurance on is going to come with a signature anyways so there's no need to add it to the bill. If you want to be super careful, always ask for a direct adult signature that requires people to show their identification and this can save you a lot of headaches, especially with porch pirates or people claiming they never receive the products Avoid using waypoints or drop off locations and take your stuff to the stores itself and always make sure they scan the stuff before you leave. This avoids headaches and once it's scanned into the system they cannot say they did not receive the product. I've dropped off products at waypoints + they don't even scan them in and they've lost very expensive packages in the past. Definitely shop for rates but a lot of times I find USPS and UPS are the cheapest. FedEx is always the most expensive in my personal experience. However, I have very good experience with shipping FedEx over the other two.
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@cyackulic If you have a FEDEX business account shipping to most zones is MUCH cheaper than USPS and the time in transit isnt even close. Im retired from USPS and now have a FEDEX account. As an example I can ship a 24x18x5 Box to Florida via FEDEX and it will get there in 2-3 days (Ground). The same package going PRIORITY mail thru the post office can take up to 10 days and the cost is 1.5X to 2X the amount of money. So ive got no idea where your figures are coming from. Try shipping the above box to California (From the East Coast) and see the price differential AND the amount of time it takes to arrive. The Post Office doesnt take packages over 69 Pounds so many pieces of gear dont even qualify anyway.
With a FEDEX account your area Rep will call you every year to see how things are going etc Over the years Ive reached the MAX savings for Foreign shipments which is about 50% off or more the price somebody walking in off the street would pay. Also with an account there is a "Secret" number to call that few know about called GREAT RATES. The number is 1-877-463-7408. You tell them the Foreign ZIP Code, Size and Weight of the package and they’ll tell you if their rate will beat your current FEDEX rate. Sometimes Im able to ship items to anywhere in Europe for $70-80 (Same size box as listed above weighing about 10 pounds). The Boxes breeze thru customs and are delivered usually within 5-7 days going the ECONOMY Option. Try doing that with the post office. Some of the packages are delivered in 2-3 days which is absolutely glorious. |
There's a thing called "Dimensional Weight" that the carrier's can factor into their quotes. If you ship something that's relatively light, in a large box, your rate will be calculated based as though your item weighs much more than it actually does. As mentioned in an earlier post, this is because there is only so much room on the trucks. |
If you sell through a site like e**** and use their shipping estimate and pricing you'll see a substantial discount vs retail shipping outlets. For returns, I have asked the retail shipper to send me their shipping label and charge me the shipping fee or reduce my return by their shipping fee. This saves substantially on shipping but not all retail will do it. So yes there are multiple tiers of shipping prices depending on who's shipping and if a larger contract agreement is in place. |
Shipping prices got out of control before the Pandemic, and then after the Pandemic, they went nuts. I was a store owner and we had a UPS account with daily pick ups and deliveries. The thing that killed me was, every day when you opened up the software, there were increases due to "fuel charges. I get that fuel is a cost of doing business, and if gas goes up, so do the shipping charges. BUT then fuel prices would drop, but the rates would not change, until they went up again. Just to show how much shipping prices went up. In the early 2000's to ship a 18" x 24" x 18" box in state (approximately 100 miles), weighing approximately 38lbs was $11.71. That same box today is over $50.00. I know prices on everything have gone up, but that is almost five fold. |
I recently shipped a pair of Magnepan .7s and stands via FedEx. The delivered the stands and lost the Magnepans! After two weeks of supposed 'looking' they declared the shipment lost and I filed a claim for the value of the speakers as sold and shipping, $976.00. Surprise! When I got the check it was for $117.00 supposedly because I had not declared the value of the shipment. Which, BTW, you are not asked, nor is there any place on the online form to do so. My appeal is underway. Needless to say I will not be using FedEx again, and I encourage everyone to avoid them as well. HTF do you lose a 5 1/2 ft tall, 2 ft wide, 6" deep box, anyway? It was clearly marked with both my and the receivers addresses, inside and out, as well as having a FedEx tracking number. FedEx has no answer. |
My favorite solution to all of this has been to use a bulk rate shipping service called Rollo. I discovered it about a year ago, and it has saved me / buyers of my used gear hundreds. It’s a startup that negotiated a bulk rate with USPS and UPS and they make money by keeping a small fraction, and passing the bulk of the savings onto consumers. No monthly fee or anything. I regularly save 20-40% off the retail rate, and it is a bonus that the user interface is miles better than the UPS and USPS. |
My first education with shipping was similar. I found the pricing for boxes and bubble wrap ludicrous. One of the attractions of the shipper I chose was a local drop off. Turns out only the main shipping offices were the only place one could print the QR sourced shipping label. Into traffic hell. At least I could print the code myself and drop the boxes without a line at that point. Got my own boxes bubble wrap and tape though and saved most of my sale. I would have lost a good third of my money just to shipping. |
