Best way to determine shipping charges

You can negotiate with the buyer that he or she pay actual shipping costs, but there's no site that I know of that will give all the options like travel sites.

I print my own shipping labels and save at least 50% over what most sellers charge.  I just shipped an 88lb amp for $65.  I self insure.  If you package well, you will never have a claim.

I always price things shipped.  That makes it much easier for buyers and things sell much faster.

As a buyer, my offer is always "$XXXX shipped".  I want the seller to understand that he is responsible to deliver the item to me.  I make no shipping decisions so that there can be no "but I shipped it the way you wanted me to."   The only thing I tell the seller about shipping is, "no hurry, take whatever time you need to ship it safely."

To estimate shipping, I sometimes just put in my college address in Chicago and calculate shipping from CA to Chicago to give me an idea.

I ship using paypal shipping which is now ship station. there are other ways to buy postage online including directly from USP, Fedex, or USPS.

Jerry

@tomcy6 

You can negotiate with the buyer that he or she pay actual shipping costs, but there's no site that I know of that will give all the options like travel sites.

if you have a Fedex account, all you have to do is do a Estimate Shipping and just 

input the info and it will give you a pretty good idea of what shipping charges will be.      

@riley804

Yes riley, you can go to each shipper’s site and get an estimate of what it will cost to ship with them, but I was answering this question from the OP:

I’m wondering if there’s a “best” technique for figuring out shipping charges. I know there are general guidelines on the carriers’ websites, but are there other ways to determine fairly precise charges?

and to the best of my knowledge there is no site that will give you an estimate for more than one shipper. I assumed that the OP knows that you can get an estimate from each individual shipper.

The first part of my reply:

You can negotiate with the buyer that he or she pay actual shipping costs

was in reply to this statement from the OP:

I don’t want to gouge anyone, but I don’t want to lose $$ in the process, either.

Sorry if I wasn't clear.