I am new to selling on ebay. Not selling a lot of volume, just basically things I can't unload locally.
I am finding that I am so far off on my shipping estimates that I am paying for shipping out of pocket on majority of items.
I did go buy a scale to help and am now estimating my shipping cost as if I was sending everything to Sea World in San Diego (about 2000 miles away) and will see if that helps.
Sold a medium sized purse and figured $6.95 would cover shipping. Not even close came out to be $10.81.
Then when you add the FVF on shipping it is a losing battle.
Anyone willing to share how they stay on top of shipping charges?
Thanks
"There is no right way to eat a reese's!"
There are multiple ways to ship products depending on thier size and weight, so there is no one best way to ship. It sounds like you are offering free shipping and working the shipping cost into your total product cost. Hard to tell where you are going wrong other than underestimating total weight of shipped item (item + shipping media + packaging).
Anyway here are a few tips that might help, and hopefully others will add some more. My tips are for shipping with U.S.P.S. only.
Use media mail for books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, video games, disc drives. cheaper than standard mail by weight.
When selling/shipping the same product over & over across the country consider the flat rate boxes & envelopes, or when it turns out the winning buyer is far away or in an expensive zone use a flat rate box instead of standard mail by weight. Can ship items up to 70lbs for one flat rate. Small boxes ship for $5.35, medium boxes ship for $11.35, large boxes ship for $15.45. "If it fits, it ships!"
Not everything is fragile and needs to be protected with a hard box. Consider using large envelopes or padded envelopes, cuts down on the overall weight.
When shipping something relatively heavy but wont fit in a flat rate box, consider using the Regional rate boxes. They come in regions A, B, C, but that's really the weight limit. region A items up to 15lbs, region B items up to 20lbs. region C items up to 25lbs. Once you choose the appropriate box, use the zone calculator to determine the shipping price. Shipping to San Diego (zone
for me would be $9.62 for regional box A, $15.46 for regional box B, & $45.02 for regional box C. (The Regional rate box C would probably not be a good option for shipping something cross country).
Disassemble anything that can be a let the bidders know it will be shipped unassembled.
Hope this helps!