Money saving parts shipping secrets revealed

joemagiera

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Do you ship a lot of smaller, but heavier parts (e.g., joysticks, small PCBs, trackballs, power supply PCBs (with the big heavy heat sync), type stuff)? Want to save your buyers some shipping costs?

Do you buy a lot of smaller parts? Want to save some on shipping?

Most of us know about USPS Small, Medium and Large Flat Rate Boxes. They are nice - if you can get it in a Small. USPS sends you those for free. Small is $7.20, Medium is $13.65 and Large is $18.90. So if you can get it in a Small Flat Rate, great, but the price goes up pretty quickly after a Small.

Here's the tip. Use USPS Regional Rate A & Regional Rate B boxes. Both the A & B come in 2 different sizes. And of course USPS will send you them free. To give you an idea on size, the A box can fit an Atari Audio Reg I with some room left over. The other size A box can fit a medium size track ball assembly. The B box can fit 4 Atari Audio Regs II's. (I don't have any of the other size B boxes). The trick is you have to order them online. The post offices do not carry them. And to use them, you have to register for an account with USPS (which is free). If you don't have an account, you won't even see the Regional Rate box rates on USPS.gov. And then you have to print the label yourself and stick it on the box. You can't get the Regional Rate rates at a live post office, you have to do it online. You can get stick-on label paper (that's what I do), or get stick-on mailing pouches and print the label and put it in the pouch, or print the label and tape it on the box. The only part that could present a problem on this is that you need a reasonably accurate scale. I got a really nice one on Amazon for I think it was $45. There are cheaper ones out there (and more expensive too).

Sounds like a bit of a hassle, but it's totally worth it. Besides the cheaper prices (which I'll show below), at this point, you NEVER HAVE TO WAIT IN LINE AT THE POST OFFICE! Once your box has the label on it, you can just leave it on the counter without waiting through the line. I use several different post offices depending on where I might be that day and every one of them has a drop off point. It's so awesome seeing a line of a dozen people and just walking in dropping on the counter and leaving.

Now, how much savings? Well, they aren't flat rate, but here are a few example comparisons. All are from my house in the Chicago area (Evanston, Illinois, zip, 60203). All are for USPS priority mail service, with tracking and $50 of insurance.

5 pounds to Aldie Virginia (zip 20105)
Your own box: $11.95
Regional Rate A: $7.40
Regional Rate B: $9.37

Let's up the weight...
10 pounds to Aldie Virginia (zip 20105)
Your own box: $18.95
Regional Rate A: $7.40
Regional Rate B: $9.37

Yes, you read that right, your own box is 58% more and the A & B are still the same price! Let's up the weight again...

15 pounds to Aldie Virginia (zip 20105)
Your own box: $25.95
Regional Rate A: $7.40
Regional Rate B: $9.37

I just used my most recent shipping address here, but it is relatively the same no matter where I send in the USA.

So if you sell a lot of small (and relatively heavy) parts, the more you can save your buyers on shipping, the more they might buy from you.

And if you buy, if you can get your seller to use a Regional Rate box, you should be able to save a good chunk on shipping.

Hopes this helps some people.
 
+1 for writing this up, Joe. Good stuff.

I use Regional Rate boxes for 75% of my shipping. They are roughly the sizes of the Flat Rate boxes (for both the square and flat types), but significantly cheaper, especially if I'm shipping to my side of the Mississippi. Flat Rate boxes are rarely cheaper, and are really only best for going all the way across the country (e.g., to CA and WA, from here in NH). Else the RR boxes are better, and if it won't fit (e.g., for something like a large PCB), Ground ends up being the cheapest, and still comes with tracking.

Also, another trick for saving money is to use Paypal to buy the postage. You can do it for any package, just like the USPS site. It gives a further discount, cheaper than USPS.com (maybe 10% or so). The one catch is you can't do the Regional Rate boxes thru Paypal (as far as I've been able to figure out). But for cases where Priority ends up being cheaper than the RR boxes (or if you want First Class) it provides extra savings. Here's the 'secret' link to buy any postage via paypal:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now


Other tips:

- If a box is less than 12 ounces, it can be sent First Class, usually for between $2.50 and $4, depending on how far it's going. Often times things like single joysticks can be kept under 12oz, to save a few extra bucks.

- At least here in the Northeast (and I assume it works the same way everywhere), USPS Ground packages automatically get bumped to Priority if they're within a certain distance, for no extra fee. They travel by the same trucks, so the PO gives you the same rate, and you will notice that the USPS website won't give you a Ground rate, using the estimation tool.
 
You can schedule a free pickup from your house also on USPS's website, as long as they are picking up at the regular delivery time. Special pickup times cost $20.00 but no reason to do that of course.

Media Mail packages do not qualify, you need to have a regular package along with the media mail package for them to pick it up.

Officially. They've picked up media mail anyway when I've selected something else on the site.
 
Here's the tip. Use USPS Regional Rate A & Regional Rate B boxes. Both the A & B come in 2 different sizes. And of course USPS will send you them free. To give you an idea on size, the A box can fit an Atari Audio Reg I with some room left over. The other size A box can fit a medium size track ball assembly. The B box can fit 4 Atari Audio Regs II's. (I don't have any of the other size B boxes). The trick is you have to order them online. The post offices do not carry them. And to use them, you have to register for an account with USPS (which is free). If you don't have an account, you won't even see the Regional Rate box rates on USPS.gov. And then you have to print the label yourself and stick it on the box. You can't get the Regional Rate rates at a live post office, you have to do it online. You can get stick-on label paper (that's what I do), or get stick-on mailing pouches and print the label and put it in the pouch, or print the label and tape it on the box. The only part that could present a problem on this is that you need a reasonably accurate scale. I got a really nice one on Amazon for I think it was $45. There are cheaper ones out there (and more expensive too).

Just to clarify.... To get these Regional Rates (A or B), with those lower prices, they are
only available online by printing out the postage? What or who determines if the rate is
A or B? I assume the USPS does... Thanks!
 
Just to clarify.... To get these Regional Rates (A or B), with those lower prices, they are
only available online by printing out the postage? What or who determines if the rate is
A or B? I assume the USPS does... Thanks!


A and B are different size boxes (technically different volume). B's are a little bigger.

There are also two styles of each box (two A's and two B's). One is more cube-like (i.e., square), and the other is flatter/wider (for thinner things like PCB's, picture frames, etc).

I've been told you can get the regional rate at the PO counter, but I haven't tried it. You can only order the boxes online though, and they are free via USPS.com. You can get them in bundles of 10 or 25. But when you get an estimate for Priority postage on USPS.com, you will see the Regional Rate box rates in the list, and they're typically on the order of 10-25% less than regular Priority.

Regional B's are the best way to ship AR-II's, as two of them fit side by side nicely.
 
- If a box is less than 12 ounces, it can be sent First Class, usually for between $2.50 and $4, depending on how far it's going. Often times things like single joysticks can be kept under 12oz, to save a few extra bucks.

Rates have changed.... You can't ship any package for less than $3.50 now.
 
I will try that then. If I can save a buck on every package I send, then it will be worth the extra effort. And I'll owe you a beer. :beerchug:


Totally. I just did one 10 days ago for $2.66.

The Paypal link above is really a great secret. It's always at least a buck or two cheaper than USPS.com, which does add up if you do a lot of shipping.

The only limitations I've found so far are the inability to do the Regional Rate boxes, and there is no addressbook like there is on USPS.com (which I do find handy, though the manual form is less annoying on Paypal than it is on USPS.com). But it's also faster than USPS (fewer screens to navigate), which is a plus.
 
Thanks for posting this. I was not aware of Regional Rates. I've ordered boxes just now, and look forward to taking advantage of the lower rates.

I am curious if you have a slick program that compares all of the lowest rates? Or do you manually log in to USPS and type the info in the forms?
 
You can schedule a free pickup from your house also on USPS's website, as long as they are picking up at the regular delivery time. Special pickup times cost $20.00 but no reason to do that of course.

Media Mail packages do not qualify, you need to have a regular package along with the media mail package for them to pick it up.

Officially. They've picked up media mail anyway when I've selected something else on the site.

I will try that then. If I can save a buck on every package I send, then it will be worth the extra effort. And I'll owe you a beer. :beerchug:

For the first class items I send out it is usually about $2.66 for some reason YMMV.
 
You can actually mail 1st class up to 16 ounces ONLINE postage only. At the post office, their cut off is 13 ounces before bumping you to Priority.
 
If you got to your local post office and ask they have little booklets that lists the different postal regions by zip and the prices for the regional boxes as well as normal priority.

And as Mylstar stated you can now go up to 16 oz for first class USPS mail when purchased online.


My one client designs limited edition vinyl toys, we won' even touch the USPS boxes as they don't hold up very well in transport compared to a typical uline box. The regional A boxes are super thin and flimsy, we only use those as a shell and double box.
 
Hell yeah! Just cost me $2.66 via PayPal, for the same package that I've been paying $3.50 for at the post office. The USPS is seriously screwed up....

Are you talking about in person or online? Online even with USPS will always be cheaper versus clerk.

If you do enough shipping, getting a Stamps account may be worth it. Ours is free, but we ship 10K packages a year.
 
Are you talking about in person or online? Online even with USPS will always be cheaper versus clerk.

If you do enough shipping, getting a Stamps account may be worth it. Ours is free, but we ship 10K packages a year.



I keep hearing about Stamps.com, but I honestly don't understand what they offer that you can't already get for free between USPS and Paypal.

Most shipments in my experience are/were the same at the USPS counter vs USPS.com, except some local Priority stuff which was sometimes a buck cheaper, when I used to do everything via the counter. Once I got a printer, I started doing everything online, mainly because I could pay on USPS.com with Paypal (which is how I accept most of my payments).

Once I found the Paypal secret link, I now do as much as I can through that (which is also much faster/simpler), except the things that can't be done there (mentioned previously), which I still do on USPS.com. That's the system I've converged on after about two years of doing this.

They definitely do not make figuring out the cheapest rates easy, between all of the options. They also don't even really advertise the Regional Rate boxes, which I've found curious. It's a bizarre system, and I've only come to figure out the best options for a given package and destination from a LOT of research over a lot of packages. But it adds up when you ship every day, so it's worth it.
 
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