Money saving parts shipping secrets revealed

Stamps, just automates it a bit more. Cut and past full addresses and not piece by piece. The USPS online system is a nightmare and I haven't used Paypal in a while because we have either had Stamps or Endicia.

Stamps will give you the price options for every available form of USPS mail from flat envelop to large flat rate which is nice. You don't have to go looking it up in a chart.

It's not my favorite software, but it's solid. You also get their discount which is the same as Paypal, etc. I prefer Endicia, but Stamps bought them out.
 
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!

They boxes themselves are printed with "Regional Rate A" (or B). You can only get the rate online.

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.

Regional B's are the best way to ship AR-II's, as two of them fit side by side nicely.

You can't get it at the counter. I've tried a few times at a few different post offices.

You can get 4 ARII's in a Regional B if you overlap the heat sync's.

Rates have changed.... You can't ship any package for less than $3.50 now.
You can if you get the postage via paypal.

And ebay too, if you happened to have sold an item through there.

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?

I hate shipping costs. When I send something out, I look at both USPS and Fed Ex manually. But after a while, you get to know by weight and size which service will be cheapest. You can get a quote at both USPS and Fed Ex with a touch less info that putting everything in. Still a pain though.
 
also, alternate boxes "B" sized regional boxen

Thanks for the tips gents.

I discovered USPS also has regional boxen A2 and B2 which might be useful for some smaller JAMMA boards.

I may also order some "created remains" labels for Halloween packages.
 
Man, f the usps post office. I just had mailed to me two off road boards with metal panels via ups. Got in in a day and shipping was only 14.07. I guarantee usps would have charged $30 or more
 
Man, f the usps post office. I just had mailed to me two off road boards with metal panels via ups. Got in in a day and shipping was only 14.07. I guarantee usps would have charged $30 or more

USPS I think is 100x more convenient for most people. I have a post office close to my house and close to work. Not even sure where a UPS type store is, I'm sure there's one around, but it's always been more of a hassle for me to use them.
 
Man, f the usps post office. I just had mailed to me two off road boards with metal panels via ups. Got in in a day and shipping was only 14.07. I guarantee usps would have charged $30 or more

I ship about 10K packages a year, USPS tends to not only be cheaper, but faster for the majority of our packages which typically range from 5oz- 4lbs

Higher weight/compact stuff, will often be cheaper Fed Ex and UPS, but you have to stay in a fairly low volume window.

I often have store customers and even folks I sell part to from here request Fed Ex/UPS and find they are often shocked when I give them all three quotes.
 
Today's lessons learned:

Needed something heavy/fragile packaged at one of those office-type places: packaging, shipping, UPS/Fedex/USPS dropoff, etc.

They packaged them and they ask "Are you shipping thru us?" I said "yes", she pulls it up, FedEx Ground, $195/each. WTF?!?!?! I said "When I calculated it at home it was $70/each. "Oh, well you're shipping thru us, that is if you print your own label and drop it off here."

So, let me get this straight: the same people (FedEx) will be picking it up, unbeknownst to them WHO printed the label, but if *I* print it its $70, but if you print it, its $195?

YOU'RE LITERALLY PRINTING A LABEL FOR $125........*EACH*........

So I tell them I'll handle it, thinking I gotta load these in my vehicle, go home and print and affix the labels, and then either bring them back (mmmm, maybe) or take them to one of the other 2 FedEx drop off places.....

You know what they say? You can generate them at home and email them to us and we'll put them on, no need to come back, and you can just leave these here. WTF? There isn't a $67.50 charge for printing and affixing the label?!?!

Then when I came home, I didn't pay attention and generated a quote and it came out to $125/each. I wasn't logged in. All I had to do was click "login" and it remembered all the information and I clicked "Show quotes" and it was $70. So even FedEx was charging more. There is NOTHING special about my account. I've shipping with them TWICE.

Thanks to everyone in their previous posts about saving money. I have regional boxes arriving any day now. I've got a scale and online accounts to generate labels.
 
Interesting story.

Today I received a bill in the mail from UPS for a package shipped from California to a destination in South Carolina. Tracking number K2442673081
The shipment was charged to me, in Kansas.

This is the 2nd time this has happened to me where a package that is obviously not from me is somehow billed to me.

I call UPS to question the charge. Their phone system is truly awful. I explain the situation, and they reverse the charges, explaining someone probably just entered the wrong account number. That is the same explanation they gave previously.

I hardly ever use that account anyway, so I asked them to close it.

So, apparently you can ship things through UPS and just use any 6 digit account number. They'll bill someone else for it. Great system.
 
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Interesting story.

Today I received a bill in the mail from UPS for a package shipped from California to a destination in South Carolina. Tracking number K2442673081
The shipment was charged to me, in Kansas.

This is the 2nd time this has happened to me where a package that is obviously not from me is somehow billed to me.

I call UPS to question the charge. Their phone system is truly awful. I explain the situation, and they reverse the charges, explaining someone probably just entered the wrong account number. That is the same explanation they gave previously.

I hardly ever use that account anyway, so I asked them to close it.

So, apparently you can ship things through UPS and just use any 6 digit account number. They'll bill someone else for it. Great system.


UPS is truly terrible, IMO. I stopped using them years ago, but still receive packages occasionally when others send. And they're still terrible.

You actually get the sense that they hate their customers, and the packages.
 
Hmmm... Didn't know this. I assumed there was a reasonable verification during the dropoff process.

Scott C.
 
Got any tips for shipping a arcade cabinet internationally?

Get in touch with someone like CoinOp Warehouse, who organizes shipping containers. (There are others who do it as well, however I don't have the details.) But I've shipped other large things to random east and west-coast locations, for inclusion in bulk shipments for various European and Australian folks, at their request.

You might try asking over at the ukvac.com forums, I suspect you'll get more info there.
 
This thread really should not be pinned anymores as all of the information is out of date. Regional boxes and first class parcel no longer exist.

For the most part, the least expensive way to ship light items is USPS Ground Advantage. After about 5 pounds or if it's a large box, FedEx and UPS tend to be less expensive.

Keep in mind in order to get the cheapest rates, you need to use a service like Pirateship or Shippo. They are free to join and offer HUGE discounts on USPS, UPS and/or FedEx.

Flat rate boxes are not the cheapest or best method unless you are cramming a lot of stuff or for heavy items that fit.
 
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