Shipping charges let's discuss shall we?

Deadly

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So I see all these stories here about items received being hosed and/or 100% loss. Most of these horror stories could've had a happy ending if time, care and common sense was used. I've personally been victimized twice by people that wrapped things loosely with one layer of the small bubble wrap and sent it bouncing in a USPS priority mail box. If the proper amount of bubble wrap and/or packing peanuts would've been used all this could've been avoided. Yes, like myself I understand people don't own any shipping supplies and always have to buy stuff when they ship. What irritates me is which most people fail to take that into consideration and they basically act like you're price gouging them.

I suppose a person could mark their item cost up to incorporate the material cost but then you'll still have people complain about the asking price. Lose lose situation I guess.?? :(

So the point of my long winded post is would you rather:
1.) Pay a little extra to receive a product that was protected to the hilt
or
2.) Pay the absolute least amount and take the chance of receiving damaged merchandise.

Me personally, I ALWAYS insure the item for more than it's worth at NO extra cost to the customer AND I use the thick bubble wrap to ensure there is NO chance I can be held liable for improperly packaged goods. So I vote for option #1
 
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First off I usually have some shipping materials on hand but what about option #3 for the cheap ass who wants to pack the item correctly?

3. wrap the item in 1 layer of bubble wrap. Tape so bubble wrap stays around item. grab some news paper and pack the box nicely so the item does not move around when shipped. If you don't have news paper on hand there are often other items that can also be used as a substitute. I find all I need to do is go down to a local coffee shop, record store, book store ect. and they all have free publications printed on the same stuff as news paper. So basically a trip to one of these places and I have free packing material. So it doesn't necessarily need to cost more but you might have to put forth a little effort.
 
I'm the guy who doesn't stock shipping materials because I rarely sell stuff....BUT I keep every bit of bubble wrap, foam wrap and packing peanuts I get because of this.
I have two huge boxes full of the shit, in my closet and it gets used when I DO sell something and I don't skimp.

There's really no excuse, if you don't have any packing materials when you put something up for sale...get some. You should have it before it's even sold! When I sell something, it's already packed and ready to go before it's even listed most times.

Any excuse, is a bullshit excuse...I've never had ANYTHING damaged in shipping, and remember I'm the dude that doesn't buy packing materials!
 
Coming from someone who has sold more than 500 items to fellow KLOVers over the past year and only broken one thing in that entire time (Scramble bezel), I say the best way to go is list your price shipped. That shipped price should include the cost to ship and the cost of whatever materials you are going to use.

And you sure as hell better make sure that the items are packaged well ... most of the things we sell each other here have long since stopped being made. We are the keepers of this history and are duty bound to take care of it.

I personally do not charge anything for packaging materials, but I do a lot of volume so that cost is easier for me to "eat". I could understand why someone might want to charge a few bucks extra (bubble wrap ain't cheap).

Do I sometimes grumble about the high cost of shipping items? Yes.

But ... in the long run, I know that packaging well and using reliable shipping services is going to be good for me, the buyer, and the hobby overall in the long run.

I just sent someone a CPO that I sold for 10 bucks shipped. It cost me $9.10 to ship it. The profit I made on that "sale" doesn't even cover the cost of gas for a trip to the post office. But ... it isn't always about that. It is a piece that I was never going to use and that someone else needed/wanted. Sometimes, that is good enough ...

My two cents ...

Steve
MM
 
If you cant package something right, dont sell it!!!

Option #1

While I totally agree with you.....I find it amazing at the piss poor packaging job some people do......and THEY really do think THEY did a good packaging job.

It should be mandatory for every person, at age 18, to work for a shipping company (UPS, FedEX, USPS....it doesn't matter, they're all the same) at minimum one month. Then they'd see just what kind of hell these boxes must go through (and I'm not even talking about a round with a disgruntled employee....just the nature of how the system works).

Edward
 
While I totally agree with you.....I find it amazing at the piss poor packaging job some people do......and THEY really do think THEY did a good packaging job.

It should be mandatory for every person, at age 18, to work for a shipping company (UPS, FedEX, USPS....it doesn't matter, they're all the same) at minimum one month. Then they'd see just what kind of hell these boxes must go through (and I'm not even talking about a round with a disgruntled employee....just the nature of how the system works).

Edward

LOL will a month be enough;)
 
evreyone says #1 untill they get the bill :D

the problem I run into is the shipping costs are going up
and USPS is changing things up so its harder to ship just reg. mail
so anything over a pd is auto prioty which is more so that with the added costs
of supplies, packing, boxes, penuts, etc. +time to pack and ship alot of times is more than the item Im selling : (

I literrally spend more time packing and shipping then I do actually Printing.
 
I have an automatic $1 on my shipping costs on EBay. It probably doesn't cover everything, but in the long haul it helps offset the cost of buying shippping materials that I can't recycle.

I always quote price + shipping. Just because the smae item might be $7 shipped to one part of the country and $11 to a further location. Quoting shipped, while certainly easier to figure, does screw the people who are nearby or it screws you if you quote nearby shipping and get someboby further out.

As you said though, there are times when you ship it just to pass something on to someone who will use it. At that point the price is immaterial.

ken
 
Pack it right, regardless of cost or time. On almost every item I sell, I lose money on shipping. That isn't even counting the gas or time to pack and ship. I try to keep a healthy supply of packing materials, and have used some interesting packing supplies when I run low. I still go out of my way to pack items to the best of my abilities.

I also insure anything of real value. Who cares about the customer - I'm protecting MY ass with insurance! :D
 
I buy alot of stuff. Way more than I sell, I save all the packing material. Have tons of it. I have been on the Receiving end getting Damaged goods. So everything I ship, I pack the hell out of it:D
Because we all know the shippers are going to play football with it.
and always buy insurance for the value of the item. Does no good to buy more than the value, because the reality is you wont get more than the value.
 
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So, is this wrong? :D

P1000648.jpg


P1000650.jpg


P1000654.jpg
 
So, is this wrong? :D

P1000648.jpg


P1000650.jpg


P1000654.jpg

My rule of thumb....when I can't stuff anymore peanuts/bubble wrap/etc. into the box....shove a couple more handfuls in :)

There's two main keys to packaging.....Number 1: adaquate space between the goods and the box...Number 2: No empty space....you want the box to be as full as you can get it...zero give.

Edward
 
I think at the very least if people don't have packing peanuts they probably have newspaper laying around. I know I have tons of it and after you ball it up its just as good as packing peanuts. So I really find no excuse not to package things with some sort of cushioning material. At the very least people get lots of junk mail every day like store circulars easy enough to ball them up and use them for package protection. I always package things as well as I can and I agree if you can't package your item you have no business selling it in the first place.
 
i double bubble wrap items and then backfill with news paper trash bags grocery bags dirty underwear, anything to help cushion. have never had a damaged item in over 600 shipments the past 3 years.
 
Insurance isn't that expensive an add on. Include insurance on everything and worse case scenario, you have to collect.
 
Pretty easy to figure out now why this thread was started. I questioned the $40.00 you wanted for shipping on your Star Wars boards on ebay. Anyway, what really turned me off from the auction was the fact that
1. You knew who i was but did not identify yourself. It became obvious you were a klover but you did not let me know who.
2. Don't you have a working Star Wars boardset ? So couldn't you test all those boards and run down exactly what boards worked and what boards didn't ? It just seems odd to me that you don't know what boards work and what boards don't work.

So in the end, it was that, and not the shipping that kept me from bidding.
 
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