Comment received has me wondering about my shipping policies. Are they wrong?

[thegamebaron]

I received a comment earlier from the member luvgames earlier that has me curious what others think.

"this is not ebay, we try and ship for cost rather then try and make money off shipping. pretty sad trying it here lol"

The reason that confuses me is that I don't make a red cent off of shipping. Matter of fact if you factor in the bubble wrap and other items I use when I ship I actually lose money on shipping. I think the problem is that I ship priority only with the flat rate boxes. I just really like those and when I ship with those I know the pricing will always be the same and there is enough room to really pad and secure the item. Then you also get the other bonuses with priority like scheduled pickup from your house and fast speed.

My base shipping is 5.65 which is literally priority flat rate and delivery confirmation, nothing else. Additional games can be added at 1$ a game for combined shipping although I might have to adjust that so that smaller things that can fit more than one in a flat rate are added free. I just imagine someone buying 2 2600 cartridges and a saturn game then that means I can't use the flat rate cause of the saturn game and since I didn't charge the 1$ per extra then I will eat even more on shipping because it will be over what I charge. I have been thinking though of offering the option of first class/parcel post as an option even though that involves weighing and calculating and the added annoyance of having to drop it off. I don't do this for a living so I just try to make it as enjoyable and non-annoying as possible.

Hope y'all can help me out and tell me if I am actually doing something wrong with shipping. I am always open to suggestions and comments. Thanks

[thegamebaron]

Decided to keep this thread open for the hell of it. Had a post asking to close before.

[mobiusclimber]

I only ship Priority if the game is cartridge based and in a cardboard box, so that I keep the box from getting beat up. (Saturn games & PS1 titles in long boxes need to go Priority too.) For something like a 2600 game, no one is going to want to pay that rate for one cartridge. (Most 2600 games are worth all of $0.50.) Best to just ship stuff like that in a padded envelope. I can usually get a couple of carts into one, maybe even a cd-based game if its in a regular cd-sized jewel case.

[thegamebaron]

I only ship Priority if the game is cartridge based and in a cardboard box, so that I keep the box from getting beat up. (Saturn games & PS1 titles in long boxes need to go Priority too.) For something like a 2600 game, no one is going to want to pay that rate for one cartridge. (Most 2600 games are worth all of $0.50.) Best to just ship stuff like that in a padded envelope. I can usually get a couple of carts into one, maybe even a cd-based game if its in a regular cd-sized jewel case.

Yup the biggest change will be in the smaller things like cart only items and 2600 games. I just never really thought about that and i'm sure it hurt my rep and image. Trying to fix things now and the community has been a big help.

[mobiusclimber]

Well I wouldn't worry about it too much. The only thing it probably hurt was your sales. GG is becoming much less insular than it was in the past due to the Google Feed thing, so I'm sure you'll get plenty of new people looking at your auctions.

[thegamebaron]

Well I wouldn't worry about it too much. The only thing it probably hurt was your sales. GG is becoming much less insular than it was in the past due to the Google Feed thing, so I'm sure you'll get plenty of new people looking at your auctions.

Yeah i'mnot going to worry too much. I just like to be a good member of wherever I make my presence. Both in real life and online.

[Leathco]

Pretty sure I've bought from you. I always thought shipping was fair.

[mguiddy]

I always have this issue when I'm selling stuff.
I want to charge as close to actual s&h costs but it's hard to quote a price in advance, especially if you're selling things like loose carts or jewel case games or anything bigger.
Some things, like DVD style case games, is easy to quote a price that should cover s&h costs.
But if you're selling a loose SNES game, I don't know about anyone else, but I wouldn't want to just stuff it in a bubble mailer and do first class. With my luck it would get there with a hole in it.

Combined shipping is also an issue. I've done combined shipping before where I end up quoting the guy a few dollars less than actual shipping. Then I've done it where I overcharged by a few dollars. It's incredibly frustrating.

My worst was selling a bigger item. I weighed it and, I think, used the online shipping calculator to estimate the shipping cost and listed it with a quoted price. Someone won it, of course they lived the other side of the country from me, it turned out to weight almost a pound more than the original weight (I don't think I factored packaging enough) and end up basically paying a few dollars to ship it to the guy. Yep, not only did I not make a penny on selling the item, I lost money, would've been further ahead if I just threw it away.

[thegamebaron]

I always have this issue when I'm selling stuff.
I want to charge as close to actual s&h costs but it's hard to quote a price in advance, especially if you're selling things like loose carts or jewel case games or anything bigger.
Some things, like DVD style case games, is easy to quote a price that should cover s&h costs.
But if you're selling a loose SNES game, I don't know about anyone else, but I wouldn't want to just stuff it in a bubble mailer and do first class. With my luck it would get there with a hole in it.

Combined shipping is also an issue. I've done combined shipping before where I end up quoting the guy a few dollars less than actual shipping. Then I've done it where I overcharged by a few dollars. It's incredibly frustrating.

My worst was selling a bigger item. I weighed it and, I think, used the online shipping calculator to estimate the shipping cost and listed it with a quoted price. Someone won it, of course they lived the other side of the country from me, it turned out to weight almost a pound more than the original weight (I don't think I factored packaging enough) and end up basically paying a few dollars to ship it to the guy. Yep, not only did I not make a penny on selling the item, I lost money, would've been further ahead if I just threw it away.

Good to know i'm not alone. It can be a little daunting, but I've received some great feedback from the people here on how to ship things and it's really helped. I still have a problem with the larger items and might start moving away from console sales and just be games and other items. I just prefer to sell the other stuff anyways and it takes up less storage. Sometimes i'm right on the money with shipping and sometimes, like you perfectly put, i'd have been better off financially just throwing it away, haha! Thanks for your input.

[omega_supreme]

I've lost money on most of the items I've shipped so far. Now in the past, back when Priority Mail was still new and a flat $2.50 per box (been around a while haven't I?) I used it almost exclusively. But the prices became overly inflated and thus I dropped that from being my standard. No thanks to PayPal we, as sellers, are no longer safe from being scammed unless we ship with a tracking or Delivery Confirmation Number (DCN). So now to make things worse, the fee through the USPS for a DCN is higher if you add it to a package being shipped by any postal rate other than Priority. And I'm finding that for packages weighing over a pound it's often more cost effective to ship through FedEx Ground as that gives you not only a dependable tracking number, but also insurance coverage.

Shipping is truly the biggest pain in the butt when it comes to selling online. On the bright side, I get most of my packing supplies for free from work now. We're constantly receiving merchandise packed in bubble wrap, foam, peanuts, bubble envelopes, boxes of every size and shape imaginable. Tape is still still an expense, but it goes a long way.

My advice to you is to check dumpsters of local businesses for free packing stuff. Even back in my Ebay days I got all my packing peanuts from Radio Shack's dumpster. Appliance and electronics stores tend to throw away the better (and cleaner) packing supplies. And any large items your planning to list I'd either check the weight on at a post office or perhaps start looking around for either a USPS or USDA approved scale to weigh your items at home with.

[thegamebaron]

I've lost money on most of the items I've shipped so far. Now in the past, back when Priority Mail was still new and a flat $2.50 per box (been around a while haven't I?) I used it almost exclusively. But the prices became overly inflated and thus I dropped that from being my standard. No thanks to PayPal we, as sellers, are no longer safe from being scammed unless we ship with a tracking or Delivery Confirmation Number (DCN). So now to make things worse, the fee through the USPS for a DCN is higher if you add it to a package being shipped by any postal rate other than Priority. And I'm finding that for packages weighing over a pound it's often more cost effective to ship through FedEx Ground as that gives you not only a dependable tracking number, but also insurance coverage.

Shipping is truly the biggest pain in the butt when it comes to selling online. On the bright side, I get most of my packing supplies for free from work now. We're constantly receiving merchandise packed in bubble wrap, foam, peanuts, bubble envelopes, boxes of every size and shape imaginable. Tape is still still an expense, but it goes a long way.

My advice to you is to check dumpsters of local businesses for free packing stuff. Even back in my Ebay days I got all my packing peanuts from Radio Shack's dumpster. Appliance and electronics stores tend to throw away the better (and cleaner) packing supplies. And any large items your planning to list I'd either check the weight on at a post office or perhaps start looking around for either a USPS or USDA approved scale to weigh your items at home with.

Great advice and thanks for the backstory too. I actually got a lot of my packing supplies from work too. I worked in IT and we always had boxes coming in for parts. I also bought a usps approved scale for about $20 a while back. HAven't shipped many heavy items to where I need to use it much, but I like having it around. Thanks againf ro replying.

[oldgames]

One thing you might do is to state that the price if for Priority Mail. If it is clear that you ship this way I wouldn't think there would be anyone who thought you were charging too much. I do ship loose cartridges and carts with instructions for $2.50 First class in a bubbleope, but boxed games or more than 2 loose ones have to to Priority.

I have links to the USPS and UPS shipping calculators for Domestic and USPS for Canada in my shipping section. That way, the buyer can get a pretty good idea of what combined shipping would be for multiple wins.

If anyone wants to use this, feel free to pull up one of my auctions and view source.