quote:

ORIGINAL: madamekitty

No comment on the shipping, but a friendly correction on my pet peeve of grammar: the use of "I seen". Please, you SAW. As in, "I saw the new strip mall" or "I have seen the new strip mall". Make a cranky, sick Domina happy -- conjugate correctly. My own spelling is lousy, but conjugation counts!

quote:

ORIGINAL: marieToo

I like the USPS myself.  Priority mail arrives within 3 days no matter where it's coming from in the country.  Parcel post sucks though and can take weeks to arrive, as they wait until the area warehouses have a full load to move them to wherever they are going.

UPS is very good too.  They're fast and you can easily track you packages.  I've also found that the drivers are super nice and super accomodating.   I haven't worked much with FedEx, but recently I ordered a camera from an online site and it came faster than I thought---next day---so I wasnt home to receive it (and it was one of those things you have to sign for).  So they left a tag on my door that they had been here, then the driver called me the next day when he was in the area to make sure I was home to sign for it.  And he came within 15 minutes of calling. I was very pleased with that.

I also use ebay a lot.  I used to sell there too.  It's important to read the whole listing to see what method the seller uses.  Sometimes they make a little on the shipping, but most of them offset their ebay fees with whatever couple of bucks they clear on the shipping.  Depends what you're shipping.  When you have someone shipping a bracelet first class for .89 cents, and they charge $4.95 for the shipping, well, yeah, they're making a few bucks there.  If you're purchasing a pair of shoes, and the seller ships priority and charges 10 bucks, they're not making as much profit on the shipping as the guy selling the bracelet.

When I make ebay purchases, I make sure to read the whole listing and to figure in the cost of shipping as part of the purchase price.  If it's too much with the shipping and I can find the item cheaper in a store, then I don't make the purchase.  The key is to read the details before bidding.  Sometimes you find very good deals, other times it's not worth it.   Make sure you check the seller's feedback too.

quote:

ORIGINAL: pahunkboy

OK, I seen some things on ebay where the person set up a store. (I would avoid buying store items or fixed price, ebay charges the seller more to sell that way thus the total price will average higher in those formats, auctions are still the place to get the deals on ebay)  Has anyone tried to buy items, say multiple, instead of using the predetermined shipping;(Yeah, we used to charge half shipping for additional items, up to the amount that would fit in one box, then repeat, the highest shipping item cost item is always full, plus half lesser cost shipping items) have sent a tag that then the shipping would ship out prepaid to the vendor(are you saying you want to send them prepaid postage, most sellers will not like that, and its not practical, if you are paying with paypal, because paypal requires sellers to ship the item within 7 days of payment, if you paid for the item, and lagged sending the label, or it wasn't right they'd miss that window and lose their sellers protection, I never would do it anyway, not worth it), ?

I wondered if I could get some deals if I used cheap shipping. Ok say on metal blinds, obviously I  do not need overnight ship for that!   Most items I would not.  Granted, some vendors make money off of the shipping.  (Yeah, most sellers will let you do Parcel Post if you want but it will be slow, and you need to explain you understand that it will be slow, and you won't be angry and neg them for it).

I got the idea as now I seen lap tops that have "free shipping", which to me does make the difference between me bidding or not.(Actually with ebays fee structure, the higher the shipping the less fees the seller gives to ebay, which means they can sell it for a little less than the free shipping ads, on those ebay charges a fee on the total, with the shipping in the product price, they get a cut of the shipping fee to, thus the average sell price overall, will trend higher for those items.)

As you may know ebay is under new management and some sellers are boycotting ebay.(I stopped selling on ebay, I sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stuff on there, but ebay is to crazy, changing the rules, categories, standards, fees way to often to make it worth it, plus shipping costs have risen dramatically since when I first started, so that effects the cost benefit of ebay). If you can find it used local you'd be better off, if I were you and it's a fairly common item, I'd just search for local stuff up there and ask if you can pick it up. I generally charged a few bucks when people picked it up, instead of the like 25.00 dollars it costs to ship a microwave. Also offer to pay cash for local pickups, because the seller then doesn't have to pay the 2.9 percent to paypal.

Maybe YOU are a person who has to stay off of ebay due to over buying?(I've probably bought 10 things on ebay maybe more, sold thousands, I'm not an addict, and I tend to try about 10 auctions before I win one at the price I wanted(low).

So where are you NOW in your habits?(done with ebay, profit is greater in the store we set up, and cheaper overall for the buyer because no shipping costs at all).

If it wasnt for the shipping costs, I could do better at ebay then at Lowes...etc.

Note that my area has gotten a new 135 acre strip mall.  it is grandiose and la te da. I drove thru it and that alone took 20 minutes!   i SEEN  Mina steet, and thought- cool- named after a mina bird. Later after thinking on it- that street aint named after a baird.  "mina" as in that merchandise is "mine" "a".

Some things I would want to touch and feel before buying. On eye glasses tho I sampled at the mall then bought my glasses from Hong Kong. I escaped a PA law that way too..  My old glasses broke and the state said it was illegal to get new glasses w/o a new eye exam.  !!  which costs $60.


Oh- shipping;

DHL seems cheapest.  followed by UPS ground.  What are your thoughts on shippers??

usps is cheapest if it can be shipped in a flat rate envelope, you can stuff those as much as you want, as long as the envelope edges touch. I generally wrapped stuff in bubble wrap and used those, most of the items I shipped were at least appreciable in size.
Then they are all about the same depending on the zone it is going to and the deal the seller cut with the carrier, There is no telling really because when you negotiate with Fedex or whoever about rates, you pick which weight tiers you want most heavily discounted. We shipped a lot of 20-50 pound things so that is where we shoved our best discounts into.

Oh, if you can get your items shipped to an official business address, Fedex ground to businesses is way cheaper than home delivery. That would be the best way to cut the costs down for shipping.

quote:

ORIGINAL: madamekitty

No comment on the shipping, but a friendly correction on my pet peeve of grammar: the use of "I seen". Please, you SAW. As in, "I saw the new strip mall" or "I have seen the new strip mall". Make a cranky, sick Domina happy -- conjugate correctly. My own spelling is lousy, but conjugation counts!

quote:

ORIGINAL: pahunkboy

.  My old glasses broke and the state said it was illegal to get new glasses w/o a new eye exam.  !!  which costs $60.