Establishing Shipping Costs

Establishing Shipping Costs

The reason for this post is to explain the benefits and drawbacks 

of shipping small items vs. large items.

            First of all, I'd like to relate a small story about a recent item 

I found and sold on eBay.  The item can be seen above in 

the picture; no not my wife, the longhorn horns.  As you can see, 

these horns are quite a large item.  I picked these 

horns up for $60.00 bucks from a local here in Utah.  

While there isn't a very large market for these horns 

here in Utah, I knew that they are selling online for 

quite a bit more than $60.00 bucks.  I bought them, 

got them home, measured them, took some pics, 

and then listed them on eBay.  The horns are just over 6'4" 

and weigh around ten pounds.  Well after 14 days 

on eBay they sold for $225.00 + $30.00 shipping.

  

I was super stoked that they sold for a total 

price of $255.00.  Well, the next thing to do was get these 

horns boxed up and ready to ship out.  Have you ever

 tried to find a box that is over six feet in length 

and is a perfect fit for oblong horns?  It's not as 

easy as one might think, and cutting up boxes to 

make a custom box was out of the question for me.

  I decided that I would rather pay someone else to 

package and ship the item to save time 

and money (well, not really money haha).

I took the horns to a small packaging and 

shipping company in Orem, Ut.  The store helper found 

two large boxes that we were able to merge together 

to get the horns ready for take-off.  When the time 

came to pay the bill to ship the horns, it cost 

me a total of $102.50!  Yes, $102.50!  

These babies are headed to Massachusetts as 

we speak and it only cost me about as much 

as 15 of the finest ribeye steaks available.

The moral of the story is that although I still made 

a pretty decent profit of $72.50 after shipping,

 product cost, eBay fees, and paypal fees, I really don't 

think that I would go through the hassle of doing 

everything I did with this large of an item ever again.

  

Shipping small items is much more convenient, 

easy, and cost effective.  Think about it for a minute. 

 Let's just imagine that I am able to buy a 

small item for $60.00 and sell it for $255.00 and

 give my buyer free shipping.  

There are many benefits in offering free shipping:

1. Better positive feedback 
2. More buyers looking at your items 
3. Happier customers 

                                            Selling the small item, my total profit would 

be $168.07! Nearly $100.00 more in profit.  

My friends, that is why selling smaller items 

on eBay is the way to go.  

Small items are better for most sellers because:

1. Inexpensive shipping
2. Inexpensive shipping supplies
3. More profits
4. Easy storage and mobility
5. Easy packaging
6. Less risk of damage

There are many more reasons for selling small items on eBay instead of large items, but I'll save those for a later post.  If you have any thoughts or questions, let me know in the comments below!