Shipping prices!?!?!!?

Sikryd · Sep 21, 2009

Shipping prices!?!?!!? ----------------------------

It cost me an average of $60 ($75 to California - $60 to IL, AR, FL)

For 6 packages, it cost me $300!!?!?!?!?

This was UPS next day air. They didn't have options that were less, like 3pm and all that, if they did it was neglidgeable.

What are you guys doing to get the shipping costs down?

mpoletti · Sep 21, 2009

How much do they weight. I can usually ship up to six frags for around 2.5-3lbs.

Reef Pets · Sep 21, 2009

Thats about right, 50.00 on average per package. Many people complain that vendors over charge (not directed toward you) for shipping. As you can see, those charges are legit.
UPS and Fed Ex is very expensive to use.

Sikryd said:
It cost me an average of $60 ($75 to California - $60 to IL, AR, FL)

For 6 packages, it cost me $300!!?!?!?!?

This was UPS next day air. They didn't have options that were less, like 3pm and all that, if they did it was neglidgeable.

What are you guys doing to get the shipping costs down?

roshi719 · Sep 21, 2009

Most of the shippers go more by the size of the box until you get to a certain weight. I have been trying to use the smallest box I can get away with, but I am still averaging $50-60 a box to ship.

bamachamp92 · Sep 21, 2009

I sent a box to palm beach Fl. a week ago and it cost me 76.00

mpoletti · Sep 21, 2009

You can also get a small discount if you have a pre-made coupon and account. There is also no reason to insure your package as live goods are not covered anyways.

JR's Reef · Sep 21, 2009

Thats about right for UPS but can do the same with Fedex for about $45-50. Fedex prices has always been cheaper for me but its about a 30min longer drive to drop off so I use UPS most of the time there only 10mins from me

Acro76 · Sep 21, 2009

Usually our group orders run $110 to $190! :sad:

They make it hard to get very much of a discount unless you ship a decent amount of volume every week. Our fedex discount is based on what we shipped the week before.

Reef Goddess · Sep 21, 2009

I ship with USPS overnight most of the time, I never used to use them before because people said they were bad. But I've been using them over the last year a lot and they are just as reliable as Fedex and USPS. I have a few more delays with them, but nothing has been doa.
I charge $35 overnight for east coast and $40 overnight for west coast. Usually my orders don't cost more than this to ship. I often have to eat the costs for my boxes and heat/ice packs, but I figure I'll make it back in the price of the coral. Since I sell mostly frags I can fit up to 10 frags for the same shipping price, usually this doesn't end up cutting into the money I make off the order.

I see a lot of people ship in boxes that are bigger than necessary or use more water than you have to. Like Liveaquaria, Extremecorals, Reefermadness (when they were in business) used tons of water to ship a coral in. I guess they must have really good shipping rates so they can get away with it, I know I couldn't do it.

Unlike most sellers, I stopped offering free shipping on most orders. At first offering free shipping was fine, but when the economny started to go down, a lot of people were just ordering the minimum and I was getting stuck with a $55-70 shipping fee on a $300 order. Now I offer like 50% off shipping on big orders or discounts on the corals themselves.

Its kinda of frustrating, because most buyers automatically assume that sellers are overcharging them for shipping and we try to make our money off of shipping. I personally have no interest in making money off of shipping. There have been many times that I have paid more for shipping than the buyer has paid me just so I can try to keep things cheap and encourage more orders. If anything at least its tax deductible.

Rocky Mountain Frags · Sep 21, 2009

I'm not sure if this is true with every UPS store, but I get a 10% discount with a triple A membership. I would imagine it is the same everywhere. It's not much, but every little bit helps when shipping is so expensive.

aquafrags · Sep 21, 2009

its only going to get worse fed ex is raising their prices!!!

gflat65 · Sep 21, 2009

Then you have another $8-10 for a thick insulated shipper and hot/cold packs. Hard to charge for the box when shipping is so high, so that gets eaten...

Sikryd · Sep 21, 2009

I lost ~$100+ by charging from $35-$45. And it was only on ~$450 worth of stuff, so it sucks.

I used small boxes, normal amount of water, ect. They all were ~2lbs.

It cost me $75 to ship a $85 chalice. I got $40 for the chalice!!! I paid $125 for 1/4 the size! lol
Its by no means the persons issue that picked it up, I should have either charged more, shipped USPS and took the risk, or just sold it local - which I am going to do more of from now on. I'll just lower the prices for local pickup. It'll save a LOT of headaches.

I could have went with USPS, but I didn't want to end up with a lost package or something like that. Just too much of a pain, for what it is worth.

I gave such a good deal on the frags, its kind of a bumber now.

Oh well, live and learn. I never cared to make a dime off of shipping, or the bags, boxes, tape, and most of all the 4 hours it took me pack everything up - print out the address things, names of the corals - my # and all that.

No more of that - flat rate of $55 unless the person wants to go with USPS with no guarantee.

<rant off>

Its really not a big deal - just live and learn I guess. A couple people gave me a hard time about the shipping cost, so I figured whatever, it must be cheaper to ship and I am just not in the loop (I have shipped 4-5x's before, but mainly within a 5 state radius).

I guess I know NOW! LOL

aerius007 · Sep 21, 2009

I havent had any problem usps yet and the price is usually cheaper. From Ohio to Cali its around $30-35 and I just shipped to Michigan for $16, express.

Sikryd · Sep 21, 2009

aerius007 said:
I havent had any problem usps yet and the price is usually cheaper. From Ohio to Cali its around $30-35 and I just shipped to Michigan for $16, express.

I'm using FED EX from now on, that or USPS.

revhtree · Sep 21, 2009

I will always ship usps express if the buyer is in the one day range.

dknuckles · Sep 22, 2009

I am sooo glad you started this thread. I am a guy w/ a fish tank that sells off extra and overgrown corals. There have been members on this forum and another that had been rather nasty accusing me of gauging them for charging $50-60 shipping Fed-Ex next day w/ ice pack and HD styro box. They actually think everybody can ship from Mich to CA for $25 total! The HD box and ice pack cost about $15. I always loose money on the shipping because I only charge actual Fed-Ex costs.
I have tried USPS w/ mostly negative (90%) results and they will not stand behind their "insurance" and in my region are rather careless w/ the packages.
Sorry for the hijack

Sikryd · Sep 22, 2009

dknuckles said:
I am sooo glad you started this thread. I am a guy w/ a fish tank that sells off extra and overgrown corals. There have been members on this forum and another that had been rather nasty accusing me of gauging them for charging $50-60 shipping Fed-Ex next day w/ ice pack and HD styro box. They actually think everybody can ship from Mich to CA for $25 total! The HD box and ice pack cost about $15. I always loose money on the shipping because I only charge actual Fed-Ex costs.
I have tried USPS w/ mostly negative (90%) results and they will not stand behind their "insurance" and in my region are rather careless w/ the packages.
Sorry for the hijack

No hi-jack at ALL!

Thats what this thread was for - to let everyone know what it actually costs to ship stuff, cause I got the same response when I quoted prices from the UPS site. I ended up just charging less cause I figured it couldn't be in the $50 range that they were saying on the site. It ended up being MORE.

I am recycling old boxes and ice packs. So if I have to start buying them, I'll have to figure that into the price of the frags.

I have a feeling I will be either selling a lot of stuff locally, or just throwing it out.
It takes wayyyyy too much time to box, bag, ect. ect. ect. to loose more money once I take it to ship it out.

Needless to say I was pretty bumbed out after I left UPS today.
It took me ~4 hours to get everything packed and shipped today, and that isn't figured in at all either. (I don't do this for a living, so I'm not real fast at it either

)

Again - not anyones problem but my own on the shipping prices - (I don't want anyone that picked up stuff to think this is about them and what they picked up) This has NOTHING to do with that.

Just b44444ing about the cost of shipping after all that work!

wishntoboutside · Sep 22, 2009

Yep it is a buZ kill for sure. Shipping from Cali to tenn was 86. Last week for a 6.6.8 box . I think ups thinks I am a trump or something. Maybes I should get a part time job at ups

Sikryd · Sep 22, 2009

I did a trade and shipped some stuff to PA - ~200 miles away - it cost $76 for next day 10:30am - next day ground was $15 (which we couldn't do since I had an 11am appt) so it sucked. He lives in a rural area or something though I think. The guy at UPS said it didn't sound normal either, but that that is when it usually costs that much for close by.

The funny thing is I charged $35-$45 and said that I would credit anything over $10 difference to their paypal.
Little did I know.......lol