Economy Shipping

[Yasav]

Some low-cost items are best sent via Economy as the usual $2.61 would eat up much of any profit.

What's the smart way of using economy? Letters themselves seem to be really cheap; however, how do the stamps work? How many do I need and how to choose the right one?

Thanks!

[Emporium]

Stamps are not good for eBay. Your only option is to sell so many of them that you can get a better shipping rate through your volume. Depending on what you are selling you can get your rates down to a little under $2. You just have to ship a few hundred per day. In the meantime, normal USPS first class via stamps.com will be cheapest.

[phaz0rz]

Originally Posted by Emporium

Stamps are not good for eBay. Your only option is to sell so many of them that you can get a better shipping rate through your volume. Depending on what you are selling you can get your rates down to a little under $2. You just have to ship a few hundred per day. In the meantime, normal USPS first class via stamps.com will be cheapest.

Do you have any info about how a business would go about getting those lower negotiated rates?

[yankee]

Originally Posted by phaz0rz

Do you have any info about how a business would go about getting those lower negotiated rates?

Last I knew you needed to buy at least one million dollars in postage BUT my local postmaster wants to discuss options and we may only hit 250K this year.

[dallis]

Although EB promotes 'economy rate' postage, what they really mean is you pay to subsidize the cost. The post office doesn't have an 'economy' postage.

It's extremely hard to get it below the $2.61 rate, and selling on EB without tracking is pretty close to a death sentence.

The envelope rate is for flats, they have to be less than ( I think ) 1/4 inch thick and 13 ounces ( I think ). That's pretty thin. The post office has a little scale you push the letter through to see if it will fit, I can personally attest it's really hard to mail much more than a few folded sheets of paper to get the stamp rate.

You can select the 'first class mail large envelope/flat, and avoid the cost of tracking, which saves around $1 at 4 oz, and incrementally less at higher weights, but it has to be at least 11.5" long or 6.125" tall or more than 1/4" thick, and the post office hates it and frequently up-charges the envelope and people tend to reject them if postage is due.

Sadly, if the $2.61 costs too much of your profit, you should consider charging more, or changing product lines.

I've historically sold a lot of inexpensive stuff, and this year I just had to go up in price. There just wasn't enough money in it to make it worthwhile after the postage charges. Sure, the profit was 36% of gross, but on a $3.99 sale + $3.89 shipping, it still doesn't add up fast enough to be worthwhile. Lot of work for a few bucks.