I'm thinking of selling some things on ebay & have read all the info. here but wondered how do you figure postage to list your items? Do you wrap, put in box & weigh? Thanks!!

-- DW (djwallace@ctos.com), January 13, 2002

Answers

Depending on how your shipping it you may weight it and calculate cost. I ship USPS 2 day priority for most packages with confirmation reciept tacked on. This way I can calculate shipping pretty quick. UPS www.ups.com and US post office www.usps.com and fedex www.fedex.com all have shipping cost calculators on their web sites.

-- Gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), January 13, 2002.

When I sold on ebay, I did wrap, box and weigh. This way I was assured of getting the full shipping costs. Most of the time I would place a note in the ad that shipping costs would be calculated after the auctions end, then once I had the zipcode I would compare shipping costs and add it into the price of the auction. However many people have resorted to charging the priority rate for items under two pounds, this does have its benefits and drawbacks though. The benefits include the fact that you can get free boxes from the post office to mail the item out in and you can get free tracking of the package (insurance or tracking is important for you if someone claims they did not receive the package or it is possibly damaged), and the shipping rate is fixed up to 2lbs. The drawbacks include losing potential buyers and a higher selling point because some people will not bid on an item when they feel that the shipping cost is too high, like books and cd's which can be sent media mail and at a much cheaper rate and miscalculating the total weight of the package.

Here are a couple of links, the first is to the free tracking label, and the second is to order free boxes, this come in packs but worth the time to order if you are going to do a lot of selling. http://www.usps.com/cgi-bin/api/shipping_label.cgi http://supplies.usps.gov/

-- j willis (jwillis@louish.com), January 13, 2002.

Make sure to check out Fed Ex Ground. Many times it is cheaper and gets ther e just as fast as USPS Priority. It also gives you tracking and ins...

-- Laura (lauramleek@yahoo.com), January 13, 2002.

Most of the stuff I have shipped weighs less than one pound and for that, my experience is that USPS first class mail is the cheapest. Bought a used weighing scale that measures by the ounce for $2 at a farm auction and use that when I can. Most of the buyers want insurance, so I end up standing in line at the post office anyway.

-- fred (fred@mddc.com), January 13, 2002.