New in sealed box sets and 1 pound US shipping charge threshold

smekel

Hey Everyone,

If I'm selling a complete set, new in sealed box and it shows up correctly in the catalog as weighing 11 ounces; once I've packaged it up, it will weigh over 1 pound and will no longer qualify for USPS First Class Mail.

If I've setup weight bands the buyer will get charged for the 8.01-12 ounce weight band, let's say that's $5 but in reality it will cost me about $10 to ship it via USPS Priority Mail (likely faster than First Class) or $4 via USPS Parcel Select Ground (likely slower than First Class). Because the set is new in a sealed box, it likely will not fit in any of the flat rate USPS First Class boxes, and even so, would be even more than $10 to ship. How do others handle this?

What I've done temporarily is added a note to my shipping:

Unless a quote is requested, sets that weigh less than 1lb will likely be shipped via USPS Parcel Select Ground Service (2-9 day delivery time) as once the packing material and box are added everything often weighs at least 1lb and no longer qualifies for USPS First Class.

But I'd like to do better if possible. Thanks.

Malnaborg

HI smekel.

What I do with my shipping is set my prices after weight as you do. BUT I then charge a little amount more over my actual shipping price. Then I have the safety of both the packaging material wait, and just a little ekstra if the weight should be wrong.

At least that's how I "save" my self if there is any unforseen shipping cost.

Calibrick

I actually pad my weights using my shipping bands - so if someone buys 5 oz in parts, the store auto-calcs 6 oz for the order's shipping costs, to allow weight for packaging, polybags, the invoice, etc. If they buy 15 oz in parts, it actually calcs 1 pound, 1 ounce. That padding increases for heavier items.

I've found that works really well - on very, very, very rare occasions it overcharges shipping for the customer (which I actually proactively refund - has happened twice in three years). Equally rare, it underbills - but I just eat that as in aggregate, it's nothing. That's super rare also.

As the item weight increases the padding increases as once you start getting into pounds, the packaging moves from bubble mailers to boxes.

You can see my US shipping tables and an explanation under shared shipping bands. It works pretty well for me based on my own packaging methods - does not mean it will work for you of course, but it does accommodate the scenario you described and more. :-)

smekel

Thanks both for the responses. I added a little extra for each band, basically rounding up to the next whole dollar which I figured with enough volume would come out to a wash, sometimes the buyer pays a little extra shipping and sometimes I end up having to pay a little extra. It seems like that will work for padded envelopes but it was the need to use a box that seems to throw things out of whack because an empty cardboard box can itself weigh 5+ ounces and it doesn't seem fair to have all buyers pay that much more shipping as if their order would need a box when most won't.

I guess I'll see how my next sale goes and continue to refine.