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Shipping Band Questions

Alice1979Alice1979
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Hi all! New Brick Owl Store owner here :)
I'm setting up my store, and I'm trying to figure out how to properly charge shipping. I want to give buyers the option to either ship with a standard envelope and a stamp, or a bubble mailer with a stamp. Since a stamp covers 1oz of weight, I would like to charge $1 more for each oz.
I see you can do weight on the left, so I could just do : 0.02 oz to 1 oz , and I would like to charge $1.50 for that (for example). What I'm confused about is the Zone prices? Do I just put $1.50 into each?
Thanks for the help!

Comments

  • 3 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • One_Click_OffOne_Click_Off
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    You will likely run into the fact that most LEGO parts because of being rigid and having a depth dimension require a bubble mailer Parcel, that includes tracking, here in the US- that’s a greater minimal amount compared to letter mailing still possible in other countries. @Calibrick has amazing shared posting band set-up which you can access.
    If you try to post dimensional pieces in a regular envelope, that will not be possible.
    Yes, the zones are set up because the postal prices reflect distance from you.
  • CalibrickCalibrick
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    Awww thanks, One_Click!

    If you are in the US, as they note, USPS does not allow using regular envelopes and first class letter stamps if the part exceeds a certain thickness - which is pretty small, you'll have to look up their rules.

    While I only use bubble mailers for shipping and first class PARCEL, I sent holiday cards with a free minifigure blind bag one year to my top customers - OVER half were kicked back to me by USPS, unfortunately, as I didn't realize that rule.

    Please be aware there is a VERY high likelihood of getting it kicked back by your local USPS or any USPS along the transit path. This is why you'll see EVERY store here showing shipping costs at $3-$5, even for teeny parts/orders.

    The shared bands I have out there pad weight of estimated packaging and incrementally increases that padding for larger items. Not in COST, but in what USPS weight band applies. So for first class, mine looks like the attached image, which takes the BO order weight, maxes dimensions at my largest bubble mailer, and adds $0.50 for packing material costs. The column marked USPS/BO WEIGHT is actually the USPS weight band being applied.

    And you want all this information anyway for your taxes, please note.
  • CalibrickCalibrick
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    Re ZONE prices, in BO shipping, you enter the first three digits of YOUR origin zip code (yours). USPS considers that ZONE 1. Anything shipping within Zone 1 gets a zone 1 rate. Zones 2-9 are geographical ranges from your original zip code - the further from you, the higher the zone band, and the higher the cost.

    So you can see in the image in the previous post that USPS charges more to ship the further a buyer is from YOUR zone. Hence, there is not set rate to ship to a specific location - USPS charges based on a zone in terms of how distant the receiver is from your location.

    You can access USPS's current Holiday rates (just kicked in last week) by zone and by shipping type at https://pe.usps.com/PriceChange.

    You also pay RETAIL in this chart if you are buying postage over the counter. If you are printing shipping from stamps.com, paypal's Shipstation, etc., you use the COMMERCIAL BASE rates, which are cheaper.
    Hope this helps, and good luck to you!
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