Shipping Costs

(The real numbers)

From time to time I receive emails requesting lower shipping costs or complaints about shipping costs. I have tried to explain this in many ways but it makes no difference to many folks.

Zooooo............Here is the breakdown for the majority of my auctions and their respective costs.

I currently utilize priority shipping through the USPS, our good old post office. There are many incentives for the shipper to utilize this service. They give me the boxes, labels and packing tape. They make the delivery confirmation 10 cents less.

For most of my shipping, the weight of the boxes, item, and packing materials is between 12 and 15 ounces. Sometimes less but the majority are in this area. Always less than a pound unless we have multiple items. When it is over one pound the horror really begins. See this article about that.

I use my own boxes for international shipping and they are ½ to 1oz. heavier than the priority mail boxes. The Priority Mail Box #4, about 7x7x6 is 4.65 ounces. My approximately same size box is 5.30 ounces.

The priority mailing cost for most of my shipping therefore is:

$3.85 postage for packages under 1 pound

$0.45 delivery confirmation

$1.30 insurance if so desired

$0.45 handling and materials (bubble wrap/styrofoam peanuts/labels/going to the post office)

$4.75 - total without insurance

$6.05 - total with insurance

Now we must look at the costs for a 1st class package which is the only other way to get your item to you. Here we will look at three different weights to be fair. We will look at 12, 13, and 14 ounces as weight of package and their costs.

12 ounce-

$2.90 postage

$0.55 delivery confirmation

$1.30 insurance, if you wish

$0.57 box cost

$0.10 tape cost

$0.45 handling and materials

$4.57 - total without insurance

$5.87 - total with insurance

13 ounce package

$3.13 postage

$0.55 Delivery Confirmation

$0.57 box

$0.10 Tape

$1.30 insurance if you wish

$0.45 handling and materials

$4.80 total without insurance

$6.10 with insurance

14 ounce package

$3.75 postage

$0.55 Delivery Confirmation

$0.57 Box

$0.10 Tape

$1.30 insurance if you wish

$0.45 handling and materials

$5.42 total without insurance

$6.72 with insurance

Here are the assumptions used. 1. Delivery Confirmation gets your package to you more carefully than just sending it. It is a protection for you and me. 2. Since I have 250 different ornaments it is near impossible to weigh them all. 3. I can continue to find packing materials and labels at a great bargain. 4. USPS continues the free stuff.

As you can see, if the package is 12 oz. you can save 18 cents if I send it first class and although I didn't illustrate it you can save 64 cents if it is an 8 or 10 ounce package. The problem is that I would have to weigh it first before I even arrived at a shipping charge and that would add to the cost. Time is money after all. It is more expensive for the 13,14,15 ounce packages to send them first class. As I say in all my auctions and on the website, we do not make shipping a profit center and we don't make money on shipping.