I just lost a sale due to high cost of a set from CA to VA.
Steve
I only use the USPS because they are about 2 miles from my train room. The lobby is open 24 / 7 with a machine that can weight and measure the package. It prints out the mailing label, with the address and bar codes. There is free tracking and insurance up to $50.00.
Use my debit card to pay and I always use a brown box, not one of theirs, to expensive. Just basic ground for my shipments.
Gary
Yes seeing some of eBay shipping prices..sellers are padding . I try to buy .Free shipping .. What gets me. Is this. Shipping and handling .......handling?
You can't beat Amazon right now.. If sellers where smart. They would give up eBay.
Of coarse..most are trying to get top dollar..with bids..
Amazon delivers .7 days. ..not in hurry.. Free shipping..
trainroomgary posted:I only use the USPS because they are about 2 miles from my train room. The lobby is open 24 / 7 with a machine that can weight and measure the package. It prints out the mailing label, with the address and bar codes. There is free tracking and insurance up to $50.00.
Use my debit card to pay and I always use a brown box, not one of theirs, to expensive. Just basic ground for my shipments.
Gary
FYI: I use USPS 99.99% of the time. I get my boxes online from USPS FREE shipped to me for FREE.......you may want to order a few if you ship much.....another way to lower costs.
riki posted:What gets me. Is this. Shipping and handling .......handling?
Free boxes are nice if you can get one that is the right size. To properly package some items, there are times that the seller needs to BUY the box, bubble wrap, Styrofoam peanuts, tape, etc. That stuff isn't free. And it does take time, money, and effort to go get it.
When selling on eBay, you need to consider all costs.
The horse has given up and is sufficiently beaten. But sometimes shipping is set lower than cost, because markup is in the price of the product and it is a balance. So the case of wine may have cost them $25 to ship, but the 3 buck is built into the cost of the wine case.
But commercial accts are a big discount.
I will tell you the super oversized boxes that some use really jack up the cost. A 10lb object gets rated as 40lbs and billed accordingly. Further it goes the more the cost is. You need room around the front and rear of the engine and some on the sides. But if you can ship in original box and outer carboard like MTH does, your cost winds up at the actual weight. Significant discount. G
AMCDave posted:FYI: I use USPS 99.99% of the time. I get my boxes online from USPS FREE shipped to me for FREE.......you may want to order a few if you ship much.....another way to lower costs.
But they aren't FREE: the cost is factored into the postage you pay. "FREE" anything is a sales gimmick.
Matt Makens posted:palallin posted:bw14 posted:In addition to the actual cost of shipping there is also a cost for the box (unless as mentioned you're using Priority Mail boxes provided for free by USPS), . . .
Which you DO pay for, just as a fraction of the postage charge. . . . NSTAAFL
I thought it was TANSTAAFL
It is common in American English to elide dummy subjects ("There") and associated linking verbs + negating adverbs ("ain't") in colloquial speech.
Lots of yak about shipping costs with several threads recently.
I have to admit that I've had very good service, as a buyer and seller, using the USPS (just about always Priority Mail). Call me lucky but seem like decent rates, fairly quick turnaround on shipping/receiving and no damaged items. Fingers crossed.
It seems like a long-standing tradition to complain about both the weatherman and the Post Office.
I find both to be terrific, especially when you consider life without them. 
Mark in Oregon
I agree that shipping costs are too high. Lately I have noticed that purchases I make from e-Bay are packed in boxes way too big for them. An O-scale freight car comes in a box that's 18x8x6 when 13x5x4 properly packed is fine. With USPS using dimensional weights, there's several dollars differences in the cost. Just laziness on the part of the seller in my book.
Steve, I'm sorry for the loss of your sale to our state.
My Amtrak set put me back 58$ due to its size and weight. It was the original box with shipping carton. If someone squawks about shipping on a large item, they should try freight services! Good Lord!
As far as eBay goes, I stopped selling. I dont have a working capital to fund everything required to make it an actual business.
Jersey to CA was always expensive. I shipped a loco via UPS in a cut down lamp box with foam peanuts and it cost over $30 over a decade ago.
Fred
BandoMN posted:I agree that shipping costs are too high. Lately I have noticed that purchases I make from e-Bay are packed in boxes way too big for them. An O-scale freight car comes in a box that's 18x8x6 when 13x5x4 properly packed is fine. With USPS using dimensional weights, there's several dollars differences in the cost. Just laziness on the part of the seller in my book.
Have you considered the possibility that the seller might not have had access to a smaller box?
When I sold some of my model trains, a few years ago, I found that it was not cheap to buy shipping boxes individually from OfficeMax. I ended up buying boxes from U-Line but I was required to buy boxes in sets of 10 or 25. So I couldn’t stock up on every single size to perfectly fit each item that I wanted to sell. I measured the dimensions of each item or box & settled on 3 separate sizes that fit most of the items. Occasionally the box would be larger than what I would have preferred but that was a compromise I made to minimize my shipping expenses.
These are just my opinion,
Naveen
Just remember those using E-Bay labels, come Jan. 27 rates are going up also. First Class increase of 11.9%, also from a flat rate to a Zone rate. Priority will increase to a 5.9% average. Also weight distribution will have a change in June of 2019. Free Priority boxes maybe free, but few will have the room with insulation to take engines, and cars of O scale. I did receive 2 cars that were put into, or should say stuffed into those free priority boxes, both damaged beyond fixing.
Personally I've sold some O scale items on E-Bay, and 90% of the time lose on shipping, if I overcharge, I return overage postage.
josef posted:Free Priority boxes maybe free, but few will have the room with insulation to take engines, and cars of O scale. I did receive 2 cars that were put into, or should say stuffed into those free priority boxes, both damaged beyond fixing.
I use two free USPS "shoebox" cartons for O scale rolling stock ….. with one inserted into the end of the other, allowing for different lengths. Leaves me just enough space for some bubble wrap.
Personally I've sold some O scale items on E-Bay, and 90% of the time lose on shipping, if I overcharge, I return overage postage.
I pack up my eBay items for sale before I create the add …. just leaving one end open so I can insert a packing slip after the sale. Measure and weigh the package, and enter that info into eBay's shipping calculator, and the accurate shipping cost is always displayed to people looking at your item.
Happy Railroading
mlaughlinnyc posted:palallin posted:bw14 posted:In addition to the actual cost of shipping there is also a cost for the box (unless as mentioned you're using Priority Mail boxes provided for free by USPS), . . .
Which you DO pay for, just as a fraction of the postage charge. . . . NSTAAFL
I have a cure for the box cost problem. Get your wife to do her shopping on Amazon. She receives more than enough to cover the several boxes a week that I ship, so I always have a good choice of box sizes.
I'm all for reusing stuff - you should see my stash of boxes. However, I've found Amazon boxes to be very flimsy - I would never pack anything valuable in them. I'm assuming that Amazon has factored in a tolerance for shipping damage, but that's not feasible for occasional sales. I pack and ship in the same manner as I would want someone else to do if I'm the buyer.
palallin posted:AMCDave posted:FYI: I use USPS 99.99% of the time. I get my boxes online from USPS FREE shipped to me for FREE.......you may want to order a few if you ship much.....another way to lower costs.
But they aren't FREE: the cost is factored into the postage you pay. "FREE" anything is a sales gimmick.
Let me see if I understand. These are not the pre-paid or flat rate boxes. I order 25 of the biggest boxes they offer and my cost is ZERO. I can ship in them or store magazines in them if I want. So if the cost of the free boxes is factored into the postage I pay no matter who's box I use.....why would I ever supply my own boxes??? I must not be understanding.
AMCDave posted:palallin posted:AMCDave posted:FYI: I use USPS 99.99% of the time. I get my boxes online from USPS FREE shipped to me for FREE.......you may want to order a few if you ship much.....another way to lower costs.
But they aren't FREE: the cost is factored into the postage you pay. "FREE" anything is a sales gimmick.
Let me see if I understand. These are not the pre-paid or flat rate boxes. I order 25 of the biggest boxes they offer and my cost is ZERO. I can ship in them or store magazines in them if I want. So if the cost of the free boxes is factored into the postage I pay no matter who's box I use.....why would I ever supply my own boxes??? I must not be understanding.
Not saying you would want to use your own boxes: I am just pointing out that you DO pay for them, just not as a separate "line item." Absolutely make use of them!
RLHarner posted:Big_Boy_4005 posted:At one time a few years ago, we were seeing high fuel prices adding to shipping costs. That was probably legit. Now fuel prices are low again. Will shipping costs go down? Fat chance! Do airfares ever go down or anything else for that matter? It's all about profits and pleasing investors in most cases. USPS excepted, though they have their own issues.
My train buddies were whining about shipping yesterday morning over coffee. Doesn't matter what it is, you're gonna pay the freight. Call it inflation if you want, but there is certainly "price creep".
Fuel prices are not low! If you mean gasoline being low you are correct. However, the world runs on diesel fuel which is also home heating oil! Don’t expect any low cost fuel ever! It’s funny that diesel is a byproduct of gasoline so it should be cheaper! What a joke!
While Diesel is more expensive than gasoline (interestingly, when I was growing up back in the 70's diesel was less than regular gas at the time), they are correct when they say it is relatively cheap, both historically and also compared to when the price of gasoline and diesel was over 5 bucks a gallon in the US. When the price of fuel soared, shipping companies tacked on surcharges, and they have become for the most part made permanent, even though the price has plummeted since then (right now, gasoline is about 2.25 average in the US, diesel is 2.90 or so). Compare that to gas at 5 a gallon and diesel pushing almost 6. Factored by inflation, and both are much lower than they cost 40 years ago.
Diesel is not a byproduct of gasoline,and it is not the same as diesel fuel. Gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosone, Naptha, home heating oil, bunker fuel oil, are products that come out of distilling oil out of the ground, gasoline and kerosene are 'higher' products (that have less yield/gallon of oil), bunker oil is minimally refined, home heating oil is more refined than that (and will yield less/gallon of crude oil). Yes, you can run home heating oil in a diesel engine, but diesel fuel has additives and is a lot cleaner than home heating oil, it is a bit more refined.
If you're a seller, watch out for the "free shipping" option that gets relentlessly pushed by popular online auction sites. Every time I've used that option, some buyer from California swoops in for the kill, and I end up paying twice as much as I had anticipated. These days I always use a calculated shipping cost option based on size, weight and the buyer's location.
Shipping costs are expensive, it does seem ridiculous that a heavy case of wine costs less to ship than a train set. Could be the wine store is a bulk shipper, could be they factor the shipping into the cost of the item, whereas the person shipping the train set is paying what the rest of us do. I know at one point congress was talking about investigating if the shippers, including USPS, were giving Amazon ridiculously low rates, below their cost, and then jacking up the prices other businesses and people paid (basically what happened back in the 19th century when Standard Oil got sweetheart rates from the railroads and farmers and others were paying through the nose), but I haven't heard anything about that in a while. I guess the best answer is they are what they are, very little any of us can do to change that.
SOME SELLERS WILL CHARGE US AS MUCH AS THEY THINK THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH. WHEN I SEE ULTRA HIGH POSTAGE I BLOCK THE SELLER. IT'S A MATTER OF COMMON SENSE WITH SOME PRIDE THROWN IN.
ajzend posted:Dave Warburton posted:Shipping rates are a killer when you sell trains on Ebay.
Sets with transformer and track are particularly expensive.
eBay gives lots of choices between the USPS and FedEx. They also give a small discount off of the full retail price
Of course, if you want the market that eBay offers you have to pay the price
Yes, my wife is an Ebay Super Seller so she knows the shipping ins and outs. My bottom line is that shipping entire sets is super expensive no matter who you use, though. And there can be a major difference among the shipping companies to ship the same package in the same manner you need to research your options on larger cartons.
Priority Mail is always cheaper for small items such as individual freight cars.
I like ebay as a buyer because you know straight away how much everything is going to cost, ebay also deal with used items something that hobby shops don't have on their websites and I can understand why.
That said I still deal with USA Hobby shops I don't want to mention who I deal with here, I wish I could, but I might get reprimanded or deleted, but one thing I will tell you I deal with these shops because they have good websites easy to read and order with the choice of shipping costs YOU make the decision and they ship to West Australia with no hesitation at all none of this "no overseas shipping". They want the business and they are a pleasure to deal with even though I have never met the owners or staff and probably never will. The internet is a very impersonal medium. Thanks. Roo.
I am one those people on Ebay that try's to charge the the actual shipping. I just shipped 4 2800 series freight cars to someone in PA. I charged $20. shipping. The auctual shipping was $9.60. I gave that person a $8.00 paypal refund. With all the refunds I have given over the 20 years I have been selling on Ebay, I have received 1 thankyou. Sometimes I wonder why I still keep doing it.
I never thank anyone for giving me a refund what I try to do is give them return business. I don't forget people that have done the right thing by me.
Maybe I should say "thanks for the refund" more often as well.
I know that I have sent a photo to some sellers of the item on the layout to show my appreciation of their service for shipping to West Australia and I always write a nice note with the five stars. "Fast, well packed, great item, what else can I say except thanks" or "Well packed fast. Thanks for shipping to West Australia" I have a number of messages for sellers, none of them negative. You blokes help get my layout to where it is. Thanks. Roo.
There is only one figure that matters, and that is the total amount that gets the time to your door. What difference does it make how that amount is subdivided?
eddie g posted:I am one those people on Ebay that try's to charge the the actual shipping. I just shipped 4 2800 series freight cars to someone in PA. I charged $20. shipping. The auctual shipping was $9.60. I gave that person a $8.00 paypal refund. With all the refunds I have given over the 20 years I have been selling on Ebay, I have received 1 thankyou. Sometimes I wonder why I still keep doing it.
You keep doing it because you are a decent and honest human being.
riki posted:Yes seeing some of eBay shipping prices..sellers are padding . I try to buy .Free shipping .. What gets me. Is this. Shipping and handling .......handling?
You can't beat Amazon right now.. If sellers where smart. They would give up eBay.
Of coarse..most are trying to get top dollar..with bids..
Amazon delivers .7 days. ..not in hurry.. Free shipping..
A roll of bubble wrap is $12-15, good packing tape is $2-3 per roll. I scavange for boxes. $3-5 is added to everything I sell to cover these costs, I do not scrimp on packaging. Unless the post office runs over the box with a truck you will receive anything I ship in the condition it leaves my house. If that is not worth a few bucks I'd rather not sell to you.
In my opinion eBay is a better place to sell trains than Amazon. The fees are lower and you do not need to wait to get paid.
When I sell on eBay I try to offer 2 mailing options, one being flat rate USPS priority box. I just sold 2 transformers and the Flat rate box shipped these heavy items Florida to Oregon for a very fair price and another to New Jersey.
Less than $13 shipping on an $83 bid and same for the other on a $73 bid delivered in 3 days. I don't think that is too bad?
WaynePa posted:Why does it cost so much to ship model railroad items? I purchase cases of wine from a store in Albany NY and they ship a 12 bottle case of wine FedEx next day for $22.00. I think the weight of the box is at least 25 pounds. So, why do the shipping costs for model train items have to be so expensive.
Frequent shippers get reduced rates.
I just went to the post office today, and sent a package to a forum member. It was like 5 or 6 pounds, went priority to Arkansas from Minnesota, and cost about $12.50. I didn't think that was too bad. I glanced at the flat rate boxes, and the largest was $18+, and my stuff wouldn't have fit in it.
There's really no accounting for what various eBay sellers charge for shipping. I know there are people out there who like to pad their shipping charges to help offset eBay fees. I guess, in the end, it's up to you if you want to buy something that has high shipping.
eddie g posted:I am one those people on Ebay that try's to charge the the actual shipping. I just shipped 4 2800 series freight cars to someone in PA. I charged $20. shipping. The auctual shipping was $9.60. I gave that person a $8.00 paypal refund. With all the refunds I have given over the 20 years I have been selling on Ebay, I have received 1 thankyou. Sometimes I wonder why I still keep doing it.
When I list on eBay, I always enter an estimate of the shippping weight based on normal packing. What I actually pay may be different, but I don't think that matters. The buyer is getting the item at the cost he was willing to pay. The division of what he pays between buying and shipping doesn't matter. Sometimes, not often, I'll lose on shippiing, but what's paid is paid.
One of the things I don't like about selling on eBay is that it's hard to calculate on your own the exact shipping weight and dimensions so that you can print out the label on eBay and get the USPS discount over going to the store. I used to do that but then I moved and at my new post office, they are more sticklers so I got packages I had shipped out sent back to me for not having enough postage. I can buy a postal scale, but that's only so accurate, especially on the larger boxes.
My other comment about shipping is that it's not bad if you are shipping among the east coast, for example. But shipping across their "zone" lines say from Virginia to Iowa, and forget it.
As someone else said, back when fuel prices were $4+/gal, the shipping companies all raised their rates. But now that fuel prices are cheap again, those high rates remain. They are all built into their business and profit model now.
I now try to only sell train items on eBay during November and December, when I know I can get the highest price for the item, which can help erase some of the shipping cost.
Gilly@N&W posted:riki posted:What gets me. Is this. Shipping and handling .......handling?
Free boxes are nice if you can get one that is the right size. To properly package some items, there are times that the seller needs to BUY the box, bubble wrap, Styrofoam peanuts, tape, etc. That stuff isn't free. And it does take time, money, and effort to go get it.
As for eBay, I was forced to refund the shipping costs for FREE SHIPPING to a buyer who decided they didn't want to keep an item. They were refunded (by eBay) the sale price, PLUS my shipping cost, PLUS I had to pay for the return shipping. I could not make eBay understand that even though I had listed FREE SHIPPING, I still had to pay for the shipping, not the buyer. I ended up paying for the original shipping, refunding the SAME amount to the buyer, AND paying for the return shipping. That was 3x the shipping cost for a 2 way trip. The buyer ended up making money on the deal, and turned a NIB item into a used and damaged item that I can't sell.
When selling on eBay, you need to consider all costs.
This is why I pretty much stopped dealing with ebay/paypal. IMO they won't listen or react to scammers until they are wide spread. You got policy scammed almost same as I've been. They know the latest policy trends and walk away with your account rep/time or cash or goods; you just get to pick your loss...if lucky.
"Things cost more" ...Of course they do.. so use of percentages based on other "costs of living" because it is the only semi-accurate way to look at it; and I'd say the shipping costs are obviously inflated today (remember inflation? It it didn't vanish.
The USPS is really the only thing keeping things competitive imo.
Fuel hasn't been the issue in some time. When it is, weight becomes more of an issue/cost. The personnel costs aren't on an upswing, anything outsourceable is, and business isn't as down so much as public opinion of them is; mostly because of Amozon agents and media over thefts. Buisness is actually booming, yet prices climb.
I think the little guy might be paying for part of the discount the bulk shippers of today get. I'd bet that discount is at an all time high. It's the biggest change to business model really (that and higher management pay overall, and higher profit % expectations to boot 
)
It shouldn't cost $50 to have a "brick" thoughtfully dropped at your doorstep coast to coast in a week via of a nationwide delivery company when I can fly round trip Clevland Texas for $100-150.
I'll just add that the cost of insurance really increases the shipping cost real fast. A lot of businesses will ship without the added cost of insurance, where a small retailer or consumer will likely insure the product for the full value.
Jim
Unless you pay for Amazon Prime and buy a lot there (good luck finding trains and train gear at Amazon) or buy small Chinese stuff that fits in an envelope and takes 8 weeks to arrive you are cut out of buying by internet or mail because shipping costs are out of this world.
Charlie
Not to beat a dead horse (iron horse), i will explain a situation that just happened to me regarding a commercial (not individual) seller on a popular auction site. The take away from this should be that as buyers (and even sellers) we should educate ourselves regarding shipping costs, and not hesitate to inform sellers before purchasing from mail order or online resellers. The items in question here are 2 Lionel diecast sprung trucks with couplers. I had received a pair claimed to be excellent from a seller in SC that had a coupler arm bent downward. The seller graciously agreed to take them back. I found another pair from a commercial seller in NJ, discussed his $10.54 shipping charge prior to purchase which he claimed he would refund any overage after purchase , but now says the shipping cost was $10.54. Here is my response to him.
"Why $10.34 from NJ-Wash when i’m only 200 miles north of Times Square, and why 2 lb. for an item that with a box and packing materials weighs less than one pound? When i first questioned your $10.54 shipping costs before purchasing the item, i pointed out that just a week before i had shipped essentially the same item via First Class mail from Johnstown, NY to SC for less than $4, and that after the postal rate increase it would ship for less than $5. OR it could’ve been shipped Priority Flat Rate Mail for less than $7 before the increase and about $8 after the increase. Having sold over $20,000 on Ebay, and having been shipping as part of my job since1962, including import/export for 40 years since 1972, i am keenly aware of shipping costs as well as US tax laws regarding showing shipping/handling costs as a deductible business expense. No, i don’t believe that you are a "basement warrior”, but rather one of the many sellers on Ebay that are trying to make additional profits out of shipping charges."
Without going into the details of deductibility of shipping/handling costs under the tax code and extra charges for insurance , the take away here is to be familiar with shipping costs before buying and don't be afraid to question them.
jd-train posted:I'll just add that the cost of insurance really increases the shipping cost real fast. A lot of businesses will ship without the added cost of insurance, where a small retailer or consumer will likely insure the product for the full value.
Jim
I never buy insurance, and I will make a fuss if a shipper asks me to pay. Over more than 500 shipments in several years, what I have saved in insurance would more than pay for the total loss of a few of the more expensive items that I've shipped with money left over.
Insurance is gambling with heavy odds in favor of the house.
