Shipping from a peon point of view

I'm just getting to the point of wanting to ship some peripheral boards, motherboards, etc... but I'm reading a lot of people will use the large flat rate boxes for shipping. I have truly never used one before and just realized it's $18 and some change to ship that box. And they're being a little generous with the word "large." If I'm paying nearly 20$ to ship, that's eating into the money I would be making per package since I'm not sending in product by the pallet. Is this honestly the best option for most people? I understand that drop off is ideal if you're close enough but I'm a good 3+ hours away from anything I've seen and I just can't afford the space to let it build up a whole bunch for a big trip. I'm just trying to send in a box full when I get enough for 20$ here and 30$ there sort of thing but shipping is going to make that feel really not worth my while. I'm holding off from sending anything till I'm sure if that's the best I can do. Any and all wisdom appreciated.

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Originally Posted by Nubs1201

I'm just getting to the point of wanting to ship some peripheral boards, motherboards, etc... but I'm reading a lot of people will use the large flat rate boxes for shipping. I have truly never used one before and just realized it's $18 and some change to ship that box. And they're being a little generous with the word "large." If I'm paying nearly 20$ to ship, that's eating into the money I would be making per package since I'm not sending in product by the pallet. Is this honestly the best option for most people? I understand that drop off is ideal if you're close enough but I'm a good 3+ hours away from anything I've seen and I just can't afford the space to let it build up a whole bunch for a big trip. I'm just trying to send in a box full when I get enough for 20$ here and 30$ there sort of thing but shipping is going to make that feel really not worth my while. I'm holding off from sending anything till I'm sure if that's the best I can do. Any and all wisdom appreciated.

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I wouldn't use a flat rate, unless you are shipping a high value item that you can pack in tight. Scrap ram for example. Other than that, in your situation, I would ask one of our buyers for a prepaid shipping label. Would most likely be fedex. They get discounts due to volume. Keep your boxes under 70 pounds.

The Flat Rate boxes I use sometimes when I can fill them with RAM and CPUs and items greater than scrap value. Then top them off with hard drive boards or something else high value if room remains. That's about the only time it makes sense to use the Flat Rate boxes. Otherwise you run into the problem you already identified. What mthomasdev said makes the most sense. Once you get enough to get 65-70lbs, ship with UPS or Fed-ex. With the quantity you can manage at that weight the price makes sense.

And I just put it all in any old cardboard box that fits it reasonably well and it just costs based on weight? I'm sorry but I've never done much of the shipping game and these may seem like stupid questions but I've got to ask them somewhere.

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Originally Posted by Nubs1201

And I just put it all in any old cardboard box that fits it reasonably well and it just costs based on weight? I'm sorry but I've never done much of the shipping game and these may seem like stupid questions but I've got to ask them somewhere.

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Get a sturdy cardboard box, fill it up, tape it well, check out the buyers section. You'll probably want to use one of the buyers in Ohio or wisconsin, they are probably closest to you. Fedex has zones, based on mileage, so the closer they are, the less to ship. I know at least one of those buyers does fedex labels thru his company. I'd expect it would cost about 35 cents per pound to ship.

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Originally Posted by mthomasdev

I wouldn't use a flat rate, unless you are shipping a high value item that you can pack in tight. Scrap ram for example. Other than that, in your situation, I would ask one of our buyers for a prepaid shipping label. Would most likely be fedex. They get discounts due to volume. Keep your boxes under 70 pounds.

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I am a small timer and this is great advice. I don't ship anything that pays less than $1.50 per lb. Anything less and you won't get much in return. If you don't get a prepaid shipping label from on of the buyers on the forum, I would at least create an account with FedEx to get a little better rate. You can get a shipping price quote on FedEx as well. Use your own box, measure the dimensions, weigh it and enter it on the site. Hope this helps.

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Originally Posted by 2dogscrapping

I am a small timer and this is great advice. I don't ship anything that pays less than $1.50 per lb. Anything less and you won't get much in return. If you don't get a prepaid shipping label from on of the buyers on the forum, I would at least create an account with FedEx to get a little better rate. You can get a shipping price quote on FedEx as well. Use your own box, measure the dimensions, weigh it and enter it on the site. Hope this helps.

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Good points and let me add to them. If you have filled you box with all the higher value items but still have room then fill the empty space with lower value items. Where I am located I can't get more than $0.15/lb for any green boards so filling in with cheaper things make sense for me.

If you have the room shipping a pallet is far cheaper per pound.

On the bottom of boxes there is a printed seal that tells you several things including the max weight for that box. Remember that seal was for the box when it was new not used.

Fiber reinforcing tape is a good idea. 73, Mike

Feel free to email us for an estimated shipping quote! We have a pretty good deal with FedEx that may be able to save you a few dollars! We also prepay it and deduct the total from your settlement.

If you can get 50-65 lbs per box, being that you are in Indiana, I would suspect shipping to be $.25/lb to $.50/lb... just a shot off my hip on that one!

Definitely go the prepaid route. Cheapest single box shipping available to us. Also get that box as close to 65 pounds as you can for it to cost the least per pound.

Without these options, it just would not be worthwhile to do it. Mario (ewasted) has been good to me. I have also heard nothing but rave reviews for the buyer in Wisconsin.

Ill give this one away for free... use your ribbon cables or Cat5 wire in a knotted grocery bag as packing filler. Remember to KEEP ends on. At ~$0.80/lbs, Its better than bubble wrap or crumpled paper at $0.

Fill a box have an idea of what you have and there weights get a quote and go from there. Just make sure any items you send in after shipping costs make you money and doesn't cost you to send it in. Best shipping price I have got was when I sent in 69 pounds of stuff! Cost $.62 a pound. Other loads that were in the 20 - 40 pound range cost me $.80 something a pound.

I started shipping 60 pound boxes to one of the buyers in this thread. As I picked up a little more scrap I found my self filling boxes a little quicker. After that I just started filling smaller boxes and stacking them up. once I felt I had enough I stacked them on a pallet and sent them out. Its about 100 bucks to ship a pallet full under 1000 lbs from a commercial address. I'm just west of Chicago so fairly close to you.