Badmike wrote:
Wow!  A postal carrier that can READ and COMPREHEND!  Simply Amazing!  

A note "package pickup at the door" would be greeted with astonishment, derision, laughter (as the driver drove off) and a shaking of his head...

Mike B.

Are you sure your carrier doesn't commute to Georgia daily just to give me the pleasure of dealing with her?

As far as boxes, I use http://www.Uline.com to fill in when I don't have enough recycled boxes.

BUT (and 2 big buts get the prices down quite a bit)

I never buy anything not on sale, I wait for the sizes I need to be discounted (I buy a small box that about perfectly holds a box set or 3 hardcovers; and a medium size box that pretty easily holds around 25lbs - 30lbs  of stacked books.)

And, Uline has a delivery center around 40 miles from my house so freight is pretty affordable.

YMMV

I've read this thread with interest, and have decided to put my view in (bear in mind this is irrelevant to most of you - you don't live in England!)

I investigated buying postage online - it really is as simple as X says and I can really see why you woud do it - particularly in the US where it seems almost everyone's postal service providers are muppets!

On balance though there are a couple of reasons why it's not for me.

1) I'm a computer moron and I have a terrible fear of this sort of thing going wrong - if it happened to anyone it would happen to me

2) I value my post office. I spoke to the nice lady at my local office about this (Denise), while she was sorting out my parcels and she told me that such things are taking off - and at the same time putting another nail in the coffin of local post offices.
We are a little blase about it but, in real terms, particularly for many smaller villages the post office is the hub of the community, often being the only outlet for people to do their banking/bills. Its fine for us bright young things to do everything online and by phone but many older people still need the convenience(!) of standing in line and getting their pension,buying their license stamps,moaning about the youth of today, all in one convenient spot.

And, I actually quite like hanging around in the post office! I generally have my daughter with me in the push chair who always attracts the attention of the old dears getting their pensions , and I, like an old lady, rather like to chat and gossip to anyone in a 10' radius  - a little bit of nonsense maybe, but it passes the time!

Not to do down the way anyone else does it of course, perhaps if I did it for a living I'd do it differently.

Thanks for the references to the boxes.  I also found an interesting variable size box that would work for medium sized lots down to boxed sets with room for packing.  You just cut away along dotted lines what you don't need and fold from there. Sadly, I live about as far from a shipping local as you can in the continental US.  No love for Washington State today, I guess.

Gyg:  You make a very interesting point, I think.  I love my trips to the post office too.  I know the people there very well and people(customers) are always civil there.  In my case the fine employees of the local post office have been trying to convince me for a year to schedule pick-ups and send from home.  Much like grocery store check out people, I believe postal desk employees are graded somewhat on the number of customers they help and how well they push the Priority products.  Though they have always been nice and helpful, they sometimes kid about how I am killing them by taking their time on cheap media-mail packages.  It is all in good taste, but behind these gentle jokes I believe there is some truth.  For me, I have to drag along three kids with me to the post office and the balancing of 10 packages on top of 'hurding of cats' through the office is really starting to get to me.

Maybe I am the exception, but our local post office employees have always been top notch and my mail carrier bends over backward to help at any opportunity (like when he is delivering 10 very heavy boxes of books   ).  He is rather cosmopolitan, updating me on his latest read or out of country travel.  Sadly he is retiring in a few months so I have no idea what he will be replaced with.

Andy

Make sure you list the cheapest shipping method you offer first when listing the shipping services you offer.  The first method you list is the one that will show up on the search page, and if you have a $60 express mail price showing you may drive away customers who think you charge ridiculous shipping charges without even looking in your item to find out that you also offer a $6.50 media rate.  (Just something I noticed today while perusing listings to bid on)

Xaxaxe wrote:Oh, that just reminded me: eBay will soon be introducing new shipping-related ways to display search results. I think they'll be adding the ability to sort by shipping price and to sort by total price (current high bid plus shipping price). It was in one of their recent announcements, but I don't have the link handy right now.

So, yes, as Reindeer says, be sure to check your templates. It would be a shame to come out on the wrong end of those search results through no real fault of your own.

Searching by shipping price is long overdue.  As it is, shipping price is what I look at first these days.  The list of shipping ripoff sellers is long.

Actually, you might have to do that, Mike.  

You might offer the lowest end shipping for sellers who want to take their risks with the mail.

The guys I automatically sort out are the ones charging $7 to ship a module.  I figure, if they are already scamming on the postage what else are they doing?

I wish I could also sort out the guys whose idea of "combined shipping" is $4.95 for the first slim module and a whole dollar off for each slim module after that.  Putting those slim modules into the same envelope for exactly no difference in cost can be so stressful!

Shipping ripoffs are now the standard operating procedure on Ebay.  It was only a matter of time until Ebay acted on it as the practice cuts into their profits.

I also think that it should be possible to automatically sort out the guys who do not list shipping at all.  A firm price for shipping should be the standard.  I won't buy from a seller who will not state the shipping in advance...which is why I have never been smoked by a guy like Cougarrinard.

In my sorting priority, shipping would be sorted with lowest first and no shipping listed would be last or not listed at all.  That would make things harder on the guys who list their shipping in the actual auction text (they would just have to change their ways), but it would also cut down on the ripoff artists.

In the long run, the profit/loss margin would favor established sellers, who know the shipping rates and can list them in advance.  Sellers just entering the market would be better coached by the long-term sellers.  Currently, the one-time guys are taking their cue from the high end shippers and adding a couple of bucks.

This will also have the effect of driving up auction prices more into the range of established Ebay store prices.  With no advantage being accrued by listing for 99 cents and charging $12 for shipping, low-end sellers will bring their prices more in line with higher end sellers.

Such a system would only really be a disaster for guys like Cougarrinard, who typically make most of their profit by shipping ripoffs.

Badmike wrote:The alternative is to say "flat rate boxes for all interntional"....which right now is $32 overseas.    

I'm pretty sure there are sellers who already do that now, as I know it doesn't cost $20+ to ship a single module across the border into Canada even after the postal rate hikes.

Personally, I tend to avoid those sellers like the plague, because I'm probably still going to get the item in a manila envelope with tape across the front.

Has anyone looked into shipping by, say, UPS, FedEx, etc.--whether its cheaper, more expensive, or a wash?

just a question on the flat rate box: one limit is the 20 pounds of weight... but what about the dimension of the container? is there any threshold?
tnx and ciaooo