Bend over

I know what you mean , sir

Messing about aside. I am UK based and our equivalent of USPS, the good old royal mail.

They are so expensive. I use a courier but their prices jumped up by 10% last month.

Never use Ebay checkout postal thing as they use Royal Mail-idiots

Made a few pounds on ebay but now it is crazy everyone wants everything for 99p

moan over

drew

Flat rate boxes are the way to go if your items will fit in them.

Two brake rotors can be shipped in a large flat rate box for less than $20. I've bought carbs from e-bay sellers and they shoved them in large flat rate boxes. Not a great fit but the shipping was cheap and the carbs weren't damaged.

There are different shaped medium and large flat rate boxes. Besides the square shapes, they also have rectangular boxes for board games (think Monopoly.) If you don't see them in the post office you can order them online for free.

bluej58 wrote: We have noticed an increase in shipping prices too, we spent a lot of bread ( over 100) reshipping packages to our boys out in Oakland because my wife wanted to have presents for them to open when they were out for the holidays :pinch:

Doc Rot sent me some rims from the Bay area and got burned for a few bucks from what I can see, sorry Vic.

You would think with gas prices the way they are now that it would be cheaper to ship.

If you ship enough stuff you will invariably loose some money on shipping and make some back, in my experience it usually evens out. I lost some money on shipping your stuff but unintentionally made some back from some people on here.( the "new" lady at the post office is sloppy measuring boxes" IMO its just part of sending things around the world.

Ed_in_Miami wrote: In my experience, Small packages (Anything from 12 inches linear dimensions in any way) I use USPS.
UPS/FEDEX are cheaper with anything larger.

I have used Greyhound for large items. It is fairly inexpensive, but both you and the recipient have to go to the Greyhound depot to deliver or pick up the parts. It works well for frames, car doors....... :dry:

I'm still getting right up the ass
sold an item last week, shipped usps priority and the buyer just informed me the flat rate box arrived damaged , open and item missing and he wants full refund.
wonderful

GregZ wrote: I'm still getting right up the ass
sold an item last week, shipped usps priority and the buyer just informed me the flat rate box arrived damaged , open and item missing and he wants full refund.
wonderful

Greg, whenever I send something USPS, I always get the insurance, I think it's worth the price
these are the prices
$50.01 to $100 is $2.05. $100.01 to $200 is $2.45. $200.01 to $300 is $4.60. The price per additional $100 of insurance, valued over $300 up to $5,000, is $4.60 plus $0.90 per each $100 or fraction thereof.
Pete

ThatGPzGuy wrote: If it makes you feel any better the USPS loses billions of dollar every year. So you'll pay them again thru your taxes...

USPS doesn't use any taxes. Congress forces them to overfund retirement, and pay for their own anti-terrorist measures (airlines and others are funded by TSA), which is why they lose so much money. Then congress tries to dip into the overpayment to pay for other things, like highways etc. In a sense, it's the only branch of the govt that actually generates income in exchange for actual services (rather than taxes, penalties, and fees.)

Large or heavy items do cost quite a bit, but for smaller items make sure to look for all the options. Sometimes there is a first class option that will be less than half of the priority rate.

USPS rates have shot up lately. When selling on ebay I select "standard shipping" which doesn't lock you down to one specific shipping method. That way you can compare prices and select whatever is cheapest. Often times with heavy items UPS is the way to go.

Regarding damage, I'm sort of a maniac about packing. I dumpster dive where I work and save up bubblewrap and various packing materials, and then I always package assuming the box will get tossed around. UPS will deny your damage claim unless there is at least 1" of packing materials all around the goods inside the box. USPS will deny regardless in many cases so good luck trying to get anything from them even if it's clear they are at fault.

I think my next option is to start paying bills online and start shipping ups. I've about had it with the consistent long lines and one open teller who could care less about good service. I'm tired of there protected jobs and crap attitudes

I asked my post lady if I could block junk mail, fliers , shoppers, sales papers etc, She wanted to cut my throat, without all the junk mail to deliver she and alot other lazy worthless p.o. employee's would be out of a job, Good !

I leave my junk mail in the box. When more comes I fold it and put it back in until no more can fit, then I throw it away. It's not even good enough to start the wood burner.
Steve

DO NOT EVER OPEN that junk mail, instead, write "NOT AT THIS ADDRESS" or "RETURN TO SENDER".
If your carrier will not take it back, complain to the local post office of your zip code.
Sooner or later they get the idea and won't pay return postage and you get removed from the junk mail lists.

Or if you're feeling particularly antiestablishmentarian (first time I've ever gotten to use that in a sentence!) you can cram junk mail into the prepaid envelopes that come in credit card offers. Those assholes foot the bill and you keep the postal workers in business.