Shipping Options - Larger Items


dvanvleet

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I'm curious to hear from those that have a web store front, either Etsy or something else, how you handle shipping on larger items such as tables, chests, etc. I've seen some sellers on Etsy that are selling larger items and able to ship in the $150 range, which is less than half of quotes I've gotten. So, I'd like to hear from folks with some consistent experience here. Thanks!

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I have used Uship.com for most things. Pricing varies from $150 to $1000 or so depending. The longer you wait the less you will pay. You can set a price, and someone will usually bite. If not, raise the price by $25 until someone does. Then get their info, and use them bypassing Uship if you want... It'll save you money. They have the best pricing, so if a table is listed for $150 shipping, they are definitely hiding it in their price. Which is dumb... Most places like that don't take a cut off the shipping price. For instance, Custommade will take 10% of the "sale" price and projects over 10k having a flat fee of 1K. Shipping doesn't get a cut taken out. 

Anyway... Either they are putting it in the back of their truck and driving to Arkansas to save a few bucks, or they are hiding it somehow. 

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  • 6 months later...

I'm running into this sort of thing right now. The big problem is that a couple years ago the big carriers (UPS/FedEx) changed to a weight-by-volume model. I've got a shipment going to Virginia in a couple weeks in a box 22x22x22. The whole box weighs around 15lbs but the carrier will charge for it as if it weights 50lbs based on the dimensions of the box. I am going to try to do a partial-assembly on this item and see if I can get it into a smaller box, as the customer doesn't mind gluing up a couple dowels and some minor assembly. If I can't work out a good way to do it, the customer (thankfully) is willing to pay full shipping cost in addition to what they are paying for the item.

What this is resulting in is me deciding to focus more marketing locally instead of online (at least on the larger items). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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