Introduction
It had been a while since I’ve sold a big heavy item on eBay. Well, recently I bought some Rock Band 4 bundles for about half off; don’t ask me how, just know it was possible. Anyway, I listed the item on eBay since it’s a gated item on FBA, and I undercut the big box retailers because I wanted to move them quickly.
Shipping
In my head and due to past experience, I’ve been able to ship heavy Dyson’s from WA to FL for $30. That’s what I expected to be the worst possible cost. My first sale went to Michigan. I figure that’s only half-way across the country, so maybe shipping will be $15-$20. However, when I went to buy a Fedex Ground shipping label, even with the eBay discount, I got a rude awakening – $40! OOPH! The reason for that is because the item weighs about 24 pounds and has a dimension of 31″. The combination of the weight and the dimension is what made the shipping cost so high. This wiped out the majority of my profits. For you experienced shippers out there, you know that once you get to the oversized items, the box dimensions can add up costs greatly.
Options
After the first item sold, I could have changed my listing to charge actual cost instead of FREE SHIPPING. The upside of doing that is then you pass the shipping costs on to your consumer. The downside is that the buyer can give you a low rating for shipping costs (this will go away in 2016 from what I read.) The other downside is that FREE SHIPPING is an incentive to buyers. When I buy stuff, while I look for total overall cost, if an item has free shipping, I tend to buy from that seller.
The other option I could have done was not used the outer box that it arrived in. This would have cut down the dimensions and thus saved on cost. I didn’t want to ship the item bare though for obvious reasons. I could have cut the box to fit it properly, but that was too much work. In the end, I bit the bullet and just paid the $40 for shipping and left all my listings the same.
Conclusion
While fuel prices have gone down, UPS and Fedex haven’t passed the savings on to consumers due to high demand. Would I have bought the item again now knowing the cost of shipping? No, I wouldn’t. This wiped away most of my margin. Would I have bought the item if it was 24 lbs, but came in a more compact package? Probably. If I could have sold this on FBA, then I definitely would have bought it since that FBA shipping cost is so cheap.