Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about how to know when to freight ship an item.
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Reseller Hangout Podcast - How To Know When It Makes Sense To Freight Ship
Rob: What's up, pro flippers? On today's episode, we are talking about freight shipping and when does it make sense to ship your items freight?
Melissa: And just because you can ship something freight does it mean you should?
Rob: All right guys, so today we are talking about freight shipping and when should you be freight shipping and when should you not? When does it actually make sense to send your items freight?
Melissa: So we basically will ship anything, any size across the country, like we've shipped some big stuff, like a how tall was the bus wash?
Like a 12 foot? 12 foot.
Rob: 12 foot pallet.
Melissa: Was one of our longest pallets. The Harley sign was a huge one.
Rob: Same thing. I think it was 11 or 12 foot.
Melissa: That was a huge, so we'll ship anything big, but it has to also make sense to ship it. So we wanna dive into that cuz some people will be like, okay, well I can, this is a big chair or big something, I can ship it freight, but then the item might not be worth it.
So we're gonna unpack that.
Rob: That's right. So typically when we're selling items, we are shooting for 50% of retail. So the items that we're selling, we're giving the buyer a great deal where it makes sense for them to come and buy our item versus buying it new because they're gonna save 50% on that. Now, when you're thinking about freight shipping it's gotta make sense for the buyer to be able to pay the price you're asking and then still cost them, or you build it into the price an extra roughly, I would say on average, $200, maybe $250 to freight ship that item.
Melissa: Yes. We do a lot of our stuff free shipping, but we build it into the price. So we know it's gonna cost us roughly a hundred to $300, depending on the item. A little more if it's something like a bus wash, but roughly a hundred to 300 items to ship something, so, or dollars to ship. So we just build that into the price for free shipping.
Rob: Yep. So that's one thing that you have to, you have to be careful of, is that you're selling your items. It has to be such a great deal for the buyer that they want your item over new and you have to be giving them that deal to where it makes sense for them to be able to pay the, a little bit extra money or you build it into the price, for shipping, it has to just make sense. So for example, if you're trying to sell an exercise bike, that's a home addition exercise, bike retail on it, if you went down to your local sports store, retail on that bike, $500. Does it make sense for you to sell that on eBay and then be able to ship it?
A lot of times, $500 if that's what it costs new, then you have to, if you use our kind of our formula, you'd be at $250, which means you'd have to pick up that bike roughly, I would say for like $40, $20 to $40, to be able to make some money on it, and then still charge an extra for a bike like that, it probably would cost you, I'm thinking of a recumbent bike, probably cost you about $250 to do it so it wouldn't make sense for the buyer to buy it with you a used bike versus going down to their local store or buying online somewhere that has free shipping, for that same price of $500.
Melissa: Yeah, cuz we do get that question a lot. Like somebody will and it, we've gotten it with strollers, they don't usually go freight, but some of the stuff that is more around that $200 to $300 price range is typically not gonna be worth it for the buyer, you just, you have to just kind of put yourself in their shoes.
Rob: Yeah.
Melissa: Like, if you were gonna go buy this item, would you pay that much money plus shipping or factor it in when you can get an item for new, for that same price? So it, it just doesn't make sense. So our, our threshold, I would say is about $500 ish. Like an item really has to be worth about $500 for it to make sense.
Rob: For us to sell it for $500.
Melissa: Sell it for $500. For it to go, freight. So.
Rob: Yeah, retail being between a thousand and $2,000 and we're selling it for $500, that is really, really the lowest point, that you wanna ship something and be able to go freight with it. If it's gonna go freight. Yeah. So I'll give you an example of something we just sold, that I had a different mindset or a different expectation with it.
It was an extended carrier called through, well somebody said you pronounce it Thule. I don't know how it's pronounced, but it's one of those things that slips into your Reese hitch behind your car, and then it's a big box that keeps all your luggage and your stuff in there. It keeps it secure outta the rain, the elements, all that kind of stuff when you're traveling.
So we bought one of those. I put it on and I listed it. So retail on that item. I believe they're selling it from the manufacturer for like $900, $850, $900. I listed it for $700. Yeah, $700. We actually sold it and I did free shipping on it. Now, this was the kicker. I thought I could pull it apart and get it into a smaller box.
After I sold it, I went out and I started getting it ready for shipping. And the problem was everything was pop riveted, which means they put it in and you can't take it apart. So the majority of this.
Melissa: No box for you.
Rob: No. The majority of this box could not be taken apart, which means it would not fit into a box and be able to ship FedEx, UPS, which that was how I was planning on doing it.
It would have to actually go on a pallet. The guy who bought this was across the country from us. He was in Washington, one of the furthest distance away for shipping. So it didn't make sense and I couldn't do it as cheap as I had wanted to do it. So I ended up refunding the guy and telling him, listen, shipping, I can't pull the thing apart.
I thought I could, so I could ship it. I can't do it. I refunded him and told him yeah, sorry, I just can't do it. I'm gonna lose way, way too much, much money on shipping. And I can't do it. So I refunded you immediately and you can go find another one. Well, he messaged back and said, hey, these things are outta stock or discontinued.
We can't get 'em anymore. I'm willing to pay you $950 for this item if you can get it to me, even if you have to put it on a pallet, which I said, okay, I'll do it. But then he found the next day, he actually found one locally, which that was over retail. He was willing to pay for it over retail.
Melissa: Because he really wanted it.
Rob: He needed it and wanted it and couldn't find one anywhere else. Well, the next day he messaged me back and said, hey, I found one local for less money. I think it was $500 or $600. I found it locally and it's an hour away from me. I can go get that. And I was happy. I didn't wanna charge him more money, but for it to be worth for me to do it, I had to charge him more money on that.
Hopefully that makes sense.
Melissa: But also to add the point of if you do make a mis mistake, like you didn't know that it was gonna, you, you weren't gonna be able to pull it apart, so, you didn't have enough money into it or you didn't have enough profit into it to make it worth your time.
Rob: Don't lose money.
Melissa: Yeah. You can, still, there's ways around it. You can refund the buyer. I mean, don't make a habit of doing it all the time. eBay won't like that, but every once in a while, if you make a mistake, it's fixable, you know?
Rob: Yeah. It's an honest mistake.
Melissa: You don't have to go through the transaction. You can refund them, send a message, be polite, and, yeah.
If it's not gonna be worth it for you, so, or you're gonna lose money. You definitely don't wanna lose money on shipping, so, absolutely.
Rob: So that's one thing that you wanna be thinking about. Now, for me, this item is discontinued or they don't offer it anymore, or it's out of stock, whatever it. I have to ask the money that I was asking for it, and then I actually have to add an extra $200 on shipping.
So it's gonna be around retail price for a used item. The only problem is it's a larger item and that's the only way that I can do it, to make the money out of it that I need to make out of it. So, hopefully that makes sense and gives you kind of an idea of what the potential is on the larger item.
Melissa: So I wanted to talk a little bit about, real quick, when does an item go freight? So, there's a threshold of size that an item has to go from going from FedEx and UPS to going freight. And that number is 130 inches when length plus girth equals 130 inches. So that's the formula they use.
Anything over that, 130 inches. I think you can go to 165. Was it?
Rob: 165, but they charge you like it's, yeah, automatically a hundred dollars over. Yeah. And it's gonna be cheaper to go freight freight shipping.
Melissa: We never do the overage. Yeah. Oversized. So anything that is over 130 inches, and length plus girth is two times.
Yeah. Or what is it? Two plus the smaller ones?
Rob: Yeah. So I'll give you an example. If this was your box, you take the two smaller numbers, you have three numbers on this. So you have the number across, you have the thickness, the depth, whatever it is, and then the, the height of it. So you take the two smaller numbers, which would be this one and this one, and then at you double those numbers.
So say this was 10. Let's double 10, which would be be 20 and let's say this is five. The short distance back here. This is five. Let's double that and that's 10. Now you add all the numbers together, so you have 20. Plus 10, which is 30. And then you don't double the longest number. You just add that to the numbers.
And that would be, let's say this is 40. So what do you have? 20, 30, and 40? 40, 50, 60. 70. So you have 70, that's under the 130 threshold that you really need to stay on to be able to get it reasonable from FedEx or UPS, anything over top of that threshold, it's, it, it needs to go freight. It will be cheaper going freight, than paying that incurred between the 130 to the 165.
It's a lot of money.
Melissa: It's a lot of overage and don't ever try to sneak in your labels and say that it's under that 130 minutes. It's really not because they'll come back and give you that overage chart. Absolutely. Still. And you do not want that tacked on cuz they're not nice about it when they do that.
Yeah, absolutely. You did that before, back in the day. What is that? You learn, you learn your mistake.
Rob: Yep. Yep. That's it. So just yesterday we shipped out two of the stretchers. They actually went freight two, those stretchers are pretty big. The overall size of the pallet that we shipped them on was 85 inches long, 36 inches wide.
And, think I had it at 48 inches tall, four foot tall, but it ended up being like 44 inches tall. So, but I bought the label before I actually palleted it and did that. That only cost us $150 to ship, two of the, emt, the stretcher striker stretchers that we did. And if we would've tried to do that in a box or, yeah, through FedEx or UPS, that would've been astronomical, probably $900 a thousand dollars to do that. To where we did not have to pay that when we actually put it on a pallet and did it that way.
Melissa: Yeah. So basically we just wanna make sure that everybody, like we wanted to talk about, does it make sense for your customer?
You just have to think about does it make sense for your customer to pay for shipping and pay for your item and still get a good deal? Cause we want them to be getting a good deal. That's, that's why they're buying from us, is because. We're giving them a great discount and and it just makes sense.
One other category real quick that I forgot, that I wanted to talk about was also furniture flippers that are repurposing furniture or redoing furniture do have a little unique spin because they can ask more money cuz they have unique items. So, what one person's asking, say, $200 for a dresser.
You painted it or you did something to it.
Rob: And now it's one of a kind.
Melissa: And it's one of a kind. And you are, you know, you're confident in your techniques and you do a good job. I mean, doesn't that be perfect? I mean, nothing's perfect. Then you can ask more money and it can still be worth it for you.
So that's just kind of a different, category than most categories are, I think. So.
Rob: You can't take the comparison of a one of a kind piece, you can't do that. You have to actually compare apples to apples, and that's apples to grapefruits. You know what I mean? That's one of the things that, it's one of a kind, your creation, you can ask a lot more money for it, especially if it's got good bones.
It turned out amazing. You could ask $500, $600 for that piece, and then still charge an extra $250 for shipping and you still would be okay for that right buyer who's gonna want that piece no matter what, because that's an amazing piece. Yeah. So, yeah.
Awesome. Hopefully this makes sense, guys. We love bringing in these tips.
Yeah, we cannot wait to do these for you. Hope you guys have an amazing day, and we will see you on the next episode.