Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper share three tips to help you master shipping in your reselling business.
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UPS Shipping Guidelines: https://www.ups.com/ca/en/help-center/packaging-and-supplies.page
FedEx Shipping Guidelines: https://www.fedex.com/content/dam/fedex/us-united-states/services/GrlPkgGuidelines_fxcom.pdf
USPS Shipping Guidelines: https://www.usps.com/ship/packages.htm
Reseller Hangout Podcast - Master Shipping With 3 Easy Tips
Rob: What's up, guys? In today's episode, we are gonna help you master shipping in three easy steps.
Melissa: So today we're gonna jump into three steps that can help you master your shipping. We know that shipping is one of the biggest obstacles, really that for a lot of people. It's one of the things that hangs a lot of people up. So we wanna help you bust through that today.
Rob: That's right. We don't want you to be able to use it as an excuse.
We want you guys to be able to really get a handle on shipping. So, before we dive into these three tips, let's talk about what you need in your house, in your office before you decide to take on shipping. So a couple things that you definitely need is a tape measure, you need a box cutting knife, you need a tape gun to start shipping. And then of course you need your packaging materials, which is gonna be a box, you wanna have a box around, you wanna have packaging materials that you're gonna actually wrap or put your item in to ship it, packaging, peanuts, or bubbles. So those are all things that you really need before you start, really tackling shipping.
So, that's what you definitely wanna start off with are those items.
Melissa: And a scale. You do need a scale.
Rob: Excuse me. Exactly. We don't have a scale with us, but you do need a scale. You have to know what your item weighs before you create a shipping label. So you definitely wanna have a scale as well.
Melissa: And when you're creating the label, never try to fudge on that stuff.
Don't try to say, oh, well it's really a pound over let's no, it's not gonna work for your favor.
Rob: Back in the day when I started selling and shipping on eBay, I used to do that. I would back down. So I would start off with the overall dimensions of the item and then I'd back down. Okay. Instead of 51 inches, it's actually 49 inches.
And I would do that. The problem is they will come and rebill you for that. And you get charged so much more money. So do not do that. Definitely, make sure you have the exact measurements that you have, and even go over a little bit. If you're half an inch, go over to the, round up on all your inches and then in the exact weight, make sure you're rounding up on the weight too if it's not a full pound.
Melissa: All right. You wanna dive in?
Rob: Let's do it.
Melissa: All right. So the first one is to know your shipping company's guidelines.
Rob: So this is very important. Now we typically use FedEx and UPS for most of our shipments, that are, do larger items typically, yeah. That are outside of the freight realm.
So FedEx and UPS both require you to have two to three inches of packaging, around the item. So you wanna make sure whatever you are shipping, you're wrapping it and what we love to use is definitely the bubbles. We, we buy the bigger bubbles in a hundred foot rolls, and that's what we use. Make sure that you have that wrapped around your item, nice and tight, to where none of the item that you're shipping is showing. You wanna have it nice and tight with that.
And then the other key is, it's gotta be tight fit into a box. You do not want, when you pick up that box and you shake it or you move it, that item cannot shake from side to side. It's gotta be in there nice and tight. So if you do have bubbles around it and the box is a little bit bigger add the packaging peanuts throw some packaging peanuts in there as well, so you can keep it in there. Nice and tight. You cannot use only packaging peanuts on heavier items. The guidelines of FedEx and UPS. I believe it's 15 pounds and under, that you have to use some other type of, sorry, 15 pounds or over. You have to use some other type of packaging besides packaging peanuts.
Melissa: So, so basically if something was in a box that you get and it's heavy and it just has packaging peanuts in it. And you're, it can still be thrown around because the peanuts will condense pretty much. Right?
Rob: Absolutely. The peanuts will condense and it will slide. The item will slide through the peanuts and hit the outside and can be broken if the box is thrown or dropped or something like that, So on lighter items, you can just use packaging peanuts, but typically the stuff that we ship is over 15 pounds. If you use, the bubble wrap, if you use that and use packaging peanuts, you can do that. You can combine the two, you just can't use only packaging peanuts for items that are over 15 pounds.
Yeah. Make sure, you know, and you can get, we probably can put a link in here for FedEx and UPS's guidelines, that you guys can check those out. But just, those are the basics. It's two to three inches around your item and it fits tightly in that box and makes sure it's taped up and it's in there nice and tight for shipping.
Melissa: Now I was just gonna add for stuff, small stuff that is not breakable, you know, you can throw that stuff in a mailer usually, and something that I like to do, just because the, we really only do small stuff with the kids when they're selling stuff for the most part. But I like to add now up, what's it called?
The, the little plastic bag. Yeah. Yeah.
What, what do they call? I don't know, but I know what you're talking about. Clear plastic bags, plastic bags. I got that's all the tip of my tongue.
Rob: She bought 'em in the hundred, hundred pounds of those.
Melissa: And they're so nice because if it's something that's not breakable, you can just put it in that.
They come in different sizes and then put it in your poly mailer. And it just adds a little bit, just is a nicer packaging. The person who's getting it, it's arriving just a little bit nicer than just thrown into a poly mailer. Anyways. Just wanna, absolutely add that in.
Rob: So, so know your guidelines that you have to abide by when you're shipping items.
So like I said, the FedEx and UPS for the two that we use, those are the basics that you really have to know. And then number two is
Melissa: always get insurance on your items.
Rob: Guys, we cannot stress this enough. This will alleviate so much stress when you're shipping. Definitely definitely pay the extra, no matter what it is just when was it?
A couple days ago, I ended up paying an extra $15 solely for insurance for shipping out what did I just ship out recently? Was it a, it was another panel. Yeah. So the panel sold for $800 and it cost me, I think, an extra $10 or $15 solely for the insurance. Guys do not skimp. Pay that because if the item is lost, you are in trouble.
If the item is damaged, you're in trouble, you're responsible for refunding your buyer if the item gets there damaged. So if you're packaging it properly and you pay for insurance, then you are a hundred percent. You have ease of mind. You guys will be able to get the money back for that item, if it is damaged or if it is lost.
So always, always, always pay for the insurance. FedEx and UPS I believe it's the first hundred dollars is actually covered in the shipping label, the shipping that you're paying first.
Melissa: So if it's under a hundred dollars, you're covered, you don't have to get extra insurance.
Rob: Exactly. But every hundred dollars after that, they charge you a certain fee on it.
And like I said, the thing that I just sold was $700 or $800 and I had to, I had to buy, it was either $10 or $15 extra on top of the shipping price that I had to pay for insurance. So definitely do that. Save yourself a lot of headache. I didn't do that in the beginning. I didn't wanna spend any extra on shipping.
Now I always do it because you just don't know. That is the insurance. Guess what I guarantee you have car insurance right now. I guarantee you have house insurance, renter's insurance, any type of those insurance that's to protect you. That's the same as this pay that little bit of extra money to do it so you are protected.
Melissa: And I think it's $50. It is $50 for up to on priority. USPS it's not a hundred dollars. So, so that's covered with your purchase of a priority label. So if anything over that, you still need to go and, purchase extra insurance. And I wanted to talk about the lost items.
So we had. I've gotten insurance on a lot of our items, but we sold for a while. We were selling a lot of sleep number mattresses and they fold up in a box really well. It's a cover. It's not, there's no way that that can break at all. So it can't break. So you're, didn't get insurance.
It was $600, $500?
What do you think the?
Yeah, usually $600 is what we yeah, what we sold 'em for. So we didn't get insurance on it and they lost the package. And then we were like, oh crap. It's not broken, but it's lost. So what do we do with a person? So they made us refund, eBay made us refund the buyer.
Obviously she didn't get her package. And then, so we were supposed to go after the shipping company, but they couldn't do anything cause we didn't have insurance. So yep. How long ago was that? That was wow ago. Yeah. So now we'll do it no matter what, even if it's not breakable.
We still get insurance.
Rob: I'm telling you, save yourself some headaches, always pay for the insurance and it is very minimal, compared to what your shipping label is. So that one that I told you about, I mean, I think I paid, if I'm not mistaken, it was like $80 or $90 for the label. And then I had to pay an extra $10 or $15 for the insurance. So very, very minimal compared to what the label cost.
Melissa: You sold it for $800.
Rob: You can do it. Yeah, I think it was $799 is what I sold it for. Yeah. And then, extra hundred dollars for shipping is what he paid. So I still shipped it. He paid for shipping out of it and the insurance. So just make sure you always do that. Always include that in that.
Melissa: And he'd only paid $10 for the items. So yeah, that's a big part too, is make sure that you have enough room wiggle room when you're buying items to be able to do that stuff. You know, know of these fees are coming.
Rob: Absolutely extra insurance. And then we will jump on to number three guys. And this is I'm gonna actually give you a bonus after three, but three is gonna be use eBay to create your labels.
This is very, very big. You want to be using eBay. And if you're doing Facebook marketplace or other arenas, if they allow you to, we only ship through eBay. But eBay's gonna save you so much money. I've saved up to like 60%, all my labels by using eBay. So you definitely want to be creating the labels through eBay because they'll absolutely save you money.
Yeah. So.
Melissa: And the bonus number four is a big one is just start, just do it because shipping can be scary sometimes, you know, you're going, you don't know like, okay, is this gonna make it? It might be breakable. It might be bigger than you're used to shipping. But just doing it is going to give you the, the best way to get it done.
I mean, absolutely well, best experience.
Rob: You're gonna get better and better at it. The more that you do it. So definitely just start, start doing it and you're gonna get better and better if you follow these guidelines, if you make sure packaged properly, you're paying for insurance, you're getting discounts on your shipping labels.
If you guys remember that one that I just shipped that, panel that I just shipped out, yesterday or the day before. It saved me over a hundred dollars by using eBay. So, but all that stuff, the more that you do it, you're gonna get better and better at it, and it's gonna become easier and almost second nature to you.
I mean, Melissa can give you a story on...
Melissa: no. Yeah. I had something that didn't fit into. We have, we keep all our boxes, so we don't wanna pay for packaging material if we can help it. Like we do pay for some stuff, but we keep all of the boxes that we get, anything from Amazon, anything, that we order, we keep, we have a whole section of just boxes. So I was looking for a box specific size for something that I shipped. I don't even remember what it was. But it, I couldn't find the right size to get it. It was like a little bit longer and narrow. So I was like, okay, well I can put two boxes together and I'll get it as small, cuz you still want it as compact as possible cuz you want it the best shipping price.
But you wanna protect the items. So I was like waiting for him to do the box for me. He was doing something else waiting for him and he was busy. So I'm like, all right, well I'll just figure this out. Watched you do it. How many times I can figure out how to do a Franken box? So I did. And it turned out good.
And the item arrived, you go, and the item arrived safely. I really wanted to get it shipped out that day. So it got shipped out that day and everything was good. And I was like, oh, this isn't that hard. I can do this. So, it was pretty cool, like to see, okay, I just need to do it.
Rob: You will be so surprised at all the confidence that you get just by doing it and doing it again and doing it again.
So that is the bonus number four, definitely just start, start doing it and you will get better and better at it. So that is great, great information we can give you.
Melissa: And I wanted to add too, like we do a lot of large items that we ship a lot of large items, but we have a lot of members that are doing it too.
And I love that a big percentage of them are women who are shipping out like these big cooktops. They're doing some freight stuff, putting stuff on pallets and I'm it's just awesome. Like you can't do it. And a lot of times we'll, we'll see every once in a while they'll get in their head like, oh, I can't do this.
And then nope, they got it. They, you totally can. And you do it over and over, and then you become a professional.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: You get really good at it. So, and then it's just like easy. You can do it in your sleep.
Rob: That's it's. Second nature. You guys will totally get it. So guys, hopefully this podcast, this video has helped you guys out.
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Melissa: And don't be scared of shipping. You got this.