Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about when it makes sense to ship freight items.
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fleamrktflipper/
Check out our FREE Workshop: https://courses.fleamarketflipper.com/flipper-university-workshop-webinar
You can find us at: https://fleamarketflipper.com/
When Does It Make Sense to Ship Freight Items
Rob: What's up, pro flippers? On today's episode, we are talking about freight shipping, and more specifically, when does it make sense to ship freight items?
Rob: All right guys. On today's episode we are talking about freight shipping. And like I said, more specifically, when should you be doing it?
When should you not be doing it and when does it make sense in your business?
Melissa: Yeah. Because there is a threshold that makes sense to offer freight shipping. And then there's times where there's items that shouldn't be. Even, even though you can, it doesn't make sense and you shouldn't. So we're gonna dive into that.
But before we do that, I kinda wanted to talk about like how freight shipping has, offering freight shipping has changed. It's our business completely.
Rob: So absolutely, even just where we are right now, recording this guys within the last three months, we are able to go, I mean, I, I mean this is cool because of what we're doing, but the majority of what we sold in the last three months has put us at like, $50,000 in revenue in 90 days, in 90 days, which is insane for it.
And we would not have been able to do, almost any of that, had it not been for our freight shipping and what we're able to do with freight shipping. So, it's a huge deal.
Melissa: And we kind of fell in, fell into freight shipping. But you were at a point where we had three kids that were babies. I quit my job.
You got health benefits taken away, so we needed to go flipping. All in and then you're like, how can we make more? Like I need to make more to provide for this family of five with these three little kids. Like what? We gotta figure this out. So that's when you really, you got the table. Yeah. So it was a table in chairs was his first freight shipment.
And you tried to sell that locally for $750. Yep. Right on Facebook Marketplace because all of our big stuff, I'm sure many of you who are listening, you put your big stuff on marketplace, like that's just makes sense. Like that's what well, how, what our business, if it goes in a, you know, we can ship it, then it'll go on eBay.
If it's too big, it goes on marketplace. because that just makes the most sense. Right? Yeah, absolutely. And then, you're like, what the heck, I'm just gonna listen on eBay because they're, I see similar ones listed on here for like $2,000 and you listed it for $2,250. Yeah. And it sold within a month on, and then he is like, all right, I gotta figure out how to ship
it out. So.
Rob: And it charged $500 for shipping on top of the $2,250. So we were able to do it. But yeah, that was our,
Melissa: that was our first major or that was the kind of the shift, I guess.
Rob: Game changer. Absolutely. Yeah. For us seeing what was, what was out there and for us, like we can find, and it's very easy to find in the local markets.
You can find some of these bigger items that people can't move them in the local market. You take them to the bigger audience in the bigger markets and you totally can sell them and people will pay the money for shipping. So that was what we saw where we are at and knew that to go to that next level to sell higher profit items, we really had to step it up and learn how to do freight shipping.
And that was eight years ago. And we just have not looked back since. And still to this day, I mean, that's what we do. I told you the last three months I probably shipped out, with, you know, 10, 15 pallets, freight shipping pallets through the last 90 days, just on the items that we have sold.
So, we stay relevant with it. I stay current with it. I love doing freight shipping because to me, I mean, there's a lot of comparisons between FedEx, UPS, USPS and freight shipping. That freight shipping is way easier and way, way, it's just a, a, a nicer way to navigate, fulfillment of the item that you're selling.
Melissa: Yeah. And knock on wood, but they don't get damaged in freight shipping. Like our what next one will get damaged, but no, but
Rob: let's. Take it, for example, let's break it down real quick. So when you're shipping FedEx, UPS, or USPS in a box, all those boxes are getting handled by who knows how many different employees.
Melissa: You guys have seen the videos of people throwing the boxes on, like on the porch or wherever.
Rob: And not to throw any company or anybody under the bus, but at the same time, you might have a bad day, or sorry, I mean, you know how you act differently when you have a bad day. That doesn't change for any anybody else in the world.
I mean, somebody might have a bad day, they might get upset about something and throw a box, but you don't have control of that. That's one of those things that that's out of your control once you actually drop it off at the FedEx, UPS, USPS or they pick it up from your house. However you do it once it's out of your hands, it is individually handled by quite a few different individuals that are going to pick it up, move it from one place to another, and you don't have control of how that thing is handled throughout that process. Now take it over to freight shipping. That item is going onto a pallet and the only thing that is touching that pallet, are forklifts and typically these are certified forklift drivers, that are picking these items up with the forklift, moving them around inside the warehouse and putting them into an 18 wheeler.
That's how it works. Not a lot of room for error. And not to say that there never is, there are. There are freight damages, but for us, hundreds and hundreds of shipments of freight shipments that have not been damaged. And they have, we've had great success with the freight shipping because people aren't picking them up.
They're not throwing them, you're not dealing with somebody's bad day. You're dealing with somebody on a forklift, moving stuff around. And I bet they're pretty well trained, trained, and they experience, they, they, they keep their eyes, the managers and the people inside the freight, the freight carriers, they keep their eyes on the people.
You can hear if, like, you can't really hear if a box is, is thrown and something breaks inside the back of a truck, but you have multiple people inside a, a warehouse working on these forklifts. And if they hit something with the edge that you know, some, somebody's gonna find out. Plus, when it actually arrives to the buyer of the item, something's damaged on it, the box is damaged, the pallet's damaged, so they know. So that's the, that's one of the biggest differences with freight shipping versus box shipping or FedEx, UPS, USPS shipping.
Melissa: Yeah. And doing that, the just opens up a whole new market of people because a lot of people won't ship the bigger stuff.
And if you can learn how to, it's not as hard. Like you put stuff on a pallet, it. And it gets there a lot safer. And it's just, it's changed our business and it's changed a lot of people's businesses that we've worked with. Absolutely. But there is also a time and place that it doesn't make sense. So some people, like in our members group or whatnot, they have like if they have this item, they're like, okay, well I know how to freight ship it, but should I be freight shipping it? Because is the, is the cost there? Is it worth it to the customers? What you have to think, yeah, and usually this item might be something around that $200 to $500 mark is kind of where we have to look at it.
Once you're over $500, You're pretty, you're safer. But under that, it has to make sense. So say I sell a stroller that's too big to go in a box that's gonna make sense. It has to go freight, but I sell it for $200. My lowest cost for freight shipping is probably gonna be $150 to $200. Is it worth $400 for the buyer to buy that stroller? For $400? I mean.
Rob: Retail. Retail on the item retail, yes, has to be.
Melissa: Over way over that, yes. Has to be like a thousand dollars item Yes. For that to be worth it for the customer. So you have to kind of weigh those and then, yeah. So if you wanna add to that.
Rob: No, absolutely. So that's what you really have to think about is the retail on the items.
We try to, to sell our, our items that we're selling on eBay for 50%, roughly 50% of what retail is. So, take that at stroller. I mean, I'll give you an example. We just sold a stroller, $500. This is what we sold it for. I shipped it from us, which we're down here in Florida, up to California is where it went, and it cost me, I don't, I think it was right around a hundred dollars.
Yeah, to ship it. $90, $94. Yeah. $94. So $94 is what it cost me to ship it. They paid $500 for this stroller, stroller. It was more of a vintage stroller, retail on it. I'm not really sure if I could find a retail price, but I knew it was worth $500. I sold them way, I mean, years and years ago, 10, 15 years ago, I've sold these strollers.
It was a unique type of a jogging stroller at like a, the wheels came off a higher end jogging stroller that people would want and they, especially because it was in really, really good condition. So, we sold it for $500. I think, if I'm not mistaken, I either charged $99 and don't quote me on this. Cause I remember I charged $99, so I charged $99 on shipping for this item.
And I was able to do it for roughly that price, but, I could have shipped it for, freight shipping probably for about $120, $150 and it would've been safe. This wasn't a very heavy stroller, so I know no, no problem at all. I know how to package stuff properly in boxes to make sure it's not gonna get damaged, and I, this was packaged properly, so it didn't get damaged in the shipment, but I was on that edge of teetering that I could have put this on a pallet.
And had it shipped freight for almost the same price that I did through FedEx or UPS. So that's one of those things that I don't, and my whole point of this was, I don't know if the retail on this was about a thousand dollars. It probably was back in the day, but I think the stroller was 20 or 30 years old still in mint condition with what it was.
Melissa: Not that you say that in your listings?
Rob: No, I do not disclose that on my listings, but I'm just telling you that it wasn't really, really good condition and that's why I knew it would sell for $500. So.
Melissa: But the retail has to be there if it, it has to be, otherwise it's not worth it for the customer. You have to think of the customers paying that plus shipping costs.
Is it still a good deal for them to buy or are you, you coming close to retail? Cause a lot of times if they're gonna go buy it new and buy it at retail price, they're gonna get free shipping on the item. Or the company has a low cost of shipping if they're getting it new. Yep. So you have to be able to beat that and be you know, like not just like $50 off. Like you have to significantly if you're selling a used item.
Rob: And something that won't, like this stroller is a little bit, I don't know where the retail was on it. You can't really find retail on this cause sold you, but yeah, exactly. If it's a vintage item or an item that's out of stock, you might still have that, edge. Yeah, the edge that you can actually sell it for more money than 50% of retail. Yeah. So that's totally an option as well.
Melissa: Another example I was thinking of is like, we sell a lot of NordicTracks and our, some of our members sell NordicTracks, but they can be different price points.
So depending on whatever, whatever, what's the? Model they are. So there's a lot of models that are around $300, but at $300 with free shipping, it makes total sense for the customer. But then if you're gonna go, some of those go right on the line of being in a box or being on a pallet. Yep. So you have to make sure that you can get it down into a box or it's the model that.
It's gonna be a little worth, a little bit more that you can go on a pallet. Yep. So, there's just, it's that, that mark of, making sure it's, it's worth it to the customer.
Rob: So. Yep. Even take back that table and chairs that we thought the dining room table that we talked about, that table and chairs was, retailed over $10,000.
And we probably could have gotten more than that. But remember this was our learning process. Yeah. We couldn't sell locally for $700 or $750. And we put it online hoping that we could get you know, $2,250 for it, hoping that that was what it was. And it did, it sold fairly quick at that price. But the retail was super, super high.
Somebody going into a store to buy this brand name table in chairs, they're gonna spend at least $10,000 on this. So we gave somebody an amazing deal, for $500 in shipping, and $2,250 on the item. That if they were gonna buy a new they, they saved a ton of money. Right. And that's what, just what you have to think about.
That's one of the things you have to think about when you're looking whether you should go freight shipping or go FedEx, UPS, USPS. So.
Melissa: Because it has to make sense to you as the seller to make money. Like we're here making, trying to make money. Absolutely. But it has to make sense for the customer too.
So you have to look at both sides of it. because you can charge for shipping or you can do free shipping as long as you build it into the price. Which we do, we go back and forth on both. So there's not just one way that works all the time. Like we still go back and forth and play around with that. Yeah. But you just have to make sure that, that it makes sense for your business and it makes sense for the customer. Another part I wanted to talk about was there is a time that in FedEx and UPS, that once you get to that overage charge size, it's not really worth to go FedEx or UPS, and then it's cheaper to go freight typically.
Yeah, on most items, depending on the item, but, typically it's a lot cheaper and that overage size is a hundred and can't be more than 130 inches length plus girth. So you can explain.
Rob: Yeah.
Length plus girth. So there, there is a formula and, like Melissa said, 130 inches length plus girth is that formula that if you can keep your box underneath that size, it does make sense to, ship it with FedEx or UPS, you can still get cheaper rates, usually a hundred dollars less on that once it gets up to that higher size.
But they will allow you to go from 130 inches to 165 inches length plus girth. And you can still go in there, but the overage charge is like just the overage charge alone is like over a hundred dollars. So you're looking at roughly two something, to be shipping it at from 130 to 165. So how do you figure out the formula for this?
You have three measurements on your box right now. You have a length, width, and height of the box. You take the two shorter numbers of those lengths. And you double them. For example, I mean, we've talked, you guys have heard us talk about this, many times, but if you haven't, the two shorter numbers, you're gonna double it and then add it to the third number.
So let's take example a box that is, 15 inches by 15 inches by 45 inches. Let's take those numbers right there and figure out if it stays underneath that threshold of the 130 inches. So the two shorter numbers are 15 and 15. We're gonna double those. That's 30 inches plus. 30 inches. So you have. 60 inches right there.
And then add the last number to that, which is 45 inches. So that's 105 inches total. And that is under the 130. So it's gonna be cheaper to go that through FedEx, UPS, USPS, not really USPS is a lot smaller, but FedEx or UPS, that's gonna be cheaper for, to go ground on their, their services versus throwing that onto a pallet and spending more money to get it onto a pallet.
So if you look at your items and do that formula to figure out. What size they are. That's how you can know if it's smarter for you to stay in FedEx or ups or if it's smarter to actually jump over to a pallet. And it's more cost effective for you and the buyer to do it that route.
Melissa: Yeah. Because I mean, when you hit those overage charges, it is so not, it's a lot.
I don't think we ship anything with overage charges. Yeah. I mean, we just go straight to freight. No, absolutely. It makes so much more sense. And it's cheaper than doing the overage charge. So, and when you're trying to figure out those calculations, if you're just measuring the item, make sure you leave into account enough space for padding around that item.
So you, sometimes you forget packaging, but you have to have that two to three inches of padding, packaging material to protect your item, in that box. So that's where, like some of those items, strollers, NordicTracks, some of like, they're right on the line. So you have to either get fancy with how you compact them down.
Like with the, the stroller you did, that was a fun one that you did. Yeah. You took the wheels off and then you like, but you did something with the box, you cut it.
Rob: I cut a little hole in the front of the box because it was a, like I said, a jogging stroller. So it folded up, but it still had this, a frame that was longer than the box that I had.
So I cut a little hole in the box and I shoved it through there once it was all packaged with, the bubbles and peanuts and all that. And then I put another box in it. So it was a little tiny section, probably like six or eight inches, of just that, that stroller sticking out the front. And then I covered that with another box. And then, yeah, did the whole thing that way. So, we get creative, but like I said, I know how to box stuff properly that it's not gonna get damaged.
Melissa: And it was under the 130 inches.
Rob: Under the 130 inches. So it's still got that. But the reason why it cost me so much was because it went from here to California.
Yeah, one of the longest shipments.
Melissa: But if it was over 130 inches, it would've been like almost. It would've been $200 probably to ship that thing.
Rob: Absolutely at least $200 to do it. So.
Melissa: So make sure, break it down and it makes sense for your buyer. It makes sense for you as a seller, and that you're under that 130 inches if you're gonna stay FedEx and UPS.
Or then it might be worth it to go freight. Yep. And if you would like to learn more about how our business model works, you can check out freeflippingworkshop.com and it's, we dive into why we love this large item higher profit flipping stuff.
Rob: Game. It's a game. It's a game. Make it into a game. It's so much fun.
Yep. So you guys rock. We will catch you on the next episode.