I've got two boxes to ship: once smallish box at a pound or two, and one large box (4ft tall) at probably 50 pounds.

When I used to sell on eBay a lot I had a UPS account which was silly cheap, but outside of that, whats the cheapest way to ship packages these days?

10/17/2011 4:02:53 PM

Bulk rates are the cheapest.

They're all about the same price if you have only one package to send.

If you want to know for a fact which place you can save a dollar or two, just call the three postal services (Fed Ex, USPS, UPS) and tell them the dimensions and weight and they'll quote you a price.

Distance matters, Size matters, Weight matters, Time of Arrival, Method of Delivery(air, ground, freight) matters in the price.

Unless you are working with sending stuff on a daily basis and with 100s of items, I'd wouldn't worry about the price differences between the services

10/17/2011 4:10:50 PM

if delivery date isnt an issue, USPS for both. I shipped a 43ish lb box to Anchorage a month or so ago for the cheaps (like $3x.xx with insurance and delivery confirmation)

10/17/2011 4:13:37 PM

when shipping things from work, UPS tends to be cheaper for us than USPS. i'm shipping small boxes 2-15 lbs. ymmv

10/17/2011 4:20:48 PM

I'd go UPS. USPS has lost a few things of mine in the last few years.

10/18/2011 8:58:44 PM

^^ Does your work have a UPS account? That may be why it's cheaper.

For the heavy box I'd definitely say USPS. Just use one of the flat rate boxes.

^ UPS has broken the past two things they've shipped to me so they're not much better

[Edited on October 18, 2011 at 9:10 PM. Reason : a]

10/18/2011 9:10:29 PM

Step 1) Place shipping address on the return address line.

Step 2) Omit postage.

Step 3) Profit...

10/18/2011 9:56:43 PM

Cheapest way for large packages that I have found is Greyhound Package Express. It is about 1/2 the price of UPS or Fed Ex. It isn't door to door though. Its Greyhound station to Greyhound station.

10/18/2011 10:07:29 PM

Quote :

"if delivery date isnt an issue, USPS for both. I shipped a 43ish lb box to Anchorage a month or so ago for the cheaps (like $3x.xx with insurance and delivery confirmation)"

how long did that take?

10/19/2011 12:54:04 PM

When I ship stuff overseas USPS it usually takes a week to arrive. I can't imagine Alaska taking much longer than that.

10/19/2011 1:16:50 PM

I've always heard good things about DHL.

Though their popularity seems to have waned in the past year or so.

10/19/2011 1:28:40 PM

USPS parcel post will be the cheapest for the big box. For the small one there won't be any notable difference between USPS Parcel Post, USPS First Class, and FedEx Ground. I prefer FedEx Ground, but I'd just drop it off at the post office when I went to ship the big one.

Fuck DHL. Are they still in business?

[Edited on October 19, 2011 at 2:32 PM. Reason : l]

10/19/2011 2:31:45 PM

10/19/2011 2:38:55 PM

^^DHL no longer does non-commercial shipping in the US. International/Commercial only.

It's a real fucking pain in the ass, because they are pretty awesome for international shipping. And any/all freight shipping.

10/19/2011 9:46:49 PM

For freight, CEVA is where it's at but that's only helpful if you're a business.

10/20/2011 8:01:48 AM

media mail from usps is cheap (only for books, dvds etc)

10/20/2011 9:25:26 AM

I was at my custom shop a couple months ago and saw a brand new bike there that had been rear-ended on the interstate by a DHL truck. Completely accordion'd the frame but the guy managed to stay on it. He'd driven the bike off the lot about 2 hours previous

10/20/2011 10:45:43 AM

I just moved from Raleigh to San Francisco. After a bunch of research found Amtrak has a shipping service. Has to fit in a 3x3x3 box and be under 50 lbs but its 0.57 cents a pound. You can ship 500 pounds a day.

10/21/2011 11:12:21 AM

^ Greyhound does this too.
I had to pick up a large item that I bought off eBay at the Greyhound terminal downtown once.

10/21/2011 12:13:40 PM

^I've heard some airlines offering similar services in conjuction with Greyhound. I can't vouch for the Amtrack service.

By the way, the thread has made it this far and no one has made a joke about shipping "their package" yet so... Mazel Tov.

10/21/2011 12:25:38 PM

ok so i went on usps.com and was quoted $23 to shit the box (pretty big, contains a trailer hitch)

i dragged my 34lb box into the post office at 4:31...SURPRISE WE CLOSE AT 4:30 NOW!!!!!!

i'm like 'f that, i don't care if it costs more, i'm taking it to UPS.

they want $50 to ship the thing.

my inner cheap ass doesn't pop out much, but it did today so now that damn box is in the back of my car waiting on USPS to open

#fail

10/21/2011 6:38:36 PM

Quote :

"quoted $23 to shit the box"

10/21/2011 9:56:52 PM

^^ Should have gone to the main post office. They close at 5pm on Fridays

[Edited on October 22, 2011 at 9:26 AM. Reason : a]

10/22/2011 9:25:00 AM

Fuck. Got another big box to mail.

UPS/Fedex wants $30-$35 when I try to ship it...while UPS would only charge my work like $9.5. Craziness.

[Edited on March 14, 2014 at 10:53 AM. Reason : and USPS doesn't do Parcel Post from what I can tell...$30 is their cheapest]

3/14/2014 10:52:48 AM

Quote :

"Step 1) Place shipping address on the return address line. Step 2) Omit postage. Step 3) Profit..."

OK so does this really work? Please don't make me write a letter to myself just to see...

3/14/2014 12:40:32 PM

oh my god

3/14/2014 12:56:59 PM

^^ if you were sending it to someone in the same city, probably. Otherwise they would see it didn't originate there and it would probably just get pitched or put in some pile as undeliverable somewhere

3/14/2014 2:22:00 PM

Can you not use your work's UPS account? There's a place where you can put in your own credit card so it doesn't get charged to your work's account.

3/15/2014 2:49:23 PM

^ cool I'll check for that.

3/15/2014 8:30:52 PM

MEDIA MAIL FTW

3/17/2014 12:43:19 AM

what about international shipping ?

I'm going to med school in St. Maarten. Need to get some shit shipped down there. best options ?!

3/17/2014 1:00:29 AM

^^ So what are you supposed to lie about the contents?

3/17/2014 1:41:07 AM

No. I ship records all the time. It's 60+% cheaper than Priority Mail and almost always just as fast. I just like to throw it out there because a lot of people don't know it exists.

And yes, they do occasionally open media mail packages to confirm contents.

3/17/2014 3:48:51 AM

Quote :

"Quote : "Step 1) Place shipping address on the return address line. Step 2) Omit postage. Step 3) Profit..." "

I have seen this happen with letters. Often the ship to address matches the return address with no postage paid.

3/23/2014 3:01:07 PM

$35 to ship an 11 pound 14X14X37 package to Georgia.

There must be a better way...

10/18/2014 5:58:33 PM

if you make a FedEx account on eBay you get a discount you just need the account number and make a password to FedEx. Com

those rates seem to be really reasonable for ground

10/18/2014 10:38:41 PM

if you make a FedEx account on eBay you get a discount you just need the account number and make a password to FedEx. Com

those rates seem to be really reasonable for ground

10/18/2014 10:38:41 PM