Jewelry Shipping???? Or if you sell small stuff!!!

Alright ladies, I have been doing the math recently and I am coming super close to my expenditure limit on shipping (envelope, postage, gas, tissue paper, jewelry box, business card, business card sleeve, card etc..)
and I know the next postal increase will have me upping my postage....My International Postage so far is perfect, but domestic looks like it will have to be tweaked. What do you charge for shipping?


2.50 first item to the USA and .50 each additional item.

I think I may have to go to 2.75


Packaging:
.12 each envelope
.12 each jewelry box
.02 tissue paper
.02 ink/tape/misc for printed materials
.10 for business card sleeve
Delivery Confirmation .70 (purchased online)
Postage: Approximately 1.12

That's already 2.20 with just .30 for gas if I only have one package to ship out. THis is better in the nicer months, since I walk to the post office and don't worry about my gas expenses.

I don't have mine broken down that much, but I only pay .19cents for delivery confirmation. I buy my postage through Paypal, is that an option for you to save a few pennies?

I was going to suggest the paypal delivery confirmation as well.


My postage cost with delivery confirmation comes to 1.58 for 2 oz with delivery confirmation via paypal. Most of my items weigh right under 2 oz even when I ship two items. (so far).

I would for sure look into paypal shipping.

ooo cool! I didn't know I could purchase the postage through paypal! I just do it through USPS.com

I will have to look into that! Thanks!

Michelle, JFYI, but if you are shipping international, it's best to go through USPS, Paypal doesn't have first class international (or whatever it's called), so it's very expensive to buy international postage through Paypal.

Ohh thanks! I'm slowly discovering this! haha! Someone also told me that Endicia does International shipping too? I'm learning new things today! haha!

My postage for my lightest jewelry items is $1.95 for the first item and $.95 for a second. Some of my heavier pieces are $2.95 and $1.45. I agree that it is definitely worth saving $.51 to use PayPal to purchase and print your labels. When you do, PayPal sends an e-mail to your customer with the tracking number too.

If you don't mind sharing, where do you get your jewelry boxes from? By the time I prorate the shipping cost to even my small boxes, they are about double the price of yours.

Also, on international shipping, I don't know about Endicia (but I'd love to hear about it if you use it), but you can go to the post office to purchase first class international mail and then use U-PIC, http://delta.u-pic.com/Order/OnlineRates.aspx , to purchase third party insurance. I recently sent a vintage belt to Norway and it only cost $1.85 to insure it.

ooo I love that insurance info too! Thanks!!! I have so much research to do for the New Year!!


I get my plastic boxes at the Dollar Store! hahaha!!!
I order them in bulk through DollarTRee, I just go into the store and tell them what I need and they show me how to order it or sometimes they do it for me! They are 10 for 1.00! I couldn't believe when I found them!

I print my own sticker label and put it right on the top and voila it's a Greener, Cuter way to ship! hahaha!!

oh and my order goes straight to my closest store, so I don't pay shipping, I just pick them up when they arrive!!

I don't think I've ever seen them. I'll have to look. I shop at Dollar Tree. I've gotten some things that I use for craft show displays there. The clear, faceted plastic napkin holders are wonderful for my smaller matted prints.

I'd love to see these plastic boxes!

This is them, they are square or round and not all of them carry them, which is why I started ordering them in bulk to begin with. It was getting a pain to search all the stores I would pass for them.

They are in the tupperware aisle, but NOT next to the tupperware, they are actually next to the forks and utensils, usually blending in. They never have more than like 10 packs per store, so that's usually why I was hunting everywhere, until finally one of the ladies told me about direct ordering them! haha!!

Thanks for posting the picture.

I also do my shipping label through Paypal, it's sooo easy and you can easily see what's been sent out because it says in your history list (of course it has to be a Paypal payment sale, you can't print a random one... that I know of).

I charge less for shipping just because I (personally) love cheap shipping! And will always think twice before buying something if I have to pay a lot of shipping, and I will almost instantly buy something that I want if it has free shipping. As long as the price is not inflated (I'm sure it is a little to cover shipping, but it's psychological. I like to pay for the thing if I like the price and not have to figure shipping as as EXTRA expense for shopping online) I know it's crazy, but... whatever I've actually thought of making my shipping free (because my items are small and always under $2) just because of that, but haven't gone there yet, I make my shipping $1.50, eat the extra .07 that goes over with DC and figure shipping supplies into my item cost through a pricing calculator that I have (which I have if anyone wants to see it, it's an excel file and pretty cool and inclusive)

Also, I get my boxes from Nilecorp.com. The 2x3x1" ones are 100 for $14, the 1.5x2x.75 are 100 for $10. They also have good prices on displays and lots of other things. -- I like yours Michelle, awesome for your whimsical jewelry but not sure if they'd work for me. I also think whimsical jewelry would be awesome in those vending machine toy balls kids get! Cute! just not sure where you'd get those, but they must be cheap

I recycle all of my packaging envelopes that I use (from the supplies that I order) or make my own and use recycled bubble wrap. I write "I recycle my packaging" on the back (thinking of getting a stamp for that) and have gotten many comments about how people like that I recycle my packaging!

Let's see:
box: .10 or .14
envelope: free or maybe .02
tissue: gosh, maybe .01
ink/tape/misc: probably about .02
I don't charge extra for my business card so I don't charge extra for the envelope I put it in or the jewelry care card I include -- part of overhead
DC: .19
shipping: usually $1.12 or 1.38 (1 or 2 ounce package)

$1.46 at least -- $1.76 at most -- I only drive to p.o. if it's international -- and like I said, I figure envelope, boxes, tissue, etc. in my pricing along with materials used, overhead costs, hourly rate, etc.

hmmm... I've never actually broken it down before, not too bad

---- and again, I've written entirely too much LoL!

I've tried the gumball machine capsules before (Ebay) but they are too fragile for shipping, they tend to shatter. I do use them at craft shows though. I have been looking into buying a vending machine to put cell charms in and the like (lower cost items) so that I can see if people would be more apt to spring the .50 or 1.00 just to check out something new

That would be super-cool for shows! You're sure to sell tons to kids at least! My son (9 years) will take any crap they put in those machines just because it's cool to get them and for the "surprise" of seeing what's in there LoL

You CAN ship to random addresses with Paypal!!! They don't have to have purchased through Paypal! BUT you need the super secret back door link that you can't find on the Paypal website!

OK, it's not so secret, but you have to have the link, I know of no way to get there from the Paypal pages. Someone gave me the link a long time ago and I've seen it shared many times on Etsy forums. I use it all the time!

Here you go! Edited to fix the link!!!
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now

Oooooooh, that's soooo cool. Thanks Wendy!!!!!!!

neat!!

Oops Wendy, that link didn't work. Took me to a "sorry your last action could not be completed" page. Did it post wrong or is it not valid anymore?

oops, I think it didn't work because I copied the link after I was logged in. Here try this!!!

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now

I edited the other post with the correct link, sorry about that!!!!

Yay! Bookmarked!! Thanks, this'll help a lot

Awesome. That is really going to help with shipping Wendy.

Deb, were the box prices you quoted before or after adding shipping costs per box?