Best Shipping Procedures

[Travis]

Originally posted by jdmcivicek9
how do you guys get your shipping rates so low??i just did a fedex quote and it came out to like 65.00...where im seeing on here most people being able to ship for like 35-40$ overnight...

What makes it even worse is that the actual rate is ALWAYS more expensive than the quote the website gives you. I don't know how certain people get such cheap rates. I know a lot of people use USPS because they are cheaper but I don't trust them. There have been many times where I have not sold frag packs because people complained that the shipping was too high. I gave up on shipping quotes because it always ended up being more so I always lost money. I now go with a flat rate. Sometimes it is a little cheaper but most times I ended up having to cover part of the shipping.

I too would love to know how people are getting those prices thorugh FedEx. I can see how businesses probably get discounts due to the large volume of stuff they ship but I doubt any hobbiests are getting prices like that.

[H@rry]

Some people don't realize that one big factor with FedEx is the size of the box. They use a formula of (Length x Width x Height) / 194 rounded up to the next pound *OR* actual weight rounded up to the next pound, whichever is more. So, if I ship a box 12 x 9 x10 I'm going to pay for 6 pounds even if it only weighs 4 pounds. Always use the smallest box you can get by with. Although right now while it's cold, the larger box with more water has more "mass" to keep the temp from fluctuating so much. If you're going to pay for 6 pounds anyway, you might as well put more water in the bags, the frags will arrive in better shape. Any way you want to look at it, it is not cheap. I guess it boils down to whether your objective it to make a lot of money or share frags with fellow hobbyists. I guarantee that FedEx makes more money on a shipment of frags than I do. But, as far as I'm concerned, they're the only one I will use for shipping.

On a completely different subject: What are the restrictions (if any) on shipping frags to Puerto Rico? A guy contacted me yesterday wanting frags shipped to him in Puerto Rico. I ran it through FedEx and it looks like they could handle it without a problem.