Understanding the Cost of Shipping Online Vintage

Have you ever been ready to buy something from an online vintage seller and been stopped in your tracks by the cost of shipping? I’ve had those moments. I’ve also had those moments when I see what a buyer is paying for shipping and it makes me cringe with guilt despite the fact I do not control the shipping rates and I don’t add handling fees. Even though we all know getting a package from point A to point B has a cost, no one likes to pay for shipping. And no one likes to charge for it either. But that’s not how the world works.

Shipping is the bane of most vintage seller’s existence. There are plenty of times when I look lovingly at something cool, like a round bohemian wicker end table, and realize that the shipping cost for the buyer is going to be astronomical, so I walk on by. But a basket is light, you say, a basket should be cheap to ship, you say. Ah, I say, if only it were that simple. Let me tell you a story about the cost of shipping vintage online.

The cost of shipping online is determined by size, weight, distance, carrier and service. Let’s break that down.

How Size Affects the Cost of Shipping

The size of the packing box helps determine how much something costs to ship. And box size starts with choosing a box large enough to insure the piece gets there safely. When packing most vintage pieces, sellers will allow 2″ minimum between the side of the item and the sides of the box. That means to ship a 10″ plate, the box needs to be at least 14″ x 14″ wide and 4″ deep. Sturdy things, like a book or horseshoes, require less. Some things, like cordial glasses, require more. Cordial glasses might even be packed “box in box,” meaning they are packed in a box and then that box is put in larger box to get that 2″ buffer.

Where box size becomes a factor is when you go dashing into dimensional weight. This is a land where the shipping cost is not determined by the actual weight of the box but by the size of the box. Any box that is over one cubic foot ships by its dimensional weight.

If the length x width x height of your box is under 1728 (the number of cubic inches in a cubic foot), it ships for its actual weight. If it is over, you are into dimensional weight.

Say you have a box that is 14″ x  14″ x 14″. The LxWxH total is 2744. Oh rats! That’s dimensional weight. To find out how many pounds you are going to be charged for, divide the 2744 by 166 (for USPS and UPS) or 139 (for FedEx). So the USPS/UPS cost will be based on 17 lbs. and the FedEx cost will be based on 20 lbs.

This stinks if you are shipping a box of feather boas or baskets, which, even if it weighs 5 lbs will ship at 17 lbs. rate. And if you are shipping bricks, that’s going to weigh more than 17 lbs. and you will pay the increased price.

The bohemian basket end table discussed above would fall under dimensional shipping. Even though it’s lightweight, it would pack into a large box and ship by its dimensional weight. For a $100 table, you might pay at least $50 shipping. No matter how fabulous that table is, the shipping cost is going to be off putting for a buyer.

If this has left you confused, and it might have, read about dimensional weight on Stamps.com.

How Weight Affects Shipping Cost

This one is pretty straight forward. If it weighs more, it costs more to ship.

Things that are heavy, like yardages of fabric, often fit in USPS flat rate boxes, which ship at a discounted rate.

A weight-related minor annoyance for us vintage sellers is when we put the shipping weight of an item as X pounds in the listing and when it’s packed and plunked on the scale, it weighs in at X lbs. 1 oz, shifting it into a slightly more expensive price. What do you do, absorb the cost or open the package and take out a piece of packing paper? Oh, the decisions we have to make…

How Distance Affects Shipping Cost

If you live in California and are shopping for Imperial Glass Candlewick juice glasses, something sold by multiple sellers, you might find that the shipping cost between listings is wildly different. Most likely, this is based on the distance from the seller to California. The shipping cost to California from a seller in Kansas is going to be a lot less than the cost from a seller in New York. If the package doesn’t have to travel as far, the cost is less.

How Carrier and Service Affect Shipping Cost

I’m going to sum this up based on experience, not on any actual parameters defined by the shippers:

• for things under 3 lbs. shipping to the same part of the country, USPS Priority Mail is the cheapest
• for things under 3 lbs. shipping a moderate or hefty distance, USPS Ground advantage will likely be cheaper, but also slower than Priority Mail.
• for larger, heavier things that are shipping in the same part of the country, USPS Priority Mail may still be the cheapest.
• for larger, heavier things that are shipping a moderate or hefty distance, UPS Ground or FedEx Ground will be the cheapest.
• for bulky things like accent furniture or large china sets, UPS Ground and FedEx Ground will be the cheapest (so always include your street address as well as your PO Box on orders for big things).

What About Free Shipping?

As we all know, free shipping is not actually free. But it can be a good deal for the buyer.

Etsy is one of the online selling sites that incentivizes/pressures sellers to offer free shipping. This works for sellers if everything they sell is all about the same size and that size is smaller than a breadbox. It becomes more complicated if you sell things in a variety of sizes and weights. To offer “free” shipping, you need to take into consideration the cost to ship that item to the farthest point from you in the US as well as the cost to ship that item to a nearby state. Finding a fair price between those two that will not end up putting a seller into the red can be tough. That’s something to bear in mind when you ask a seller who offers free shipping for a discount.

Bottom Line Things to Know About Shipping

What you’re buying, where it’s shipping from and how it’s being shipped all affect the cost.

You can always ask a seller if there is a less expensive shipping method.

If you ask a seller for a discount, be mindful that the seller might not be willing to discount items with free shipping included in the price. Buying more than one item might make them more amenable to a discount.

Just like the cost of everything else, the cost of shipping has been increasing steadily. Remember that even though we would dearly love the opportunity, we sellers do not set postal rates.

Paying to ship something you want saves you the time and gas you might spend looking for the same thing and supports a small business.