[nolawi]

it adds up doesnt it... i charge customers 3.99 and pay 5.80 for post of my shipments....

i dont want to charge the customers more than 4$ for a shirt that costs only 16.99$

so i want to switch to usps... how does it work.. do i do the same thing with usps...are they reliable.. do they have customer service... blah blah...

please tell me how to set up an account...and if i can do it online like ups...

 

[Rodney]

You should charge your customers exactly what it costs you to ship the t-shirt. That's more than fair (some companies charge more than what it costs).

Customers don't mind paying shipping charges that are fair (if that's what you pay, there's no reason why a customer wouldn't mind paying that exact amount).

It doesn't make sense to lose money on shipping.

I've always used USPS for my shirts and haven't had problems. You can find all the information about signing up on the www.usps.com website.

 

[Vtec44]

Yep, USPS for me too. Priority Mail is great, $4.05 a shirt and the customer will receive it in 3 days (free delivery confirmation). That and free boxes from the Post Office I once packed in 10 shirts in a $8.10 flat rate box, wow! LOL

 

[imageman]

Hello,
Myself, i have always used usps for my shippings,but be sure to add confirmation delievery note with it,so the package can be tracked.It only cost about .40 more .Their best service is the priority mail which takes between 2-3 days to deliever. For my international shippings, i used their global priority mail and i have never had any problem.Good luck.

 

[badalou]

I can ship a tee shirt in large envelope with cardboard inserts for from one side of the county to the other parcel post and it cost me under $2.50-$3.00
I charge $4.. that covers the envelope and my time to take it to post office. People expect to pay shipping. You can include it in the price but make sure that your covered.

 

[printchic]

I also use USPS.

I just sign into their website, enter the address (mine and the customer's) and print postage. You can ship 2 shirts for the $4.05 price in the flat rate envelope. If they order a lot you can always put it in a flat rate box for $8.10.

The good thing about using USPS for shipping shirts is your customer gets it in 2-3 days (saturday is also a delivery day).

If you pay for postage "online" at their site they throw in "delivery confirmation" FREE. So you get a tracking # and you still pay $4.05 for the package.

Also, you use their boxes so that's a savings in itself.

 

[TeeShirtSamurai]

You should charge your customers exactly what it costs you to ship the t-shirt. That's more than fair (some companies charge more than what it costs).

Customers don't mind paying shipping charges that are fair (if that's what you pay, there's no reason why a customer wouldn't mind paying that exact amount).

It doesn't make sense to lose money on shipping.

I've always used USPS for my shirts and haven't had problems. You can find all the information about signing up on the www.usps.com website.

Rodney, you've said in other posts that you use stamps.com (with USPS). Can you explain exactly how that works? If you sign up with stamps.com do you still need to register for an account with USPS? Can you clear this up for me?

Thanks.

 

[monkeylantern]

I absorb one dollar of my postage....and can therefore charge the same as US internal, and often get to the US quicker than US internal post.

Australia isn't that far away....

 

[Rodney]

be sure to add confirmation delievery note with it,so the package can be tracked.It only cost about .40 more

Actually, you can get free delivery confirmation when using USPS.com online (or any other online tie into to USPS...like stamps.com).

Rodney, you've said in other posts that you use stamps.com (with USPS). Can you explain exactly how that works? If you sign up with stamps.com do you still need to register for an account with USPS? Can you clear this up for me?

I can't remember the exact specifics when I signed up (it was years ago), but I do remember that I just went to the stamps.com website and signed up for their free trial (I think they gave me free postage as well).

You download this small piece of software for your computer and fill out some information about your shipping location. They handle the process of getting your a postage meter license (that allows you to print your own shipping from your location). So you don't have to have a usps.com account AND a stamps.com account.

You load up their software (see screenshot), and you type in (or copy and paste) the customers address, select a shipping method and weight and it calculates the postage for you. You can put a note on the outside of the label and you can even upload your logo so it shows up next to your return address.

You prepay for your postage, so when you click the PRINT button, it deducts the cost of the postage from your available balance (you can reprint the postage if your printer messes up for no extra cost).

When you print the postage, you have the option of including the customers email address so the customer gets notified of the shipment and delivery confirmation number (very handy feature).

The stamps.com software saves a history of all your past shipments so you can easily lookup a customer, reemail a delivery confirmation number, check the status of a delivery,etc

You can store frequently mailed addresses in your address book, you can print out regular "stamps" using the stamp labels that they sell (it's like a sheet of blank stamps with serial numbers so you can print out the exact postage amount you need from .01 to dollars).

You can set it so that you get an email when the packages are delivered to the recipients. At the end of the month they email your postage usage numbers for your records.

It has many of the features that the usps.com site has now (but didn't have previously), but to me it offers better organization (record keeping) and a better user interface. The difference is stamps.com has a monthly fee (like $15). They also have an upgraded service that interfaces with FedEx so you can do both USPS and FedEx from the same software.

 

[tandami]

What I really like about stamps.com is the 'print out your own stamps' feature. You have to buy the blank serial number stamps, which is an expense...but I use it to print out my international postage. I ship out a lot of shirts overseas. It's $5.25 to ship global priority to the U.K for example using the flat rate small envelope. So, I print out a stamp for $5.25 and I am now able to just hand it over at the post office or in the back of the post office if I have a whole lot, and I dont have to stand in line to mail my international orders! This has saved me literally hours and hours of standing in line at the post office!
I also use it to print out my .39 stamps when I have to send out a letter.

 

[tandami]

Wanted to verify before I posted: A blank pack of netstamps with 125 stamps costs only $3.99 via stamps.com.

 

[Rodney]

Yep, I also like the print your own stamps feature. I had a bunch of custom postage stamps made from cafepress with my logo on it that were .37 cent stamps and I was able to print out a matching sheet of .02 cent stamps to keep the stamps easily useable.

It's very convenient

 

[TeeShirtSamurai]

Rodney,

What labels do you use for your postage? Do you get them from stamps.com or someplace else? I see that some of the labels require a special printer (a label printer). What is recommended for someone using USPS Tyvek envelopes?

Thanks.

 

[Rodney]

Rodney,

What labels do you use for your postage? Do you get them from stamps.com or someplace else

I used to use the 2 up labels from stamps.com with the flourescent green stripe: http://www.stamps.com/store/sections/labels/

Just a couple of weeks ago I decided to switch to regular 2-up labels from a place I found online with some good prices:
http://www.worldlabel.com/Pages/wl-ol400.htm

? I see that some of the labels require a special printer (a label printer).

I've only used my regular desktop printer. That's one thing I was looking for when I looked into printing postage. I didn't want to have to buy a special label printer.

What is recommended for someone using USPS Tyvek envelopes?
Thanks.

I would recommend just using either the 2 up labels from stamps.com or the ones from worldlabel.com. They fit in just about any printer and you can select 2-up labels as your label type in the stamps.com software. They also work with UPS and USPS.com directly.

 

[Ayres Clothing]

I use to buy envelopes on ebay for cheap and then ship via usps. But it sounds like flat rate envelopes and flat rate boxes are the way to go. Thanks for the advice.