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 Post subject: shipping
PostPosted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 6:03 pm 
does anyone have any ideas about shipping or has anyone found one way cheaper than the other in the past couple of days i've been pricing and it cost almost as much to ship as i would be making and the end game is to make a profit not break even i've thought of just putting everything in separate boxes and then on a pallet but i would definitely wait to get more before that way so it's more worth it thanks for any help


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 Post subject: Re: shipping
PostPosted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 10:22 pm 
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Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2014 9:22 pm
Posts: 9
Unfortunately, shipping/freight costs are part of doing any type of scrap business. What you need to decide on is what percentage of that cost are you willing to pay on your shipments. Then you can design your loads to cover those costs. When I started my business 3 years ago I factored in a 10% out going freight cost. I have averaged to keep it between 5% to 11%.

I don't know shipping costs for UPS/FedX so this is just an example.
Lets say your figuring on a 10% shipping cost and it costs $20.00 to ship a 50 lb. box.
You would need 50 lbs. of materials worth at least $200.00.
If you ship 50 lbs. of just Mid Grade boards your value is only 50 x $0.35 = $17.50. Obviously you lost money.

If you ship for an example:

Telecom Grade 10 lbs. x $4.00 = $40.00
Large Socket 5 lbs. x $3.15 = $15.75
Small Socket 15 lbs. x $1.85 = $27.75
H.Drive Boards 4 lbs. x $10.25 = $41.00
Gold Memory 4 lbs. x $13.30 = $53.20
Assorted CPU's 2 lbs. x $15.00 = $30.00
Mid Grade 10lbs. x $0.35 = $ 3.50

Totals 50 lbs. $211.20

Now your shipping cost is in line with your projected 10% allowance.

Hope this helps.


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 Post subject: Re: shipping
PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 2:28 pm 

Joined: Thu Jan 30, 2014 7:50 pm
Posts: 3
Just had a conversation with our post office and he told me about the zone shipping. I recently shipped a medium priority box, and he checked said it would have saved me about $7.00 by using this method, Eastlake is in zone B from me here. I'll dig a little deeper into this.


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 Post subject: Re: shipping
PostPosted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:10 am 

Joined: Thu Jan 30, 2014 7:50 pm
Posts: 3
I just shipped some items via Regional Priority Mail. Sent 25 pounds for a total of $17.75. This save me about $10.00. Sad part is I had to deal with the local post office, USPS site is hopeless. Anyhow it appears that you can use one of three zones, A B or C, mine was B and cost $8.85 each, but you are only allowed up to 20 pounds per box with this system. It is a viable alternative for some of us.


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 Post subject: Re: shipping
PostPosted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 9:34 am 

Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2014 6:31 pm
Posts: 13
The best way to ship for 99% of e scrap items is fedex. The only time I would use usps is for stuffing a flat rate or regional rate box with RAM or CPU's, and even then it can be a toss up.


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