Please note, I’m posting this as a “public service” for fellow car guys. I have zero relationship with this shipping site, except as a customer. I am receiving zero consideration from the shipping site for posting this information. Like many on HAMB, I support my hot rod “habit” by sometimes selling off unneeded car parts or accessories that I’ve had for years, but lately, the high cost of shipping has deterred buyers from buying and frankly, I hesitated to offer larger items for sale, because the shipping cost was ridiculous. I was contacted by a HAMB member who had bought some things from me previously and asked what parts I may have left that I would be willing to sell. I told him I had an extra “36 Ford grille I would sell. Long story, short, we settled on a price of $185.00 for the grille, but shipping at the UPS Store would be $155.00 (I’m not near a UPS or Fed-Ex hub and the box was too big for USPS shipping). The deal died, as I had expected. I related the story to my daughter, who recommended I check out an online site she had used, pirateship.com. I did and got a quote of $72.50 via UPS, more than 50% cheaper than what the UPS Store quoted me! I contacted the x-buyer, told him what I found and he bought the grille. I went on pirateship.com, filled in the “to” & “from” blanks, entered the length, width, height & weight of the package, gave them my CC information and printed out their UPS label. Stuck the label on the box, took it in to the same UPS Store that had quoted me $155, handed the package to the counter guy, he scanned the label, gave me a receipt and I walked out of the store. Pirateship.com deals with UPS, FED-EX and USPS and will give you the cheapest rate for your particular transaction. Mine happened to be UPS. Maybe this shipping site is common knowledge, but I hadn’t heard of it (I’m an old guy – what do I know about the internet?). In any event, if this information might help enable parts to move again, this long read will have been worth the effort – hope it helps.
I'm 29yrs old and that's news to me! My mind is open though, anyone else have input on this? Sounds intriguing.
Shipping! Yup! Some items just aren't worth the shipping price I sold a model t piece to a woman and the shipping via UPS and USPS was as much as the item. FedEx was more. So, I told the woman that it wasn't worth the shipping after what I was asking for the item so I asked her if she would wanted to do a local pick up since she was only 70 miles away. She didn't want to do a local pick up and she sent me the payment for the item plus the shipping. Hell, I drove the item to her house and handed her the shipping money that she sent. She thought that I was nuts to drive "all that way", as she put it. But she was very happy for the shipping refund. So, yeah, shipping!
My wife and I use pirate ship almost exclusively. I'm not sure how or why they get the rates they do, but you fill out the normal shipping information, choose which shipper you want to use, print out the shipping label, and drop the package off at UPS, USPS, or wherever. Try it, you'll like it. We've never had an issue, and you have the normal tracking that you would have if you shipped directly with the carrier.
They probably have contracts with the major shippers, and get low enough rates that they can charge us more and still look attractive. I have a company that charges my store a flat $40 to ship a bike. If I turn around and ship the same box back to them, I guess it would be double the $40, or even more. These companies have contracts with UPS, FedEx, etc. UPS "store" is not UPS. They make their money by charging you more than UPS charges them, so they will always be higher. I get it that they are convenient, but at a higher price.
I'll add my concurrence for using Pirate Ship, a service I too only learned of recently. It's smooth and easy to use as well as quick. One correction to the above comments though, in all the correspondence I've had with them they don't reference working with FedEx, only UPS and USPS. Their "discounts" range 40-60% from my experience. When you print the label there's reference to a Pitney Bowes account, so my guess is they've negotiated the favorable rates by promising to generate some pretty large shipping volumes/revenues by agglomerating purchases from a whole bunch of folks like us. However it's done, it just flat works great.
Good on you. Since I used to run the roads for others, I have sourced parts for my coupe Mass. to Miss. and So. Fla.
I just sold a bunch of stuff on ebay. When you are creating the listing, you get shipping options...including USPS, UPS, and Fedex. UPS prices through ebay are discounted 50%. So when you sell something and the buyer pays full price for shipping, you get to keep half of that. Pretty cool if you're selling, not so cool if you're buying. fun thing is, after you sell something to someone, you get the option to "print another label". So if you sell something for a buck to someone, then you can ship them a fender for half off the cost, they just have to pay you some other way. And it doesn't have to be the same shipping service, you can mail them something with a first class mail label you bought through ebay for a few bucks. weird. also UPS stores (franchise) usually cost about twice as much to ship stuff from, than going to the UPS depot (company store).
I've used "SpeeDee Delivery" for years. You can go on their website and get rates as well. Downfall they only service these states, all of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, as well as select cities and ZIP Codes in Michigan, Missouri, and Nebraska. Very cheap shipping rates and they do deliver larger parts such as doors, fenders, hoods. They do have to be wrapped in cardboard. I just shipped 2 boxes 18"×18"×18" weighed almost 60 lb's each last week for around $50 both boxes! I've been using SpeeDee for probably 15 years now with no issues. And their shipping time is super fast!
Do they ship internationally? I have to book in at the hospital every time I get a quote to ship to Australia!
I'll add my 2 cents. I'm a new passenger on the pirateship. I've sold 5 things this week on that online marketplace. 4 of them were way cheaper on pirateship than via UPS or USPS. The only one I shipped USPS was because it went via media mail which was the correct way to ship CDs. So I'm sold. But always check what are shown before you ship. As we all know, your mileage may vary. .bjb
Pirateship is a good deal, I've used it several times. I've also set up a cheapie eBay listing for people, just to get the shipping discount, which is often quite a bit. Even paying eBay their fees, it's still cheaper, and they do Fedex.
More expensive when insurance is added. I have tried three times to ship things. When insurance is added - it costs more. Jim
Pirate ship links into PayPal as well. Works great and saves a ton of $$. Ebay shipping rates are good too, but sometimes PS is better. My understanding is that these get bulk account pricing, and make their $ by commission from the shipping services, much like the UPS stores.
A friend called me the other day and said he sold a old Ford distributor on Ebay and when he went to ship it at UPS it cost $62 for 10# in the lower 48. Does this sound correct?
I found Fedex to be cheaper then ups? But h the last think i shipped they broke the package open and lost some of the parts? I had $400 insurance on it, it was $245 for replacement parts. I put in a claim and they denied it. So, after a few calls and more photos of the damage they denied it again?? Said: it wasn't packaged correctly? I took it to there store to ship it? they didn't have any problems the way it was packaged?? so guess i'm out $245?? Its been since December, not sure if I will use them again??? Just sucks they are so careless!!!
"Wasn't packaged properly" is their standard disclaimer! You could have put it in a sealed vault and that would have still been their reply. I will have to keep Pirate Ship in mind for future reference........
Probably would fit in a USPS flat rate box. Much cheaper if it would. On another note I have (had) a FedEx account but no longer use it. Every time I would get a shipping quote and go back to ship sometimes even the same day the cost would change and 99% of the time it's more. The final straw was when I got my credit card bill and it was more than the receipt I got when I shipped the part. Had to dispute it with my credit card. WTF? I did ship a flathead oil pan the other day because that's how the buyer wanted it shipped. Initial quote was $50.30. Actual cost to ship the next day was $53.80. FedEx- never again.
Thanks for the heads up! I will try them out next time I need to ship something. I sell a lot of parts kits for guitar amplifiers, I ship them all over the country, as well as complete amplifier chassis' that people send to me for modifications and/or repairs. For complete chassis my preference is FedEx Ground, less expensive than UPS, and they seem to be much better about handling packages than UPS. Anytime I receive damaged packages it's always via UPS, never from FedEx (so far! knock on wood...) The UPS guys are infamous to me for the "Dump & Run" service, they drop the package on the porch and get back to their truck and haul ass away before I can get out the door to check it out. For parts kits I like to use USPS Priority Mail, which is more expensive than regular First Class package mail, but I get proof of delivery which comes in handy if anyone claims they didn't receive their kits. But the price of their small flat rate box has gone from <$4 bucks to >$10 since I've been using them. That makes it tough when the cost of a kit is <$6. I've been eating postage costs for awhile now, but I'm going to have to increase my shipping prices AGAIN, which hurts business.
And they are absolutely correct. If it had been properly packaged, their special efforts wouldn't been able to destroy it.
Something seems off. I ship a lot more weight in a box that would fit many distributors for $40-$60 depending on which part of the country. This is with my slightly discounted UPS account and I find eBay shipping's UPS rates are quite a bit less then I get. Is it possible he took to a UPS store and their quote included them both packing it and shipping it at full "retail" rate?
Great news to hear of these shipping options! So many others have dried up or nearly dried up. (fastenal, Bus lines etc) Now all I have to do is remember them! lol
Sounds way too high. I've had similar size /wt items shipped by ups and they cost 1/3 to 1/2 of that. There are some other things to consider. Did he pack it himself or drop it off and have them pack it? Did he purchase addl insurance? UPS Ground or something else ? Continental US or Alaska (I know Alaska costs more) In a City delivery or way out in the boonies delivery Bought cast iron Cadillac heads two different times and shipping for them was less than $100. Bought some aluminum heads shipped from Florida to Ky. Tentivly agreed the guy would pack them himself and ship them for $60. Guy decided to drop them off and have UPS pack them with their ultra deluxe treatment. Added $5,000 in insurance. When they got done, the box was big enough to ship 6-8 heads in it and the cost was about $330. I had already paid him with Paypal and did not need insurance, nor had I asked for it. He sent me a message telling me I owed him another $270. I had not ageed to pay more, but I planned to send him any difference...figuring no more than $40. I contacted the UPS location where he shipped from and talked to the guy who actually shipped it. He said if the guy had packaged it himself like the other heads I bought and hadn't taken the insurance....it would have been $120. So I sent him $60 more. A package the size of a distributor should cost less than $30 by my experience unless its really heavy.
The Jalopy Journal
