Price USA News

Working out which shipping method to use can be complicated. There are also some quirks with the way shipping works that mean that doing something like consolidating your orders can end up costing you more than shipping them separately. Here are some of the most common quirks to watch for.

1. It often cheaper to not consolidate low value orders. Economy shipping has a weight limit of 4 lbs (1.8 kg) and a total value limit of $250. For example, if you have three orders that each weight 2 lbs, then the total weight if they are consolidated would be 6 lbs. This is too great to ship economy and so would cost US$99.17 (US$79.17 + US$10 + US$10) to ship. If you were instead place the three orders separately then the shipping and handling would only be US$68.40 (3 x US$22.80). You would of course get tracking on the shipment if you were to consolidated, but you will be paying almost $32 extra for this.
   
2. You can only ship one pair of shoes in their boxes, or two pairs out of their boxes, via economy. Shoes are one of the most popular items people like to order, but if you want the cheapest shipping try to stick to these limits. If you want to order more than 2 pairs of shoes then it normally makes more sense to split your order up into multiple smaller orders than order a whole lot at once. The general rule is unless you are ordering more than 10 pairs of shoes at once then it will be cheaper to ship the shoes economy in sets of 2 without their boxes.
3. Express shipping is cheaper 99% of the time than economy shipping when the weight is over 4 lbs. This might seem totally crazy, but because of the way shipping works express shipping is almost always cheaper for larger items than economy shipping. The only exception is moderately sized items that are light and bulky. We know this is difficult for you to work out, so just note in your order that you would like the cheapest shipping when you fill out the order form. If it turns out your order is one of the exceptions then my US partners will ship your order economy.
4. Orders over $250 can’t be shipped economy. It can often make more sense to split an order in two than ship as one high value order. For example, you are ordering two items that each cost $200 and weigh 2 lbs then then it would cost US$64.87 to have them shipped together. If you were to place two separate orders (and not mark them consolidated) then the total shipping cost would be only US$45.60 (2 x US$22.80). Anytime your order exceeds the economy shipping limits then it will likely cost more to ship.
5. Shipping is based on weight only for economy shipping, but weight and volume for express shipping. This is one of those crazy shipping quirks that make our life so difficult. Use the shipping cost calculator on my order page (button on the top right hand side) to see how this works. Play around with different weight and volumes and see how the costs of different methods change. You will see that the economy shipping methods don’t change with volume changes (unless you exceed the max size), but express shipping is very dependent on volume. A small 1″ or 2″ change in the height of a large box might cause the shipping cost to go up $30 to $40.
6. UPS (express) shipping costs for packages under 6 lbs are all the same. Because of the way UPS charges my US partners the cost of shipping any package that has a shipping weight of under 6 lbs is the same. It costs the same to ship a 1 lb package as a 5 lbs package – US$64.87!
7. Sea freight only makes sense for orders over 120 lbs. Sea freight is a great new options if you want to order a really large and/or heavy item, but because of the complications involved in sea freight it really only makes sense to use it for large items.
8. Snowboards and guitars are too big to ship via mail. These are two of our most popular large items to order. Both are relatively light and would be ideal to ship via USPS mail but they are just too large. They must come by UPS (courier). While there is a lot of variation in size for both these items, you can assume a minimum of 20 lbs volumetric weight for snowboards and 40 lbs for guitars.

In combination with shipporter my US partners are now able to sea freight to Australia. This is much more cost effective for orders over 110 lbs (50 kg). My FAQ pages has more details about this new option, but these are some important points to keep in mind if you are thinking of using sea freight.

• It is slow. Expect to wait 6 to 8 weeks at least.
• It is not cost effective for smaller orders. Sea freight is not a cheap substitute for UPS or USPS shipping. It really is only worthwhile for shipping items with an actual or volumetric weight greater than 100 lbs.
• The size limit is 400cm x 210cm x 210cm. This is pretty big!
• Sea freight is more complex than air shipping. Because of this it is not possible to give 100% accurate quotes in advance, but I have tried to be conservative in estimating the likely costs on my shipping cost calculator. I expect that the major of orders will cost less than what my shipping cost calculator estimates based on the weight, but it is worth keeping in mind that it might be more.
• Freight is shipped out of California. Because of this there may be Californian sales tax charged on the order by the original store. This will depend if the store has a physical presence in California or not.

Despite these caveats sea freight is a great option for shipping really large items.

It is getting very close to Christmas. Even orders shipped using the fastest US shipping and UPS to Australia will be touch and go to make it. Assume that any orders placed after today (12th December) will reach you after the 25th December.

I have finally finished updating the site design for Price USA. It is designed to provide better support for mobile devices. With any design it is really difficult to ensure that it will work perfectly with all browsers and platforms, so if you see any problems I would be really happy if you let me know.

Carolina

Daniel and I are going away on long overdue holiday for 10 days to a beautiful tropical island. In our absence, one of my US partners (Lindsay Manning) has kindly offered to take over our roles while we are away, but because she is based in the USA she can’t do everything that we can. The important changes while we are gone are:

1. Lindsay can only access the payment information from the Trust Commonwealth bank account and paypal. I have removed the other bank account details from the emails, but if you have the details of one of the other accounts from a previous order and use that to pay, then your payment won’t be able to be accessed until we get back.
2. Lindsay can’t answer phone calls. My mother will be staying at our house, but she won’t be answering the business phone. Lindsay can answer your emails so if you have a questions please email her  - you can use my email address to do this.
3. Lindsay can’t answer all possible questions. If you have a really tricky question then you may have to wait until I am back before you get an answer.

All my other partners are working as normal so you should be no problems with ordering and shipping while we are away. I will try not to think too much about you all while we are gone and just relax

Carolina

I have updated my website over the weekend to improve the way it works and hopefully make it easier to use. The big change is the way emails are checked to be correct. I am using some  special magic that my husband wrote to do this. This ‘magic’ checks in real time if your email address has been typed in correctly and will give you a warning if it thinks your email is incorrect. While it can sometimes be wrong, if you get a warning that your email might be wrong please be sure to check it very carefully.

The other big change is the shipping calculator. This has been updated to provide you with more feedback on how the shipping weight and cost is determined and give you an idea of the  shipping times of the various shipping options. I would certainly welcome feedback on both these changes.

I have taken the opportunity with the recent USPS price rises to simplify the way the international shipping options are presented on the order form. There are now three shipping options:

• economy
  • This option is shipped the cheapest method (first class mail), but is limited to under 4 lbs and $250 in value. This option is slow (average 16 days to Australia) and does not have tracking.
• economy + tracking
  • This option is shipped USPS Priority Mail and is intermediate in time (10 to 12 days) and has tracking. This can be used for small packages over $250 where the cheapest shipping is required.
• express + tracking
  • This option is shipped either USPS Express mail (under 2 lbs) or UPS (courier) and is fast (5 to 6 days) with tracking.

All these options will be updated to a specific shipping method once I send you a quote. If you wish to choose a particular shipping methods (eg USPS express mail) then just add this to the extra details section. Hopefully these changes will make it easier for most customers who really don’t know much about the various shipping methods and just want their items shipped quickly or cheaply.

We have now started to offer fixed price quote on orders where we know the actually shipping costs. Unfortunately we can only offer fixed price quotes on all orders where we have had previous orders for the same item that have shipped. To select this option just chose the “fixed price quote” checkbox on the order form and if we able to provide you with a fixed quote we will. This should make ordering a little more certain. This option also has the advantage that you will only need to make one payment.

As of the 2nd of January 2012 UPS and USPS mail prices will rise by 5% to 13%! The actual rise is a little complex and will vary a bit depending on the exact rate and value. I will be updating all the UPS price today, but as it takes some time to do you might catch some prices in mid change. I will update the USPS Mail Prices once I have them (USPS has not yet updated their website with the new prices).

Update. The First class mail price rise is going to be 9%, but it won’t start until the 17th January.

Update 2. I have the new rate for first class mail so I have updated the first class mail prices. If your order is lucky enough to arrive at my US partners before the price rise then you will be charged the lower price.

Update 3. I have been able to find what i think is the new USPS prices from the 22nd Jan and have updated the prices on the order form. There are massive rises for express mail international and on low weight packages (under 6 lbs). In many case it will be cheaper to ship UPS courier because of these rises. The biggest rise is for express mail international 1/2 lb which goes has gone up 26%!

Update 4. The new USPS prices are now in place. I have updated the shipping calculator function to include the new price. Now for most items it is cheaper to ship UPS than USPS.

Update 5. Another huge rise in shipping from USPS from the 27th Jan 2013.

My US partners have been able to organised an alternative to first class mail that is significant cheaper – for example a 4 lbs package that previously cost US$42.87 to ship is now US$28.76. This alternative is not only cheaper and better (you can use it to ship perfume), but it is also the around the same speed as first class mail. This is a great alternative for light weight items and low cost items.