It depends on whether or not you want to be self insured when something goes wrong and you have to make it up to the buyer.

I ship UPS or FedEx, with insurance and tracking. I don't want the risk. On the other hand, I often put a ceiling on the shipping and refund if I have charged to much or eat a bit if it runs over.

In all the time I have shipped (hundreds of drums), one went missing in a two-box shipment - floor tom of the kit. It took a few weeks for them to locate it and there was some damage. A claim was filed and eventually got paid. It was a hassle, but it worked out OK in the end. But losing the floor tom of a three-piece vintage kit is a bummer to say the least. So I don't take the risk. Simple as that.

I do not deal with E bay I find them to be thieves They charge you for posting, they charge you after you sell the item and for collecting your money through pay pal the charge you. At the end they make more money than what you make.

There return policy also is no good. when a person makes a complaint against another party they immediately freeze you account, and force you to give the party there money back and you as the seller loose out on shipping and on the product that was shipped and you never got back. This happen to me they charged me for an item and I never received item back and the person got paid moneys back and package was lost I never got drums back.

As to postage they want to dictate how much to charge and many time the customer does not want to pay for insurance and make claims that they did not receive to make money on the deal. Therefore I prefer to sell an item privately and not use action sites.

tracking comes with usps standard mail now. you can also buy insurance with standard mail. I think priority mail automatically insures the first 50 dollars. I use standard mail often and have had no problems with it. keeps the cost down and just takes a few days longer. sometimes, its even the same as far as time.

mike

$50 free insure is included with Priority,Mike

Like many, I hesitate to purchase an item with Priority Mail shipping. Just way too much for larger items! Just can't see paying over $20 for something that can be shipped for less than half with USPS Standard. As previously stated, you can know insure Standard shipping as well. I have no issue with PM for small items, but not larger items. I normally ship UPS Ground.

Oh yeah, I do have one pet peeve with shippers. If you're going to require a signature, please let me know up front! I've missed a lot of deliveries because I wasn't available to sign for it!

Mark

yep, youre exactly right blair..

mike

It's so much easier to do this way priority all the way

If it's an auction, what difference would shipping cost make? It's just part of the final price and the buyer can figure in that.

Shipping is a part of life. I would hate to spend near $1k or more on a kit and cheap out on shipping. I like FedEx myself and USPS. I don't make money on shipping. I charge actual costs and end up loosing normally a little on packaging. Sometimes I factor that (shipping materials) into the cost when margins are tight.