Not sure where this thread goes and it may be short lived but for future reference to avid traders.... what is the best (most economical) shipping methods?? Got whacked by the USPS today and would have been even worse for UPS.. any tips out there??
Everyone will tell you FedEx - print your own labels and drop them off. This topic has come up on many occasions.
inb4 USPS!?!?!! you n00b. That aside, here are some of my own thoughts on the issue OP. USPS is probably the greyest of your shipping opinions. People do successfully ship through USPS (especially through the flat-rate boxes), but because they are a Federal organization, there is a stigma that being caught by USPS is guaranteed to be worse than if you got caught by a private carrier. It's illegal for regular people to ship alcohol. I personally don't know if it's "more" illegal to ship USPS vs. UPS vs. FedEx. As for finding cheaper rates. There aren't really too many secrets. 1. Create on-line accounts at FedEx/UPS and print labels at home. I believe there is a discount built in for DIYing this part. 2. Compare costs between carriers. FedEx and UPS seem to have clearly laid out pricing structures, but they are not identical. Weights/dimensions/shipping to locations seem to affect the pricing schemes in different ways. 3. Try to work with fixed sizes/weights. I know not all trades are equal, but it can be easier to manage costs if your alwasy working with similar sizes/weights. 6 or 12 bottle shippers are quite useful. Other than that, just standard 3-day ground wherever it's going. It's not going to be cheap, so I hope you aren't expecting to get out of ~$15-40 shipping window.
