Using the free boxes actually is the most cost-effective way to ship in many cases. How Can I Take Advantage of the USPS Free Boxes Program? Otherwise, try shopping around with the following shipping calculators:ĭon’t forget to check out couriers unique to your area as well. If you’re selling something there, check out their calculator and see what the best offer is. It typically costs less than half the price of other options.ĮBay offers negotiated rates with several carriers. If you’re shipping books or educational materials, then the USPS’s Media Mail service will almost certainly be the most affordable option. The cheapest way to ship will always depend on your situation. But that’s an extra $1.22 getting charged to my customers or coming out of my margins. To be fair, the package could arrive several days earlier. I just threw money away by taking the free box! If I modified a Priority Mail box to match those dimensions (it’s okay to do this as long as it’s not a Flat Rate box), I’d have to pay $10.80 for shipping, even with the eBay discount. So the box and shipping combined would cost me $9.58.
As an eBay seller, I could then stick a two-pound item into one and ship it across the country with FedEx SmartPost for $8.98. I could get 9” x 7” x 3” flat boxes shipped to me in bulk from Uline for about $0.60 each.
You can therefore lose money by using them. They’re not doing this to save you money-they’re doing it to make more themselves.įree USPS boxes typically require you to use Priority Mail, which can raise the cost of shipping above the normal cost of packaging and shipping combined. Wait-Don’t Order Those Boxes Yet!īusinesses don’t just give away free things unless they expect doing so to make them money later. Why spend money on boxes when someone is just giving them away for free? The USPS free boxes program can be extremely tempting for anyone looking for the cheapest way to ship, especially eBay and Amazon sellers.
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