Replacement engine shopping

[Spimothy Leary]

The thing about the USPS flat rate--the boxes are not free per say. For instance, I manufacture dead pedals for 08-12 Chrysler and Dodge minivans and also the 09-12 VW Routan Minivan(based off the Chrysler Dodge platform). I basically break even as I never intended to do it to make money, but more or less supply a part that no aftermarket company makes. So anyway, for me to do flat rate is $10.90 to fit it in the correct size box. But I can go to Walmart and buy a box that is perfect in size for $.48 cents. Then print an address label, go to the post office and ship the exact same item for as low as $5.30. You mean to tell me that the USPS box is worth $5.60??? To me that is just nuts. I just want to try to save everyone cash along the way. Sorry not trying to steer the thread off track.

lol, we've been off track for about 3 days now
and yes, i agree, generally its much cheaper to comparison shop between priority, flat, parcel post, ups ground, and even fed x. but at some point I found that I was spending 15 minutes trying to save $3 and in the end it wasn't worth the hassle, i just bumped up my shipping prices instead. But yes, if its a decent sized but relatively light package (especially under that 4 or 5 lb cutoff for priority, i forget where the cutoff is right now) then yes, flat rates don't make sense.

i'm not saying just blindly use flat rates all the time, but if the package has some weight to it, the flat rate makes sense.

if every package i sent was going to be the same shape,size,weight then it would be very easy to determine the most cost effective way, but every package is different for most guys just parting out a ski, and sometimes its going 50 miles (regional discounts) or to the other side of the country.