selling plants procedure
- Thread starter DarrylR
- Start date
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if your smart you print it online then you dont wait in line then you dont have to say anything i just hand them to them and walk out.
DAVIDFBT
Extinct? Since when?
Though some plants dont do well with shipping, the majority will do fine IF and only IF the person whos packing, packs it right. Then its the buyers responsibility to provide great conditions for the shocked plants.
I live in Maryland too. Glad to see some Marylanders on this board, and I was kind of surprised to find out that the board owner is in the Silver Spring, Maryland area.
As far as shipping is concerned, I use stamps.com for all my postage because I already have it set up for my law/CPA practice. I use a postage scale to measure the weight of the package, and then print out the correct postage amount through stamps.com. Unless you are shipping a lot of plants, it really doesn't make sense to pay for stamps.com at $15.99 a month. However, it also means that you do not have to wait in line at the post office. I believe paypal allows you to print postage through it without charging an administrative fee for it, so you might want to go that route. The USPS website allows you to print out the postage too, and they give you a discount for it. They probably want to encourage this to decrease the lines at the post office and reduce the number of people they need to employ for customer service.
I use a cheap electronic postage scale to weigh my packages and letters. I don't think it cost me more than $10, but I bought it 6 years ago so don't quote me on that. It will measure anything up 5 pounds. In fact, I use it to measure the fact of a lot of my cycling parts, and even used it to weigh a new bike frame recently.
Now, lets get into the cost of shipping. The cost of USPS Priority Mail can be weight/distance based or volume based. I believe a flat rate box runs $9.20 to anywhere in the US for a box 11" x 8.5" x 5.5". The cost of postage for weight based box is $4.80 anywhere in the US for up to 1 pound. Once you get over a pound, the cost depends on how far you are shipping the package. For instance, I think a 2 pound package from Maryland to West Virginia is around $4.90, but if you send that same package to Washington State, you will be looking at $6 to $7, maybe even $8.
You can also offer USPS Express Mail which is supposed to arrive the next day, but that can be really pricey.
You can get all of the boxes and shipping supplies you need from the USPS and almost all of it is free. You just have to supply the postage and then drop it off at the post office, or schedule a pickup with the USPS and they will pick it up from your house/office.
Once you get into it, it really isn't that hard. I was scared of international shipping for a while, but then sent a seatpost to Taiwan and even that was pretty easy once I figured it out. The more you do it, the easier it will get.
As far as shipping is concerned, I use stamps.com for all my postage because I already have it set up for my law/CPA practice. I use a postage scale to measure the weight of the package, and then print out the correct postage amount through stamps.com. Unless you are shipping a lot of plants, it really doesn't make sense to pay for stamps.com at $15.99 a month. However, it also means that you do not have to wait in line at the post office. I believe paypal allows you to print postage through it without charging an administrative fee for it, so you might want to go that route. The USPS website allows you to print out the postage too, and they give you a discount for it. They probably want to encourage this to decrease the lines at the post office and reduce the number of people they need to employ for customer service.
I use a cheap electronic postage scale to weigh my packages and letters. I don't think it cost me more than $10, but I bought it 6 years ago so don't quote me on that. It will measure anything up 5 pounds. In fact, I use it to measure the fact of a lot of my cycling parts, and even used it to weigh a new bike frame recently.
Now, lets get into the cost of shipping. The cost of USPS Priority Mail can be weight/distance based or volume based. I believe a flat rate box runs $9.20 to anywhere in the US for a box 11" x 8.5" x 5.5". The cost of postage for weight based box is $4.80 anywhere in the US for up to 1 pound. Once you get over a pound, the cost depends on how far you are shipping the package. For instance, I think a 2 pound package from Maryland to West Virginia is around $4.90, but if you send that same package to Washington State, you will be looking at $6 to $7, maybe even $8.
You can also offer USPS Express Mail which is supposed to arrive the next day, but that can be really pricey.
You can get all of the boxes and shipping supplies you need from the USPS and almost all of it is free. You just have to supply the postage and then drop it off at the post office, or schedule a pickup with the USPS and they will pick it up from your house/office.
Once you get into it, it really isn't that hard. I was scared of international shipping for a while, but then sent a seatpost to Taiwan and even that was pretty easy once I figured it out. The more you do it, the easier it will get.
