Sorry if this is a little off topic. Many of us do a lot of shipping, thought this would be useful. I have no affiliation with Fedex or Ebay.

Copied from Ebay:

New FedEx Savings Program for eBay Sellers!

Sellers—great news! Starting today you can sign up for the FedEx Advantage® Savings Program for eBay Sellers and save big on your FedEx® shipments.

With this program, you can save 8% to 20% on eligible FedEx Ground® and FedEx Home Delivery® shipments, and 25% to 37% on eligible FedEx Express® shipments. There are no minimum shipping requirements, and the more you ship, the larger your discount!

These FedEx discounts are available to all eBay sellers—just open an account or enroll with your existing FedEx account to start saving right away!

New FedEx Savings Program for eBay Sellers! | eBay Announcement Page

Wonder how much better, if any, it is that using a regular Fedex account. Last year, shipping business to business, I paid $21 to ship two wheel boxes from Indy to Lincoln using my Fedex account.

It may not be better than a business to business account but if your a regular guy like me, shipping to another regular guy, the savings is substantial.

This was posted on ebay back in 2011. Wonder if it's still viable and current?

I recently used bikeflights.com for the first time, which uses FedEx Ground. I shipped a 16lb frameset box from NJ to UT/SLC for $52. The base fee was $4x (I fergit exactly), w/upcharges for value over $400, pickup and residential delivery. I have a FedEx account, haven't shipped anything big via FedEx for a while, but $52 cross-country feels a lot cheaper than what I've paid in the past through my own (very low-volume) account. When I ship w/my account, I have to schlep the box to the nearest FedEx depot (20mi round trip), stand in line, wait for counter person to verify dimensions. Sometimes they're sloppy with the measuring tape and try to charge me for a bigger box. Sometimes they ask me to open the box so they can check contents and my packing skills. Then I have to re-tape/staple everything. Scheduling a pickup is a pain, 24hrs notice needed, don't know what time of day they'll come, etc. With bikeflights, they picked up the next day from my work location, no dim/content checking, no wait, no muss, no fuss.

I'm waiting on a frame from Cali, seller's shipping via bikeflights on my recommendation, cost was just $42 from CA/SFO to NJ. Dale Brown (CR list owner, Cycles d'Oro in NC) and Robert Freeman (Elliot Bay Bicycles, sadly just closed) both are using bikeflights now. You go online, setup the shipment, either pay yourself or invoice the buyer through bikeflights, schedule pickup if necessary, they email you confirmation and shipping label. Pretty darn sweet and easy. You can also do round-trip shipping, there are folks who use that for cycling vacations.

I may double-check FedEx prices using my own account the next time I ship something big, just to be sure, and I guess I'll look into this ebay program announcement to see if there's anything there. But bikeflights pricing seems very reasonable, and processing the shipment is a lot less hassle than what has been my experience doing it myself.

I have a "regular guy" account. If you place of employment is agreeable, it's a heckuva lot cheaper to ship business to business. Using my fed account and dropping off at a FedEx location, I shipped a frame set from Lincoln to Washington state for $47, to a residential address. Just having the account makes things much cheaper. I've had the counter person mess up and run a shipment through without my account, as I was pretty happy with the rate after they used my account number instead. Somewhere along the lines of 20% less.

I'd take any money saving announcement that comes through eBay or PayPal with a grain of salt.

When eBay announced their money saving shipping program advertising up to a 37% savings if a Seller paid for USPS Shipping going through eBay, I carefully compared the rate quotes to prices available by visiting the Post Office or pay online directly to USPS through the USPS Website. The rates from eBay are the same that you get directly from the USPS Online Site. There isn't any discount that you don't already get dealing directly with the USPS. And there was never a 37% discount from the USPS Customer Counter Rate.

No substantial discount versus paying for FedEx shipping through Ebay. There may be value in using them if its a private sale.


Unfortunately there's no way to use my place of employment as a business to get a better discount. I highly doubt they'd stack discounts i.e. business discount on top of the Ebay discount.


The FedEx discounts are real.

The USPS discounts not so much. For the big USPS discounts you need to be a gold level power seller or whatever their top seller rating is these days and such (I struggle to maintain bronze level). Regardless of the discount being the same as buying postage online through USPS.COM, there are other benefits of paying directly through Ebay.

No.

The FedEx discounts are the same as the USPS discounts if you have an online account. The ebay discounts are the same. I also only have an "above standard" seller rating as I don't sell that often on ebay. I am not affiliated with any business and drop off at a FedEx location

Anything will help.

Just shipped a bike to sloar, in two boxes, via USPS. Total: $104.
He shipped one back to me, in one box, $131, via Fed Ex.

USPS, according to my post office, has dropped Parcel Post for Parcel Select, and now dropped that for Standard Post, which no longer recognizes the "window" between 108" in girth up to 130" for no huge charges. Now, it's all about being below 108" in girth, just like shipping overseas.

The recent increases apparent, which reward account holders and really sock it to non-account holders, are perfectly timed for Christmas.
I'm about to ship the last bike ever, if my plans work out, and hope this time I can get it to 108" and still safely ship.

Not sure where you get your information from but here are real number for a pair of wheels I just sent from Tampa to California:

107" box 14.5 lbs insured for $550

FedEx account: My residential address to the recipients business address: $57.10
FedEx through Ebay: My residential address to the recipients business address: $45.21

That's a 21% discount versus using my 'regular guy' FedEx account


From where to where? Insured? Weight? Size of box?

I just shipped a box, 47"x23"x8", $515 insurance, 30 pounds but that is inconsequential do to the volume of the box.

Chicago to Washington state. My FedEx, $57.18. ebay's FedEx, $57.18.

Recipient is a residential address. Origin address is inconsequential if dropped at a FedEx location.

Did you have FedEx pickup at your home?

I drop off the boxes at FedEx Kinkos....maybe my bronze level helps?

And you are correct about USPS rates, there is no significant discount until you reach 'silver' level power seller which is 3,600 transactions per year and $36,000 !!!! At Platinum level the discounts are very substantial.

Maybe they do throw you a bone at bronze. I sell about 4 things a year. I sold the BMX on Saturday night and for schnucks I tried the ebay FedEx shipping. Obviously I got nothing from ebay.