I took the Big step and listed my first item on my store this week!!  As always when you do something for the first time you are apprehensive and I sure was, but all went well.  It was very, very easy and Coneflower seeds were listed in no time!  The tough part came when I had to add postage to the listing.  I browsed many listings at various sites trying to get a handle on this postage issue.  Some people list FREE (which is an excellent deal) but they either eat the cost of mailing the item or factor that into the item cost.  I decided to visit the post office and have them weigh the envelope with seeds in it.  Seeds should be mailed in a bubble mailer so they don't incur any damage and this, of course, costs a bit more.  The package will mail for $1.25 so that is my postage cost on this item.  Quite a few hits on the listing but no sales.  It could be because it's my first listing or folks are curious about Coneflower seeds.  I plan to create a "Gardening Tips" booklet or something of that nature to send along Free with all my seeds or garden items.

I continued my research on the postage since I knew this was an important issue and I want to charge the right amount.  Usually when I purchased items online or through a catalog I never really thought much about the shipping costs; I just realized it was part of the process and did try to make purchases wisely.  Amazon is great for offering free shipping if you purchase over $25 so I always make sure I do.  Now on the other end of the purchasing transaction I am looking at the shipping costs quite differently.  I wonder if that will be a deciding factor in the purchase or if it will be just looked at as a cost of buying online.  There were several websites I visited to compare the different mailing companies - Sidekick does a comparison for you after you plug in different variables.  The UPS shipping charges seemed high so I did some additional research on the USPS website - the US postal service.

What I initially settled on was using Priority Mail for my next 3 items I wanted to add to the store.  I figured the boxes were supplied by the post office free and the rate was one flat rate no matter what it weighed.  I stopped at the post office and grabbed a few boxes that I thought would fit my items.  Here I was ready to list but something was holding me back ....... I thought I better check these postage rates one more time and good thing I did.  The boxes I grabbed were not the "Small" box that mails for $4.95 flat rate - I had the medium size which mails for much more $10.95.  I realized this after looking a little more closely at the sizes and ran back to the post office for the "Small" sized box.  It IS Small alright.  My three oven mitts were a very snug fit - they will make it this way, but I wasn't quite satisfied.  Racking my brain trying to recall all the hundreds of items I have received in the mail and how they came was not going to work - my mind drew a blank.

I decided another trip to the post office was in order so I headed there this morning.  I packaged up only 2 of the mitts in a manila envelope (all I had here at the time) and stopped by for a weigh in............. Only $1.79 !!!    Now we're talkin'!!  I asked how this is calculated and was told by weight so if I used a bigger envelope the amount would be the same.  So figuring the cost of the envelope and the fact that the set I was selling had an additional piece to it, I changed my $4.95 priority mail shipping cost to $3.00 on the listing and I feel Much Better!  Once I actually sell and mail these items I will know exactly the amount to charge and may have to adjust that again.  So package up your items and visit the post office for the real cost of shipping your items - it may take a couple trys but you will rest better knowing the amount is reasonable and is a part of doing business.

Till next time,
the girl @ TheRunningGarlic