Startups Stack Exchange Archive

Cheapest way to ship very light small items? (Weight: <31.8 gram)

I am importing lots of 200-500 Nerf Elite darts from China (less than a third of the price in the U.S.)
They are valued at around one dollar and fifty cents; and I’m selling for 20 or so cents more.

Refer to the image for all the dimensions. (I am selling K-type (the normal ones in the refill packs))

dimensions

How can I ship without going way over the initial cost?

Answer 1725

Shipping is invariably expensive when not done in bulk, because you need to cover the fuel, storage, and labor costs to get a package shipped from A to B.

Your options are basically to:

  1. Ship the product in reasonable quantities. Don’t send one pack of recharges; ship ten or whatever makes financial sense.

  2. Buy the needed shipping and packaging in bulk. Don’t buy ten stamps, etc.; buy a few thousand or whatever the sweet spot is for you and your budget.

Alternatively, Amazon, Overstock, and presumably a few more companies can do the fulfillment for you. You can then focus on finding buyers and let them worry about the rest:

http://services.amazon.com/content/fulfillment-by-amazon.htm?id=hm1&ld=AZFBAMakeM

https://www.supplieroasis.com/Pages/default.aspx

Answer 1726

China Post. My packages are less than 50g and I negotiated very low price, less than $2 per package for shipping with my supplier.

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