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Have you shipped a saddle lately? Holy cow

Off Course
#1

The last time I shipped a saddle was probably 1.5-2 years ago? I think it cost about $60 to get a dressage saddle from coast to coast, USPS was always the cheapest.

Now, I am casually selling another saddle, and I’m reluctantly willing to ship it. I just checked shipping quotes for USPS and UPS and the prices are INSANE. USPS is quoting over $200. UPS is around $140. I did not account for this huge jump when pricing the saddle with “shipping included”, oops.

If you have shipped a saddle lately and not paid a fortune for it, please tell me your secrets. Or explain to me why USPS is now 4x more expensive, and UPS is almost 2x what it was. :flushed:

#2

i shipped one on my business account and it was under $50.

overall shipping costs have increased pretty heftily since the pandemic broke. lots more packages going to individuals and many fewer flights to put cargo on.

2 Likes
#3

Was going to ship two pair of riding boots off to consignment but just that size box was going to cost $50+ dollars, hardly worth it since after the consignment fee that’s probably half of what I could expect to get for the boots.

I’m glad business can ship cheaper but for individuals to ship it gets very expensive.

#4

Yup prices have gone up a lot.

#5

Yeah, I know times have changed and people are shipping a LOT more stuff these days. Unfortunately I don’t have a business account to use! I can understand an increase in pricing to account for the increased volume, but double? Quadruple? Jaw dropping.

I tried both calculators multiple times with varied box dimensions, not much I can do about the weight. It didn’t change the USPS estimate, a slightly smaller box knocked a few dollars off UPS to get it down to $142. As a buyer I would rather take my $150-200 and buy a nicer saddle from a shop with free or at least ‘reasonable’ shipping.

Guess I will stick to local sales and probably just keep the darn thing in case I happen to buy another horse it might fit. I quite like it, just trying not to turn my living room into a tack room :joy:

1 Like
#6

You say that like it’s a bad thing?! :rofl::upside_down_face:

10 Likes
#7

Only when one of your dogs decides to chew off one billet each on two of your saddles (one monoflap, not cheap or easy to replace!)… I keep them in the bedroom now, much to DH’s dismay. We need a bigger house with 2 more bedrooms so we can each have an “office” for our hobbies. :joy:

1 Like
#8

I never paid enough attention before but I feel like that the post office removed some levels of shipping available and now all that is offered is the more expensive options.

I mailed a simple box a few states away and there was no ground shipping price offered. Just various types of priority mail shipping, which were about 4x what I expected to pay to ship said box that I was in no hurry to get there.

#9

They have removed options. 2 Day shipping is no longer available in my area - only standard and overnight.

1 Like
#10

you have to Dig into the USPS’s web site to find the standard ground shipping… not a simple task but it is there

I was looking for the old Media rates since I have book to send. At first glance the only options were those expensive flat rates things but rather than that I did find the Media rate which is less than $4 where the flat rate things the cheapest was about$10

here is the link to Particle Ground rate for the average person

https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/Notice123.htm#_c052

2 Likes
#11

You are probably running into dimensional weight charges on the size of your box.

I shipped 2 saddles from the east coast to the west coast this summer. I sent one FedEx, in a Butet barrel. When I entered the dimensions on the website to print the label it said it would cost $75 to ship, which was a good deal. Since it was an unconventional container I also checked at the service counter before I sent it to make sure the pricing was correct. The associate said yes. FedEx then slapped me with a $75 oversized package charge after the fact. I hate FedEx. This isn’t the only reason.

The second box I shipped USPS in a 20x20x20 shipping box and it weighed about 20lbs. Priority mail at that rate was about $100 last summer. Costs have gone up since then. You can also use PirateShip to generate your labels- this is free to you and gives you access both to commercial rate USPS pricing, and to USPS cubic rate, which can be a great savings depending on the size of your package. I just ran my mid-Atlantic zip code to 90210 for a saddle of the size I sent last year and it looks like $115 priority. Now, notably, that does not include additional insurance, which will drive up the cost.

1 Like
#12

I was at the post office using their shipping kiosk. No digging into their website. The kiosk no longer offers ground shipping, or any other reasonably priced shipping options.

#13

one might want to check with Greyhound Bus as they have door to door shipping available. I had clients who were ship heavy weight items, they used this service extensively

http://www.shipgreyhound.com/info/door-to-door-service/

and if a pallet or large crate Fastenal has an inter store shipping system which covers all of US (they are also a good place to find a pickup truck as they sell their fleet trucks off when they reach about 40,000…I had many clients buy those trucks for the service fleets)

https://www.fastenal.com/en/22/blue-lane-freight

#14

As recently as last winter, I could ship a saddle for $50 on my Fedex account, $75 if I had to insure it. Since the pandemic started, the prices are definitely up - $125-$200 with insurance.

#15

FedEx Home Delivery or Ground was always the cheapest for me.

#16

The problem is the surcharges that both FedEx and USPS charge for the box dimensions. It’s not just about the weight; it’s about the size of the box, too, and that’s where it starts to get REALLY expensive. I have to be really careful when I let people combine shipping in my online store, and keep the box sizes below a measurement to avoid those surcharges.

I sold a bunch of tack about 10 years ago, and the cost of shipping the saddles was about $35 - $40. Two years ago, I sold a couple of saddles, and the price had jumped to about $65.

If they’re English saddles, roll those suckers up as tight as you can and stick them in as small a box as possible. Be sure to pack them in bubble wrap.

#17

I got a shipment through Greyhound about 12 years ago for a small Eglu chicken coop and run. I had to go pick it up from the nearest Greyhound station. I don’t think they offered that last step to the doorstep at the time, and I’m sure that adds some cost to it now.

#18

Yeah, that’s what I usually do but dressage saddles don’t really roll up much. The extra cash from selling it would make me feel less guilty about the (other) saddle I just bought, but not if I’m going to have to take a bath on the shipping cost :roll_eyes:

1 Like
#19

Yikes. I just got a saddle off eBay and the shipping was just short of $100 - I think $97 and change? For a jump saddle. It is coming Fedex, not my favorite shipper, but then getting passed to USPS for my PO Box instead of getting punted off the truck in my driveway or trebuchet’ed over my gate…

1 Like
#20

Teehee. :grin: Thanks for the visual!

1 Like

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