April 2026 · 6 min read
Shipping is the part of online selling that intimidates most beginners — but it's actually straightforward once you know the basics. This guide covers everything you need to know to ship your first item with confidence.
This is the first decision every seller faces. Both approaches have trade-offs:
Bottom line: For items under $30, buyer-paid shipping usually makes more sense. For items over $50, offering free shipping (with the cost built into the price) tends to result in faster sales.
For most resellers, USPS is the go-to carrier. Here's why:
Pro tip: Services like Pirate Ship offer the cheapest USPS and UPS rates available — often cheaper than buying postage directly at the post office. It's free to use.
Accurate measurements prevent shipping corrections and overcharges:
Most platforms offer their own prepaid shipping labels:
Platform labels are almost always the easiest option — tracking is automatically linked to your order, and the buyer can see real-time updates. Self-shipping (buying your own postage) makes sense when you can get a better rate through Pirate Ship or have a UPS/FedEx business account.
Where to buy supplies cheap: Dollar Tree, Amazon bulk packs, or free USPS Priority Mail boxes (order at usps.com — they ship to your door for free) — but only for packages you send by Priority Mail.
Most sellers don't realize this: shipping increases your fees on most platforms because fees are calculated on the total order value.
Example: $40.00 item + $8.00 shipping on eBay (13.6% fee)
Fee on $48.00 total: $6.53
Fee on $40.00 item only (if fees excluded shipping): $5.44
Extra fees from shipping: $1.09
Use the FeePilot calculator to see exactly how shipping cost affects your payout on every platform.
Enter your item price and shipping cost to see what you'll actually keep after all fees — across every major marketplace.
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