Six rules
Never ship one light item
Freight is priced with a floor, so a parcel with one t-shirt in it costs nearly what a parcel with four costs. A single cheap item is the most expensive thing per unit you can possibly send, and people do it constantly on a first order.
The difference is routinely larger than the item.
Count volume, not weight
You are charged on whichever is greater: what the parcel weighs, or what its size says it should weigh. Three shoeboxes are mostly air and are billed like a brick. Have the boxes removed and ask for a compact repack before you quote anything.
On a multi-pair order this alone usually pays for itself several times.
Buy from one seller where you can
Domestic shipping to the warehouse is charged per seller, and many waive it above an order value. Two things from one seller often cost less to get into the warehouse than one thing from two.
Small per order, but it is free money and it compounds.
Order the uncertain things first
If you are unsure about an item, buy it early rather than last. It reaches the warehouse sooner, you see its photographs sooner, and you still have time to reject it and replace it without holding up everything else.
This is the rule nobody thinks of, and it is the one that saves a haul.
Keep the window short anyway
Items are stored free for a period and then begin accruing a daily fee. More importantly, a warehouse full of your things for three months is money and goods sitting with somebody else for no benefit.
Order, check, ship. Then start the next one.
Let one awkward item travel alone
If a single item would force the whole parcel onto an expensive sensitive-goods line, quote it both ways. Sending it separately is sometimes cheaper than dragging everything else onto that line with it.
Rare, but when it bites it bites hard.
The order to do it in
Sequence matters more than people expect, because the only moment you can reject something is while it is in the warehouse and the rest of the haul is still being assembled.
- 1
Write the haul down before you browse
Three or four things you actually want, with a rough budget. Browsing first and deciding afterwards is how people end up shipping twice.
- 2
Judge the sellers before you order any of it
Read the QC galleries for each item and drop anything whose recent photos are worse than its old ones. This is the step that costs nothing and saves the most.
- 3
Order the uncertain items first, the safe ones last
You want the risky thing photographed while there is still time to replace it.
- 4
Check each item's photos as it lands
Not all at the end. A problem raised while the rest of the haul is still being bought is a problem with a solution.
- 5
Strip the volume, then quote
Boxes out, compact repack, and only then submit the parcel and read the lines. Quoting a parcel you were never going to send gives you a number about nothing.
Step two is the one that pays
Judging sellers before you order costs nothing and removes most of what goes wrong later. It is a separate skill and it has its own page: spotting a bad batch. Once your own items reach the warehouse, the QC guide is what you check them against.
What we are not doing
We do not sell, make, import or stock anything, and we take no payments. Oopbuy buys the listing you point it at and ships it to you; nothing on this site is authenticated or inspected by us, and what arrives is between you and the seller you bought from.
Questions
How many items make a sensible haul?
Three or four is where the arithmetic starts working: the first item carries most of the freight floor and each one after it is much cheaper to add. Beyond about eight you are mostly trading against your own storage window rather than saving more.
Can I keep adding to a parcel over months?
Technically yes, and it is a bad idea. Items are stored free for a period and then start costing, and a warehouse holding your goods for months is exposure with no benefit. Order, check, ship, start again.
What if one item never arrives at the warehouse?
It happens — sellers sit on orders. Raise it with support from inside that order. If it is holding up an otherwise complete haul, ship what you have and let the straggler go in the next parcel; waiting indefinitely costs more than a second shipment.
Is it cheaper to remove shoeboxes?
On more than one pair, almost always. You are paying for the volume whether or not the box has anything useful in it, and the removal service costs a fraction of what the air costs to fly. Keep the boxes only if you genuinely want them.
Should I insure the parcel?
Weigh the premium against what is in the box and against what the line actually covers, which is often less than people assume. On a valuable haul it is usually worth it; on a parcel of t-shirts it rarely is.