Great tips Danielle! Printing your own labels and scheduling pickups from your home save so much time when it comes to shipping.

USPS.com offers free boxes & envelopes for Priority mail. They ship to you free, cost nothing and come in large bundles so you'll always have them on hand. LOVE their Carrier Pick-up, too!

For Canadian sellers: Most Canadians are aware of the dreaded 2cm thickness limit that hikes a domestic package from about $2 to over $10. However, you can save money if you purchase prepaid XpressPost envelopes (i.e. $7.50 for a 15x25cm bubble envelope) for "regional" deliveries. The regions are: Atlantic - Newfoundland/Labrador, PEI, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Central - Quebec and Ontario (only some northern ON postal codes) Western - British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and some postal codes in northern ON Nuvavut - some postal codes Northwest Territories - some postal codes Yukon - all postal codes You can put as much as you like inside these envelopes and mail them within the region in question. They can be purchased ahead of time and don't need to be weighed at the P.O.

Note... when sending Priority International mail... it comes with built in indemnity/insurance (and you can purchase more). It is the only way to insure an item going overseas other than Global Express, which is very very costly. Not everyone needs to send something Priority International.. but for those that do... it's good for you as well as your buyer to know you have indemnity/insurance

You can still use paypal to ship items that have not been paid through paypal. Go to merchant services, Paypal multi order shipping (make sure your pop up blocker is turned off). When the window comes up click on "create new order" and off you go. Enter in all the info. It's great because you can keep all of your tracking numbers and shipping information in one place. This is only good for domestic shipping. There is no international feature.

Great tips danielle! Having a shipping station for your studio is a wonderful thing. To have all of your shipping needs organized in one space is a huge stress and time saver.

I signed up for stamps.com and although I pay a small fee every month, the payoff is that I do not waste valuable time at my Brooklyn post office. You can print your own shipping label identified w your company name, get receipts and tracking...it is so worth it!

Thanks so much for the heads up about endicia.com -- they offer a free 30 day trial. :)

Thank you everyone for this priceless information!!

Yiiiiiii! Shipping! Yes, that's the very thing I've been trying to figure out. Thanks so much for a useful condensed bit of info!

does anyone know if you use endica.com for international shipping, do you still need to go to the PO to ship, or can you just drop it in the box?

Yes! THANK YOU! I can't wait til the virtual lab session. Those really are lots of fun and a wealth of information.

omg. THERE IS A WEBSITE THAT WILL LET ME PRINT OUT LABELS FOR INTERNATIONAL ORDERS?? No more wasting away my lunch hour at the ghetto-est post office in the world?! I could cry.

I'm happy to see I'm already on target with a lot of what's suggested. Who knew I was that organized? Good to have all this in one simple to read outline.

A very thorough and helpful article. I'm going to check out Endicia rather than limit my intl shopping to Saturday mailing only.

thank you so much for putting this together - it was very helpful!

Hi there. I'm interested in opening an Etsy shop, but I'm confused as to how people determine the shipping costs? Every time I buy something, it seems that the shipping is calculated immediately when I checkout at Paypal. I have sold some things on ebay & got totally ripped off w/ the shipping b/c I didn't know how to determine the correct cost to put in my listing. How can you pre-determine shipping costs when you don't know where you're shipping to? Do people have scales at home? What's the deal? Please help! :)

How about if I use Priority mail. It's very fast I know. Art

Boy, this is a lot of information to take in. I'm just setting up a shop and I'm right there with you nickiefrye, the shipping confuses me too. Hope I'll be up and running soon!

I'm just starting out...how do i calculate the International Shipping, BEFORE knowing which country it's going to?

I don't understand the shipping, why can't they make it as easy as it is on eBay? It depends on the zip code where the package is going and the weight.

Yep I have stayed in the U.S. until I can figure the whole international shipping thing out. Much to learn.

How do people ship large things like furniture?

hmmm. Shipping looks likely to be interesting...

I am just starting my etsy shop, and I have the same questions as "nickiefrye", could someone give me some info about that too? I will ship from Colombia. http://www.flickr.com/photos/alinka

I agree with nickiefrye..shipping can be very confusing. I did not charge enough on my first few sales due to underestimating what priority shipping would cost. I have decided to ship parcel post to save customers money and if they need item faster I will adjust price. Most people don't mind waiting 5-10 days to receive purchase and it is half the cost for them. I will see how it goes and let you know. good luck fellow newbies!

This might sound like a stupid question, but how do people weigh things to find out how heavy a package is before they mail? What kind of scale do you use and where's a good place to buy a small, inexpensive yet accurate scale?

Thanks for the info!! :)

FetchingDesigns, I found a post office scale at the local Office Depot - check out their shippping section. They had all kinds of scales, I think the cheapest was about $10. I believe you can ship 1st class mail through the online shipping label printing method through Paypal, at least that is what I used on one of my recent packages...

I know if you get payment through PayPal,they will create a shipping label, but ow do you know the rates? OK, I weigh the garment, or whatever, and then what == go to USPS web site to find out the cost?

You can calculate shipping on the USPS website.

Amazing, thanks so much! I'll probably be shipping first class, so I hope I can print my labels like that through paypal.

This is so helful! Thanks!!

Thanks for details I even did not think of!

Very helpful.

Thanks for the tips!

Thanks for the tips! I am going to go update my shipping profile information right now!

Great tips! I used to use endicia back when I was selling on eBay and I highly recommend it. It made processing a high volume of domestic and international shipments a breeze. Their customer service is excellent too (well it was when I used it anyway). One more tip: Do not use UPS to ship to your customers in Canada or they will be hit with a ridiculously high "brokerage" fee (by UPS) for clearing the package through customs. This is in addition to the normal duties and taxes.

thanks for all the tips, danielexo and all those who commented with additional suggestions! still trying to get my head around shipping internationally FROM the uk... Royal Mail has changed their tune about weights/measures/prices since I was last selling online (pre-baby-- who is now in 2nd grade I might add!) I'm going to do some more investigating, probably need to invest in a set of sensitive kitchen scales to help me quote more accurate prices. I don't want to overcharge, but I don't want to undercharge either. (I've ended up giving stuff away for free almost-- I'm sure I'm not the first to make that mistake-- it can be a real "ouchie moment")

I live right next to the post office, so all my shipping costs are calculated at their (complacent but often annoyed) expense before I list the item. I guess i'm lucky though... I do have a set of scales here as well

I live right next to the post office, so I can go over their and weight everything and get a general rate for UK or US shipping from them. A lot of the time I end up paying more on shipping than I charged, but not enough to worry me.

Thanks for the wealth of advice.

Thank you for the great tips! Will definitely be using your advice when I open my shop this summer.

Thank you for the great tips! Will definitely be using your advice when I open my shop this summer.

Just a small comment. I downloaded from USPS.com their "shipping assistant" and have it ready to go on my taskbar when I need a shipping label.