Oh yes, please do post them here for more examples for us!!
Ultra Cheap Plant Shipping Method (Under $2)
Sure Birdie. I'll try to post them tonight. We'll see how it goes when I get home from work - lol.
glad to see this was made into a "sticky"!
This message was edited Jul 15, 2009 2:31 PM
loca, please post a pic. i have several trades to get out int he mail this week and dont wanna go broke doing it...LOL, so a visual would be helpful when i go to package these babies up!
I got busy and TOTALLY forgot - lol.
I'll try to git 'er done today!
Edited to say: Sorry, Kelz - we FINALLY got a big 'ol rainstorm yesterday. Power on and off, so I'll try to post those pics for you when I get home from work tonight.
This message was edited Jul 20, 2009 1:22 PM
cue chik what are you sending?
butterfly bush starts, night blooming jasmine starts, and misc starts... all to different people across the US
mamajacks method would work wonderfully for you, cue.
OK - here are the pics. Hope they give you a better idea what this thread is talking about. Remember this particular package cost $2.07 to mail, first class, and contained 3 Iris and 2 rooted cuttings...
#2
oops - this should have been #2 . . .
#3
#4
#5
last one . . .
well just looky at them little diclipteras. fresh as rain. yep. i did good. lol
cue i wrap the roots of newly rooted plants in a little damp potting soil. wrap that with plastic. then i wrap newspaper around the tops to help cushion. and in your case with just rooted cuttings i would then wrap newspaper around the entire plants. and ball up some newspaper in strategic locations in the package if you need to for cushioning. remember do not make the plants very wet but the newspaper will take up some of that. i put that plastic tape just about over the entire outside of the brown wrapper to keep THEM from tearing it but also in case it does get a little wet it will hold it together as well.
NOW THAT WE KNOW WE CAN DO IT CHEAPLY let's get them trades on. seems to me that trading is way down this year. do yall think so too?
Maybe we can each send this link to some of our friends who trade and get this method out.
If it's postage that has people shy about trading this year, lets bypass that problem. (nip it in the bud..so to say!!)
Spread the word!! ^_^
Sheri
I agree, Sheri. I have not traded much as of yet - worried how to safely and cheaply ship and all. After receiving the package from mamajack and seeing how easy it was, no worries now. The plants looked so good you'd have sworn she walked over and handed them to me instead of shipping them from TX to AZ in July!
sheri that's right. it is expensive to ship so i try to trade large or just the amt. i can ship first class. as long as the packages are UNDER 13 oz. they go first class and that has the same delivery schedule as priority. some people just won't believe that though. the worst thing that happened to someone i traded with this year was that they sent me ONE iris in that middle FLAT RATE BOX!!!! cost her over 10.00 to ship one iris. she was new and she just wanted to do it right. lol
Now she knows a better way, eh?
The packaging was (and correct me if I'm wrong) paper bag material folded to make a nice sturdy shipping contraption. It left TX Monday and arrived in Phoenix Wednesday am for $2.07.
Can't beat that!
you could use paper sacks if you can get them. but i had bought a roll of brown wrap to use on my floor while i painted a room.
and you know if i had sent that thing to somewhere in texas it prob. would have taken longer. and maybe an extra day to calif. or new york. several people have done mail experiments and what they found if i remember correctly is that there is no rhyme or reason to postal delivery schedules. lol.
Just a quick question. I'm assuming since it's a package, it won't go through "the crusher" that scan the address?
I always sends first class if it's 10oz and under. If over 10, it's pretty close to priority price, so I ship priority anyway. I always specify that I will send first class and if they don't like, we don't trade. I've had people said no that they only want priority so we don't trade. Easy as that. Need to keep more money in my pocket in this time and day.
Oh, and I used muffin or cereal boxes because the paper box is lighter. Even use spaghetti or macaroni boxes.
This message was edited Jul 21, 2009 9:09 PM
MIne did not appear to have gone through the machine cancel. Looks like it was hand cancelled.
the only thing that goes thru the crusher is flat envelopes or bubble ones i think. and i have used those light boxes as well. i did this strictly as an experiment. sent one to dmac as well. hers arrived fine too for around 2.00.
I think priority is supposed to be faster than first class if you're shipping across the country, but of course the postal service doesn't guarantee the delivery times anyway. So there's no point in my sending a 12 oz package by priority to anybody who lives east of the Mississippi.
i tried this method this past week. mailed 4 out of 5 packages this way and all cost $2 or less..(with the exception of one I sent to Cali... I used a regular box and paid $4.95 to ship it)
hopefully everything will arrive ok
Be curious to hear how they made it in the mail.
I ended up paying $40 cdn to NC for a "well-packed box" my DH sent.........
well, at least it arrived safely lol
I'll send Next Time LOL
40.00!!!! for one box? did you consider using several flat rate boxes instead of one large box? you might could have gotten them all in 2 of the 10.00 boxes or 2 of the 15.00 boxes. still cheaper than 40.00. tallulah you have to ask yourself.......did you trade for at least 40.00 worth of plants? if not then you need to figure out how to make it worth it next time.
I sent a Stuffed Envie AND a Fairy Swap to the same person, cuz I got the same buddy for Both Threads lol
My DH wanted to be sure it went quickest and safest, so he sent it the Most Expensive, plus it was insured, and cross-border, so I expect it was more for all that....
The fairy was a large part of the size, I'm sure....he bubble-wrapped it.
~Susan~
No matter what you use...paper, bubble, cardboard.......the stiffer the package the better protected it is. delivery confirmation will help tell you when you package arrived...what day and what time. priority is faster depending on where. 2 day priority is to take 2 days or shorter. First class can take longer. If it ends up on a plane for cross country priority will be loaded on before first class will. Yes we will come right to your door to pick up the package....I am a rural carrier not sure how city ones do it. If it says LIVE PLANTS on the package would help as we do not have xray vision to know they should not be left in a hot or freezing cold mail box.
Ask what both prices are first and priority as sometimes there may be only a few cents apart in the 2 prices. I mail both ways depending on where to and how long it may be in the box. Common sense is the rule. Express only if it has to be overnight. And to a larger city.
I pick up packages and affix the postage for the customers......unless your sure of the weight. I havae even called some of mine to make sure they are home
del. confirmation is a worthless product to me. the only thing it can do is tell you if the person you sent it to did in fact receive it. if the post office loses your box while enroute they can't find it with that number. so the way i look at it del. confirmation is only good if you are trading with someone who you don't trust. just my take.
all those things may be true about how they load packages but in actuality i have really good luck getting first class packages to their destination in 2-3 days. at the same time i have had priority take over 2 weeks. lost a box with del. confirmation. the box sat in the wrong post office for weeks. the post office couldn't find the box. finally it was put back in circulation. plants arrived after 3 weeks. most plants were.....yep, dead. lol
so the way i look at it is this............at any given time on any given package it is subject to being lost.......whether it's first class or priority with all the bells............so why wouldn't i buy the cheapest?
That's a really good point, mama - It's really moot How it's sent....... but the fact we send things to each other is a friendly gesture that sometimes gets stymied by our wonderful postal system (in both countries, it's the same story).
Ah well, we just have to "take it on the chin" sometimes ^_^
~Susan~
i really think the postal service does a good job. think about the gazillion pieces of mail they handle every day. yall we get most of that crap and you know it. we need to let up on the quality of the postal service IN MOST CASES i think. i'm just sayin'. haha
well, y'd think that with all the email, and the lessening of snail-mail, that they'd have cheaper mail just to draw us back to using their services again......
btw - I used to work for the Post Office in Canada, and a friend of mine still does.
I'm not picking on them........ it's just natural, with all that gazillion pieces of mail, that mistakes will happen - we'll all human, after all LOL
i was thinking the other day what with the post office hurting for business if we as gardeners could form a very loose union and ask for special pricing they would probably bite.
hmmmmmmm wouldn't that be wonderful for cross-border mailing? I mailed a box for a swap, and it cost me $40 Cdn - about the same amount as the contents! My DH did the shipping from work, and he sent it the most expensive to get there the fastest LOL He's in Shipping/Receiving so he knows the cheapest, but he wanted my swap buddy to have it the fastest..........
well that just goes to show you that the post office believes in themselves even if some of us don;'t. hahaha
My very 1st packabe waas send with DC which was posted as delivered...well. not to me, and not because i'm dishonest either...A sub carried that day and "didn't remember were he left it, " but it got delivered." Not to me! So please don't be to harsh on those who say they did not receive the package even if the UsPS says it Was delivered
LOL never said del con was the best....And alot of times the cheapest is the fastest. I work with 2 that are getting things wrong and I don't blame anyone for being upset with the carrier that did it, but don't lump the entire postal service as one person. There are alot of us that do go the extra mile to make sure that package is there on time and in good condition. I serve 541 customers on a daily basis. I deliver over 2000 peices of mail a day. And more than 50 packages a day. And we still are the cheapest worldwide. I myself have lost items in the mailstream and have had late delivery on express mail...Express mail is a guarentee....if not on time by 3 pm it is free and you get your money back...Like I said write ' LIVE PLANTS' on it. As in any job you will always have your idiots that do the minimal............I have seen UPS and FEDEX both leave wrong packages at the wrong houses.....1 was a $8000 check stuck between 2 doors at the wrong house (fedex) and one was a computer left at the wrong house (ups).
Just for fun ask ups or fedex what it would cost for them to deliver that same package...................