Discogs shipping option sucks

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by kwadguy, Dec 19, 2020.

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  1. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    A while back, Discogs started to offer a shipping button.

    Great. I can automatically print a shipping label without leaving Discogs.

    But, no, it sucks. I ship most of my stuff Media Mail, and the cost of a 1 pound media mail label through Discogs is around $3.11, while through PayPal (or eBay) it's $2.80.

    So, thanks for nothing. Since I get paid through PayPal, it's easy enough to print the shipping label there, too. I just have to copy//paste the tracking number back into Discogs.
     
  2. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    The Discogs shipping program was actually quite good for US LP packages going overseas, before I found out I could get the same rate (cheaper than USPS or eBay/Paypal) from Pirate Ship with a better interface. For domestic Media Mail (or First Class) I just ship from the Paypal page where the payment was received.
     
  3. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I must leave Discogs and head over to paypal to check the buyer's confirmed address anyway, as sometimes the Discogs ship to and the paypal shipping addy are not the same.

    So it's a bit less expensive to ship through paypal anyway? Why worry about if if you save .31 a package?

     
  4. giantleech

    giantleech Lord of all fevers and plagues

    How complicated is it to use this "Pirate Ship" program. Are there monthly costs? (Note: I would assume so.)
     
  5. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    How complicated is the Google? You do have to open an account (and specifically request Media Mail rates be shown, if you use that), but there is no monthly bill like Endicia or Stamps.com. You pay only for the labels you buy.
     
  6. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    Not sure. But it turns out that Pirate Ship doesn't offer rates any better than just shipping through PayPal, who already have the shipping info from Discogs. So why would I bother roping in yet another party?
     
  7. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    The "Simple Export Rate" Pirate Ship offers for international shipments is the same rates as the Discogs Shipping program, and significantly cheaper than shipping internationally through Paypal. For domestic shipments there is no advantage.
     
  8. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    So why would you use Pirate Ship? For domestic, use PayPal (where they already have the shipping address). For international use the Discogs Shipping Program. I'm not seeing where Pirate Ship is useful.
     
  9. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    I found the label printing process with Discogs annoying. Their labels are not oriented correctly for my half-sheet labels and there is no option to generate them differently, so I had to dick with them in a PDF editor.

    For domestic postage, Pirate Ship also offers the Priority Mail Cubic rate, which Paypal and USPS does not and which is slightly (maybe 5%) cheaper in many cases, depending on the size of the package. I have used it on occasion, but since I mostly ship Media Mail eligible items I don't often have need for it.
     
  10. Reese

    Reese Just because some watery tart threw a sword!

    Pirate Ship has excellent customer support should one of your packages run into problems. Additionally, it's a way to avoid using stamps.com in case you're less than enchanted with that company's agenda. The biggest problem with Pirate Ship for us is that it only offers integration with Etsy - all other orders must be manually entered or loaded through a batch file. It also only has USPS shipping, so you'll need to use something else for UPS, FedEx, DHL, and so on. Its address validation isn't the best, either. Even with those problems, we still use Pirate Ship for 100% of our USPS shipments.
     
  11. giantleech

    giantleech Lord of all fevers and plagues

    (The) Google (by which, I presume, you mean "using the Google online search engine") is not particularly difficult at all. That said, some of us prefer to get information straight from people, operating in a similar field, who are directly involved with and conversant about a shared topic (in this case, a commercial mailing service.) I am of the opinion that I can get much better, more practical and more real time information from a user (such as yourself) of said service than I can from a page of company service hype.
     
    cwitt1980 likes this.
  12. giantleech

    giantleech Lord of all fevers and plagues

    Why not just print those labels to paper and then tape them to the package? If you are pumping out hundreds of outgoing packages a day then I can see where slapping an actual adhesive label to cardboard would be a real time saver. But if the numbers are low, printed paper and clear tape, which is what I have been using for decades, seems to suffice quite well.
     
    quicksrt and Dave like this.
  13. giantleech

    giantleech Lord of all fevers and plagues

    Now this right here is news I can use.
     
  14. Reese

    Reese Just because some watery tart threw a sword!

    This is incorrect - it does offer a Discogs integration. My apologies for the misinformation.
     
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