WHATNOT SHIPPING — THE JULY 12th CHANGE THAT CAN COST YOU

https://linktr.ee/KarriKennedy

Starting July 12th, shipping changes in a way that affects many Whatnot sellers. This is about understanding the it all, so you can protect your time, your pricing, and your profit.

#Whatnot #WhatnotSeller #Reselling #LiveSelling #OnlineSelling #Shipping #USPS #Ecommerce #SmallBusiness #SideHustle #ResellerLife #KarriKennedy

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey there guys. Uh I hope everybody is doing well. It is around 5 30 p.m. on Sunday, the 19th of April. It's the day after Zero Commission Day. I have been packing and I am taking a break from packing to come do this podcast. But tomorrow I am also going to do another podcast about my crazy experience with what I did, how long I was on, how much money I made or didn't make, um, how long packing took, my thoughts overall on these zero commission days. And I'm going to do that podcast probably first thing in the morning. So you're getting two episodes back to back. Uh this one, though, however, is all about and the reason, wait, before I even get to it, during, I just did the how to pack a box show. Um, and during that show that lasted an hour, um, somebody said, Are you going to talk about the policies? I have talked about the policies. I don't know which episode it was, but I have talked about how they've changed things in in um March and how some things have been changed. I would go back if you're a person who asked that question or have questions about whatnot policies. I'm pretty sure it's within the last three to five episodes. Uh, you can look at the dates maybe on when they came out, but I do try to talk about policy changes and information that's going to actually affect you. And what we're talking about today is definitely, definitely one of those. And it's making me rethink pretty much everything right now, um, especially after yesterday and having 56 orders to get out and something like I have to look at the numbers, something like 230, some odd number. I don't know. I'll have all that tomorrow, but lots and lots of glass, lots of breakables. It's a lot of work and energy to pack this stuff. Um, if you're in the vintage or antique or estate sale or um storage unit or any kind of field like that where you have lots of different little things, maybe even perfume or makeup, but where you have to do a whole lot of different sizes, weights, heights, it's it's kind of stressful and overwhelming at times. I'm sure there's somebody who's got a Zen kind of feel and they turn on their music and they get in their rear zone. But like what just happened with me is my kid had a Coke or Dr. Pepper or whatever on the table. It got on stuff, and I was like, oh my gosh, Hayden, Hayden, and I was we had to move the table, we had to, I have to wash a piece of fabric. It was just it's everywhere, and it's really my house is not set up as a as a shipping station right now when I have so many packages. Anyways, you'll understand why me saying this is gonna affect my life, and I'm really rethinking what I'm doing on whatnot right now. Um, because this, what's going to happen, happens July 12th, okay? Future, future tense. Okay. So everybody thinks that shipping is just like a side thing. Like you get on whatnot, you sell your item, and nobody ever really talks about shipping a whole lot. But shipping and how you price things, what kind of box you put it in, how big that box is, the numbers, whatever, it can totally make or break you. And I will tell you how I was broken yesterday. I got broken, broken, broken. Bad idea. I will talk about it in the next episode. But um, anyways, starting July, July, did I say June? I meant July if I did say that. July 12th, they are going to change the United States Postal Service is changing how we box our things and how we do things, how we calculate it. Okay. So every single commercial package that's talking about like whatnot, Poshmark, eBay, all the commercial packages are now going to need length, width, and height. And obviously, you know, that's got to be right. Um, and it has to happen um on on before it was on big, big boxes. Like if it went over 12 by 12 by 12, you had to measure it and go, okay, this is 20 by 16. You had to do that before on whatnot, but now it's going to be on everything. And so I'm thinking how much time it's taking me to wrap all this, to do it, and then now add that layer, it's a lot when you're talking tons and tons of stuff. But, anyways, um, this all matters because the label that you print, okay, when you go to print something, it's not gonna be the final cost anymore. Because if you screw up, the UPS is going to you United States Postal Service. Let me say that again. The USPS is going to measure it later. Okay. So um think of it like going to the grocery store when they you you can scan it all, but it's not till it gets to the end that the lady says, here's your total. So everything is going to have to not only be scanned by you with your phone, you know, right now. I just I've got a bunch of boxes at my front door. I've scanned the ones that are at the front door ready to go to the car. I don't put anything at the door that hasn't already been scanned. That keeps me on track and keeps up with when you have 56 boxes and they're all different sizes, different weights, different people. Some people have more than one box, maybe, whatever. Um, I should say 56 orders because it could end up being something like 64 boxes. I had 56 orders, okay. So sometimes items become so big you need multiple boxes. Okay. Anyways, that's how shipping's gonna work, kind of like scanning, but they're going to do it from now on, starting July 12th. Okay. So there's two ways that cost can change for you in the future. It's either size or weight. If you enter the wrong weight uh and USPS goes in and they change it and correct it, and they weigh the package and it's wrong, or um the ship, whatever the weight or the size is different, it's gonna charge you the difference now. Right now, a lot of people, especially big, big sellers on here, are cruising. I mean, they are are sending stuff, I guess whatnot's absorbing it, they're paying fees later. I don't know how it's happening. This is a deep dive for the future. We're not gonna go there, but I'm telling you, a lot of people are abusing the system, and I think that's part of it. I also think the war, everything that's going on with the war, you know, all that. I think the gas prices, there's a lot of factors. I've actually talked about this in another episode. Not gonna spend too much time here. But, anyways, I'm gonna give you a couple examples. Let's say you have eight ounces and you forget to go in and change it, but it actually weighs like two pounds, two ounces or something. Okay. The label originally might cost about four bucks, but now the difference in the weight is now nine dollars or even up to like twelve dollars, dependent on where it's going. Okay. So you're going to get, you as the seller, are gonna start getting charged the difference, and that's gonna add up real quick. Do you guys understand what I'm just saying? So if it's like an eight ounce that weighs $4 and it goes to a state not too far away and it's nine dollars, you're going to pay the difference. Or even if it's let's say it's $12, you're gonna end up catching that cost. Um, okay, so let's think about this. If you're off by six bucks on one package, that doesn't add, that doesn't mean too much to you. But if you're like me and you have end up 60 boxes and you do that a whole bunch of times, or you somehow, when you entered in your number and you're like a clothing person or somebody who's selling toys or games or um, I don't know, football cards, Pokemon cards, whatever you're selling. If you have it on the wrong weight in the get-go and you print all your labels out, not paying attention, just something as stupid as putting six ounces instead of six pounds, printing up a hundred of those, you're gonna get busted with that. Is this scaring anybody? Because I it scares me. It scares me because I already am checking the weight. I'm already checking the measurements. And I'm like, dude, if I'm getting caught having to pay four bucks here, six bucks here, eight bucks here, that's gonna add up. That if that happened, if you were off by, I mean, add it up. If if if you're off by like five, six dollars per package with 20 packages, you're talking like 120, 130 bucks. I'm not mathing, guys. You get the point. And then you're losing your profits. You're just you're just throwing money away, basically. Okay, that's the weight thing. If it's the size thing, size means the box, which length, width, height, all that, right? If your box is larger than expected, uh, and it, you know, it has a different rating, right? I think once it gets, I know for me, like when I go from a 12 to 12 to 12, the size I try to go up to is either a 1512 10 or a 1612 10, because the area isn't much more and it works really well for me if I have something long and skinny. That's just my favorite, that's my favorite box, guys. The 151210 is my favorite box, and I'll try to switch it over to that. The thing is, when whatnot does the shipping, they're looking at the area. So to get the area inside the cubic footage inside, right? Your cubic inches, whatever. Um, well, the outside a 12 by 12 by 12 is one cubic foot, okay? Um, but you you you're adding it up to get the area, so you would add that up. I used to know these numbers, but it's like 70 something. 70 is it for 74, 12 by 12 by 12, and then you try to keep that area as close as you can. But I know I have taken a box that was like say 12 by 12 by 12 and tried to move up to a 16, 16, 16 with the big items, and it changes the weight significantly. I mean, once you get to 16, I think it just really depends on the size of your box, what you're shipping. If I'm selling a bat or a hockey stick or a golf club, that's very different because it's skinny and little. Uh, you guys get it, right? What I'm saying. Okay, here we go. So, but here's the thing uh UPS based on the weight now can take a shipment that you know, with the weight and the height that was eight bucks and it turns it into 15, and you're gonna have to pay that seven dollar difference if you put the wrong numbers on there. So they're literally charging you for mistakes. You don't, and it's not like whatnot, where you get five, you know, adjustments per week to change it, and they're gonna give you, you know, some grace here. I don't think that's the case. I think there's been so much abuse, and I'm gonna say it, I've said it before. I really think a lot of this happened when Mr. Beast came in. I could go back and look at when I did my episode on Mr. Beast, but he brought a lot of people to the platform. Uh, a lot, because I don't remember the numbers. You go back, but basically everybody couldn't get in his shows. He was giving away big, big, huge dollar ticket items, and it brought a lot of young, young sellers on here, maybe some new, but it definitely um it's opened up a whole lot since Mr. Beast came on, and I personally think it's that the war, the gas prices, and the abuse that people are doing that is causing this. And I have said this, you guys can go back and listen to some of my episodes. I said this was gonna happen. I predicted this. I said the more people you have, the more rules, the more regulations, the more stuff is gonna have to come out. You guys can go back and listen. I predicted this. I said this is going to happen. We are going to have to pay more, and sure enough, we're going to. Okay. Um, so, anyways, so size is going to matter, weight is gonna matter. Also, there's another thing called dimensional weight, and I I looked this up on the deal. Okay, so if your box is large, USPS is going to charge based on size instead of weight. So it means that a light item, like let's say you have, oh, let's go back to that baseball bat. Say it's a plastic baseball bat, and for whatever reason it's a gigantic one. I'm just making this up, guys, as I go. Um, that means even though it's very lightweight, it's a plastic baseball bat, because of the size of it, maybe you have three in a line or something. Get an idea. It doesn't matter, even if it's lightweight, because the dimensions are higher, it can still add more. Okay. And then you talk about bundling. So you're talking about your weights increasing, the dimensions are changing, you're you're into a higher bracket. Now, for some of you, this doesn't mean anything to you for the most part, because you're selling things like marbles and necklaces and Pokemon cards, and your life is easy compared to mine. I mean, I'm really at this point, especially with all these packages all over my hallway and my living room, and it's just a mess. And I'm like, what did I get myself into? I know some of you who are listening understand the struggle is real, but um, this isn't gonna matter to a lot of you because you're sort of easy. It's it's not hard. You're you you sell t-shirts for a living and you put five in a flat rate and you're done, and it's easy. This is mostly for people who are in categories where you're selling lots of different items, lots of different sizes, lots of different weights. Okay. If you order free shipping like I did yesterday, you're absorbing all the clock cost and all of your profits disappearing. And I will talk about that in my next episode. And um, there's also another fee. Um, okay, they said the dimensional fee. I forgot this. This is in my notes. It's going to be around one to three dollars. Okay, that's the main cost. Um, it's not the always cost. I'm giving you like uh kind of what they're saying. And that just means if you do have that bat and it's over the size, whatever, that plastic bat, it might be lightweight, but it's over the size. So now you're gonna have to pay an extra dollar to three dollars. Okay. Um, now if your numbers are too low and the system has to go in and correct it later, you're gonna get charged, right? And so you're like, well, how am I gonna get charged? Is UPS gonna charge me? Am I is my PayPal gonna get a hit? Is it whatnot? How does that happen? And here's how it is. Okay, so for example, you injure a label at like eight dollars and fifty-six cents. I mean, that's what it like you think. And this is oh, this is the other example. Let me I put this in here. Do you get money back? And the answer is no. It'll protect you one way, but you're not gonna get it back. So here's my example I wrote $8.56 is the actual shipment. Um, but you realize when you change in the the numbers and everything that it's only six dollars and twenty-four cents. Do you get the two dollars and thirty-two cents back? And the answer is no, no way, no how. I wish it was fair like that. Like we're paying for overages. Do we get money back if it's it's in our favor? And no, the system is designed to correct underpayment, but you do not get a refund for overpayment. So that kind of sucks, but I get it. It's the world we live in. Okay, so basically accuracy and taking out your tape measures, your rulers, making sure you have the packing scale, all of this is going to be extremely important. Okay, um, but let me see. What else do I have? Um, this is why your numbers can change after your show if you know the cost is adjusted or whatever, and you do it wrong. Okay, so where um where is this coming from? Okay, so here's how I here's my other example. Okay, so you print up the label and whatnot pays UPS, right? And UPS processes the package, and they're like, uh, hello, this isn't right. You put two ounces and it's really two pounds. Um, that's coming out of your payouts. So what UPS will talk to whatnot and whatnot will automatically take it out. And I've seen this happen before on social media where somebody's like, look, my account says I'm a negative $324. What happened? And it's something like they messed up on shipping and whatnot took it out. And that's gonna happen. So, like if you had $300 in sales and $120 in shipping adjustments, you're only gonna receive $180. And if the adjustments are even higher than your payout, your account can actually go into negative and it can take future earnings to take out the to cover the balance. So you're like, well, this is serious. It becomes serious when it hits your bank account because you're in the negative and now you've got to work to pay back that bill. And um, anyways, the package is gonna get delivered, everything is gonna be fine, but you're gonna get hit with the fees, and and this is a big, big deal. And I I mean, it's not just hitting us, it's not just the whatnot people. Like this is across the board. This is going to be a big deal. Somebody's gonna come up with an invention or something where you can just put the box down and it's gonna scan the size so that we don't have to measure it anymore. That's my next prediction. I don't know when it's gonna happen, but maybe I watched too many sci-fi movies. What show was I watching the other day where it was like, oh, I know what it was. It was Wally. I was watching Wally and uh Eva or Eve, she um scans, she was looking for green and she's scan. I think that's gonna happen in the future. That's my next prediction. Okay. Um, anyways, so that's that's what's gonna end up. I said, you know, I I think that at the end of the day, um, accounts are tied to your identity because I was thinking about this. Like, what prevents somebody coming in trying to screw over the system? Because I already talked about being abuse, you know, abuse and everything, but whatnot is cracking down on that too, to make sure that they have the right ID, the right person, the right phone number, the right credit card, all that information so that nobody can go in and make one account, screw everybody over, send 400 packages out, you know, cheap, and then get, you know, whatever, and then start another account. I think that because of, sorry, youngsters, but because more Riffraf has come on and there's been more abuse and more issues, they're going to be very concerned about making sure that they've got your tax information, your banking information, your PayPal, your phone number, your email, whatever they're getting to make sure that you are not getting away with it. And so I think that's a good thing because I definitely think, you know, those people that's my dog. Sorry, guys, he's coughing over there. Anyways, um, okay, I gotta tell you too. Uh well, I'll tell you about this tomorrow. But um, well, I'll tell you here and tomorrow because I don't know who listens to what. But last night I had my shipping set on priority, which is fine. But so many people came in and bought just tiny little bitty things like that I could have put in flat rate and I should have had it set to flat rate. And so these things matter, guys. You need to check and make sure that you have everything set right, weighed right, measured right, packed right. I just did the packing and I was like, don't let it shake, don't let it shimmy, make sure it is tight and good. Um, but I was moving fast. I I started my show yesterday. It was supposed to be a free shipping show, and I got about 10-15 minutes in it before somebody said, Hey, free shipping isn't on, and I had to cancel the whole show, go back in. It was a whole mess. So, anyways, I'm not gonna tell you all about that. I'll tell you in the next episode. Um, but, anyways, um, you can't once the labels are created and and all that, you can't go back in and and and change it. So just be careful, guys. I mean, it just becomes a big mess. Um, let me see. What else? My dogs are playing. Okay, you guys be good. Sorry, real life, guys. These are raw episodes. Um, okay, let me talk about something else because I did put this in my notes. When you're talking about generic weight listings, because that's what I was thinking about. Like, how is that gonna happen? Because, like, my whole show yesterday, I didn't package, you know, like, oh, here's a blue, you know, glass bird and it's gonna fit in this size box and let me run it. It's gonna be this weight, whatever. Um, so what I think is this a lot of sellers use like four to seven ounces, eight to fifteen ounces, whatever. So you set a high quantity, right? Like 500 or whatever. I typically put mine on 500 and change it. I think it might go higher than that, like maybe it's 999. I honestly don't know. But you set the high quantity and then you just click on it, right? Like if I have something, it's four to seven ounces. I just click on it. So it's not actually showing the picture, which is really the best practice, but you do have the video to go back and look to see what the item was if you get confused. Anyways, that system is still going to work with this, but I think you've got to be very, very careful with your ranges in how you set that up now. Um, if this makes sense, guys. For example, if you sell an item 8 to 15 ounces under that, right? Let's say one item's nine ounces and another one is 14 ounces. They're both fitting in that range, right? But now another person, the uh the buyer purchases another item, and now you're at 27 ounces, 30 ounces, something like that, which is close to two pounds. If you're if the system is reflecting a lower weight, you still have to correct that afterwards when you're doing it. So don't just gamble on it. Still, you're going to have to weigh it, you're gonna have to measure it and make sure it's right. Does that make sense? So I think that uh maybe a a wide range, like eight to 15 ounces, is too much variation once items start combining, because then you're getting, does that make sense? You've got eight plus 15 and eight to you see what I'm saying. I don't know. I'm I'm really thinking about this because you're gonna have to be really specific. Um, maybe you make it eight to eleven and twelve to fifteen just to make sure that you're not overpaying, or maybe you pad it a little bit. I mean, because you you have to put your packing on there, you have to do your bubble wrap and all that. You're gonna have to slow down, you're going to have to figure out this because this is happening July 12th, and it it you do not want to be stuck with that. Let's think about this. Um uh small items like marbles or whatever, if they can go in a six by six by six or six by four box, right? Um, let's think um books, mugs, uh things like yeah, books and mugs, that kind of thing can go in a um 10 by 8 by 8 or something, but then you've got big huge items like lamps and vases, and they have to have their own box. So, I mean, it's just it's going to be it's going to be harder, is all I'm saying. This is gonna be harder, and you need to protect that margin because a few dollars on one package here is going to add up when you have 50 or 100 or 300 packages. I was in a guy's knife show, that's it's gonna be easy for him. He's selling knives, he sold 500 knives, and they were like the kind like pocket knives. He had 500 of them. Most of them are gonna be the same weight, the same size, the same height, everything. He's gonna have no problems. He'll be able to figure this out. He probably will not ever have to pay any overages or anything. But people like me, I just I just wrapped a tent, books, uh, glass, um I cookie pans. Um, I I I can't even tell you. It was crazy. And I think that's really it's going to add up. Okay, so the goal is not to be perfect, but the goal is to be as close to close to that as you possibly can so that you do not have to make adjustments because you're going to have to pay for it. And I'm gonna read this to you real quick. Um, well, it says, no, hold on. It said I thought I came, I thought I cut and pasted it and I did not, but you can go find this in whatnot. Um just type in whatnot adjustments on shipping July 12th, and you can pop pick it up. I thought I I cut and pasted it in here and I didn't. So, um, anyways, long story short is you're gonna have to pay for it. You're gonna have to try to do your best with controlling those numbers. Like I said, if you're doing generics, maybe instead of it having 18 to 15 or 18 to 6, 8, I mean eight, eight to 15 um ounces, you change it to eight to 12 or 8 to 11 and then 12 to 16 or something like that, just so, and then maybe pad things in your head a little bit. If you're holding a glass something and you know that you're gonna put at least another five, six ounces on there with bubble wrap and tape and whatever, start adding it up in your head, guys, because you do not want to pay for it. Um, and I guess that's about it, anyways. Yeah, that's it. And then I'll do my other episode about my show at the end. Um, so yeah, not fun, but it is what it is. And like I said, I predicted this. I can't wait till that like uh Wally kind of scan thing happens, and I can say I predicted that too. Anyways, I hope this helps you guys. I think this is just another thing we need to be thinking about. You can go back to look at some of the other episodes that I've talked about. There's a lot of new things that we need to be thinking about. All right, have a great day. Talk to you later. Bye bye bye.