How to Get Free Access to Commercial Shipping Rates (2024)

Shipping is often considered the hardest and most confusing part of selling online. You have to find a box, packing materials, and tape before packaging up your item and lugging it down to your local post office or postal annex. You then get to wait in a line of what seems like a hundred people that moves every 5 minutes. Once you get to the counter, the person across from you gives you a total shipping cost that threatens to give you permanent damage from whiplash.

For those of us that don’t ship packages very often, it’s EXPENSIVE! Unless you’re a seasoned pro with a lot of experience or have a business that pays for services like ShipStation, you may be stuck waiting in line at the post office paying retail rates to ship your sale.

Get Crazy Shipping Discounts!

Did you know you can get access to steep UPS shipping discounts and USPS commercial shipping rates for free!? You can ship your Swappa sales with up to 89% less (when compared to retail rates) without paying a dime in monthly subscriptions or other fees. In this article, we’ll uncover the secret to saving a boatload of money when it comes to shipping your used tech.

What’s the secret? Pirate Ship.

It may sound shady but they’ve been around for a decade and I use them every day to ship my sales on Swappa and other online platforms. I even use them to ship birthday and holiday gifts every year. Creating an account won’t cost you anything and there are no commitments. Their interface is very intuitive and the built-in tracking and reports make finding past shipments a breeze.

Pirate Ship offers UPS and USPS. Sorry FedEx fans, you won’t be able to ship with FedEx if you plan on using Pirate Ship.

You get commercial-level discounts for free with no hidden costs, monthly fees, volume requirements, or commitments. There is no downside to shipping with Pirate Ship. You’ll even get access to Cubic shipping rates for even greater discounted rates.

Swappa uses PayPal to process payments. Pirate Ship allows you to import transactions from PayPal making creating a shipping label quick and easy. You won’t have to copy and paste or type in a shipping address. You can click a few buttons, import the address from the PayPal transaction, and create a greatly discounted shipping label.

What’s the best part of creating shipping labels from home using Pirate Ship? For me, it’s skipping the long lines at the UPS Store or Post Office and being able to drop off my package without waiting. I’m in and out of the Post Office like the Flash. If the number of dirty looks I got skipping the line were a currency, I’d be a very rich fellow.

Shipment reports and receipts help you keep track of what you’re spending on shipping. Tracking is included with the labels you create so you just have to copy and paste the tracking number into the Swappa sale page.

If you’re a business seller with a standardized shipping workflow, you can save presets for frequently used package dimensions and weights to speed up the label creation process.

Tracking and Insurance on Pirate Ship

Swappa requires sellers to ship with tracking and insurance. Pirate Ship provides both. All labels include tracking and they allow sellers to use Shipsurance to insure their packages

Domestic Shipment: $0.75 for up to $50, then $0.80 per $100

Limit: $5,000 per shipment

Read more about shipping insurance terms and conditions

If you want to save time and money, consider using Pirate Ship to send your Swappa sales to their new home. Get a shipping quote to see how much you can save.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the catch? There has to be a downside right?

Creating a Pirate Ship account is free. There are no commitments and if it’s not for you, there’s nothing you need to do to cancel.

Is Pirate Ship legit?

Yes, they’ve been around since 2014 and many Swappa employees use Pirate Ship to ship their packages. I’ve used them for six years and have had zero problems. They’ve been more reliable than the actual postal carriers! Pirate Ship has been a game changer for me and my business.

Do I have to pay a subscription fee or are there any added fees to use Pirate Ship?

No, it’s completely free to sign up. You’ll only pay the cost of the shipping label. There are no subscription fees or additional, hidden charges.

Do I need any special equipment to use Pirate Ship?

You will need a printer, scale, and tape measure at the bare minimum. I send a lot of packages so I have a thermal label printer but you can use an inkjet or laser printer to print labels and attach them to your package with tape.

You will need a scale that weighs by ounces and pounds as well as a tape measure to measure the dimensions of your package.