US Shipping

This article is aimed at educating our buyers how shipping works on Whatnot. We understand these can be complicated and users want clarity, so we wanted to provide some examples on how you will be charged for shipping on your orders. 

For US domestic orders (US Buyers -> US Sellers), shipping prices are directly quoted from our negotiated rates with the USPS based on weight and distance (this applies to both livestream and marketplace orders):

• Whatnot charges commercial USPS Ground Advantage Package Service rates for lighter packages (less than 1 lb) 
  • For packages that meet the following eligibility requirements, Whatnot offers USPS First-Class Mail Letter Service Rates:
    • Weighs less than 3 ounces
    • Total value is less than $20
    • All enclosed items are cards from Sports Cards and TCG categories only
    • No more than 5 cards in the shipment
    • Order is shipped from a US address to another US address
  • Learn more about USPS First-Class Mail Letter shipping here.
• All packages weighing 1 - 5 lbs or where the seller has Flat Rate packaging selected up to 70 lbs, Whatnot charges $8.77 ($8.35 + fees)* for most deliveries in the United States and ships via Priority Mail. Hawaii, Alaska, U.S. Territories and military bases are excluded 
• Packages 5 - 70 lbs: These will ship via USPS Priority Mail by default, and USPS Ground Advantage if opted in to. Pricing is based on weight, distance, and dimensions, starting at $8.91. You can find the full rate card for USPS Priority Mail commercial rates here. You can find the full rate card for USPS Priority Mail commercial rates here.
  • Items over 1 cubic foot in volume will be charged based on dimensional weight

Here's an illustrative example of how shipping costs are calculated in a livestream. Let’s take a buyer based in Los Angeles, CA who just purchased a pack of sports cards from a seller in Boston, MA. 

• This would qualify as a Zone 8 shipment as it is being sent cross-country 
• A pack of sports cards is not too heavy so let’s say with packaging this weighs 4 ounces. This would cost $4.13 to ship according to commercial USPS Ground Advantage Package Service rates
• Whatnot would charge the buyer $4.13 in shipping cost for this first order 
• If the buyer were to purchase another pack of cards for 4 oz, bringing their total bundled order to weighing 8 oz, Whatnot would charge the buyer an additional $0.31 as it costs $4.44 to ship an 8 oz package from LA to Boston
• Let’s say the buyer now purchases a pair of sneakers in the same stream weighing 2 lbs, we’d charge the buyer an incremental $3.91 in shipping as our negotiated rate for packages between 1 - 5 lbs with the USPS is $8.77 ($8.35 + fees)*. Once a buyer is charged $8.77 for shipping, they can order as many items for $0 addition shipping cost until their combined bundled orders reach 5 lbs, after which point we charge at cost according to USPS Priority Mail rates 

The above bundling logic also applies to marketplace purchases and orders will be bundled together to save you on shipping costs until the seller prints the shipping label for the shipment. 

There are a few more nuances to shipping on Whatnot that only apply to livestreams:

• Sellers can choose to offer Free or Reduced Shipping to sellers covering all of a buyer’s shipping cost or above a certain threshold of shipping cost set by the seller
• For shipments over 5 lbs, sellers can elect to ship with Flat-Rate Packaging or Ground Advantage instead of Priority mail. Flat-Rate Shipping costs $8.77 ($8.35 + fees)*, and Ground Advantage pricing starts from $8.91. 
• Whatnot’s Smart Bundling™ tool will bundle and unbundle orders into one or many shipments to keep shipping cost as low as possible. This means your orders from a seller may come in a few different shipments 
• For large items that do not fit within 1 cubic foot, Whatnot will charge dimensional weight according to our carriers which is more expensive than shipping something of similar weight that may fit in a 1 cubic foot box