What happens to items shipped in Stardew? Are there any benefits to the Mini-Shipping Bin? Does it matter what quality item I ship? All this and more below!
Shipping items is an easy way to make gold in Stardew Valley without going into town and dealing with Pierre. The shipping bin is located right next to your house, so you don’t have to go far if your backpack is full! Track your items shipped and unlock achievements.
All you have to do is load up the bin with goodies and wait until morning to receive gold.
Shipping VS Selling
The first question you’re probably asking is, ‘do I make more money if I ship vs sell?’ and unfortunately the answer is no. You don’t make less either, so it’s not like you’re selling at a loss. The main difference is that you don’t have to talk to Pierre to sell your goods. (And let’s face it, Pierre is not everybody’s favorite townsperson).
Pierre’s shop in Pelican Town is only open from 9am to 5pm, so if you’re slow to harvest or get lost in the mines, he might be closed by the time you make it into town. There’s no limit to when you can put items in with the shipping bin. Although if you’re up past midnight, you’ve got other problems to worry about!
You can also put items you usually sell to Willy or Clint in the bin. This saves you the extra trip south to the beach or East to the Blacksmith. And as likable as these two characters are, their hours are less reliable than Pierre’s, and their shops are considerably farther.
The shipping bin does have one major downfall—you have to wait until the next day to get your gold. On the other hand, when selling directly to shops you don’t have to wait overnight for your money, making them great to use if you’re already going into town or need fast gold to buy more products.
What Items Can You Ship In The Bin?
Pretty much everything!
Pierre buys crops, artisan goods, animal products, cooked dishes, and foraged items. Clint buys gems, bars, minerals, and ore. And Willy will buy fishing products like coral, shells, and (obviously) fish. The good ol’ shipping bin accepts all these things…and more!
The shops in town won’t buy artifacts from you, but the shipping bin will! Sell your Void Essence, Bug Meat, Battery Pack, Radioactive Ore, and so on. And just like the shops, the better quality the crop, the more money you get.
It’s easy to get in the habit of dropping everything you get in the shipping bin. Still, you want to be careful not to sell items you need for quests, crafting, cooking, and energy when you’re out in the wilderness. You can take back the last thing you dropped in the bin, but if you’re clicking too fast, that pomegranate you were saving for Elliott that evening is long gone.
The Mini-Shipping Bin
The Mini-Shipping Bin is an item you get after completing ‘Pierre’s Prime Produce’ or ‘Crop Order’ special orders. Many people got the Mini-Shipping Bin and wondered what the heck they were supposed to do with it. The answer: put it outside your farm. Yeah, that’s right. The Mini Bin is a placeable item, which means you can put it over by the mines or down near the docks. It’s a fabulous way to offload items as you fish, forage, and mine your heart out. I’ve also heard of players putting it in their greenhouse, so they don’t have to run back to the other side of the farm.
If you’re early in the game and wondering what greenhouse I’m talking about, you get it for completing the Pantry Bundle at the Community Center. Here’s a great guide to organizing your greenhouse to the max.
Shipping Achievements
There are three achievements you can get for shipped items. Polyculture, Monoculture, and Full Shipment. For the Polyculture achievement, you need to ship 15 of each crop from a list of 28 different crops. For Monoculture, you have to ship a whopping 300 of one crop. And for the final achievement titled Full Shipment, you need to ship one of each item on your Shipping Collection tab. This is located in your player menu and thankfully keeps track of which items you’ve shipped so far in Stardew.
There are 145 items needed for the Full Shipment achievement. So go get shipping!
