eBay might have ACTUALLY done something really good for coin sellers - eBay standard envelope
jessewvu
Posts: 5,065 ✭✭✭✭✭
They added an option to ship between 1 and 3 oz items! Sounds dumb but this is actually awesome.
Key Benefits
Saves up to 70% vs. USPS® First Class Package Service
Available for trading cards, coins and currency, postcards and stamps
Integrated tracking and easy to print using eBay labels
Shipping protection plan up to $50 on combined items, in case of loss or damage
Drop off at regular USPS locations
Envelope requirements
No smaller than 3.5” x 5”
No larger than 6.125” x 11.5”
No thicker than .25”
Weighs up to 3 oz.
https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/shipping/ebay-standard-envelope.html
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Comments
Got one today. It was "machined" like a standard envelope (which it is) but did have tracking, was 1st Class and cost the seller $0.51.
Got that email today also. I wonder if you can order a quantity and the postage price stays the same?
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There's nothing to buy. Use standard envelopes and print a label.
I don't see this working if you want to protect the coin you are shipping.
I can see a 2x2" qualifying, but not a TPG slab.
If you have a coin worth less than $10 in a 2x2, I think it would work out great. Think of the YN's!
I received a Frank in a 2x2 in the envelope above today. Needed one to finish out a roll. Saw on my phone it had been delivered and when I got home and only saw a plain envelope in the mailbox, thought it was misdelivered. Nope.
Seller had taped small pieces of cardboard to each side of the 2x2. I could tell it was machined but no real problems.
it says in the language the envelope cannot be more than 1/4 of a inch thick.
this is a fantastic way to send massive amounts of low-dollar coins w/o the concern someone will say they didn't receive the item for whatever reason. i've been wanting this for EVERYONE for many years.
the only pattern i've really noticed is EVERYONE is catering to those with money and leaving others in the dust. this is a nice way to include those with thousands or tens of thousands of dollars worth of lower-dollar coins that otherwise sit until safe methods of advertising/selling are found.
i'm sure more buyers will also appreciate this. who doesn't like tracking!
fwiw. i've been shipping them this way for years. (w/o tracking lol)
i get card stock from a local print shop, cut it down and fold it in half and staple the coin(s) in-place between the folds and tape that to the inside of the envelope. doesn't take too long and i'm sure 99% of the buyers received the item(s). also print out addresses in nice big clear print since the printer allows for font type/size changes.
during these times $20/50/100 extra per week can really go far for a lot of people.
I just received a slabbed PCGS coin in one of these. Nothing in the envelope except for the slab.
Surprisingly, it wasn't damaged.
Awesome news. On top of the managed payments savings, the good news keeps on rolling in from eBay.
I'm so excited. Small raw coins. Stamps. Postcards. 1st day covers. Just got MUCH cheaper to mail.
If Ebay keeps this up, they are going to make me rich.
Ebay announcement
Natural forces of supply and demand are the best regulators on earth.
Yea I have never sent a coin in an envelope. Always in a padded one. Don't think I'll be using these.
My Original Song Written to my late wife-"Plus other original music by me"
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I have shipped hundreds of new W quarters in stamped envelopes with the coin in a 2X2 mylar. My cost of .55 helps me keep the BIN price competitive. Not the first complaint of any damage.
Natural forces of supply and demand are the best regulators on earth.
This sounds great!
Might even motivate me to start selling small odds and ends on The Bay again!
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Tracking number is a good thing.
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
My trading card friends have warned me the loss rate on these is through the roof. Buyer beware.
"It's like God, Family, Country, except Sticker, Plastic, Coin."
Why would the loss rate be any higher than 1st class mail? It is 1st class mail?
I tried my 1st 1 today and asked my postal clerk about it. There is no tracking. He said it was a regular prepaid postal label. Hmmmm.
I just don't trust a coin in a paper envelope. Getting a coin in the mail is exciting for some, especially younger collectors. I am not going to chance ruining a new (or old) collector's excitement of getting a purchase in the mail.
Anything that is mailed on the cheap, can't be packaged very well.
That's is tangential to the question. It is traveling like any other 1st class mail. Why would it be more prone to loss.
I send coins and stamps via 1st class all the time in a regular stamped envelope. I send nearly 1000 per year. I don't get more than 1 or 2 claimed loss per 1000 sent.
Read the FAQ. It doesn't have USPS tracking. But supposedly deliver is being tracked, im guessing through the QR stamp. There is a number on it.
I will be watching to see if it shows delivered! It has a tracking number similar to the global shipping. My clerk said something along the lines they take a picture of the package.
You're a professional. Stamps may be Ok to send that way. I do not sell stamps. I certainly would be dismayed if a high grade coin gets damaged or lost in a post office high speed sorting machine.
I use corrugated coin mailers and a 2x2 within. Have not noticed any higher loss rate than 1st class packages.
Yes, they do. I'm assuming that triggers the tracking.
I get photos of all my mail sent to me daily by the USPS. I like checking in the morning. Lol. I'm not sure why.
Because it gets machined. There's a 2 by 2 in there and that by itself can wreak havoc in a facer, canceller machine.
You are missing my point. I send coins via 1st class mail all the time. I see no reason why ebay shipping would be different than that.
@MasonG also ships coins that way.
To my knowledge, neither of us has seen any significant damage or loss rate. I don't have any more problems than I do with package rate.
You must use a different post office than me. The two po's that I usually use to mail the corrugated coin mailers with are both mandating that I use tracking. This costs me $4.10 for the package envelope. They won't let me mail them without the tracking. I am in Pa.
If I hand them to a clerk it is 50/50 that they complain. I just drop them in the mail slot and they rarely sent one back to me.
Regs day less than 1/4 inch. I pay the nonmachinable surcharge which is supposed to apply to "rigid" letters.
Hmm! Sounds like a plan! Thanks! I will have to try that!
that is a he** of a lot of honest people!
For years, I have been using these safety mailers for my PWE (plain white envelope) orders.
Buy enough bulk and they are less than .25 cents
Add a .75 cent stamp and they fit perfectly into a small envelope.
I am only out about $1.30 when you add paper and ink for printing a packing list and cost of envelope.
Great for single or multiple 2x2's, works in a pinch for a slab in padded envelopes, and even baseball cards.
I am curious as to the new Ebay envelopes. It could make life alot easier and actually save me both money and time.
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I have noticed a few more missing coins in the past two months.
Maybe 3 out of 100.
Wondering if the corrugated material is too thick or rigid?
Watched a few YT vids on some of the issues.
Tape over bar codes is possibly an issue in reading by USPS and showing up in transit.
USPS doesn't track these like we normally think, but hopefully coming soon.
Anything over $10 goes padded.
Talking $5 sales here... free shipping.
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I've always said that eBay has proven to me just how honest people are. I ship about 2000 packages per year. Half of those have no tracking or insurance. Even in the midst of the Covid shipping fiasco, I only had 6 packages that required a refund and 2 of those actually sent me the money a couple weeks later when it finally arrived.
That's part of the reason I bristle when people have a bad experience and extrapolate it into a global problem. I've done over 70,000 transactions in 23 years and had maybe 50 or 60 problems. Most of which are small.
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well lets take a moment to thank the hard working folks at the USPS for getting it done!!!
just about all of us can gripe about something they are doing and/or not doing but at the end of the day, THEY GET IT DONE!
ty USPS
I agree. Statistics also favor their reputation.
For years I've used 1st class no tracking to send coins under $20.00. I cut a file folder to the size of the envelop so it looks like a greeting card, inside I will insert up to 4 2X2s and fix them to the inside of the card with another piece of the file folder cut slightly larger than the 2X2s and apply 1st class postage 75 or 95 cents for a one or two ounce rigid package. None got lost, one was delayed during the Christmas postal fiasco and the buyer was very patient and it eventually arrived.
So far I've shipped 3 postcards using eBay standard envelop and two have been scanned as delivered. Looks like your account doesn't get charged until it shows up as delivered. Easy peasy, print a label or print directly on the envelop and drop in my mailbox at the end of the driveway. 51 cents with tracking is the bargain of the century. I'll do the same the next time I ship a cheap coin and see how it goes.
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
I agree. This is a game changer. It reverts the shipping rate to what it was 20 years ago when padded envelopes could ship 1st class.
As a Postal retiree it's certainly nice to hear good things about the Post Office for a change! I know I did my best for 33 years. Thank you!!
Yes, it's not USPS tracking. According to comments on other sites, the new eBay standard labels tracking is some kind of in-house system that also guesstimates the delivery date, which doesn't always align with the actual delivery date. This confuses and scares some buyers when tracking says delivered, but the item is a day or more away still.
Is ebay making new envelopes? I saw the template thing. I think you have to use your own envelopes that fit into the template. I do not know. Can someone explain this more. This is very exciting now. I can sell my $3.00 coins now one at a time and make a profit.
Follow the ebay link. You can also go to usps.com and read the requirements for a 1st class letter.
I do not see anywhere where it says that ebay makes the envelopes. Anyways, now I will have to buy a label printer. My regular printer is not up to the task.
I have shipped thousands of coins in regular envelopes w/safe-t-mailers. Number of claims for damage? Zero. Number of feedbacks saying "well packed"? Way more than zero.
FWIW
Why?
I have a $50 HP inkjet printer. You must buy the self adhesive labels and print them like any other dicument.
For those of us still stuck in the year 2000 on the technology learning curve, could you share the product number and printer combo. I spend waaayy to much on clear tape and paper... lol
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Lol. Any HP printer should work. I currently have an HP Deskjet 1050 that's several years old.
For the labels, you can use any Avery equivalent. I've been using these for the last few years:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06VWY8X6L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
You'll have to decide whether they are cheaper than paper and tape. In bulk, they cost 3 cents or so per label. But they slap right on a catalog size 6x9 inch envelope.