Postage Question
Yankeefan320
Posts: 160 ✭✭
How much does it cost to mail 1 baseball card in a Card Saver I in a 4”x6” small bubble mailer? According to the USPS is it considered an envelope, large envelope, or package? Thanks!
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Depending on deistance, about $4
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Are you sure? That sound like a lot for 1 baseball card in a Cardsaver I inserted into a 4x6 bubble mailer. It weighs less than 1 ounce
Use Pirate Ship and the USPS rates are less. But about close to $4 is about as low as you can go for a package even at 1 oz.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
I don’t understand. A large envelope according to the USPS calculator is $1.26.
That's for an envelope. A bubble mailer or padded envelope is too thick to qualify for that pricing.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Wow, I didn’t realize that!
Has to be flat….
Plus, for the $4 you get tracking as well.
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I'm starting to think that selling on eBay might not be for you.
To the OP, eBay does offer 'eBay standard envelope'. The cost to ship a card in a card saver is like 60 cents. You can't use a bubble mailer though. I have had some success as a seller this way. A good idea for cheaper cards as people are not going to want to spend $4 shipping on a $110 card.
Yes, I am aware of that and in the past used it for an inexpensive baseball card in a Card Saver I. What happened is I put the stamps in the wrong category so it was ineligible for the eBay standard envelope. Thanks!
I've gotten burned by 'wrong category' for shipping before with eBay. They do make things more difficult than necessary.
They sure do! A few months ago I just started selling for the 1st time in more than 10 years. I have a ton of Positive feedback both Selling and Buying with not one Negative. eBay has changed for the worst! For example, i sold these $10 Beatles stamps 2 days apart, one on Friday night and the other on Saturday morning. eBay put a hold for 2 weeks on one and a 30 day bold on another. I called eBay for an explanation and some bozo in customer service couldn’t tell me the reason. I got the run around and was handed off to the next peon at eBay. I eventually hung up. I suspect that the reason was one of the sales was to someone in Australia and they had to be shipped to eBay first. I don’t think there is a choice anymore whether one wants to sell internationally . Correct me if I am wrong!
You can select the foreign countries that you do and don’t want to sell to. I found this out the hard way… had a 0.99 auction with eBay Standard Envelope shipping that was won by someone in Puerto Rico, where Standard Envelope can’t ship. Buyer paid the .60 shipping but I had to pay $4+ and lost money on the sale. Live and learn - my Standard Envelope listings are only continental US now.
Jim
Thanks! I opted out.
Not to beat a dead horse 🐴 to death but doesn’t this contradict what you are saying about bubble mailers?
According to this:
“USPS will only accept bubble mailers as packages if their total thickness is 3/4 of an inch or more.”
https://www.shippingschool.com/are-bubble-mailers-considered-packages/#:~:text=If your mailer is less,stamps for First-Class Mail.
I don't think there is language in the USPS rules that say an item MUST be over 3/4 inch to be a 1st class package, the rules say that a flat, that is over 3/4 inch, MUST be shipped as a 1st class package... The premise being that the rules were written with the assumption that no one would pay for 1st Class package when the item can be shipped as a flat for less. Obviously eBay doesn't offer a Flat tracked service option, thus one can only use the package option. You could go down to the post office to mail it as a flat, but then you won't have tracking, so there is no point. USPS isn't going to kick back a under 3/4 inch package and say that you overpaid... If you are really worried, just roll up some paper into a ball and ticket it in there.
https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/101.htm#ep1034246
I am not worried but just curious. It’s been 1 day and the package is still not being tracked since I dropped it in the mailbox. Other than being an inconvenience and a pain it’s no big deal sending another if it got lost and the Buyer doesn’t get it. It is the first time I bought USPS postage on eBay which included tracking. In the past I have bought eBay’s standard envelope with their tracking and that worked very well. How does eBay tracking work anyway? Does USPS have a separate scanner for eBay tracking? If not how would eBay know their standard envelope whereabouts?
How does eBay tracking work anyway? Does USPS have a separate scanner for wBay tracking? If not how would eBay know their standard envelope whereabouts?
On ebay standard tracking the same optic reader system that they use to read mil along the sorting machines also reads the standard envelope and updates it. Along the way the envelope is sorted by a DPS machine that sorts envelopes into Delivery Point Sequence (DPS) so the mailman doesn't have to actually sort most of the letters. About this time the tracking updates automatically to "delivered"/ There isn't any way for a clerk or a carrier to actually scan them, and also just because it says delivered doesn't mean it really was delivered or even to the right place.
If you sign up for Informed delivery I think the same optic reader will tell you in the morning what mail you will get that day. It's net perfect but very close.
It reads this bar code just above the name and address. I'm not sure
how it does it.
I am still a little confused. So what’s the difference this optical reader system used for the eBay standard envelope and the system that USPS uses for their tracking which one pays for at the post office?
As a carrier I can scan packages etc with the bar codes you're familiar with. The optic reader can scan those as well as the bar code above the name/address as well as bar codes sprayed on the very bottom of envelopes and also bar codes sprayed on the back of envelopes. There's so many envelopes that they're always looking to do it faster to keep up.
There are a whole lot of internal scans that carriers and clerks can't do because our scanners can't read the bar codes. Ebay standard is one of those.
Very interesting and informative! So are you a USPS mail carrier?
The eBay standard envelope tracking is kinda of made up by Pitney Bowes based on the QR code being scanned as that is really the only "bar code" on the label. The bar code above the address is more for sorting as it relates to the delivery address location, nothing about tracking. Pitney Bowes somehow created a system with eBay that every time the postage QR code is scanned by a USPS sorting machine, it gives the location of the scan to eBay. The delivery "scan" is made up, as it is just timed based on the scans from the nearest sorting machine to the destination, so it happens very often that you will show in eBay that the item was delivered, but it wasn't and will show up a day or two later. For sellers this is not a big deal as all standard envelopes come with insurance.
A seller just shipped me a PSA card via eBay standard envelope and it came with $4.21 postage due. Yeah, don’t ship PSA graded cards with that service. Some sellers….
Nic
Guides Authored - Graded Card Scanning Guide PDF | History of the PSA Label PDF
Oh my goodness…cheapskate! I would never do that.