If you don't ship cards from home yet, read this ...
mouschi
Posts: 687 ✭✭✭✭
I keep running into people who think they need to go to the post office to pay for shipping and such. I wanted to give a little bit of a rundown on what I do in hopes of it helping some folks here.
If someone buys something from me, I pack it up, weigh it (you can probably get a scale from ebay if you don't have one ... singles in a padded envelope should typically be under 5oz though.)
From there, I go directly to www.paypal.com/shipnow - you can fill out everything you need there for ANY sales you make, no matter how/where you sold from print the label and tape the label on your package.
Finally, you can typically just put it in your box to be picked up, OR you can go to [url]https://tools.usps.com/go/ScheduleAPickupAction!input.action[/url] and request a pickup - this is typically free.
This has saved me LOADS of time and money - I hope it helps someone here as much as it has helped me!
Comments
Good info. For $15 to $20 you can buy a digital scale that can weigh from a fraction of an ounce to 70 pounds. I use the post office site, usps.com, for most of my shipping but you can't do First Class shipping on there. You can order free priority mail boxes and have them delivered to your home in a few days. One thing that I have found it that you can order regional rate A and B boxes and save a little on shipping. These boxes are a little smaller than the medium and large flat rate boxes but are cheaper to ship items in. For me it is 25 miles round trip to the nearest post office so scheduling a pick up saves me $3-4 is fuel and 40-50 minutes.
James
I don't mind going to the post office, I usually have something waiting in my PO box to pick up. And in the nice weather (depending on how my health is that day) it's close enough I can walk to.
Don't underestimate the savings by printing your own postage. A padded mailer that now costs $3.50 to ship is only $2.66 if you do it yourself. Similar savings for all first class postage, and the savings for priority is still better than a stick in the eye. I only wish I had begun using this much sooner, would have saved me hundreds last year alone.
And you can still go to the post office, but you never have to wait in line, just put your stuff in their pre-paid drop off box!
The postal service doesn’t pick up in my area.......they won’t even delivery larger boxes to me. I ship daily, usually 5 to 10 boxes..........
I have used Paypal shipping for many years and appreciate the savings - time and money - that it has introduced to my life.
Nothing like walking into the post office, bypassing the line, and dropping off on the unattended side window.
The Post Office has become the Wal-Mart of shipping = never know what you are going to see or hear when you go there! Most times, its someone sitting off to the side trying to fit 20 pounds of stuff into a 10 pound box and using two rolls of packing tape to make sure it doesn't burst = outstanding! Other times its someone who cannot understand why USPS has lost or damaged an item = go figure!
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Thanks for the nudge to try this thru Paypal Mouschi...I ship a lot of low dollar items in padded mailers and saving almost a buck on each one will certainly improve my margins. I'm retiring this year and plan to sell off more of my stuff as my retirement 'job' to put some spending money in my pocket, so these kinds of tips are the things I need to learn to maximize profit as my volume increases. thanks again
But what would Beth and Gwen do without their daily dose of me?
I'm still one of the holdouts and probably would have saved several hundred dollars last year. The jump from $3.00 to $3.50 for first class packages was insane to me, so seeing how much it is online, I might have to take the plunge.
As a side note, what are most of you charging for S&H for raw cards and graded cards that would go for the $3.50 rate?
I use my cell phone exclusively and I run into the 24 hour machine on my way to or from work. No special trips. I see the saving in this, but I am just too lazy to pull out the old computer/laptop. Perhaps I should just sink my phone to my printer and then just follow the rest of your instructions. Great info. Keep it coming!
Best place to buy !
Bronze Associate member
You can print them thru Paypal and save the $ but then still drop them off at the P.O. and say hi to Beth and Gwen!
I have switched to all free shipping and take that into account in my auction starting & BIN prices...For me it just seems to simplify things.
I charge $3 and still get shipping charge star dings on occasion.
For anyone interested in printing their Paypal shipping labels directly onto stickers, I Just found and ordered these printer label sheets from Amazon. They are highly rated and for .05 a piece will save me from cutting/taping the labels which can be a pain on smaller bubble mailers and odd size packages etc...looking forward to trying them.
https://amazon.com/gp/product/B016CV811U/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1