Okay, so first I want to say I have been selling on eBay for over 8 years and I make my full time income from it. I found early on that I could make a lot more money on eBay than using my degree.
The reason I preface this topic with that information is that I don’t need beginner’s information by any means. I understand every eBay policy fully, I never really run into trouble with negative feedback, and I guess I only am requesting information or tips on the the questions listed below.
However, I Would love to hear from anyone and everyone that has sold singles on eBay and does not use tracking. (An envelope with a stamp.) Even if its occasionally or an every day thing.
I started my second eBay account initially thinking I would use it to sell cheap singles, but started off with PSA cards. I buy a lot of collections locally and have been saving 5000 count card boxes that are not worth grading, but value between 2-30 dollars. I have a micro-pay account, I understand how all that works too.
Anyway, here are the questions after all that, I just hope with the information I provided above I Wouldn’t waste anyone’s time telling me things I already know. (I Also have already listed some to test it out from newer sets.)
What is your threshold for not using signature confirmation? I am thinking under 7 dollars I won’t use tracking and above 7 dollars I will.
There is no way to prove that an item did not or did show up, which I am prepared for things to get lost or people to take advantage of the system, but I wonder if you guys send a replacement, a full refund, etc etc?
I have been using a thermal printer for years, and its self adhesive and works very well. I configured a semi fast way to have it print off labels that were small only containing the buyers address. Do a lot of you just hand-write the address? I would imagine the larger scale people would have a pretty quick/efficient set up to extract them from something and print.
4.I don’t care about being a top rated seller on the smaller card account, and I have always used tracking for every sale I have ever made, and with eBay selling without tracking is about the only place I find myself inexperienced. I know eBay keeps track of your uploaded tracking percentage, and I am wondering if there are any real negative “side effects” to not maintaining that at a high rate other than losing your top rated status.
I am prepared to receive negative feedback based on something not showing up, I never over describe the condition of something, I only describe defects and damage. There are very few positive traits you can add to a listing that would be considered “facts”, so I try to refrain from any positive identifiers. How willing are people to work with you if mail does get lost? / Or would you say that people that claim a card was lost are actually just trying to get free cards?
Last question I can think of that is much more simple. Where do you guys get your stamps? I thought I would just buy them from the local post office at the normal .49 each but I see on eBay you can get a decent deal buying in semi large quantities. Why do these people have massive amounts of stamps and are selling them for less than what it costs to get them? Can you strike a deal with the post office to get stamps cheaper if you buy in massive bulk?
Any input at all would be greatly appreciated on any of my questions.
Thanks
I sell individual cards through an envelope with a stamp. Its been doing good for me so far
… haven’t encountered any problems so far but, I’m still get nervous a lot of the times if the item has arrived or not.
I get a sigh of relief when the buyer posts a feedback saying the item arrived and its in good condition.
I include a tracking for ‘high end’ items like cards over 40 USD.
I had an incident once where the cards I sent got DAMAGED in transit and it was sent back to me. (It didn’t go to the buyer it came straight back to me) Goddamn USPS…
Eventually I payed a full refund to the buyer, but haven’t encountered any problems yet. I try to be cooperative when it comes to lost or damaged items.
One advice that I was given, when you ship international, write the buyers address the way the countries address format is
I.E.: if it was a UK buyer then write the address the UK address format, not a U.S. address format.
It gets around A LOT faster.
(I hand write my addresses, try to write it legibly)
Correct me if I’m wrong but, I think you can not get a ‘deal’ from the P.O. buying stamps.
I would recommend selling cards with an envelope and just a stamp. Its been doing good for me and probably for many others as well.
Yeah… Where I am right now, they don’t sell bubble mailers that are small enough for cards.
I think I put alot of much faith in sending cards with envelopes, especially those with value over 30 USD. It might come back to bite me one day…
Tracking for envelopes are not available through USPS and if I were to add one its signature confirmation and it would cost too much: 3.35 USD I believe
under $10 no tracking, $10-$249.99 first class tracked, $250-$749.99 priority, $750+ priority plus signature (needed for seller protection), $2.5k+ registered.
full refund and block the buyer. Prevents negative feedback most times. Don’t resend unless you want to lose two.
I print them personally. Handwriting is way too bad to hand write and 100 ish per week would be too many to write IMO.
losing top rated status and the attached 20% discount is the main drawback. Likely some search ranking things are being affected but much harder to quantify.
You will never win claiming they were trying to scam you. Fact is no tracking = auto loss for you
I personally buy directly from USPS.com. Pre stamped envelopes with my return address automatically filled out. I buy them 1,000 at a time and pay about 10 cents premium over the cost of a stamp. These are Pressure seal adhesive pre printed with postage and my return address so they really lower labor required on those to an extent that it is worth 10 cents a piece extra to me.
Best of luck! I would love to go full time but probably will never take the plunge as it would mean leaving a pretty good paying job that I also enjoy and is likely much more stable.
They actually lowered it to 10% a few months ago for top rated sellers, the only other positive I can think of for being top rated is that a you get free usps insurance up to 100 dollars.
And I know I could never win a the scam scenario, I guess what I was wondering is if anyone at all claims they didn’t get a card is it best to just block and move on?
Gvreat advice from gottaketch. If I sold that level of items I would do exactly the same thing.
tcagaming (who’s a member here) ships tons of cards in that range and I think he only has 1 or 2 negatives out of 25000. Maybe he’ll chime in here or you can go to his eBay and buy something cheap to see exactly how he handles it;)
For international? I reside in the UK. I don’t know much about USPS but I’ve had heard some bad stories about registered mail. It had actually happened to me a few times too. Tracking stopped once it entered the UK and no signatures. WTF? My mailman is usually someone from Royal Mail (they deliver normal/USPS mail). Priority mail usually (99%) get tracked all the way to the end and signed for.
I think private couriers is the better method for higher end items. Like UPS.
I envy you guys with cheap shipping costs. I’m in Canada and I’d never risk shipping untracked, but I think having two separate accounts is a great idea @Kampes_Cards. A seller recently shipped me a card in an enveloppe with a stamp for $7 shipping. It was a great total price though, I don’t have time to ask for $5-6 back and I’m too honest to state I didn,t receive it but that was a bad experience and if they ever list something I want again, I’ll probably pass… unless they give me some kind of major discount.
Having a second account would help me list cards that I’d otherwise bundle together and get next to nothing for. I recently got about $10 USD for 18 vintage mostly NM holos. I just know people aren’t going to pay $10 shipping on $5-10 cards so I thought I’d go the $0.99 auction route and get an easy $50+. Oops.
I’m still learning and I’m testing with product that I got pretty much free. I’ve came across some really great advice on efour so far.
The reason why shipping is so cheap within the U.S. is because the services are dirt cheap . They do a great job when it comes to protecting our mail, one envelope at a time.
International is GSP only for normal eBay sales so I am only shipping to Kentucky. Direct shipping which I have done I have typically used global express guaranteed through USPS for $2.5k+.
Good thread cause this and another thing was something I was wondering about.
Are most people that are doing envelopes like this and free shipping simply adding the $.50 to the card price? Say card is $1.25 with free shipping, then they are getting $.75 for the card minus the $.50. Are prices for toploader, sleeves, team bag and envelope factored then into that $.75(I know that can add up after a lot)? Of course Ebay/Paypal fees on the $1.25. Or is it that because some people are selling so many cards that those costs are just something they eat?
This is the best way to maximize profit 100%. Usps almost never loses my packages or letters (like 1% or less) and most of the cards I buy from TCGplayer and ebay sellers are shipping in a letter with stamps. full refunds on the rare occasion the letter goes missing is simply cost of business to preserve your feedback score.
I would consider first class with tracking for more expensive cards personally.
Honest answer? No idea. Best guess? Theft, counterfeit or money laundering. That is almost 50% off. You can’t buy these in bulk at rates like that. Something unsavory must be going on.
If you are talking 1-10 hell maybe even 100 stamps for 50% off I would just say it was a new account establishing some feedback… but this just isn’t that at all. Whenever forever stamps first came out they cost more than this even. Just checked and it was 41 cents. No idea what is going on here but I would be careful. Seems to be a too good to be true scenario.
My Dad owns a coin shop - he used to also be big into buying and selling stamps. Here’s some history into the stamp market:
U.S. Postage Stamps never “expire” - meaning that you can always use them to mail anything really (just as long as the postage adds-up). This is not only true with the “Forever” Stamps, but also the older stamps - back when they actually had a dollar amount on them.
There used to be a HUGE MARKET for Stamp Collecting! People would actually collect un-used stamps (singles, blocks, sheets…). Like Sports Cards, it’s a dying-market right now. Sure, you have those few stamps that are worth A LOT of money still; however, the majority of stamps just don’t have much value at all. There are people who come into my Dad’s Shop looking to un-load a stamp collection - the majority of these collections are MASSIVE! Unfortunately, with the market being the way it is today, the majority of these stamps (un-used) are purchased at 50% below face-value - he’ll then turn-around and sell them at face-value in his shop. Even then, it’s a long sales process!
That’s probably what you’re seeing on eBay - people trying to un-load a stamp collection or something.
I have a stamp binder from my youth. I think I have one of the first USA stamps made. Something like the 1860s or 70s?
Ive only added one stamp to it since the 1970s though.
UK sender here - As long as the postage is insured upto it’s sale amount I pay that. For cards under £20 (I believe), the postage system here insures them provided you get a free proof of postage receipt with a 2nd class stamp.
Of course I get the buyer to pay for all postage etc.
Selling higher priced items I’ll up the quality of postage and packaging. Again the buyer will pay this.
. They do a great job when it comes to protecting our mail, one envelope at a time.