I plan on selling some low value cards on eBay, for around £4 (domestic only) and was wondering what is your opinion of using standard envelopes to send these in.
It goes without saying that these will be put in a penny sleeve and toploader.
Apologies if this is the most boring question ever. 
yeah thats how i send my cards, i put two pieces of cardboard in it for strength as well, never had any damaged or any complaints in 500+ transactions
Alrighty, I think I’ll try and add the cardboard too when sending. Ty.
I do it without the cardboard. I send about 10-20 a day this way. Anything <$10 I send this way. I wrap the invoice around the toploader so that the card can’t slide out. Thousands of transactions maybe had a couple issues. Sending such volume adding the cardboard would be too big of a cost mostly in time. I use a standard #6 envelope. I wish I could find some that were basically a tiny bit wider than the toploader all the way around, then I could even skip the wrapping of the invoice. I haven’t found these yet. I have been meaning to order cheap singles from a few different bigger sellers to see what they do. I will probably do that tonight.
Just remember that a normal stamp (UK) only allows 0.5cm thickness, a large letter gets you 2.5cm
That’s what I was thinking, I’m just a bit paranoid that a standard envelope wouldn’t provide enough protection. Maybe I’ll start off without cardboard and see the feedback I get.
Never used the cardboard with a normal envelope. But yeah. Envelopes are basically the only option for something low value unless they request and pay for better shipping.
I love how many requests I get for tracking after a buyer checks out with a $1.79 single… To send first class tracked costs me $2.60 so I don’t do it on anything under $10. Even doing it on $11 singles seems like too much going to shipping and I have been thinking about changing it to $15 or $20, but the scammers have a field day with those. Easy to claim not received with no tracking and it is an auto win for the buyers.
@thecharizardauthorty how often do you get this? What is your threshold for untracked regular envelope vs first class with tracking? I have been meaning to go back and calculate my item not received rate on these <$10 items as I know it is way higher than it should realistically be. I mean sure, with 100 or so a week maybe there are times where I miss one, or one gets lost. But you have probably 1000 a week. It would be interesting to know how much you deal with it. I know I deal with at least an item a week. ~1%.
I get the same feeling when I think I send something ‘under-protected’, but tbh I think a sleeve and toploader provides adequate protection, anything else is just for my own satisfaction.
If the card is £5+ I tend to go for a large letter, sleeved, toploader, bubble wrap, thin corrugated cardboard. It’s probably overkill but at least I know I’ve done my part. I only sell about 1 thing per day, so this would probably change if I sold more.
It is $12 now for domestic.
I always offer 1st class postage, but rarely ever do people buy it. It may sound odd, but I get just as many people who claim something has not arrived with tracking as without. If you run the numbers it is almost always worth it money-wise to send anything you can un-tracked. I know many big sites will do it for anything $100, I am just not there yet with the way paypal and ebay favor the buyers
To put off cases a little while I changed all of my handling times to 3 days. Ebay will still show delivery in 3 days on many of my items, but it keeps them from opening a case until after the 5 days.
1% is about right for me as well. I always respond with a similar message below - but less choppy.
"I am sorry to hear your item has not arrived.
IF tracking is asked for: Tracking was offered at checkout but the standard free shipping was chosen.
The ETA given by USPS is …
IF past ETA - It is probably hung up in the mail somewhere OR IF within ETA - Hopefully it should arrive any day.
Thanks for contacting me about the issue, and please keep me updated."
It’s tough to say whether the card was damaged to begin with, but I have received cards mailed in a sleeve/toploader in a white envelope with dents in them before. I think while toploaders provide a lot of protection against bending, the card inside can still be susceptible to pinpoint trauma.
Another common shipping method I see used, more so from Japanese sellers, is to just have the sleeved card in between two pieces of cardboard but not toploaded. I’ve had the opposite problem with this setup as cards can still bend through corrugated cardboard especially if not marked as “Do Not Bend”.
I get nervous when I receive a card in anything less than a toploader / bubble mailer combination, but that’s the risk you take sometimes to minimize shipping cost. It only crosses the line into being annoying when I receive a 45 dollar card in a white envelope setup damaged cause to me that shows you have a lack of care for the transaction. Excuse my venting.
This is actually a question I have thought about a lot recently… Right now, I ship everything USPS First Class Mail with Tracking for $2.54. In doing so, I am hoping to reach Top-Rated Seller status so that I save 20% on all eBay Fees. With this option, my lowest-priced cards are priced at $3.50 (everything has free shipping) - that is my approximate break-even point. However, I am eventually going to list a bunch of Un./C. cards on eBay - at a lot less than $3.50/Card of course - so I am going to need to re-think my logic:
1.) Do I continue with my same method and hope that people purchase at least $3.50 worth of cards - taking a loss on everything under $3.50?
2.) Do I charge postage ($2.54) on the first card within a buyer’s order on all orders less than $3.50?
3.) Do I give-up on this Top-Rated Seller status and mail everything less than $X in a regular envelope?
There are certainly pros and cons of each scenario; however, right now I am leaning more towards option #2. While my listings for Un./C. cards will be way-way-way down in the search results (lowest to highest), I’ll still be able to reach Top-Rated Seller status and won’t have any situations where buyer’s claim INR.
Still a work in progress though…
You bring up some good points - other reasons why I am hesitant to using plain envelopes…
Now, if you were shopping on eBay for a low-value card (let’s say $5.00) and saw two sellers on eBay with the same card - both priced at $5.00. One seller offers free shipping via White Envelope, the other seller charges $2.50 shipping via Bubble Mailer. Which card would you be more willing to purchase? Is the Bubble Mailer / Tracking worth an additional $2.50?
I think it depends on the card.
If it’s a card made >$5 due to playability, then it’ll end up less than near mint after playing with it so free shipping.
If it’s a card made >$5 due to rarity, then go for the extra shipping.
All other factors aside (seller feedback, listing/picture quality, etc.), I’d say that in the scenario that you presented I’d take the risk with the free shipping. My personal cutoff would probably be around a 10 dollar purchase to justify the $2.50 bubble mailer / tracking; 25% of the purchase price seems reasonable.
It’s funny cause I just got invoiced for an AmiAmi order this morning with a subtotal of around 11,000 yen, but EMS shipping ended up costing me almost an additional 4,000 yen. That’s over 36% of my original purchase which is admittedly pretty brutal, but at least I know it’s a package coming from halfway across the world that’ll be well protected, fully tracked, and at my doorstep by the end of the week.
IMO top seller status is almost never worth it. The drop in sales trumps that of the 20% discount when you add the tracking cost burden onto the buyer.
Some larger sellers with massive amounts of <$4 listings charge $2.50/$2.99 shipping with free combined shipping on add-ons. This is usually only works if you have enough cards posted to supply the buyer with the minimum needed to help make the purchase worth the cost plus shipping. Of course listing >1500 has a cost too.
I had the Top-Rated Seller debate a while back when they first put it in there. You used to be able to get a 20% discount without the tracking. Once that was put in there - I went for it and found my self losing out approximately $1000 per month after the discount of 20% was applied. This was just something pulled off by ebay so they could make more money by getting sellers to charge shipping or higher prices. It was no coincidence that right before that was implemented that ebay starting charging sellers FVF’s on any shipping charged.
If you can get Top Rated Seller Status without losing any business go for it(as in everything you sell already requires tracking).
If you are selling cheap singles, then your nice badge and 20% discount is going to cost you a lot.
I used to be top rated and the 20% off amounted to about $150 off of my seller fees which was nice. Now that I sell 20-30 orders a day, many of them <$10 each, I make out way better not being top rated and shipping in just a regular envelope. I used to save $150 a month in seller fees, but if I stuck with it, that would be at a cost of $30-$40 per day in extra shipping fees. Not even a decision to make there. Depends on what volume you go up to and what your average transaction will be.
Personally, I pay no attention to top rated seller status even though I rarely sell anything under 50.00.
Privately, I let the buyer decide what service they want to pay for. If they only want to pay for a cheap untrackable shipping service then they must pay via PayPal gift and if the package gets lost then they lose. Seems only right to let the customer decide since they’re paying for it.
I love sellers who provide normal envelope shipping to aus as it means cheaper cards are actually within reach.
Ive never had an issue with toploader in an envelope but DONT do what newpotato does! Got an order in this week.he jammed a full art florges, full art mega latios, reverse holo SH and reverse venusaur all into the ONE top loader without penny sleeves. They arrived nm (not mint as described) which could have been just poor judgement.
I know i paid for cheap shipping but jesus christ a few penny sleeves and maybe an extra toploader Isnt going to break the bank. Still beats the atrocity that is the gsp.