I sell a lot of cheap singles on eBay and I typically don’t add tracking on anything under 20 dollars on eBay. Recently I’ve been getting burned by people saying they never got the card ( USPS has quite the collection going ) I’m just wondering if there’s any cheaper way to ship with tracking. If this is in the wrong section I apologize, just curious, I’m sick of getting finnessed
First Class Mail.
Price starts at $3.50 for 4 ounces. Tracking included. I’m not aware of a cheaper option, but this is what I always use.
If you buy your labels on ebay, it is lot cheaper then the post office. As Zubat mentioned, First Class mail is indeed the cheapest option with tracking and on ebay 1-4 ounce is only $2.66 cents!
3 Likes
1st class is right. I’d suggest you don’t sell anything under 30.00 so it’s worth the time and effort. Just put several cards together.
its actually less with the eBay discount. $2.66
if you’re selling a lot get an account with DHL, their tracked shipping is as low as 10-25 cents. It’s extremely slow though, but it beats getting scammed.
I am in the UK, so this info may be a long shot, but if there’s something similar in the US, it will save you quite a bit of money.
Over here you can either put a letter with a regular stamp through a post box and if the recipient says it never got there you lose your card and the money, or take that same letter to the post office and ask them for proof of postage at no extra cost. The post office prints a tiny receipt with a reference and the receiver’s address and if the receiver says he didn’t get it, you can claim up to £20, which they mail to your home address as a cheque.
If I send anything above £20, then I do get the 1st class signed for which makes it mandatory for the recipient to sign before the postman hands the item over to them and covers me up to £50. And for items above £50 I do the tracked and signed option which covers me up to £250. But to be honest with signed for services I never had a claim from recipients saying they didn’t get it, and I sent hundreds of items like this.
Again, I am not sure if there are equivalent options in the US, but maybe you can inquire at your local post office if there’s something similar, especially the uninsured yet signed for option, which definitely deters recipients from trying to scam you as someone was at their door to sign the package off, so they don’t get much of an excuse to say they didn’t get it.
Anyway, hope it helps and saves you a few extra bucks and headaches. 
Just to add onto what’s already been said, if you sell outside of eBay you can print off PayPal labels for a discount too. Log in to your PayPal account