eBay, USPS Ready to Offer 75-Cent, Trackable Shipping Option

General
1

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/ebay-standard-envelope-usps/

It’s always been a dilemma for sellers.

Do you keep shipping costs down for you and your buyers by sending a card in a plain white envelope, running the risk of loss or a buyer who tells you it wasn’t delivered and asks for a refund?

Or do you put that inexpensive card in a bubble mailer and charge over $3 just for the peace of mind that postal service tracking offers? It’s that postage fee that sometimes makes it tough to sell inexpensive cards that just aren’t worth all that much.

Now, it appears a win-win solution may be on the way.

eBay and the USPS have been working on a new option for sellers of trading cards that would provide tracking and protection for only 75 cents. While a promotional page for “eBay Standard Envelope” was pulled offline Wednesday by an eBay shipping representative who indicated the program wasn’t quite ready yet, the main details appear to be in place.

The new concept would only be an option for “raw” cards—not graded—and the value of the package would have to be under $20. Two cards could be shipped in toploaders (or four without) inside the same envelope but the weight would have to be no more than three ounces.

The envelope used would have to be no smaller than 3 1/” x 5” and no larger than 6 ¼” x 11 1/2”. It could not be thicker than 1/4″.

Sellers would have to ship by printing an eBay branded label and the postal service would provide tracking. Any claims for lost or stolen shipments would be handled through eBay.

Rising costs of first class shipping have made it tough for collectors who sell lower value card, with the cost of a 3-ounce first class package at $3.30. eBay Standard Envelope would be seem to be a popular alternative for sellers who don’t want to run the risk of their plain white envelope being caught in a machine or getting lost in the mail with little or no recourse. Unscrupulous buyers have also been known to claim PWEs never showed up, demanding refunds that are usually granted by eBay.

Saved screen shots of the promotional page included a statement from eBay that Standard Envelope would be “more secure than shipping with a stamp and can improve your seller ratings.”

eBay pulled the page offline late in the day on Thursday after posting a link to it during a chat session with members so it’s possible details of the program could change and there’s no word yet on when it could potentially become an option.

We reached out to eBay for confirmation that the new shipping option was being prepared and to find out when it might be implemented but hadn’t received a response as of Thursday afternoon.

“Standard envelope is not quite ready yet,” an eBay rep named Jen stated in the chat after the page was taken offline. “But we’ll certainly be letting sellers know when it is! In the meantime, I apologize for my mistake and pull back on that spoiler alert.”

30 Likes
2

sounds like a great idea!

1 Like
3

Woah that’s crazy good! Although, why the heck would usps do that?

Purple are fine paying $3 to ship singles tracked, why let them pay less

2 Likes
4

eBay likes as many transactions with tracking as possible. Too many sellers shipping singles with PWE. Less disputes and refunds eBay has to deal with, the better.

6 Likes
5

Of course! I’m talking about USPS missing out

6

Not sure if its the same at your super markets, but the pellets of drinks we get at work have a thin sheet of cardboard between the layers. I take it home, cut it up, and put it in the envelopes to protect the cards. Wish I also had the cheap tracking though.

1 Like
7

They probably figure all the PWE sellers will gladly hop on board for another 25 cents per transaction?

2 Likes
8

So you can’t send CPUs like this can you? Just raw cards?

I have a boatload of Xeon Processors worth 3 or 4$ each :slightly_frowning_face:

1 Like
9

So excited for this to be a thing! I mostly buy and sell raw cards but I always send with tracking so I have to jack the price of my cards down so much to get them to sell at all usually. This would be a game-changer. I am assuming this is for domestic shipments only and would not at all factor into international shipments?

1 Like
10

whoever i buy from will still send my cards in a lays chip bag

13 Likes
11

Wow, I hope something like this eventually makes its way to Canada.

2 Likes
12

Wow that’s awesome, Australia introduced something similar our previous cheapest option with tracking was around $6USD now we have $1.8USD

5 Likes
13

That sounds awesome. Hopefully someone can find out when this is projected to go live?

2 Likes
14

This would be amazing! Definitely helps sellers have more peace of mind and save them some money.

1 Like
15

Not happening… Still going to be $10+ for us.

1 Like
16

A man can dream.

2 Likes
17

Dude this would be so awesome. I send many, many cards at $20 and under with envelopes, and most people are actually honest. 1 in 200 was reported as INR, but it would be nice to have the peace of mind to do this with all cards in that price range no matter the buyer. Plenty I’ve seen they are new feedback buyers and it’s a $15 card, and I just say screw it I’ll do 1st class for an extra $2.50 because it isn’t worth the risk of the scam. This would save a lot in the long run.

2 Likes
18

In Canada $10 gets the package across town :slightly_frowning_face:

4 Likes
19

As someone who sends out 150+ PWEs containing cards a week, this sounds great. It’s a great option for those orders in the $20-$30 range where $3 for tracking feels like too much but a 50 cent stamp feels like too little. Still, I would probably continue to send <$10 orders without tracking. The extra 25 cents isn’t worth it (purely from a mathematical standpoint, given the % of untracked shipments that result in INR claims). But I’ve also had buyers complain about lack of tracking (I posted a funny example of this in the eBay Garbage thread a while ago where a buyer got mad that their $2 Ponyta w/ free shipping wasn’t tracked). So the extra 25 cents might be worth it to just to appease buyers like that.

Great news either way.

3 Likes
20

It also makes some sellers that is just sending cards in a white envelope with a postage stamp to consider paying a little more & ebay/usps get a cut of it. & Imo that is a much bigger market and has way more transactions as ebays sales like 75%+ of them are under ~$15.00 and it’s not really worth sending a $10 card in a bubble envelope and pay $3 on shipping imo. It makes ebay be more competitively priced for $5-25 dollar cards depending.

vr

odds