I’m planning to sell some individual cards on ebay for the first time, and I had a couple of questions. I’m already familiar with the sleeve/toploader/team bag setup, but do you have any opinions on what sort of package I should ship them in? Is there a certain card value where you’d start shipping it in a bubble mailer instead of a plain envelope, or a price at which you start including tracking by default?
Any advice is appreciated, thanks!
For me, I don’t mind taking the risk with a plain white envelope for cards under $10. My success rate is phenomenal (over 99%).
After $10, I use a PayPal label for $2.60 that has tracking and $50 insurance and a kraft bubble mailer.
Thanks for the help!
Also, if an envelope contains a single toploader, do you just use a single stamp or would it have to be marked as non-machinable? If the latter, do I need to drop them off at the PO counter to ship them this way?
I ship 100+ orders a week with a single toploader inside. Standard forever stamp works just fine. You can drop them in the blue boxes. #6 3/4 envelopes work great for this.
Anything over $10 I go with first class tracking printed on eBay and that can be dropped in the boxes as well no need to go to the counter. Simple 1st class postage. Those ones I send in #0000 bubble mailers.
100% of the time that I am shipping PWE I stamp with a large red Non-Machinable stamp on both sides and affix an additional 21 cents in postage to cover the upcharge.
Why pay the extra?
If you don’t, they can and will process it by machine. They only have to honor a Non-Machinable designation if it has been paid for. At least that’s how I was advised.
What is wrong with them being processed by machine? I send up to 12 or so cards together in a team bag that way or a single toploader. I never have had them come back except in the past when I tried two toploaders or > 12 cards in a team bag.
I’ve not been as lucky. I’ve had four separate destroyed PWE without. Also, I’ve never had anything lost since switching either. Could be coincidence, but I’m satisfied with what seems my results so I’m sticking to it for the time being. It’s not hard for me to factor 21 cents into my margins since I only do 200 or so a year.
Thank you both for the advice - if I decide to play it safe, are there 21-cent stamps available somewhere or do you calculate postage at the post office?
Use a toploader
Any post office is going to have it. It’s a very standard stamps. Sometimes they’ll just say “Additional Ounce” on them, but the value is the same.
I usually just buy a roll at a time.
The United States postal service deems any envelope with a toploader inside as ‘rigid’ and requires additional postage.
Just so you realize that going in, you can make an educated decision on how to proceed:)
I have about 60% success rate on cards I received not in a toploader
Don’t worry, I’m definitely shipping everything in a toploader either way, was just trying to figure out whether I need to pay extra for non-machinable postage.
I’m planning to go ahead and buy the extra stamps. I think I’ve got all my questions answered now - thanks everyone!
My post office automatically provides shipping. So I ALWAYS have it. IF I don’t use a stamp.
But if it is a card under ~$5 I will do a plain envelope with a sleeve/toploader/bag. That has never failed for me.
But for the higher priced ones I use a small bubble mailer. Or if it is a lot of more expensive cards I wrap them in bubble wrap then syran wrap and shipped in a bubble mailer big enough.
I have never had a mishap.