Pack well PLEASE…

[Lokie]

Thanks for the packing tutorial on Ebay! And congrats, WolfenMachine, I know you’ve been looking for those lamps 😀

Poems wrote:

Shipping safely costs a fairly decent sum, too. Not everyone is happy about paying for that, I have found 😡

Oh, I can totally join this rant. 😡 But the one good thing is that most of the members of this forum I’ve had business with are understanding when if comes to shipping fees and usually do a good job packing themselves. I recently joined another collecting hobby (I’m mostly drooling, not collecting though), and after seeing their inconsistent standards and expectations when it comes to shipping, it made me have an entirely new appreciation for the sellers and buyers on this forum.

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Poems wrote:

frozendragon wrote:

Poems wrote:

Shipping safely costs a fairly decent sum, too. Not everyone is happy about paying for that, I have found 😡

a lot of time it’s the buyer that doesn’t want to pay.. I had 3 or 4 ask for free shipping on eBay this past week.. and they were international.. I’m sorry but it costs more to send there than the piece they are buying sometimes.. and I don’t make enough to offer free international shipping..

it might lose some sails but I’m not ashamed of saying no..

Yep – same with me. I sent a Scratcher to the Philippines recently, and it cost $71.25 to ship, PayPal took $10.40 and eBa took $14.31 …….over $90 in fees and that doesn’t cover my time, my packing supplies – well, I don’t think I would want to eat THAT! lol But on the flip side, as a buyer I am more than willing to pay extra to assure me whatever I bought gets to me in one piece. It doesn’t matter if you insure it, your heart breaks when it comes broken! AND, I’ve always somehow felt badly for having to tell them that they pack like crap!

I can relate. I have been tracking costs on eBay and after everything is said and done, PayPal + eBay fees runs about 13-15% of sales for us casual sellers. I was a bit shocked since I know eBay’s fees had been going up, but not that much.

I also know a lot of people don’t understand how double boxing can add to the weight of a package and that adds into the cost. What has taken many people by surprise (myself included over the past 2 years) is how the US Postal shipping costs have gone up. I ship a lot in my employment (mailing packets, etc. for an education institution) and our mailing department cannot keep up with the regulations as they come down from the postal headquarters because the local Post Master for our city hasn’t been given the procedures that go with calculating the new postage for different types of mail. So, if we know postage has increased for non-profit mail (for example) we ask how we should calculate for “X” pieces of mail and they can’t tell us! The whole system is leaking money like a sieve but they can’t keep up with it. A total mess.

For those who want to make sure important WS pieces get home to them in one piece and you’re willing to pay a pretty penny, you might offer to pay the seller extra for taking the piece to a UPS store for double boxing. In my personal experience they seem to do it right. It will cost a bit, but sometimes sellers are relieved to have someone else do it. That way they can ship UPS or take the box to a post office and mail that way. Again, it depends on how important the piece is to you.

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