Questions about shipping & Ebay...

[Escobar4Life]

I am a complete newbie on this. I have bought stuff from Ebay ofcourse and like it.

I have over 25+ Xbox games I want to sell. But I don't know how to ship. I also have one of those lens for a digital camera to sell. I went to my nearest post office and asked them about shipping. They just asked me who I wanted to ship it to. So I decided not to ask for help there.

Can anyone help me with shipping since I don't know much about it. It would be great if there was a FAQ.

Oh and how much does Ebay charge for selling stuff? Thanks!

[Epic Wolf]

cheapest I've been able to ship a game with Tracking is $2 , which is first class postage with DC, as for the lense you might want to ask 5-8 given you would want to carefully package it, BTW what type of camera is the lense for ?

[Escobar4Life]

Not sure what type it is. All I know is that it's for a digital camera. I bought it for mine but it didn't fit.

[Escobar4Life]

Where do I get the shipping stuff from? (package, etc.)

[SOSTrooper]

You can ship those games with a padded envelope like this. (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/sostrooper/stuff/padded.jpg) If you use the Paypal and USPS's shipping label maker service (where you pay for the shipping online AND print out the shipping label w/ your printer), you pay a reduced fee for the delivery confirmation. Most of the single disc game w/ manual and the case is about 5 oz w/ the padded envelope. Because for First Class you'll have to specify the weight down to the ounces. If its a double disc game, maybe 7 oz. Weight each game just to make sure your package will not bounce because you didn't input the correct weight. $2 would be the most you probably would have to pay for USPS First Class shipping. So you can probably ask for $3 or $4 just to cover those ebay listing and ending fees.

Once you printed out the labels and taped them onto the envelope, you can just drop them off at your nearest blue mail box or the post office. I usually don't leave it in my own mail box and flag it up, because the postman already got enough to carry; but unless of course you hate him/her.

They sell these padded envelopes at Wal-mart, etc.

[Escobar4Life]

thanks! I'll stop by at Walmart. I don't think I'll print out labels though. My printer sux.

[SOSTrooper]

It depends on how you sell the games on eBay, listing fees can range from 25 cents to a dollar something for basic listings, depending on your starting price. If you start your auction at $0.01, listing fees will be cheaper than if you start at $15.99. You can also add enhancements to make your auction stand out more, like adding a gallery picture so ppl can see your item when they search, as well as putting bolds and subtitles in your auction listing. I recommend added a gallery picture if your item is worth more than $15. It pays off with more ppl looking at your auction, thus driving in more traffic and possibly bids. Ending fees will depend on how much the game ended at. The higher the game ends at, the more ending fees you'll pay. This page (http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html) will give you an idea on the fees.


thanks! I'll stop by at Walmart. I don't think I'll print out labels though. My printer sux.

If your printer can print MS Word documents, then it can print these labels. You just have to print the page out on a regular 8x11 white paper, then use tape to tape it onto the envelope. The label is just a basic B&W, all the fonts are huge. So unless your printer is really dirty or out of ink, you can print them, it saves you a lot of time.

[Escobar4Life]

Thanks for the help SOSTrooper! :)

[phantomer]

for normal shipping, buy bubbled envelopes or tiny cheap boxes. put items in, right down your address on top left corner, and receiver's address on bottomright corner. give em to postoffice people and pay. it should cost less than $2 for videogame/dvd/etc.

or you could use priority shipping at USPS. costs about $4, takes about 3-4 days, and they will give you free boxes(many different sizes) to ship with. that's what i do. i got bunch of boxes for free, and charge $4-5 to ebay winners so i dont have to buy envelopes/boxes at walmart/elsewhere seperately.

there are other options like insurance and tracking and signature etc etc. insurance=you pay postoffice $1-2 and if they lose that package, they will give money back. tracking=you can check the status/location/etc of the package on their website. those 2 are what many ebayers use to ensure that they will receive the package, in case deliveryman screw up.

[wubb]

If your printer can print MS Word documents, then it can print these labels. You just have to print the page out on a regular 8x11 white paper, then use tape to tape it onto the envelope. The label is just a basic B&W, all the fonts are huge. So unless your printer is really dirty or out of ink, you can print them, it saves you a lot of time.

PayPal reccomends you have a high quality inkjet or a laser printer for the labels. The USPS will need to scan the bar code when it reaches the destination and ink jet tends to run if it gets wet.

I 2nd the suggestion to use bubble mailers and ship 1st class for games. If you don't have a scale that is pretty accurate, I'd also suggest you just go to the post office and pay for retail delivery confirmation. It's a pain to wait on line and it is slightly more expensive. But you'd eat more than what you'd save if you have to buy a scale. If you want to live dangerously, you can ship without DC but if the buyer claims they don't get the package you will be SOL as far as PayPal is concerned.

Alternately you can ship Priority. that's ~$2 more than 1st class, but you'd know for sure a single game would be < 1 pound and you can get free boxes from the PO. (As has been mentioned.)

As far as shipping the lens... That's probably pretty fragile, so you may want to look into double boxing it. If you have a case it goes into that would probably do for the 'inner box'.

My final advice would be to list one game at first to get your feet wet and go through the entire process. Put something up at one penny so you will be sure it will sell and you can get your first sale under your belt. That first listing can be pretty nerve wracking - if you're like me you'll check it about 20 times a day :lol: Then go to the PO and if you don't know how to do Delivery Confirmation just ask the clerk to help you with it. Explain you need DC and you haven't done it before so you don't know exactly what slip/sticker to stick on it. They should help you out and then you'll have it down for the future. Once you get the swing of a sale or two you can look into getting a scale and printing labels from home. It does save a hell of a lot of time.

[Ziv_Zulander]

I'm probably repeating people here but who cares.

Best way to ship a single DVD sized game is in an average bubble mailer which can usually be bought in two-packs at a Dollar General (and other such stores) or for about .20 each if you buy online in big quanities. A good flat shipping price for something like that is $3 which covers first class shipping and Delivery Confirmation (ALWAYS GET).

If you're going to ship two or more games it's best just to use Priority shipping since those free boxes save you ALOT of scrounging time and using something like crumbled newspaper is the cheapest way to package stuff safely. $5-$6 is what I charge for shipping two PS2 games via Priority mail with DC.

[electrictroy]

I also have one of those lens for a digital camera to sell.
Ebay/Paypal = the rate varies depending on the final price. I recommend keeping your initial listing below 0.99 because that's only [25] cents. If the game is worth more, say $40, it will be quickly bid up that high.



Ship for Lens - I don't know how big it is, but I'd charge $10 and then use a large box filled with foam peanuts. Explain that $10 is charged due to "extra packaging used to protect lens".



Ship for games:
~$1.25 for bubble envelope (at post office)
~$1.75 for media mail postage
~$2.00 for your gas/time/labor
=========
~$5.00 total S & H charge

~$5.90 for priority


If you sell/ship all games at the same time, you can reduce your gas charge.

troy

[wubb]

Actually a $0.99 starting bid is a $0.25 insertion fee. They lowered it by a nickel a few months ago. Not sure if it was at the same time they raised some of the other fees (like the BIN fee) or shortly after.

[howlinmad]

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I actually get pissed off when I get what I bought in the "OMG PADDED TEH MEDIA MALE OMG IT'S TEH CHEPEST". More times than not, it's smashed up, couple of times the plastic case (DC/PS1 games) have been cracked, it looked like someone played kickball with it.
I also refuse to ship in them.

I charge 5 bucks shipping, insurance, delivery conf. for a game. If someone doesn't like it, I make no excuses or apology. I just refuse to ship something in a way I do not want to get myself.

[electrictroy]

I actually get pissed off when I get what I bought in the "OMG PADDED TEH MEDIA MALE OMG IT'S TEH CHEPEST". More times than not, it's smashed up, couple of times the plastic case (DC/PS1 games) have been cracked
I use a *box* for the fragile CD cases, surrounded by lots of padding/foam peanuts, but still use media mail to save money.



For the tougher DVD cases, a bubble mailer is just fine.

troy