If you sell on eBay or other sites, you’ll know, that you will need shipping supplies to ship the products you sell. Unless you primarily use dropshippers, but many of us need, boxes, bubble wrap, peanuts, bubble mailers etc.
1. Support the eBay community! Buy your supplies on eBay. Seriously I just bought a huge bag of peanuts (about 4′ X 2′ bag) for $4.99 and the same $4.99 for shipping. So for under $10 I got a huge bag of peanuts, and delivered straight to my door. Just imagine how much that would cost at say office max, staples, or even the ups store. You’d probably spend 3 times as much money to get the same amount. The same can be said about bubble wrap, I just got an enormous amount of bubble wrap for $12 and paid less than $8 in shipping. There are plenty of stores on eBay that offer great prices on shipping supplies. So before you go out and spend money to a large corporate chain, support the eBay community first, you’ll get a better deal.
2. Buy a Scale, this might seem obivious, but it took me a while to buy a scale. You can get a great scale, generally one that weighs up to 25 pounds for under $50. This is a great investment, no more guessing about shipping cost. Have you ever done flat rate shipping on eBay, and just looked at other auctions to guess a shipping price, then shipped your item cross country and you lost money? I’m sure we all have at one point or another. Now if you have a scale, you know the weight and you can do calculated shipping. Some might say, calculated shipping can cause delays, but I’ve never had a problem.
3. Shipping Supplies, boxes, mailers, etc. I have one great solution, the USPS.COM That’s right I recommend signing up for an account, its free. Then you can get all the free boxes, labels, stickers forms for FREE. Thats right as long as you ship United States Priority Mail, you can order all the Free shipping supplies you want. They have a full range of different size boxes, mailers to choose from. They even deliver it to your door for no charge at all. It genrally takes about 10 business days, but its well worth it.
4. This might be stating the obivious, but package your products well. Don’t take short cuts here, you never know what happens between point A and point B. No matter what shipping service you use, don’t be cheap with the packaging. This will save you time, money, and your feedback rating.
5. Print your shipping labels, from paypal. I love this feature, no more waiting in long lines. You must have a scale to use this feature, but its great. All you have to do is measure, your items, weigh it, choose a shipping service and click buy the label. You tape the label and you drop it off at the shipping carrier you use. I know the USPS will come to your house or business and pick up your packages for free. You just need to give them 1 days notice.
I have heard there is a company, that gives free recycled bubble wrap and packing peanuts. I don’t know the name or contact info, if anyone knows any information please let me know. Hope this Helps.
Filed under: General Business Blog
