How To Ship Video Games On Ebay
If you're successful on eBay then there is one thing you'll be spending a lot of time on. That is packing and shipping items. This may seem simple at first but when shipping a large number of items you want things to be as cost effective as possible. Another important consideration is your time. Time is valuable, the more time you spend shipping the less time you have for other important aspects of your business.Now this blog is about selling video games on eBay so we'll focus on that area but many of the same tips apply to other items as well.
- Have your own scale. A lot of video game items will not really need to be weighed. For example once you know the weight of one Nintendo NES cartridge you pretty much know the weight of every other NES cartridge. You should still have a scale though for those odd items with bonus material or lots of unsold games (believe me you'll have them).
- Be friendly with your postal workers. Making small talk with your local post office employees is not a waste of time. Doing so can help ensure that your packages don't get rejected for some small inaccuracy in the size or weight of the package.
- Print your postage online. eBay has just recently introduced eBay Labels that allows you to print up to fifty labels in bulk from your home computer. PayPal also features a multi-order shipping tool. Both are great tools that allow you to save time in printing out bulk shipping labels. There are some differences though PayPal multi-order shipping allows up to 100 shipping labels at once and can import labels from non eBay transactions. Ebay Labels has the advantage of being able to print First Class International Postage and USPS Regional Box Postage.
- Buy bubble mailers. For video games nothing is better than the bubble mailer. Drop the game in and stick a label on it and you're pretty much done. Don't make the mistake of thinking that you can save money by shipping games in large envelopes or in spare boxes. In the end you probably won't save much money and you'll end up spending more time on home made packaging for your games. Be prepared, buy bubble mailers in bulk. The best place to buy bubble mailers is actually eBay itself. If you buy in lots of 100s of each size you need it shouldn't cost more that $0.15 per mailer.
- Get Free Priority Mail Flat Rate Boxes and Envelopes. With video game consoles the best idea is to grab various size Flat Rate Boxes from the USPS. Many consoles fit in these boxes and it makes it much more convenient than weighing each and everyone of them. Most of the time it is cheaper or about the same as sending the console Parcel Post especially if the buyer lives in a different region. These can also come in handy for video game lots or combined shipments.
- Recycle old boxes. When you receive boxes break them down and store them for those odd items that don't fit into any flat rate boxes or envelopes like an original Xbox for example.
- Combine shipping. If your selling video games on eBay you need to combine shipping on your orders. This will promote orders of more than one item which means more sales for you. Also, the cost of shipping will go down so likely you will make more money from your shipping charges as well. For example let's say you charge $4 shipping on your first order and $2 for every order after that. Now let's say the buyer likes the deal because he saves on buying each game from separate sellers and he orders 8 games. All the games fit in one medium flat rate box for $11.35 and the buyer paid $18. That's seven extra dollars just in shipping charges.
- Never ship without Delivery Confirmation. You may be tempted to ship without delivery confirmation to save on shipping charges. One example of this is shipping to Canada you can ship First Class items to Canada for about the same amount as it would cost to ship them here in the US. The only differences being that you have to fill out a customs form and there is no delivery confirmation. It can be tempting because by offering this service you can get more sales from buyers in Canada. Don't do it you'll have nowhere to turn if one of these buyers claims that they didn't receive their item. The scammers are out there (even in Canada).
- Use AdShip Ad Supported Shipping. AdShip is a third party eBay app that allows you to offset some of your shipping cost. Here's how it works: you sell your item and pay for shipping through eBay. Then you start the AdShip app, it imports the recently sold items and you print out a packing slip. AdShip will send an email to the buyer confirming the item was shipped. Included in the email and packing slip will be a small advertisement which you are reimbursed for including. This in itself can save you about $0.20 per shipment. One thing to note is that if you use this system you should turn off automatic "Item Shipped" emails in eBay. Otherwise customers will get repeat emails which may be confusing.
Have some tips for shipping on eBay? Leave them in the comments section below.
I couldn't agree more on the First Class International shipments to Canada. I hate that there is no way to have delivery confirmation unless adding registered mail service to that item. The cost is $11.75 and provides delivery confirmation and or attempts. This saves you if you get an item not received or paypal chargeback. It's the only way to send and have ebay buyer protection present.
ReplyDeleteThe downside is on a video game that would normally cost $4 is now at almost $16. And you cannot print your First Class International postage through ebay as normal at this point either because of the Registered Mail add-on. You can only get that through the physical post office. This sucks even more time from your business, loses you the online postage discount, extra gas, and customs forms. It also limits the amount of Canadian buyers for you because a $6part game is now costing well over $20.
According to USPS you can only get free delivery confirmation with medium international flat rate (almost $30 to Canada). Or with UPS standard to Canada (a little over $30).
So even though the First Class Class International postage with Registered Mail is cheaper than the other options by about $10, you also have to consider the medium flat rate (although more $), as it can be printed through ebay and saves all the time and expense of going to the post office. Unfortunate that scammers exist as it makes safe protection postage ridiculous costing for buyers, and loses you some Canadian sales because of the high costs of doing business safely. And Canadian buyers are a huge part of the buying audience for video games.
I just put calculated First Class International postage on my itsms and have a standard $13.50 handling fee to buy the Registered Mail with ($11.75). After ebay takes their 10%fixing out if shipping, your still out time and gas. So I usually hope they opt for the medium flat rate internation option. Print online and set it by the door, free delivery confirmation. I hope this info helps you or your readers. Been following your blog, good stuff. Thanks. EpicToyz
Yeah, it seems like a big difference just to get some sort of tracking. Most of my transactions went pretty smoothly but there are always those that ruin it by taking advantage of the system. So for now I'll just be shipping domestic. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment on my blog.
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