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We are just getting started with eBay. We haven’t had any sales yet, but our death pile is slowly getting smaller as we list items.
For some reason, I am nervous about shipping. I use calculate shipping on all listings, first class with tracking, or Priority when requested, plus insurance when appropriate. I realize I need to weigh each item, but am I to believe that everyone identifies the box and the right mount of packing materials when they list an item in order to get an accurate shipping weight? This would require me to
- keep a death pile of boxes (even if flattened)
- package each item just to weigh it, then unpackage it to store it efficiently, then
- make sure that I use the same box and the same amount of packing material to match the list weight when the item sells.
We will be selling a variety of items, including household items, vintage collectibles, clothes, and shoes. I have a good assortment of poly mailers and Priority boxes, plenty of bubble wrap, packing paper, and air pillows, all of which I scavenged. If we were selling only shirts, I could easily put them all in poly mailers, which would not affect the shipping weight by much, but because we will be selling a little bit of everything, it will vary greatly.
Do I understand this correctly? Is there a general rule of thumb that people use to estimate the shipping weight of each item? Am I overthinking this?
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I have a Post-it note by my computer with the weights of all the box types I typically use. I have two types of small boxes that I usually use for first-class items requiring protection. Otherwise I mostly use standard USPS priority boxes.
For item types that I sell a lot of, I’ve developed a sense of roughly what they weigh and what size package they will fit in. Once I’m over 1 pound, usually the weight only matters by the pound so it is not that hard to estimate whether something will be between one and 2 pounds or between two and 3 pounds, etc. Or whether it will fit in a flat rate package.
For items I’m not sure about, I have a few commonly used box types already taped up near my listing area, that I can test fit items. I also have a scale to weigh items.
For large or unusually shaped items, I don’t do these very much and they require more time weighing and finding an appropriate box.
I use flat rate instead of calculating shipping, since eBay and PayPal charged fees on the shipping. I probably come out a little ahead on shipping charges since I usually estimate my flat rate as shipping to one of the coasts and many times it is closer. Sometimes I do estimate wrong and lose money on shipping, but other times make up for it.
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It’s best to know the Dimensional weight (size/weight) where each shipping provider exponentially charges more for shipping.
As long as you stay under these limits, the shipping costs are usually very predictable.
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Shipping is a major part of selling on Ebay. If you can ship efficiently, you can keep more of the money an item sells for. Also, I believe, if an item is packed well and shipped quickly, customers are much more likely to give positive feedback. These are a few brief rules I go by.
1. Ship on time.
2. Pack it well.
3. Consider alternate carriers based on the item shipped and destination.
4. Print your own shipping labels. The online discounts are too big to ignore.
5. Get an accurate digital scale. Guessing on the weight is risky and not cost effective. The last thing I do, before printing the shipping label is weigh the package.Regarding weights there are a few questions I ask myself, due to the rates.
Is it 8 oz or less?
Is it 1 pound or less?
After that the postage due increases with each pound.
Using poly mailers, light boxes and light packing materials all help to keep the weight down.
Regarding size:
Is it oversize for USPS?
Length X Width X Height must be 1728 cubic inches or less.
12x12x12=1728 or 16X12X9=1728
It’s that simple.
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Yes, I also always weigh the finished package prior to printing the eBay label.
However I often don’t weigh an item in package during listing—unless it is large or unusually shaped or a need to measure the dimensions– usually I can estimate what the weight will be in package and about 95% of the time I am correct.
But when I first was starting out, I weighed almost everything during listing and found the appropriate box/mailer and gradually developed a sense of what items weigh and what boxes/poly mailer/bubble mailer to use.
with practice and if you sell items of similar types, you likely will soon have a pretty good idea what they will weigh when packed and what package to use.
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Thank-you for posting this original question. So, just to verify. We “pre-pack” the item before and update the listing with the correct information? Yes? I have sold 16 items so far and shipping as been the biggest headache, that I think my wife is ready to pull her hair out.
I have been finding items listed already and sold and just re-using that listing but I am finding people have not been using the correct shipping info.
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Hi Shortcut,
I sold my first item the week after I posted this question, a Nike golf belt. I put it into a poly mailer, slapped a label on it, and walked it one block to the nearest mailbox. In the listing I selected first class mail with calculated shipping, which cost the buyer $2.77 from my zip code to his. I did not package the item up first. For something so small and light weight, I put it on a scale (my digital kitchen scale) and added 1 oz for the poly mailer. The poly mailer obviously weighs less than 1 oz, but this also factors in the possibility of my scale being inaccurate.
I would not pre-package items if they are light weight and easy to ship, especially if it goes into a poly mailer. Just weigh the item, and add the approximate weight of the shipping materials. Maybe keep a cheat sheet near your work area that has an approximate weight of boxes, envelopes, poly mailers, paper, bubble wrap, etc., and add that weight to the item’s weight. I suspect that before long, our shipping material estimations will become second nature. Here’s another idea to try if you expect to ship things wrapped in paper or bubble wrap: Keep an selected amount nearby (however many feet off the roll), and do a quick, rough wrap to see if that would be enough for an item, and you will know how much it weighs because you reuse it as a reference and visual aid.
If you pre-pack your items, how will you know you are sending the right items to buyers? Could you imagine a seller with an inventory as big as Jay’s and Ryanne’s did this? There would be a lot of wrong items shipped, and their storage area would be full of boxes. However would they find anything?
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IMO when people write “pre pack” they actually mean “test pack” which is what I do with most packages. For example, if I sell a board game I will test pack that game into the different priority boxes to see which one fits. The largest board game priority mail box costs $16.55 flat rate. knowing that I add the shipping price or account for it in the items listing.
Some people don’t do this and get surprised by the shipping costs.
Imagine if you sold a board game for $10 with free shipping. In the above example you would actually lose $6.55.
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I too was intimidated by shipping at first but you will get the hang of it. I looked on YouTube at Danna Crawford’s old shipping show videos. You kind of see someone doing the process comfortably, and see how big a box something ends up going on one it is bubbled and packed well and what type of shipping method was used and why. I also began by listing similarly sized, weighted smaller items to get the hang of it for a bit. One of my early mistakes was not using the usps flat rate bubble mailer and flat rate medium box enough. Good luck. Come back and visit this page after you ship a few items. There is good advice here. If something needs a box that is over 12″ inches on one side, watch out for the dim weight warning up above and maybe seriously test pack it. Dim weight dings can add $35-40 and either keep your item from selling or burn you if your listing package demensions were understated.
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Hey Christine: You are correct about keeping an eye out for items that cross over into DIM Weight [dimensional up charges], but that 12″ max. rule is a tad off base. The actual number to use is 1,728 CUBIC INCHES. Certainly a 12″x12″x12″ square box is 1,728 cubic inches and is not a DIM Weight candidate, but neither is a 48″x6″x6″ long package. It also is only 1,728 cubic inches.
So, make sure you use the multiplication method when determining if a package is going to be in the DIM weight class. Now, one thing to remember it may not go Priority and may have to go Parcel Ground, but not always. I have shipped a lot of tripods, even a surveyor’s large tri-pod and made my own custom box for it, then covered it all in a heavy plastic outer skin and at 48x6x6 it came to 1,728 CUBIC INCHES and it went just fine.
Thought I would just throw that in as an adjunct to your answer.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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