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Just got hit by the infamous SL post eater. Disappeared into La-La land, but before I submitted I saved the post. Will try again, in not, then the Ebay gods did not want me to rant about them. 🙂
Ok, here we go. Third year in a row complaining about Ebay’s Shipping Supplies that we get to spend our Coupon Allotment on, which is $50 for us with a Premium Store level.
It is the same complaints I have mentioned for the past two years and several members and I have posted where better prices and sizes can be found. But we have the $50 to spend.
Ryanne says no one can be without a bunch of tape, but there could be a limit to that also. After hundreds of rolls, I guess just sell the overages online for less than Ebay.
Also, the selection is dwindling. There is less now to choose from. On top of that, the order page says there are more selections, 74 in fact, but only 26 are showing and can’t find the supposedly 48 “other items”. To top it off the prices are no bargain either. Staples sells the same crush weight and capacity and wall thickness boxes for less and other members here have posted other places as well, such as Walmart and so forth.
I am going to focus on the selection and not all the color changes and variations Ebay keeps trying out on us. I created a master spread sheet years ago that has all the shipping supplies we stock and use. So quarterly we do a hard count of everything and create our quarterly PO for supplies.
Looking back Ebay no longer offers 3 sizes. Must be discontinued, so we go to another source.
The main order page says they have 74 items for selection but only show 26. Where is the balance and what are they?
The order page states they have 16 selections of boxes, but only show 1-7 and that’s it. On various envelopes they state they have 39 selections but only show 1-13. On tape it says 4 selections but only show 1-2, only show 1 tissue paper but say they have 2 selections, only 1-2 of 10 stickers and only show 1 of 3 post cards.
So only 26 selections out of the 74 they state they offer. If someone else here on SL can find the other selections, please clue me in? I even went to each category and saw missing selections and then tried to go directly to their store and the same thing, miss matched numbers of what we can see versus the number of items [74] but only show 26?
Then a new thing caught our attention. Now that Ebay is collecting Sales Tax for all the states that have jumped in, where is a place I can enter our corporate Sales Tax number? We always use our Tax-Exempt Georgia Resale number. At thrift stores, auctions, consignment stores, retail stores like home depot, Lowes, Hobby Lobby. Everything we buy in shipping supplies is re-sellable and now that Ebay is collecting the state taxes we would like to be tax exempt because we are reselling that type of merchandise. Looks like a double dip to me, tax collected on items we buy that will be re-sold and then, taxed again when it is sold in other states.But this may be an accounting matter I am just not understanding, but the main point is the now dwindling lack of selection and having to use our $50 x 4 = $200 dollar “Ebay Benefit” to just keep buying, then, Ebay branded tape for years to come.
Ebay could diversify and offer a wider selection like newsprint, brown Kraft paper and the small and larger bubble wrap, but never seen any of that [I don’t think]
And lastly, I could use not having their brand all over everything I ship. But free is free and they are going to get their advertising plug in, but in my minds eye, “Ebay” as a brand doesn’t express raving quality out the overall general market place, but that is my personal opinion, which that and $.75 cents will get you a third of a cup of coffee. LOL
I know Ryanne said she would keep buying poly-mailers and tape but with an Anchor store of $150 x 4 quarters equaling $600 bucks a year that is a bunch of tape and poly mailers, but 200 rolls of tape may be what Ryanne goes through.
OK, got my Dennis Miller rant out.
I feel better now and will order my 2 box sizes.
P.S. I cut up some of mine and use to roll wrap glasses in. Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
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Mike – I think, but I’m not sure, that when you count the number of selections, you have to count each quantity option. So, if they have the 8x6x4 boxes in a quantity of 25 and 50, then that is two items. That is how they get to 74 items, I believe.
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That very well may be the case Sharyn, but the fact still remains that the total amount of products to choose from is very slim pickings. 7 box sizes, tape, some tissue paper and a some poly and bubble mailers.
One thought Susan mentioned was that maybe they are trying to just offer box sizes in between the USPS sizes. But the USPS boxes are all for Priority which is maybe where all the larger heavier sizes fall.
I just wish they would knock $50 bucks off my bill 4 times a year or $200 total and let me worry about my shipping supplies on my own.
AND while I am at it, how about adding another store level between Premium [1,000 listings] and Anchor [10,000 listings]. That would help the Sellers more than offering a few over priced boxes in return my store and fees they take.
But we all agree it is still a good selling platform and guess they try to help the sellers out. We surely don’t want to go down the “Online Community Rabbit Hole” of bad bashing Ebay.
Have a good week-end Sharyn…
mike @ MDCGFA
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Yes, I agree with all you stated here. In particular, I miss the 12x10x8.
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Sharyn,
When I was shopping for my shipping supplies just now, the 12x10x8 box size was available from ebay.
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The bigger the better in sizes for us. We focus on home decor and tall candle holders that are over 24″ tall will fit into an 18″ box if placed diagonally. The 10x10x10 cube and the 12x12x12 are god for glass tumblers, and on the rock glasses, dinner place settings. 6 layered plates stacked, then a separator then roll glasses. Also any cookie jar, soup toureen or canister sets go nicely in cubed boxes. Then we will just skip the lamps and shades because 18x14x12 and 24x18x18 we use and just re-size / cut down any of the height we don’t need.
Also I make some boxes myself. I know the pattern by heart now and will tea apart any box USPS, FedEx or plain, drop it to the size I need and if it’s a USPS Flat Rate box, I cover it in opaque plastic and throw on my labels. So we make do. All in all I wish we could get $50 credit on our invoice, $55 if we are top rated and $60 if Top Rated Plus or some type of “reward system”, for doing everything right, all the time [mostly :-)]
Well I will just let it go and move onward and upwards. Way to much to do than belly ache about Ebay not offering enough shipping supplies. Just feels good to every now and then, give them a punch on the shoulder LOL!
mdc @ MDCGFA
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I’m guessing we get about $35 worth of supplies for each $50 coupon plus tax, $4 or so.
That’s worth it to me. I’ve never considered the $50 real money. The supplies do make my life easier.
I keep waiting for the Ebay bean counters to end the coupon, so until they do, I’m stocking up.
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I’m in the “never look a gift horse in the mouth” team. Yes, the selection is poor and the prices are inflated and the constant tinkering with the logo and colors is annoying, but free is free, and I can always find something I can use. That said, ebay could endear itself to a lot of sellers (or at least reduce some of the negativity) by improving the value of the shipping supply freebie. Why don’t they do so? Ah, the ways of ebay are mysterious, and not for mere mortals to understand.
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I wish they’d add bubble wrap (large and small) and some smaller box sizes (at least 4x4x4 & 6x4x4) and small bubble mailers (4×7 (#000)). I have plenty of every box and bubble mailer size they have, but I do use and keep ordering them to use up my coupon. So I have to keep buying smaller ones from other sources. I also have enough poly mailers to last me through the next decade.
I like the eBay tape; it’s actually really good. But I already have enough of their tape to last until the end of the year. And I haven’t gotten any since last year. I wish they’d add clear tape to the lineup.
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Wow, I just ordered my shipping supplies.
Two good things happened.
1. The coupon code showed up in my checkout without me having to copy and paste. I just checked the box to have it applied.
2. I was able to pay with Paypal from my balance.. Previously I had to enter a credit card to pay through managed payments.
$4.59 out of my pocket for 75 (10 X 8 X 6) boxes is a pretty good deal to me.
Happy Friday to all.
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Noticed that everything is different on the Canadian store, but the coupon code showed up automatically for me as well. The small balance I had to pay went to a different PayPal account then before.
All the supplies have a different graphic design then they did 3 months ago. Currently they are printed black with just “ebay” printed on them – before, they were printed in blue with the “ebay” logo in a circle that was knocked out.
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The tissue paper used to be different colors but the latest batch that came just had black “ebay”s on it. Not quite as interesting though at least I no longer have to match up the red tissue paper with red hats, the blue tissue paper with blue hats etc at shipping time.
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After reading all the comments, I went to eBay shipping supplies to try and order some things. I can never find my coupon, but a couple of people said it was automatically applied at checkout. I picked my two items, tissue paper and tape, went to checkout and didn’t see any discount applied.
And, interestingly, the two vendors were accepting different forms of payment…one was accepting payment thru eBay’s new payment system…and the other was accepting PayPal. So I would have to pay them separately, but could pay both with PayPal…I’m so confused! I was told by PayPal a few months ago that when I switched to the new eBay system, I would no longer be able to accept payments thru PayPal. Anyone hear anything to that effect? Any hints on how to find my coupon or get the discount applied at checkout would be appreciated. Thanks!!
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When you want to use the coupon, make sure that you only buy supplies from the eBay shipping supply store:
https://www.ebay.com/str/ebayshippingsuppliesAt some point in my search, I clicked on something like “see more”. What came up was all the listings from people selling shipping supplies, not just from the store link above. The coupon only works for that store.
Also, the coupon does not apply automatically. It was somewhere at the bottom, and I had to click a box saying that I wanted to apply the coupon. Maybe it didn’t come up because you had stuff from two different sellers in your cart?
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