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Today’s (4.27.2021) Announcement:
In January we introduced the eBay standard envelope through eBay Labels for Trading Cards sellers, with trackable shipping on items below 3 ounces for under $1. We’ve expanded the shipping service to Postcards, Stamps, Coins & Paper Money, giving you a more secure way to ship than with a stamp. With tracking integrated into the label, and with automatic tracking uploaded to the order will help you meet the qualifications for Top Rated Seller.
(See link for the rest of the Announcement)
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Saw this and am excited. I don’t sell a ton of these categories (but some!). However I am hoping that they also open other categories like Patches and Stickers, those would be helpful to me.
If any one has a link for sturdy envelopes that fit the dimensions ebay laid out, and they have used with success, I’d be interested in buying a small amount to start with.
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@mickdog – I agree. Doesn’t really make sense that they restrict the categories. Anything that fits in an envelope should qualify. I assume they are worried about abuse, perhaps where people stuff a padded envelope the way people stuff flat rate envelopes. No reason I shouldn’t be able to send my vintage photographs this way as well. One step at a time, I guess.
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If you have a store, you can use your store coupon for ebay shipping supplies…they have some that qualify. I’ve used the larger size for photos and ephemera, need to order some smaller ones now too. Of course, there are other options as well, but I’m going to order some of these stiff mailers:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/254913848355?hash=item3b5a0ca423:g:yJ8AAOSwHXxgShLD
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you can find more details here (including a printable PDF file that provides info on envelopes):
https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/shipping/ebay-standard-envelope.html#m22_tb_a1__10
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This is great news. I have been using the Intelligent Mail Barcode from LetterTrackPro for several years for my postcards, small photos, and patches in my Never-To-Be-TRS eBay store which gave me a tracking number that eBay would accept as an upload to the sale but after that would not load updates, so there was never carrier validation. I would have to go to my LetterTrackPro account to see tracking updates. It appears to me that eBay has made a deal with the USPS to use that system, based on eBay’s parameters and FAQ answers for Standard Envelope, with the bonus of a few cents off the usual price for 1, 2, and 3 oz first class envelopes.
One thing concerns me – the USPS charges a bit more for “nonmachinable” first class envelop mail and the Intelligent Mail Barcode doesn’t work, presumably because nonmachinable mail gets spit out of the scanning machines and has to be hand-sorted. I’ve had a few mail pieces actually returned to me because the patch was a little too thick or when I tried to send a larger coin like a half dollar and didn’t put the extra postage on the envelope. Ebay has decided to prominently specify what can go in the envelope – for example ship “no more than 15 raw cards” or “no more than 5 raw coins” – but you really have to dig down a bit to find that eBay Standard Envelope thickness has to be uniform, not too rigid, etc., which are machinable mail standards.
If the USPS enforces the machinable standards for eBay Standard Envelopes I think there are going to be some unhappy sellers when their envelope with 15 raw cards or 5 raw coins, for example, gets returned to them.
This is the envelope I’ve been using: https://www.ebay.com/itm/351575636101 I see that the price per 100 is a few dollars more than the 5×7 mailjacket that you linked from ebayshippingsupplies, though it’s slightly smaller.
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Looking at their specifications I see one small rub for me. It states that the label address must be parallel to the long side of the envelop. That rules out my use of my standard 4×6 label that I use with my Dymo label printer. Only takes a few minutes to swap in a different label, but most of these items are small dollar for me to begin with making a few minutes potentially outweighing the benefit.
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Good point! We recently added a Zebra printer just for labels, and its standard size is 4 x 6 as well. However, I think I can reduce the size of the printed portion to something that would work with , say, a #10 envelope. That would mean cutting the label down after its printed, which would be a hassle, but I think I could live with that…..unless I start selling tons of postcards…
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“I wonder why this is category restricted at all.”
Good question. There is no real reason that it couldn’t be added as a shipping method in any category for use when appropriate. High volume sellers in the sports card, postcard, stamp, and coin categories – which are huge – have probably been clamoring for years for eBay to figure out a way for them to obtain TRS status which they’ve been pretty much locked out of since they so often ship their low priced items in an envelope with a stamp. Someone at some point said to eBay: “Hey, there’s this Intelligent Mail Barcode thing I can get from LetterTrackPro, why can’t eBay offer that for us and let the half-assed tracking it offers count for TRS?”
EBay probably doesn’t want to encourage its widespread use. It is not a very good shipping method. Besides only being usable for thin, flat, bendable, first class letter-sized and -weighted non-plastic and non-padded envelopes, the tracking is hit or miss. A letter carrier cannot scan it – it has to get a scan at the outgoing PO in the sorting machine and in my experience about 20% of the time it doesn’t happen, and if that doesn’t happen, there are no additional scans. Also even if it does the initial scan, it does not provide a delivery scan. “Out for delivery” is the last scan you get. There has to be a separate back door route into USPS to see the tracking because it is not readable on USPS.com and other public access sites. EBay says if the buyer complains of non-receipt, the seller is supposed to just suck it up and refund them. It can’t be used for items selling for more than $20, though you can combine shipping to $50.
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I see that coins is one of the categories. Has that category been opened back up for everyone to sell in?
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