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We are always looking for good deals, right? I belong to another site where we collectively buy items in bulk and then distribute them among the members for the discounted price… Usually a trusted member collects the money and re-ships the items for a little extra discount agreed apron by the participants.. I was wondering if shipping tape was an item we could look into…we all use tons of it.. anyone have any ideas? Or comments? Brian
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If you have an eBay store subscription, you get coupons each quarter to redeem for shipping materials from eBay. Do you have a store subscription? Are you using more tape than what your coupon buys every three months?
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BTW Jay.. I said this a year ago or so, and I still see it as of now. The Ebay Shipping Supplies offering are getting less and less. Unless I am at the wrong site, there are only 20 items being offered. They used to have about 3 pages full of items they offered.
While I know Ryann has answered before that she uses a bunch of padded envelopes but ya’ll must have a lot of small, unbreakable items ya’ll sell a lot of. We only sell breakable items and many multiple piece tea sets, plates, dishes, bowls, vases, etc., etc. We need boxes. Yes we use USPS boxes but we like and use sizes they don’t have. yes, I resize larger boxes down all the time, but hard to make a box larger unless I splice them together.
Ebay only has 6 box sizes and 4 of those are fairly small and not one square box among them. Some post cards, 2 types of round stickers, 1 choice of paper and that is tissue, and the padded or un-padded envelopes, 1 choice of poly tape style and now a water tape. Pretty slim selection as to what used to be almost 70 items. They used to have more than 20 box sizes.
I also see that they have gone to plain brown boxes with just a black logo and the new wide water tape is also brown and black. What happened to their new marketing approach of “Add a Little Color to Your Life” campaign. Don’t see there TV advertising along those lines either. Now this offering of shipping supplies looks plain vanilla. Looks like they are still chasing Amazon.
I understand, I guess they cut out the things that were just not the popular items or profitable to them. But my point is that the $50 coupon is getting to have less and less value to me as a seller.
My $50 is going to buy 1 36 roll box of tape. That comes down to Ebay giving me a half a roll or tape per day for 90 days. At 75 yards per roll that equals about 37 yards of free tape per day and only of the multi color style at that. [This is the tape that makes our packages look like a Jack in the Box, Circus looking package when we use a lot on larger boxes] Very unprofessional in my opinion.
You know thinking about that, now that we are selling more and more on other platforms, I would just as soon that Ebay would allow me to apply that $50 to my store payment and let me skip the shipping supplies all together. I prefer plain brown boxes with either clear or tan tape. Very clean, stream lined and professional looking.
But alas no, so on to ordering my half a roll of “free” tape per day in return for my $250 per month Ebay invoice. I get a better return for my patronage at my local grocery store. LOL 🙂
Ok, off the soap box for the day…
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine Art
Atlanta, GA.-
I wouldnt be surprised if eBay discontinues the coupons for shipping supplies. I think they did it when they raised Subscription rates.
We just stock up as much as we can while it lasts.
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I’m anticipating they will end the shipping supply coupon eventually. They started it as a way to market their brand during that period when they made a strong advertising push. But as with a lot of things Ebay does, the ad campaign seems to have fizzled out relatively quickly. The comments on the eBay for Business FB page will be a sh*t storm when the day comes that the coupons are reduced or removed entirely.
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It’s kind of weird because in Canada I’m seeing the opposite – the eBay.ca supply store had about 20 items to choose from this time, and it was only 8 items last time. They also eliminated the multi-packs of different sized boxes/envelopes together.
I find it odd that eBay doesn’t advertise as heavily in either the U.S. or Canada as it does in Australia or the UK – When I watch TV shows from Australia, you can see the buses/trams covered in eBay logos, billboards in the background, and ads during the shows. Even the odd product placement where a cool item to decorate a house was “found on eBay”. Both GumTree and eBay are mentioned and advertised on UK TV and radio often.
In the U.S., I see a lot of StubHub advertising, and in Canada it seems focused on Kijiji – not sure why they hide in these markets. Even PayPal advertises heavily in Canada – my local Post Office has several ads for Canada Post and PayPal in it, and contests.
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FYI… Uline has stopped local pick-up here at there Atlanta DC Cneter about 2 or 3 years ago. I called their corp. office and they said that the traffic from cars coming into their pick-up bay was creating a hazard to the truckers. And they also implemented a rule if you wish to do a pick-up they would but it would be a flat $30 pick-up fee.
So if I wanted to place a $30 order for let’s say bubble wrap or some boxes, it was going to be double the cost at $60. Someone said that they wanted to end the small local buyers crowding into there pick up bays and focus on larger orders.
I call them about once a year to see if they still have that minimum rule and flat rate pick-up fee in place and they still do here in Atlanta.
So haven’t bought a thing from Uline in over 3 years.
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Yes I use the coupon for small boxes..just spitballing ideas.. As I think about it, a case tape might be too heavy to find any savings.. they would be lost in the shipping costs..
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So Call Joe: Thinking about what I said above, I really don’t want any more of the multi-colored, circus looking tape from Ebay. Do you use clear or tan tape on your packages? Do you use the thicker, more heavy duty type? Ryanne used to use the thicker “Duck Tape” brand but think she has gravitated to the Ebay “Circus” Tape. AND if you don’t mind would you share your source and cost for the tape you use? I know I can search it out but just wondering what you were using, paying and where sourcing.
If your tape source is a go to source, then maybe I will just get boxes this quarter with my coupon and skip the tape. I usually take the small boxes and cut them open into strips and roll it up in the direction of the grain. Then I use it to wrap around glasses, cups, and other objects.. This round cylinder then becomes the interior box for extra protection after I place the rolled glass or cup into the larger outside box.
The forum here has tape in the resource section and it is the “Duck Tape” brand which is good tape if the thicker tape. Ebay tape is the thinnest they can make. It is thinner than Scotch tape we use to wrap christmas presents and tears so easily. And we usually use two layers to assure a good high bursting strength on the heavier boxes.
So just thinking and asking….
Thanks,
Mike at MDCGFA in Atl.
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Hi Mike,
In generally I search for (36 rolls) 2,0 mil 110 yards 2 inch shipping tape. I used to get it for $26 to $29 a box. Once I even scored a box of brown tape for $22. Now it’s almost always at least $30+ a box. Those prices included free shipping.
In reality 2 inches is often 1.9 inches and 2.0 mil is often 1.8 or 1.9 I use tape liberally when shipping, so quantity is more important to me than quality.
I generally I buy clear tape, but keep a supply on hand of brown or colored tape for covering labels etc.
This is something I might buy, if needed.
Thanks
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Thanks SCJ: I am going to start getting the clear and brown tape and not spend my coupon on another 36 rolls of Ebay “Multi-colored Circus” tape. LOL :-). So, I will spend it on some of the small size boxes that have a good side wall height for me to cut aprt to full length and create creased roll strips out of them for roll wrapping many of our breakable items.
We use lots of tape also, both internally and externally. The clear makes the box more professional.
Also being in the printing business for decades I know where I can get rolls of flexo labels printed. I may just have several rolls made up with our MDC Galleries and Fine Art name along with our “monkey logo” on it and use those to cover any other labels. Might as well start branding ourselves since we are on, [or will be shortly] 3 selling platforms.
I can also print up my own thank you cards to put inside of the box along with a discount coupon for our own Shopify store to help drive traffic there. But the Shopify store is a ways off right now. Maybe a year or so. But agagin we can start branding us for now.
Thanks for the links and appreciate your input and sharing. It’s what makes this the best place as far as a helping community goes.
By the way for those using auto listing and management software [especially Mark, Brian and Troy]. I have finally after 4 plus years finally made the swithch from WonderLister and moved over to SixBit Enterpise Duo. Took a few weeks but got it almost done, just a few more twaeks. Both the Ebay store and the Etsy store are in synch and listing, revising, bulk editing, business policies, shipping and eventually our Shopify store will all be done from a one page control panel dashboard and SB will add, revise and delete from all 3 of those platforms and keep all the financials and report straight. Still more to learn, but as Troy told me, I would have it down pretty quickly.
Take care..
mike at MDCGFA.
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