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Yeah, It’s funny, but they will never be great mechanically, just like the alpha romeos of those years. Not engineered and built well at all. But that Italian style…you had the right idea there. Many MGs have the same mechanical nightmare reputation. As for the topic, good learning experience about researching what you’re buying first.
If I had money and storage, I’d have been buying up rare (or even not so rare, but old) Japanese cars for the past 20 years. I told that to a friend of mine in the ’90’s when muscle cars were going off the charts and he laughed. The collectable Japanese cars are a lot more expensive now, but you can still find them if you’re out there scavenging. Unfortunately, they don’t fit into a padded flat rate envelope… 😉
Good show. The personal stories are interesting. Jay, I think your ambivalence about money comes from an honest, moral place that is tied directly to politics. Unfortunately, this isn’t a good place to talk about politics.
Tried them once when they were much cheaper. They were fine. I wouldn’t spend that much now. Cutting down the ebay boxes (I get them with the coupon) I mentioned above doesn’t take long and works for me.
This is real shipping nerd stuff, but this is the place for shipping nerds. 😉
I use them all the time and have three tips:
1. If an item is a little too long, you can actually stretch the mailer across it for another 3/4 inch or so on each side. My feeling is, as long as the graphics on the mailer aren’t noticeably distorted (or they are, but they’re covered up), you’re good to go. I have also been successful really stretching and distorting the mailer at the very top to go over some shoes, but that was literally and figuratively stretching it.
2. If you have trouble fitting something, cut the mailer and tape it back up. you can also get a little stretch on any seam you cut. If you stretch one side and tape it to the box (or bubble wrapped item), you can cover it with the non-stretched piece. I always tape the seams and the flaps down anyway to minimize the chances of it getting snagged in a machine. May be overkill, but it also looks good when I have a box in there. Which leads me to tip number three.
3. If you buy the 8x6x4 boxes, you can cut them down about an inch and they fit inside a mailer perfectly. I do this for items that are fragile and/or need to be presented well. If you’re not cutting the whole mailer before fitting the box in, it will be a tight fit so it helps to smooth the corners that are going into the mailer with your thumb beforehand.
Hope this can come in handy for someone.
If I remember correctly, my normal rate is 3% + .30 cents. Last few transactions have been 4-6%. One was international. According to paypal, they add 1% to international sales. I didn’t know that, but it still doesn’t explain the other non-international sales. I’ll probably call them if the fee on my next sale seems higher than usual.
In this instance, I wanted to ship separately for a few reasons:
1. I had them pre-boxed and they were ready to go.
2. I make money on shipping.
3. Each item fit in a priority padded flat rate mailer. Each item’s value was approx. $75. Individually, each package has up to $100 insurance. One Large priority box with the three items in it has up to $100 insurance.In the end I decided to not deal with trying the answer from 2014 I found above and just put them all in a large priority box and bought the extra shipsaver insurance. At least I hope it’s in addition to the USPS insurance. If not, the number it gave me was about $50 to little…
A few hours after packing and labeling, I got a message from the buyer: “Please combine shipping and refund parts of shipping fee. Thanks.”
Yes. Ok, but I wonder if we even have a choice to combine shipping or not. It seems as long as someone puts multiple items in their cart first, ebay groups them into one shipment. Well, this is the first time this has happened to me, so I guess it’s making me think. Also, I upgraded him to priority before I got the message.
I found this answer from 2014:
“Yes, you can send multiple packages, print through Ebay, and be covered. Do the regular “ship” thing for the first one. Then on the order select “print another label” from the dropdown menu on your “sold” page, and you’ll get the shipping page with a note at the top that you’ve already sent a package. Do the usuals (put in the weight, etc) and you’ll get a whole new label (new tracking, etc). When you or the buyer clicks on the tracking under the order, both tracking numbers will show up and be updated as they go to their destination.”
Does this still work?
Hi,
I just sold three things to one person. It was one of those international shipping companies with a Delaware address. I want to ship them individually, but they’re combined under one label. What do I do?
I have a pile of unresearched art supplies, mainly oils and acrylics. A lot of stuff from the 60’s at the moment. I always pick them up, but they take so much time to research and price, they sit there for a long time. Anyone have any tips on good brands or sites that detail what’s desirable? I imagine old colors they don’t make anymore are pretty popular.
Last sale I had was on cl. Some big, mostly unused, tubes of acrylic and a bunch of small ones for $70. It took months. It was kind of funny. Turned out to be a crafty (in every sense of the word) little old lady. She tried to low-ball me, then she tired to get me to drive to meet her across town. I declined, and then she declined. The next day her daughter called, met me where I wanted, and paid full price.
Thanks Omfug. Interesting. Your info and Mike’s calculations seem to indicate etsy has very similar fees to ebay/paypal in the end. I always heard it was much cheaper. I guess it might come down to what one’s ebay store fees are.
The ebay vs. etsy pro and con discussion is probably worth having. If I remember correctly, Omfug has had the experience of multiple sales on etsy vs. a few to none on ebay more than once. That definitely makes me think about diversifying (again). Some of those sales were cross-listed, so that is food for thought too.
I have a feeling buyers (and it seems sellers as well) get comfortable with one e-commerce site and stick with it for the most part. Aside from having to sign-up and give your credit card and other info, maybe people don’t want to have to get used to another environment, and then there is the fact that there are only so many hours in a day…
Oh…Thanks for pointing that out. Had no idea. Just replying to your post to see how a reply is formatted. Yes, this is a very simple forum program. It may be a little tricky to navigate and organize. Unfortunately, as I said way back when I was just an anon, it seems to be hard to get good free (or almost free) forum software for some reason. I’m sure we’ll make it work though.
Hey R&J,
Congrats on all of the new projects – including the evolution of this one! I’m a long-time anonymous poster, but thought I should get in on the ground floor of all this forum-y goodness. Look forward to chatting with everyone who stops by. Here’s to peace and prosperity for us all.
Cheers
