Shipping can be overwhelming for new resellers. Let’s talk about seven things you need to know before you ship your first item that you sold on eBay.
#1 Get Insurance On Your Items
For any item that is valued over $100, we recommend getting extra insurance. FedEx, UPS and USPS (if it’s priority) all have a set amount of insurance that is included with standard shipping ranging from $50-$100. If you sell something that is $200, $300 or more, you have to pay extra to make sure it’s covered. There’s a spot on there that you can click for extra insurance, to insure the amount that you sold the item for. It’s only a couple of extra dollars but it’s totally worth it.
If an item gets lost or damaged and you do not have the extra insurance on it, you’re out of luck. You’re responsible for taking the refund from the buyer who bought that from you, and you’re responsible for giving them back their money. And then you get the damaged item back and you’ll get $50-$100 from the shipping company.
Insurance is very important to us because we sell items worth upwards of $7,000, even $10,000. When we’re selling these items we want to know we’re covered if something happens in the shipping process.
Even if you don’t think the item can get damaged in shipping, you should still get insurance if it’s worth over a hundred dollars because shipping carriers lose items all the time. This happened to us with a $500 Sleep Number bed. We thought it’s foam, it can’t be damaged. The carrier unfortunately lost it, and we only got $100 because we didn’t have insurance.
#2 Package Your Item Properly
This goes along with insurance because to get the insurance, you have to package the item properly. You need two to three inches of padding around the whole item to be safe. If you drop something, make sure you have bubbles to secure it. The number one thing that I use in our packaging items, no matter the size of it, is bubble wrap. And I use the larger bubbles because they’re thicker than the actual smaller bubble, so it gives it more padding.
One thing that you can think about, anything that you’re shipping, if you wouldn’t be comfortable with holding it at four or five foot high and dropping it, then you probably didn’t pack it right. Carriers are going to drop items so you need to make sure it’s packed as safely as possible.
Peanuts wiggle around so a heavy item will shift to one side through transit and it could possibly break because the peanuts will not protect it. If you are using peanuts as a filler, you still have to use that bubble wrap in there to make sure that the item is totally encompassed with the bubble wrap and then put the peanuts in as the filler.
Depending on the item and its weight, we might also use styrofoam or thick foam.
Make sure you are following the guidelines that FedEx, UPS or USPS have for packaging.
#3 Be Careful Reusing Boxes
This is another packaging tip. We are all about recycling, but make sure you are not using boxes that have been damaged or compromised. If you ship an item in a box that is not in good shape, you might not get insurance money.
Definitely use a box that still has a good life. For a small item, you can use most boxes and be fine, but heavier items won’t do well in thin or worn boxes. You might need thick layered boxes for those items.
#4 – Ship To The Address eBay Lists
You cannot ship to a different location other than what the buyer’s address is in their eBay account. People will often message and ask you to ship to a different address. Do not do this.
If you want to be protected under eBay, then you have to ship it to the address that eBay gives you to ship it to.
If somebody does reach out after they buy it, you can tell them, listen, if you do need it shipped to that address, I can refund you. I’ll re-list the item. You can buy it and change the address at checkout.
Or if you have moved you need to go in and update your eBay account to show your new address. Either one of those is acceptable, but I would not ship it to somebody who asks you to ship it to a different location.
#5 Create Your Label Through eBay
Creating your label through eBay or Pirate Ship is going to save you a ton of money. Do not go to the other websites and try to create a label. You can, but it’s more expensive.
eBay is able to get great shipping discounts because their account is so big. We’ve had discounts as much as 70% and 80% off of the shipping label by going through eBay to create that label. You can compare Pirate Ship too and see if those are similar to eBay.
Here’s a bonus reminder: When you are creating your label, if you’re trying to get it cheaper, don’t try to underestimate your size. You will get overage charges that cost more than they would’ve been initially.
#6 Ship Items On Time
This is huge when you’re building your reseller business. Ship items on time. Make sure your handling time reflects the actual time you need to get items out.
eBay does not like it when people ship late. I always do five days on all of our listings just because a lot of them are freight shipping. It takes a little bit longer for a fulfillment of that, and people understand that because they’re not expecting it the next day.
If you do too many late shipments, eBay will ding your account and you won’t be a top rated seller and they won’t show your items as much.
#7 Package Your Own Items
You can take your items to FedEx or UPS but they will charge you to package them. We package everything ourselves to save money and we recommend you do it too. If you’re spending $50 to $100 having FedEx or UPS package it for you, you’re losing out on profit. It’s worth getting over that hurdle of not knowing how to ship something, because it saves you a lot of money.
Hopefully these tips will help you feel more confident in shipping items sold on eBay.
Show Notes
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