Ebay Beginner Shipping Advice which shipping service, tricks and tips

[korin 0]

Hello all, I am a beginner to eBay, an eBay virgin if you will. I'm looking to sell a few things like my old Xbox, some sports and pokemon cards, and stuff like that. My biggest concern is the actual sending of the item. What mail services do you guys and gals find to be the best way? I was thinking of just going through the USPS, but I wanted to get a few opinions first. Also, concerning the USPS, I heard that you can order boxes from them. Does it cost anything, or do you just ask them to deliver some?P.S. Anyone wanna buy my Xbox? Lol, I'm just kidding.

Edited January 14, 2007 by BuffaloHELP (see edit history)

[brandon10092 0]

USPS is a good way to get your auction items to whoever bought them. About the packaging though. You go to your local post office and you can pick out a package suitable to ship your items in, but the downside to that is that it costs money to buy the package that it ships in. I've used USPS frequently in the past few months and they've been a really good service for me to use.

Edited January 15, 2007 by brandon10092 (see edit history)

[korin 0]

Ok, thank you for your quick reply. Umm, I got one more question for you. Can you buy packing peanuts and stuff from the post office too?

[Mich 0]

Ok, thank you for your quick reply. Umm, I got one more question for you. Can you buy packing peanuts and stuff from the post office too?

No, they do not supply peanuts or other packing. I will PM you a way to save on packaging (boxes), but you have to promise to keep it to yourself.

[korin 0]

Ok, I promise to keep it to myself, and thank you for your help.

[humanisfilth 0]

Yeah, for low volume, you can use USPS on the cheap. For international shipping, you will start getting into a pricier range perhaps warranting involvement with UPS. Depends on the type of mailings you're doing too. If your sending stuff certified mail, then the packages have to meet certain criteria and international shipments start to get REALLY expensive through USPS. I found that out the hard way trying to ship something to Hong Kong. What a disaster! I NEEDED a signature as I was dealing with a VERY shady ebay store...which had just been taken down by eBay btw, but I digress. The cost for shipping back a $30 unit in a new, sealed package with tracking and signature ran upwards towards $22. Forget that! I sent it speed mail and that was it. No written proof of receipt. Ultimately, I had enough of a case through PayPal and eBay that I didn't need to worry - but you're going to run into those circumstances from time to time and secure shipping will be a MUST.Low, infrequent "i don't care" shipments - USPS. Anything you need much more assistance with, UPS. Plus UPS will help you with packing materials. NICE!

[Scott851 0]

Im canadian so id have to reccomend Canada Post because EBay can print labels for it

[Sandeep Singh 0]

Hie,USPS is a good choice. About the packaging you need to go to a post office and buy a pacaging that fits your xbox(or whatever you want to ship). You should also consider to get a few dicounts by going to their website.Good Luck.Bye P.S. I already got an xbox 360.Lol.

[sheepdog 10]

Well, for small light weight stuff like cards and that sort of thing, I would just use the regular post office, but for bigger, heavier packages, I'd go with UPS. You can get card board boxes free at any store, wrap them in brown paper bags to cover whatever is printed on the box and to put your own mailing lables over. UPS has drop off stores everywhere, you can call their toll free number to get a location closest to you. And if you are a frequent shipper, they will come to you.