Shipping small items with tracking to US and reasonable cost?

[isell999]

The items I sell are small and fit in a letter envelope, and I ship them as small packets to USA for $3.79.

At the post office they told me the cheapest to send with tracking is over $16 which is over 4 times the price and more than double the total cost of the items I sell with shipping so that simply isn't an option. I think I read somewhere that you can ship with Canada Post with tracking for a more reasonable cost through eBay, does anyone know if that's right and if so how do I get these lower prices?

Thanks

[melissasminis]

You mean you ship with "light packet" not "small packet" for $3.79, just wanted to mention? For tracking to the USA "tracked packet" is the cheapest option and it does cost about $16.00 when you go to the post office. If you have a Venture One card with Canada Post, you can get a 5% discount when going to the post office, it's free to sign up for one, but it only gives discount on tracked packet, expedited etc, not small packet, light packet, or lettermail. If you use Paypal to print your shipping label for tracked packet and expedited etc, you receive a little more of a discount than the 5%, it's about 7% I believe. So yes you do save more when printing shipping labels through Paypal. When you go to your sold listings in Ebay, next to the buyers purchase, on the right there are options, one is to print a shipping label through Paypal.

[mr.elmwood]

Tracking, for inexpensive widgets, is a colossal waste of money. Plus, who is going to pay that shipping cost?

You are thinking Paypal Shipping. It is still going to cost around $16.

Put yourself in the customer's position. Which do you want to hear: shipping is $4, or, shipping is $16?

[atvds1210]

It is correct that you get a pretty decent discount by buying tracked shipping through Ebay and Paypal.  The catch is for small and cheaper items, it reduces the cost from utterly crazy to just ridiculous 🙂    But if are shipping tracked, absolutely go through the link by your item in My Ebay.  I believe the discount is something like 18% all in - please pipe in those that know the exact discount.

[treasure.hunter.d]

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@atvds1210 wrote:

It is correct that you get a pretty decent discount by buying tracked shipping through Ebay and Paypal.  The catch is for small and cheaper items, it reduces the cost from utterly crazy to just ridiculous 🙂    But if are shipping tracked, absolutely go through the link by your item in My Ebay.  I believe the discount is something like 18% all in - please pipe in those that know the exact discount.

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When printing your shipping docs for Tracked Packet through PayPal the discount gets you from just over $20 CP counter rate on the high end down to a max of $17.48. basically any package that fits into the dimensions criteria for Tracked Packet but is over 500 grams will cost you $17.48 to ship anywhere in the US. For under 500 grams you are looking at I believe it is $15.45. Doesn't sound like that will do the OP any good at all as it is still a huge increase compared to what he is doing now.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

The post outlet I went to today (my least favourite but I had no choice since all of my tracked mails get forwarded there this year instead of my favourite postal outlet) tried to tell me that light packets will get lost and that I should get tracking. I told that lady I have been mailing my stuff like this over the past three years and it has been fine. If I do get a problem with shipping with my two newest sales (~$20 sale x 2), then I will have to avoid shipping anything from this post office...

Anyhow the OP, if your item is cheap, like less than $20, I'd just stick with light packet untracked...

[femmefan1946]

You don't want tracking.

Really you don't.

You want to be sure that if your customer claims non-receipt or damage that you will not be out money.

So.

What you want is insurance against those claims. (And it doesn't matter if the claim is bogus or true. This is business not a relationship.)

There are two kinds of insurance available to you.

You can buy third-party insurance from a company like shipinsurance (could people check the name, I have a mental block about it). They insure one-off and many sellers find them reliable and reasonably priced.

You can self-insure. This just means that you add a few pennies to every item, less than a dime usually, and put those virtual pennies into a virtual cookie jar.

Then if you ever get a claim, you promptly pay the unhappy buyer with the contents of the cookie jar.

This avoids the problems from having open Disputes. Win or lose, you are better off. And to repeat: it doesn't matter if the claim is bogus or true. This is business not a relationship.

And even so, those claims are few and far between. You will get more in some categories than others, but even there one in a thousand is a lot of claims.

[femmefan1946]

How do you fit sneakers into a Light Packet envelope?

Those would be one of the categories where higher than average Disputes would turn up. Anything that appeals to young males, basically. It's the testosterone.