A Thank you to all our fellow Canadian Sellers

[unique-attic-treasures]

Sincerely my better half has been selling on Ebay for around 10 years now, just minor stuff for Christmas money or what have you.

It has only been this year that we decided to take this to the next level and do this full time....In short I(husband writing this) had a little breakdown from being in the rat race all these many years and it was Xmas this past year where we decided we could do this full time together(as the wife has a very good knowledge of the stuff we sell) and I have been selling Autoparts for decades and have been in management for years so I have knowledge of how to work the numbers and stuff..

Anyways we never realized there was all this friendly help and knowledge of tips and tricks of this game out there....IE shipsurance and other companies of the like that can help with a small business development.

So all this has allowed us to work together and build something for US rather than a corporation that just uses you up and when your burnt out they don't care.

We are now living our best lives and look forward to the future.

Thanks again to everyone here

Cheers

Jennifer & Steven

[femmefan1946]

Best wishes to both of you in this new endeavour.

Retail isn't easy nor is it as stable as a paycheque, but it can be rewarding.

[lucitabby]

Nice to hear a thank you and you are welcome.

Note, a thought: For your low priced, souvenir spoons, earrings and other little doodads, you can send them letter rate within Canada for shipping of 1.90-3.12 which is a lot better than the 13.00-15.00 you are showing on the listings. Just need to make sure they are under 20mm.

[unique-attic-treasures]

We have done that in the past but unfortunately we've probably "lost" ten spoons and other pins and stuff like that so we are trying to get away from un expedited shipping....

It's one of my biggest complaints about Canada Post is that they don't have a middle of the road option for shipping for Canada like they do with international shipping...

They should have weight categories like international instead of the 1-500gram range...do 1-100, 101-250, 251-500...etc

[femmefan1946]

You're not alone in that...

Can I share the Good News about Cookie Jar Insurance?

This is basically self-insurance, putting aside a few pennies from each sale in a virtual Cookie Jar against the occasional transaction that goes badly.

For example if you are selling a spoon at $15 with $10 shipping, how many spoons would you have to sell at $20 with Free Shipping to make up for one refund for INR?

You have to look not at the selling price, but at your costs to decide the answer.

Would your sales rise if your customer could pay less-- without your costs rising? You accept a fair number of Best Offers, so it seems you do have some flex in your pricing.

It depends on the category of course. You may find that spoon collectors are as a group hazy on fair dealing. I'm very comfortable sending quite high value books to my customers, but would not even consider not using tracking if I were selling coins or electronica.

[unique-attic-treasures]

Unfortunately it seems in our area its not the problem with customers so much as it is the Post Office...they are very literal with the letter mail...because if you look up the legal things about shipping letter mail you are not allowed to ship anything but paper...I mean it would seem to me that it shouldn't matter what is in the package so long as whatever is in it doesn't matter so long as it meets the requirements for size...

So I think a majority of our packages going economy have been "lost" by the Post Office...we used to have a kitty set aside as you described but it has gotten to the point that we just can't keep doing it...so if it costs us a sale so be it...there are a lot of people in the world looking for things lol

[femmefan1946]

This, and convenience, is why after stamping or labelling my parcels, I drop them in the nearest letterbox.

From there they go to the terminal, not the local PO.

But technically... yeah.

[msmaggie060]

As far as I know, the rule about Lettermail only for paper/documents only applies to International mail, not mail within Canada, so you should be okay to ship non-paper items within Canada by Lettermail.
Good luck in your selling!

[unique-attic-treasures]

Quick question about the Shipsurance...so my understanding is if you have the printed copy of your receipt from Canada Post that would be the documentation they are after of do you actually have to go get your stuff stamped or something at the Post Office...I'm assuming the printed receipt from the website would be the proof of shipment but you know what they say when you ASSUME...lol

[richardcm]

The receipt online is proof you bought shipping, not proof you mailed it.

For non-tracked shipping methods like Small Packet using online labels, you would have to go to the post office with the parcel and your copy of the shipping label and have them stamp your that. This is proof of mailing and that it got to a post office.

Easy way is to print two copies of the online label and use one on the package and one to be stamped at the post office.

[msmaggie060]

Or if you purchase your label online, you can ask for a scan receipt when you take your pkg in to the post office. That is proof of mailing which works for insurance purposes.

[lady.stark]

I also ask for a scanned receipt. But sometimes, the clerks are new and don't know how to do it. So that's why I always bring a second copy of my label to have it stamped, just in case.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@richardcm wrote:
The receipt online is proof you bought shipping, not proof you mailed it.

For non-tracked shipping methods like Small Packet using online labels, you would have to go to the post office with the parcel and your copy of the shipping label and have them stamp your that. This is proof of mailing and that it got to a post office.

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Alternative proof: Small Packet bought online does have a bar code that can be scanned and a receipt given when you drop the package off at the post office/outlet.

And the small number (UR#########CA) under the bar code can be entered into the eBay system as "tracking" for Small Packet USA.

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