@sandy49-250 wrote:
Don't understand or have the ability to weigh & measure a parcel at home; and shipping with PayPal. I have a Canada Post discount card for a 'small business'; that does make quite a difference.
Are you planning to sell on eBay for a while? Then you really need to learn these basics.
There's nothing to weighing and measuring parcels at home. Buy a flat kitchen scale at Walmart for $15 that shows measurements in pounds and kilos, a tape measure for $5, and you're done. It will be the best $20 investment you can make, in terms of saving you time and money on every shipment. Place the scale on a flat surface, put the parcel on top, and read the weight. Measure the parcel's length, width and height.
Now you have everything you need (except the buyer's address) to do a Paypal label. Go to the sold item, find the link in the drop-down box that says "create a shipping label" (or words that effect), and click on it. You'll be routed to Paypal. Sign in, then complete the information on the form. There will be a first page that will should already have the buyer's name and address filled in, and the shipping service (which you can change in the drop-down box if you like).
If you're shipping outside Canada, the second page will be the customs information, which Paypal will sometimes already pick up from the eBay listing. Fill in the required boxes. For the weights, remember that if you're using kilos, 180 grams (for example) is .180, not 180. You will need to fill in an HS (exporter's) code if shipping outside Canada. If you're selling a lot of the same sort of items, you'll probably only need one or two codes. Once you have them, write them down so you don't have to keep looking them up. Look up your code(s) initially on this site, or come back to this board and ask:
https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cid-dic.nsf/eng/h_00019.html
By the way, you'll be prompted at each Paypal screen if you miss anything.
On the last screen on Paypal, you can check over the details to be sure they're correct. You can use the various "edit" buttons to go back and make changes. You can also still cancel the label at this point if necessary. Click the "Continue" button at the bottom of the page, wait a minute, and your label will appear, ready for printing. Click print and go from there. Once done, you can return to Paypal to log out.
Trim your label with scissors and either securely tape it to the parcel (with clear packing tape), or go online to Canada Post and order free "Labelopes". If I recall, you can order up to 50 at a time, and Canada Post will mail them to you for free. These will save you time and effort too.
Trust me -- and trust all the experienced sellers who've responded here -- Paypal labels are far less trouble and expense than going to the Post Office and using your discount card. Forget the discount Canada Post gives you. Paypal's discounts on Tracked Packet (US & International), Expedited (Canada and US), and Xpresspost (Canada, US and International) are much higher than anything Canada Post offers.
Once you've done a couple of Paypal labels, you'll wonder why you ever put up with all the fuss and bother of trekking off to the Post Office and paying higher rates.
All of this in turn will allow you to lower your shipping rates and increase your sales.
If you're nervous about eBay's new "on-time delivery" policy, then use Tracked Packet ("TP") or Expedited outside Canada, and Expedited domestically. Quite frankly, with the excellent Paypal discount on Expedited Parcel, I find it's only a dollar or two more than TP to the U.S., and always faster.
If you're a bit of a risk taker (or expect to sell at a higher volume), Light Packet or Small Packet USA (no tracking) is still quite reasonable, although there are no Paypal discounts on those services. Again, depending on weight and size of a box I often find that TP is so close to the price of Small Packet that I upgrade to TP.
The really difficult part of shipping is not weighing, measuring and printing out labels, but how to set your prices and where to ship to. For a new seller, I'd strongly recommend sticking to shipping to Canada and the U.S. only, until you get some experience. The air parcel options to the U.S. through Paypal are very good.
My suggestion would be to use flat rate shipping to start out, as it's easier to keep control over your shipping charges, and even raise or lower your shipping when necessary. You don't need dozens of different rates for the U.S. -- Light and Small Packet are the same price for all U.S. destinations.
For Expedited or TP (or Xpresspost, which I use only for higher-priced items), I simply look up a rate in the mid-US and use that. Sometimes it costs a bit more if a buyer is in, say, California, sometimes a bit less if it's New York, but it all comes out in the wash. You will of course need to weigh and measure your items (in their shipping boxes) when you list them. Look up the shipping cost on the Canada Post website for the service you want to use, and then reduce it if you wish to pass on the Paypal discount to your customers. If you have several items of the same size and weight, you don't need to weigh each one -- do one and use it as a template.
There is a lot more to setting shipping strategies and prices, but this should get you started and -- more importantly -- keep you out of trouble and able to continue selling until you gain some experience. It should also hopefully encourage more sales.
On the other hand, if you're just clearing out a few personal items and don't plan to be selling on eBay for very long, then you might as well carry on with what you're doing even though it will be costing you time, money and probably also some customers. Those factors are less important when it's just a matter of making some extra cash in the short term.
However, selling as a business on eBay, no matter how small, does take effort, commitment, and learning about eBay policies, both what to do and what to avoid doing. It isn't quite as easy as eBay makes it out to be.
If you're planning to get into selling seriously on eBay, I hope this information will be of help. Once you've spent time reading through some of the relevant eBay policy pages, and Paypal shipping information, come back and ask any questions here.
P.S. You really don't need all the shipping math re volumetrics, etc. Just look up the prices based on your parcel's weight and dimensions, according to the type of service you want to use.
