eBay

rocketscollectibles · ‎02-21-2023

Heard a lot about shipping items with letterpost getting returned and sellers stopping using it past year or so

I still ship all my trading cards with it and never had a single return. I shipped 2 stacks of cards (around 70) maybe 2 months ago, no return, never heard back of the buyer. Package literally had the look of a brick. I'm trying this week to ship packs of protective card plastic sleeves and im more concerned about this one

For people still using letterpost or who used it, what was your returns?

Does customs open packages at borders, also can they keep them?

How much time it takes for a package to return to us? And do you lose your postage?

I'm curious about which items sellers got returned as i never experienced a single one. And also the process if it happen. If anyone would like to share their experience

rocketscollectibles · ‎02-24-2023

there are always those buyers who are willing to pay for an item and/or for a more reliable shipping service.

Sellers need not have to worry about being able to "AFFORD to pay for the Small Packet." - BUYERS pay for shipping

In any competitive market shipping cost will do a dratic difference. It can literally be the difference between an item selling or sitting months/years. If everyone sells for $20 and you try to sell it $25 because you charge an additional $5 of shipping, your item may just never sell. Maybe this is something to not care about for items with no competition, but surchage of shipping is one of the major mistakes in competitive markets. This is something very common in trading cards to see sellers being scared of INR and charging for tracking low cost items, those just can't sell. There's markets where a few bucks makes huge difference

It's not as simple as 'buyer pay shipping' people are not ready to pay $25 for $20 items when there's 10 listed at $20. People are also not ready to pay $50 for a $30 market price item just because seller wants selling protection... When everyone else sells $30

mrdutch1001 · ‎02-24-2023

and how do you know that every buyer is going to balk at that TOTAL price(item cost plus shipping) of that item they so desperately are wanting to purchase? Perhaps that item is NOT available to them in their locality and/or country? Buyers decide...it's not up to the seller to decide for the buyer...

Then again NOT everything is suitable to be listed on eBay and/or any selling site for that matter, especially if the market is so saturated and/or fiercly competitive...

Sellable items> Unique, Quality NOT Quantity,SUPPLY & DEMAND, TARKET MARKET

EX. an item on one of my other selling sites just sold to the USA @ item price of $4.50 USD plus Shipping cost $9.00 USD. Guess that buyer thought the TOTAL price was affordable for an item they could not find elsewhere.

It is what it is...

C'est la vie!

Que Sera, Sera!

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-24-2023

On your completed items you have a magazine listed for $6 US with shipping to the US for $4.50 US ($6.30C). Im curious which you would you use for that?

I think that one of the reasons Canadians feel they need to use lettermail is that we are competing with sellers selling the same thing but shipping within the US for much cheaper. I think we should all do what we think works best for our business model.

mrdutch1001 · ‎02-24-2023

I know of no such item> I do not list on .COM

and for any knowledgeable seller, USPS Media mail has been around for what seems like forever...as has been the cheaper shipping within the USA and from the USA...

Canadian sellers have had that in their face for many many years... but it does not affect all Canadian sellers in the same way...only those who feel they must compete with it...I do not let it bother me...I do not concern myself with those things of which I have no control...

I don't even think about USPS shipping > I concerm myself with MY shipping; not what others are doing...

rocketscollectibles · ‎02-24-2023

Your whole message describe non-competitive markets like you ignored everything i wrote

for an item they could not find elsewhere

Exactly. You can do whatever you want when there's no competition. That's nothing i talked about

mrdutch1001 · ‎02-24-2023

and as I said previously:

"NOT everything is suitable to be listed on eBay and/or any selling site for that matter, especially if the market is so saturated and/or fiercly competitive...

Sellable items> Unique, Quality NOT Quantity,SUPPLY & DEMAND, TARKET MARKET.."

IF you are set on shipping your items YOUR way, just DO IT! The experiences of others does not matter. Circumstances will dictate the outcome and not all outcomes will be the same. Just keep on doing what you have been, take the risks and know that the result is satisfactory for you and your situation.

The rest of the eBay world really won't care that you have chosen to knowingly take those risks because it is your way of doing business.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎02-25-2023

@reallynicestamps wrote:
Almost everything I sell goes letterpost. We are in total agreement there. Please don't tell Helena Jaczek.
I'm just old and cranky enough to believe that Murphy's Law is slightly more important than the Laws of Thermodynamics in daily life.

@reallynicestamps

For many buyers (especially of the US variety) they are under the impression(believe) that EVERYTHING smallish can go by letter rates, not realizing as soon as customs is required an shipping parcel service,(with customs documents) is the law. They just see high shipping without full comprehension. Until they are ALL in the loop about this little nuance, it will be an issue for Canadian sellers. (When a US buyer has asked me if there was something cheaper, I explain and they are for the most part, completely understanding. Even many Canadian buyers do not realize there are maximum limits before a letter is no longer a letter.

-Lotz

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-25-2023

Well heck. I have no idea whose listing I was looking at then.

reallynicestamps · ‎02-25-2023

Yes indeeedy.

I just had a polite request to have a 112 page manuscript in a 3 ring binder sent in a 6x9" envelope.

We are now negotiating cost of shipping because while the binder could be discarded as junk, there's no way for the folding.

I included the Canada Post rate site.

It's rather sweet actually.

rocketscollectibles · ‎03-08-2023

I guess i awakened the canada post gods with this post, i received today my firsts returned packages in almost 2 years shipping with letterpost. One package sold feb. 21 (the exact same day i made that post...) and one sold feb. 28. Both returned today at the same time. So around 15 days for the 1st and 8th days for the 2nd to be returned. From the writting on stickers it seems like it was 2 different workers, so it does not seems it's a single individual who returned both. They both checked 'insufficient postage' and 'this shipping label cannot be used for this country' no note about the fact it needs to be shipped as small packet/parcel. I'm actually worried about receiving a few more in the next days, those two packages were very thin, it's not even the packages of protective plastics i talked about in that first post of the thread (it's strange those did not returned, shipped before feb. 21). I shipped so many packages like this without issues, then suddently something changed. I contacted my buyers and they were all into understanding and no cancelled orders from that

Just a follow up here answering my own questions if anyone eventually could read and wonder

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-08-2023

What sort of packaging were they on? Regular business envelope, bubble mailer or ...?

rocketscollectibles · ‎03-08-2023

4x8 bubble mailers, flat, under 0.5cm

Packages had signs that they inspected them hard. Small tears, bent, etc. They did not caught them from eyes, they clearly played with them

brettjet38 · ‎03-08-2023

Consider yourself lucky, you got them back...

...shortly they will be confiscated and destroyed according to what is coming down the pipeline for 2024.

kawartha-ephemera · ‎03-08-2023

Always disappointing when stuff is returned. If you could use a plain paper envelope and a smaller size, say 4x6, those would not attract the same level of scrutiny. They must retain a mild degree of flex though, so no hard plastic cases can be used. I'm sure you have your reasons, but why 4x8 for sports cards?

rocketscollectibles · ‎03-09-2023

why 4x8 for sports cards?

I went to a local paper/cardboard factory to buy my bubble mailers, they had the best price, and it was the smallest they had. Bought a big box and i'm running with it for around a year now. Mixing with cheap 3x6 PVE and bigger bubble mailers depending on size/value of orders. Smaller bubble mailers are hard to find locally, and online adds shipping cost so prices per envelope is not good

rocketscollectibles · ‎03-09-2023

Checked my selling account this morning and i just received a positive feedback from a US buyer that i shipped a pack of 7 dices by letterpost. It was one package i pushed my luck and that i expected to maybe return. And it did not. But i got returned 2 packages that were 100% flat and under 0.5cm. Does not make much sense. This pack of dices proves that packed the right way, we can ship any item by letterpost

flipistics · ‎03-09-2023

@rocketscollectibles wrote:
Smaller bubble mailers are hard to find locally, and online adds shipping cost so prices per envelope is not good

There's a number of companies on Amazon selling them for less than 20c a bubble mailer for 4x7 or 4x8 if you buy in large quantity, and it should be free or cheap shipping. I don't know what the quality is like or how well labels stick, but one of them seems to have pretty decent ratings (and over 4000, so it's not a small sample size).

flipistics · ‎03-09-2023

@rocketscollectibles wrote:
This pack of dices proves that packed the right way, we can ship any item by letterpost

No it doesn't. All it proves is that some might make it through regardless of rules.

brettjet38 · ‎03-09-2023

But you are STILL breaking the law, but ship, ship away by disobying Custom Rules and then "gloating" about it here and encouraging others to do it...

ALL comercial goods have to have a CUSTOMS DECLARATION as per the LAW, which also means you cannot ship them via LETTERPOST to the USA