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LEAST EXPENSIVE Ways To Ship On eBay...

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cardcop05

New member
Nov 15, 2018
64
0
NYC
I am also a mail carrier, former manager (13 years until a rash of downsizing due to plant closures), and most of what was said is incorrect. The post office is NOT government subsidized in any way. We receive not one penny of tax dollars. It is all postage that pays for everything. PERIOD. Also, no window clerk makes $35 an hour. Most of the new clerks are now PSE employees that make around $16. Eventually they will make more, sure, and good for them, but not $35 at top step. (It was about $28 before the COLA)

It does not matter what mayor or governor you have in your state, they have nothing to do with the USPS. They have no say in anything since it is FEDERAL, and probably couldn't name the postmaster in their own city. Please stop saying things other people have heard as fact.

I NEVER said $35 an hour! I said $20 an hour. SO GETS YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT WISEGUY!

Here's the FULL accurate info that neither "Post Office employee" could state:

The USPS revenue comes from their business operations, not from taxpayers. However, they DO receive a benefit in the form of being able to borrow at favorable rates, by having restrictions on other companies being able to handle 1st class mail, and a few other ‘benefits’. BUT there are all kinds of things that are actually the OPPOSITE of a subsidy from taxpayers. Here are a few:

When the federal government allowed other businesses to handle the package business (DHL, FEDEX, UPS) these companies took the most profitable business and left the USPS with the least profitable - delivery to EVERY household, regardless of the cost of delivery. My favorite example is that the Havasupai tribe that lives on the floor of the Grand Canyon, receives first class mail and packages (for a regular stamp price), by USPS mule train - no private company wants this business… or any business for 50cents to every door in America - no matter the distances between the customers.
The congress has forced the USPS to FORWARD FUND pensions very far into the future (no company does this). There are people that haven’t been born or hired by USPS yet, for which the USPS is required to lock up their pensions.

Universal delivery: USPS is required to provide door-to-door, end-of-driveway service to EVERY household in the US, for the price of first class stamp.
The congress will not allow USPS to close those money losing, dinky post offices all around the nation, primarily because they are jobs for the localities… not because it’s efficient, or cost effective.

THIS IS WHAT I MEANT BUT "PARTIALLY GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIZED"! If you are going to "quote" me please do it by REPLYING WITH QUOTE, otherwise you just make yourself look STUPID! :D
 

gamecockfanatic

Active member
Jun 17, 2009
945
25
Gamecock Country
I NEVER said $35 an hour! I said $20 an hour. SO GETS YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT WISEGUY!

how quickly we forget.....


LOL rsmath, my Post Office in Maspeth, NY found some way to FIRE most of the educated employees 3-5 years ago (maybe someone paid off the Union). So my window employees used to be $35 very smart employees (and I knew them all from 2003-2008; when I could still walk until 2009).


fyi- i did reply with quotes so i hope i dont look too stupid :)
 
Last edited:

rsmath

Active member
Nov 8, 2008
6,086
1
I have to take the credit for the $35 wage as I was making a crack about unions when I said it. I think whichever other poster it was indeed said $20 or so/hour.

anyway, my followup.

I had to print a label tonight. I did see a place where I could leave off the receipt part and print the label but I elected to continue to do both. Created the label, downoaded the PDF. I took my new half-sheet label paper and cut it in half so the receipt would not print on the other half of the full label paper. Glue-sticked it to a piece of 8.5x11 paper to run through the printer and it worked great! Glue stick adhesive was enough to hold the label paper on the copy paper as it went through the heat of the laser printer. Peeled off label and put it on the package, cut off the plain paper half with the receipt and put it in my records of proof of shipping cost for my accounting books.
 

tommyfro21

New member
Aug 8, 2008
4,992
0
THE BEST WAYS TO SHIP ON EBAY (to save YOU money as sellers- so you can pass it on to YOUR buyers):

To start with if you have NO PLANS to have TOP RATED SELLER STATUS (you must ship next day every time, you must ship with tracking every time, & you must offer 30-day returns), then you might as well ship single cards that sell for under $5.00 (or whatever you can afford to lose) in a CARDBOARD CD MAILER. With these postage is a .71 cent stamp (or a .69 cent FOREVER stamp) & these mailers cost less than .25 cents each. So $1.00 S&H is the MOST you should charge. This way many more of your cheap single cards will sell! NO ONE wants to pay $3.00+ S&H for a $4.99 OR LESS single card.

So which CD cardboard mailer do you recommend? On Amazon, some have reviews that people say they are too flimsy. Others have issues with being charged varying prices due to the heavier weight of the mailer.
 

rsmath

Active member
Nov 8, 2008
6,086
1
Others have issues with being charged varying prices due to the heavier weight of the mailer.

I could believe more one or both of two situations: 1) a card or whatever put in this heavier mailer might get to be 1.1 oz or more, so you can't mail it at the 1 ounce rate, 2) the mailer is too stiff so it incurs the fraudulent non-machineable charge. I would say people are not putting the 2 ounce first class postage on it and additionally not putting the non-machineable charge postage on it and you get problems sometimes with the mail system returning due to insufficient postage.

I did get good feedback on an item I have for sale tonight. A two card lot that someone didn't want to pay for bubble mailer shipping so they asked if they could buy it for the listed price and let me use a paper envelope to save them money. I told them I would change it to free paper envelope shipping BIN but I couldn't sell it to them at that listed price delivered because I would barely break-even when you factor in first class postage and ebay/paypal fees.

I have a feeling a lot of people are going to want paper envelope shipping starting Jan 27th for most things under $5-10 just because of the cost to ship a bubble mailer even with no increase to slight increase in the closest zones to the shipper.
 

rsmath

Active member
Nov 8, 2008
6,086
1
Looks like the best investment is to get the letter size flat rate padded mailers.

I just received 2019 Topps series 1 set in the mail from a free shipping auction win. The shipper threw a priority mail eBay label on the box and shipped it. Not only is the risk of damaging the cards greater from USPS gorilla handling, it cost $13 to ship to me in zone 7.

Had he put the box in the flat rate padded, it reduces a little bit the risk of damage and it can be shipped for $8. Seller cost himself $5 thru ignorance or whatever it was that caused him to ship my item that way.

Luckily the cards exhibit what is normal Topps pack damage so the corner dings on the box were not bad enough to damage the cards inside.
 

cardcop05

New member
Nov 15, 2018
64
0
NYC
I can't speak for things he's said elsewhere but at least in this article he's factually correct.


edit. the $20 an hour comment is probably off.

I was actually quoting the last factually known Post Office window employee pay in Florida; which was $20.00 an hour for fairly newer employees in 2000 (my last fully healthy year where I was living a normal life).
I obviously should have specified that, but please give me a break... I'm 52 now & have been very physically disabled since late 2001. I'll gladly post the details of my diseases, but not everyone wants to hear them, nor would most understand (unless I wrote 4-pages minimum since my diseases are rare) plus most readers on this board don't have medical field experience (and I'd like to save collectors from as much BS as possible).

So in short: I'm in severe pain & fatigue everywhere 24/7/365 since 2009 from three different progressive Neurological diseases I've had since late 2001 (two of which are autoimmune diseases, so my immune system is destroying my nervous system from the inside).

I'm doing the best I can because my 22-years of fighting Corporate Hobby Fraud online (7-years with a popular website that every Card Company/Price Guide had employees directed to see if I dug up anything bad on their company daily) needs TO BE KNOWN.
 

cardcop05

New member
Nov 15, 2018
64
0
NYC
I could believe more one or both of two situations: 1) a card or whatever put in this heavier mailer might get to be 1.1 oz or more, so you can't mail it at the 1 ounce rate, 2) the mailer is too stiff so it incurs the fraudulent non-machineable charge. I would say people are not putting the 2 ounce first class postage on it and additionally not putting the non-machineable charge postage on it and you get problems sometimes with the mail system returning due to insufficient postage.

I did get good feedback on an item I have for sale tonight. A two card lot that someone didn't want to pay for bubble mailer shipping so they asked if they could buy it for the listed price and let me use a paper envelope to save them money. I told them I would change it to free paper envelope shipping BIN but I couldn't sell it to them at that listed price delivered because I would barely break-even when you factor in first class postage and ebay/paypal fees.

I have a feeling a lot of people are going to want paper envelope shipping starting Jan 27th for most things under $5-10 just because of the cost to ship a bubble mailer even with no increase to slight increase in the closest zones to the shipper.

I couldn't agree with you more. However you are new to eBay and aren't aware of all the STUPID things eBay does. For instance; if you are a POWERSELLER/BUYER like I was the last time I had an eBay account, you can only ship with TRACKING. You can't ship with tracking any other way than with a bubble envelope or better. Powerseller's got a 20% discount of Final Value Fees the last time I used eBay, which was a significant discount.

I know eBay lowered the Powerseller discount to 10% a year ago or so, which barely makes all the trouble Powersellers have to go through (especially if you are physically disabled and have no one to help you) NOT AT ALL WORTH IT.

Then you have all the buyers who falsely claim they never received their items. With as HORRIBLE as so many Postal Services have become in so many different states and/or towns; you don't know who to believe anymore. I can only speak for my Post Office since Jan. 2003. They became AWFUL by 2010 and just got worse from there. They fired all the best HIGH PAID employees they could get away with firing & replaced them with undertrained idiots who lost/misdelivered around 1:50 packages. My known liar; former post office back room manager (he was finally fired) admitted to me (on tape recording) that his Post Office delivers over 1,500 packages a day, so if his people lose 3-4 packages a day he said "I think we're doing a pretty damn good job.".
Now knowing that he's a liar (I caught him lying to me over a dozen times in one specific year) and all the trusted Post Office employees I got to know told me "He is a terrible person to be around, and he's a lazy pathological liar.".
So if he outright admitted that his "people" lose 3-4 out of 1,500 packages, I think it's reasonable that he lied about only the 10% of packages actually lost/mismailed. So in actuality perhaps 1:50 packages get lost with his using these undertrained replacement mail carriers they used to replace the educated and well paid employees they got rid of (to save money because my Post Office ran itself into near bankruptcy).

The Postmaster General was quite interested when he called me based on my complaint about this back room manager. He was especially interested to hear him say how his people lose/mismail 2-4 out of 1,500 packages. I told him all the details with all the problems I've been having with my Post Office and the back room manager was GONE FOR GOOD a week later as per my great regular mail carrier.

I fully investigate everything that negatively affects myself or fellow collectors. Most don't want to hear all the details or ASS-U-ME that the details are a way of lying. Yet you'll NEVER see my stating the same issue more than the one way it was mentioned anywhere else and everything is right off the top of my head.

So if you want to believe the idiots crooks on Blowout Forums; feel free. I just won't discuss it ever again because they won't allow me to explain my side of the story- NOT ONCE! Which is about as unfair as anything can be!

Someone mentioned the CD Holders. Those are the thin white on the outside 5 X 5 inch mailers. If you have to pay more money PER OUNCE for postage (that I saw mentioned), you are NOT using eBay's PRINT POSTAGE LABEL service which (EVEN WITH THE NEW INCREASES) is still the fat cheapest way to ship a 3-OUNCE package. The postage is $2.70 for a one to three ounce package. But they changed the price for 5-ounce packages from the first day of the new prices (when it was $2.83) and now suddenly it's $3.28???

THE USPS IS BROKEN PEOPLE, SO EITHER DEAL WITH IT OR DON'T. That's the bottom line, isn't it? I gave you the best info I have which I KNOW many that never posted picked up one or two tips that will help them greatly in the long run.
 

AnthonyCorona

Well-known member
Oct 6, 2014
9,600
68
Modesto, CA
The only mentally ill people are the ones who read this whole thread.

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