Hi folks, been awhile since I posted (how much of a blogger cliché is that?). For one, the business this summer has been going really well and I haven’t had the time during the day to write anything. For two, I came to the realization that I spend all day thinking about eBay and e-biz and didn’t necessarily want to be thinking about it more in the evenings once I’m done working. I’m still going to write about eBay, but I think this blog will begin mixing things up a bit also.

Anyway, we were looking at some more shipping options this week and I ran some basic calculations on packing materials to see what our best solutions were. I couldn’t find a good guide on cost per volume, so I figured it up myself. We typically use peanuts and bubble wrap. As of this week, we added newsprint. We have a wide range of products, ranging from very fragile to almost indestructible. We started using newsprint for those items which we know won’t be hurt during shipping. We buy peanuts and bubble wrap from our local UPS Store. I have found that most UPS Stores that they will sell you the industrial size packing supplies they order for themselves if you ask. The managers get to set the prices on large packing supplies, so you may find some variance on how much they charge you. There are cheaper options, but not if you have to have them shipped to a residential address. We buy rolls of newsprint from Uline. The breakdown in cost is as follows:

Bubble Wrap – ½” bubble, 24” wide x 250’ long
$60 for approx 14 cubic feet
Cost per cubic foot: $4.92

Packing Peanuts – white Styrofoam
$30 for approx 11 cubic feet
Cost per cubic foot: $2.70

Newsprint – 24”x1695’ roll at 30 lb weight paper
$45.89 for approx 41.5 cubic feet if packing things very well.
Cost per cubic foot: $1.08

Kraft Brown Paper – 24”x1200’ roll at 30 lb weight paper
$36.30 for approx 29.4 cubic feet if packing things very well
Cost per cubic foot: $1.23

Clearly, newsprint is the cheapest void fill option, but also the least secure. We’re going to stick with this combination for now, using the packing material that is best suited to the object being shipped. If you can buy in larger quantities or at cheaper prices, the cost per cubic foot will obviously drop. Still, this guide should give you a good idea of the ratio in price to volume for these common packing supplies.

Occasionally, you may need to print labels for shipments that weren’t paid for through PayPal or purchased through eBay. PayPal Multiorder Shipping allows you to create new United States Postal Service labels, but not UPS. It’s also a hassle, slower than the normal PayPal shipping screen, and can’t print some types of labels. Sure, you could just go to USPS.com or UPS.com, but I find printing labels through PayPal to be significantly faster than using either individual site.

There is an easy solution though. Just log into your PayPal account and then enter the following address.

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now

This will bring up the normal shipping label creation screen for PayPal, but without any information filled in and not affiliated with any payment. Presto, easy label creation.

Tip of the Day

When I launched this blog, part of my plan was to offer tips and stories about what I’ve learned running a small online business and hopefully help others do the same. But, since I started at the same time eBay announced all of this year’s big changes, I ended up writing predominantly about that for awhile. I’m finally getting around to writing up some guides and anecdotes about running a small business.

So, here’s a trick I learned from a clerk at my local post office to get maximum protection for your items at the least cost. It ‘s particularly effective for international shipments going via Priority Mail.

International shipping is expensive. Through the post office, you basically have three options. First Class International is cheap, but slow and provides no tracking. Express International is expensive, but relatively fast and provides full tracking. Unfortunately, most customers won’t want to pay for Express. Priority International is still expensive, but delivers packages in a reasonable time and provides some tracking (not to all destinations). We prefer Priority International for most of our overseas shipments.

Many of the items we sell are fragile or sensitive enough that they need to be shipped in a box, not an envelope. To ship any box to, say, the United Kingdom via Priority Mail International, it’s a minimum charge of $19 if you print postage online ($20 at the post office). The postage for a Priority Mail International flat-rate envelope is $10.45 if you print online ($11 at the post office). So, it’s a savings of $8-$9 per shipment to use the envelope, but you don’t have the protection of a box.

Flat-rate envelope from the post office.

The post office gives boxes to customers for free (you can order them from their website). The smallest box offered by the post office (0-1096S) fits inside their flat-rate envelope. The box measures slightly smaller than 9″x6″x2″. So, any item that will fit inside that box, can then be inserted into the flat-rate envelope. You get the protection of a box and the cost of an envelope. Because many of the items we ship overseas are rather small, this trick works for 90 percent of our orders. It allowed us to maintain our packing standards while lowering the cost of shipping to our customers by $8 (making us more attractive than many of our competitors). For eBay sellers, since buyers can now rate you on how much you charge for shipping, this is a great way to lower your shipping cost without costing your business any money.

Keep in mind that for overseas shipments, the flat-rate envelope has a weight limit of four pounds and a value limit of $400.

It will work for domestic shipping also, but the savings won’t be as large. The flat-rate envelope costs the same as a one pound package ($4.60) to ship. So it only works if you have an item smaller than 9x6x2 that weighs more than one pound that needs to go Priority Mail. That’s not nearly as common for us, but it does happen.

This works great for small electronics, toys, collectibles, some media, jewelry, watches, computer parts and probably a ton of stuff I’m not thinking of off the top of my head.

*This applies to US domestic transactions that are shipped by USPS or FedEx and either (i) use PayPal shipping labels to ship items or (ii) upload tracking information to PayPal via the transaction details page. (Bold font added for emphasis -ed)

Why are USPS and FedEx specifically named, but no other companies are (especially UPS)? UPS labels can be printed through PayPal, but FedEx labels can’t. Is this a typo, an omission or something else? I’m submitting a media request to eBay (my first!), so we’ll see if we can get clarification on this.