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Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

I want to get into an area where it's wise to send by economy shipping. The item is 1 oz. and around 1.5" in diameter. The $2.66 would be out of question, as I would sell it at a loss. I was wondering if any of you guys use economy shipping and how you're managing the stamps and shipments? I am not worried about any PP/EB issues on this one, as the account is legit top rated with strong selling history.

Thanks.

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

Almost never registering anything. Except it goes to a country where I know there are issued during import process or when customer claims it didn't arrive in the first place and I have to resend it. Most customers don't mind, they just want their stuff.

Would not recommend to do so with mid or high priced items tho.

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

I have mailed about 100 similar items, 97 delivered and 3 "savvy" buyers told me they did not receive and I had to reship. Just have to chalk up to the "cost of doing business".

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

Are you saying you sent 100 flats without tracking and 3 buyers claimed not to receive anything?

If so, that's about the average scam rate for no tracking shipments. I shipped all my orders without tracking when I was first starting out. I don't recommend doing it for a number of reasons.

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

Yep, 3 % sounds about right. Not sure how much it is to ship stuff with tracking in the US, but from where I ship its about 3 $ more only for tracking. For a 15 $ item I'd rather save the money and resend/refund if a buyer claims to not have gotten it.

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

It's $1 to ship a 1oz Flat. "Flats" are the only USPS class without tracking. They're technically supposed to be no thicker than 1/4" but tons of sellers sneak larger shipments through without problems.

Same package with tracking would be $2.66. So it can be appealing for sellers to ship without tracking to save that $1.66, but most of the time seller's realize it's not worth the savings a week later when buyers start asking where there order is and you, as the seller, have no earthly idea because you shipped without tracking.

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

This adds even more confusion to the mystery of what you sell.

A small item somewhere in the 1/4" thick range that sells wholesale for $15 and sells retail for $100. Gotta be mouse pads.

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

Yep $100 mouse pads

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

But I only ship the 85 cent $10 item regular mail. The $18 $100 item I send with tracking

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

Oh ok, that makes sense. I didn't consider that you may be stocking more than one item.

I know you aren't selling mouse pads, lol. I always bring up mouse pads when people starting talking about their uber high margins on here. I think you're selling accessories.

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

In my experience most buyers are fairly honest. so a 3% lost rate on 10 $ items... I'd save the 1.5$ for 100 items you'll save 120 bucks for shipping. At least where I live that's a hell of a boys night out.

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

Lol I am retiring soon and will sell you my excess items

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

It's risky though, which is why I ultimately decided it wasn't worth it and started using tracking across the board.

It's not just buyers lying about not getting the item. It's technically illegal to use this particular mail class for anything other than documents. So, for me at least, about 10% of shipments would either be rejected and sent back or would require additional postage upon delivery. When a customer has to drive to their post office and pay additional postage to retrieve their order they get pissed and there's a high probability you'll get bad feedback. I also deal with tons of forwarding companies. Somewhere around 20% of our orders have always been international buyers using a US forwarding address. If you ship a forwarding company shipment without tracking it's almost guaranteed that the international buyer will open a case. In my experience.

I know I'm rambling on but I'm trying to point out the pro's/con's of shipping domestically without tracking.

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

It'd be cheaper for you to just ship them to me stateside. I'm within a few hundred miles of you, judging by your name. :brushteeth:

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

Not a joking matter at all :FF:

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

You in Florida too?

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

I go here and there :) great state :thumb:

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

rsot is in Canada dealing with the feuding Moose in his driveway.

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

:thumb: phaz knows the score

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

So would you guys say it's a better idea to just add a few bucks and use $2.66 shipping? The item in question would cost me around 85 cents to obtain. I guess pricing at $5.5 would make sense?

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

Your call. I personally don't ship order without tracking anymore - only replacement items being shipped post-sale. It's hard to say if it would be a good idea for you since all niches and customers within niches are different.

Do you have 2 accounts you can play with? If so, I recommend starting a listing on both accounts. Ship orders with tracking on one account and ship orders without tracking on the other account. After a month or two see which account is more profitable.

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

5.5$ -14% for eb & pp fees means about 4.7$ sale value.
So cost of 3.5$ to sale value 4.7$
This is 33% profit .
Not bad at all to secure your business.

If its a high sales volume item off course.

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

If excludes all risky destinations then its definitelly the non tracking post account .

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

Can some of you math heads calculate the break-even price on a 85 cent item sent via $2.66 assuming 10 cents for packing and a top-rated powerseller discount?

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

I sell a lot of low dollar small items like that and I use super cheap letter rate postage but I purchase the non-machinable option. Check your measurements. They don't allow items of a certain thickness to go through. I rarely have that problem with my items. You always have some people who will lie about not the receiving the item so I don't' recommend doing this with expensive items. I will get 2-3 people a day (out of 60-70 sales) telling me they didn't get the item and either want a refund or to reship the item. If they ask for a refund instead of the item they are instantly added to my block list. If they've done it more than once to me they are instantly added to the block list. Out of the 2-3 people telling me they didn't get the item a small percentage of those end up on the block list.

Re: Anyone has success with economy / no tracking shipments?
 

The item is 1 oz. and around 1.5" in diameter.

Sounds like it's in some sort of tube. USPS hates tubes.

Promotional Pen with custom name? 1 oz is pretty light... flash drives?

Phaz0rz knows his shipping forward and backwards.

I've done this in the past. I got 2-3 per hundred phony claims on EB, and 1 per 200 on Etsy. Says something about the type of customer base.

My policy historically is always to resend even if it shows delivered, so it didn't really make any difference if they lied or not. It cut my shipping costs in the US by about 50%, I wouldn't do it with international shipments, though.

It was 88 degrees at Orlando Disney today, partly cloudy, and crowded. Got back to N FL tonight, current temp is 71 at 11PM. We had one day below 42 in the past 12 months. Got to love living in Florida. :)

I'm told Canada gets frozen water falling from the sky in the winter. Sounds like he**. :)