Re: Economy Shipping
Although EB promotes 'economy rate' postage, what they really mean is you pay to subsidize the cost. The post office doesn't have an 'economy' postage.
It's extremely hard to get it below the $2.61 rate, and selling on EB without tracking is pretty close to a death sentence.
The envelope rate is for flats, they have to be less than ( I think ) 1/4 inch thick and 13 ounces ( I think ). That's pretty thin. The post office has a little scale you push the letter through to see if it will fit, I can personally attest it's really hard to mail much more than a few folded sheets of paper to get the stamp rate.
You can select the 'first class mail large envelope/flat, and avoid the cost of tracking, which saves around $1 at 4 oz, and incrementally less at higher weights, but it has to be at least 11.5" long or 6.125" tall or more than 1/4" thick, and the post office hates it and frequently up-charges the envelope and people tend to reject them if postage is due.
Sadly, if the $2.61 costs too much of your profit, you should consider charging more, or changing product lines.
I've historically sold a lot of inexpensive stuff, and this year I just had to go up in price. There just wasn't enough money in it to make it worthwhile after the postage charges. Sure, the profit was 36% of gross, but on a $3.99 sale + $3.89 shipping, it still doesn't add up fast enough to be worthwhile. Lot of work for a few bucks.
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