Forum

Shipping in Letter Envelopes
 

I am looking for ways to save on shipping costs, and I was looking at using letter envelopes for the .44 (I believe?) U.S. stamp rate for first class letter envelopes via USPS. However, I notice ebay does not give me this option when printing labels from their website, and I cannot find a way to add tracking to these types of deliveries. I am beginning to think there is no way at all!

What is troubling to me is that if I am sending a small item that can fit into a letter envelope that I sold for ~$3.00 or so, how can I make a profit using the USPS first class package service?! The cheapest rates they have are $1.69 which is more than half of what the item is being sold for! And if the item can fit into a regular letter envelope, this seems like a waste!

But I need delivery confirmation! And I can't write out the buyer's address on every envelope, but ebay provides no way of printing out for letter envelopes! I am a bit confused as you can see lol.

Please any help would be appreciated. And I love these forums!

As far as I know you are out of luck. I do believe the any way you put it even if you have 1 oz and try to pint out a label it quotes you like a 4 or 5 oz price. There is no way around it to get DC that I have ever heard of. You are basically on the honor system if you sell low priced items and have to sent them with a postage stamp.

The cheapest you are going to find with delivery confirmation is $1.69.

You just have to hope your buyers are honest.

Maybe try bundling your $3 items into bigger lots, that may be more cost effective for you when it comes to shipping.

Agree with AuctionsDenied, shipping 1 item out might not be worth it but a few may make it worth your while. I did the same with my "feedback" item, it cost me the same to ship out 1pc or 2pcs....so I sold my item in pairs.

Yes, AuctionsDenied this is indeed the conclusion I have come to. Creativity is everything on ebay. Bundling the items in a 3, 4, or even 5 package deal ends up being my best bet. Thank you for the advice!

I DID have one more question if someone can help me out here (don't wanna flood the message boards with my posts)...

Is there an advantage to using endicia or stamps.com? I was reading through the forums but couldn't find any rates that were listed as cheaper. And many of the endicia related topics are far outdated. What is the advantage if I am shipping out First Class mail on my items? From what I can see, ebay $1.69 is as cheap as they get, so why do so many of you use these other programs/websites for your shipping?