5 EBAY Shipping Tips to Save Time and Money

we're going to talk about shipping supplies and then shortcuts to reduce the cost of shipping particular items [Music] hello everybody welcome back to Commonwealth flipper I just realized I don't have my hat on it'll probably freak some of you out who watch this everyone so well maybe I'll do the intro here and then I'll put the head on alright hey we're gonna do a quick video about shipping and this is really designed for new eBay resellers but I think maybe a couple of you who've been doing it a little while maybe not 20 years but a little while can learn a couple things from it and on top of that I'm gonna be able to learn from you guys some of the tricks maybe that you use that I haven't mentioned here I love to learn I'm learning things all the time some of the things I'm gonna talk about here today are things that I haven't started doing for the till maybe the last four or five years and I'm constantly adding new tricks to the trade so we're gonna talk about some of those this is not designed for you know and save money by using pirate ship or save money by doing this that's not what we're doing here we're going to talk about shipping supplies and then shortcuts to reduce the cost of shipping particular items so that's what we're looking at and we're gonna do a top five here top five tips and tricks I guess we could call it that if you want to and some of them are fairly obvious but some of them might think maybe that's not a bad idea and if you know any beginners out there who are just starting maybe you can point them into the direction of this video and make sure they check the comments for anything that we've missed so thanks for joining us we're gonna start with number five number five on the list and again I don't mean these to be simple and some of them seem obvious but there are people out there who really have these kind of questions so I want to address them so the first one is stop searching for shipping supplies now I don't mean that like hey if you come across you know some stuff that you could use for shipping you're not going to use it I don't mean don't ever go out and find a box that you're gonna use that's not what I'm saying at all what I'm saying is there are some great options to get a bunch of free shipping supplies not just from you USPS you need to get your shipping supplies from USPS let me show you couple things though those are all USPS boxes up there clearly and those are not but the boxes that I buy are gonna be boxes that I use for first-class shipping I'm gonna buy them these are gonna come to me for free and we're gonna use them I am more than happy to use the boxes that they're gonna give me four items I'm gonna ship partymen now there are items that I'm not gonna ship Priority Mail and I need some big boxes but I don't need anything smaller than let me show you this smaller than say a number seven a matter of fact I can take to number Seven's and put them together I can take three number Seven's and put them together if I'm doing it Priority Mail which I'm probably not so you definitely do need some bigger boxes so get them to come to you too if you have the opportunity if you have a place of employment I happen to work at a school so the custodial staff knows that I like big boxes and they know I like packaging supplies and so it just magically appears in my classroom at the end of the day or sometimes maybe even after I'm gone and they're there in the morning they stack him up in the back in the corner and bubble wrap and all kinds of stuff that they find now there's one particular custodian who actually knows what door I leave every day and he's down there and so when he finds these these particular boxes that I like he sets them by the door that I leave and I go to the car I just grab it as I go to the car my mother-in-law saves certain things for me tell people around you tell your family members everybody's getting stuff from Amazon them tell them to keep their packaging supplies not even necessarily their boxes although they could I don't like having a bunch of random boxes around that are this size I don't want it because I can store everything here perfectly and I don't have to have all these boxes different mismatched and miss shaped now I'm not saying don't recycle I would recycle but I wouldn't go hunting for these things when they can come too you ask your friends talk to people talk to people who have particular jobs that you know you would find that stuff find a business owner that you know go back to the same places but don't go hunting around at every dumpster hording shipping supplies when you could get them to come to you something as simple as Christmastime and asking people don't even ask Christmas time just have a little bag to the side and keep all the tissue paper you could use it as your packaging paper which I use here but I also use stuff to recycle I mean this is stuff people send me or we buy from eBay or from Amazon I even take little pieces of cardboard from the boxes that I Franken box and use them later so hopefully that gives you a couple of things it does seem simple but try to create systems where shipping supplies are coming to you and you're not what I don't say wasting time but let's face it if you spend an hour out looking for packaging material I know I know I can make I can make 30 bucks 40 bucks an hour if I'm listing and shipping and so I'm not gonna gain $40 worth of shipping material out hunting for it I mean you might but my time is much better spent actually doing the things that make me money as opposed to pinching pennies when you can get so much stuff for free on to number four and this one is actually pretty simple it is make wise use of the padded flat rate envelope and make wise use of the flat rate envelope for USPS so it's not complicated but there's just a couple little things for you new eBay resellers that you might want to know before we talk about it all right this one of course is cheaper now I am trying to remember here now that I'm doing this video 6.92 cents 94 cents I think this is 750 - this is 694 I think that's what we've got there there's a 58 cent difference between the two and I know that because I did a video on the Commonwealth flipper channel a long time ago four months ago now it says shipping jeans on ebay save 50 since with flat-rate now let me tell you this is actually really really simple and it shouldn't be complicated at all but I see people do it wrong all the time so something as simple as putting a pair of jeans in a padded flat rate envelope is really no big deal at all i I've even done this before just out of sheer convenience it's just easy you can put most jeans in this thing really really easily and ship them out 752 and you're gonna save money because I mean if you're sending a pair of jeans that's gonna go at the two pound rate to California I mean you're you know I guess you could put them in a region a box but it's still gonna cost you more money than putting them in this now I probably just confused you with region eight we're not going to talk about region a and region B that's kind of a different animal but this guy is an awesome thing I use this I don't know I probably use it two three times a week if I'm doing jeans I'll do it occasionally if I have a really big pair of jeans that makes it really difficult sometimes sweatshirts even can can get up over a pound almost always but can sometimes be fit into these now a little trick for it and I wasn't going to talk about this but I'm gonna do it really quick it is on the video let me pull one of these out here a little trick is to use one of these use a poly bag and put whatever it is that you have in it first and then push it down push all that air out and get a little suction and get it smaller and then it slides in this bag I've also seen people I've never done this but take a blow-dryer and heat it up and and get a little bit more movement in it and can fit things in it easier so I find this method better if you watch this video right here you will find that I do that I see I've got that poly bag right there and then I've got that flat rate envelope right there and that's what I'm gonna do with those jeans so that's pretty simple to do that and this guy is perfect now if you can put something in this and not have to use this you're much better off I mean it's gonna save you 58 cents there are some tricks to the trade I would encourage you to go watch that video that I just pointed out and that help you so now one little thing I would not do if it weighs under 16 ounces don't use these two things don't do it if you can package it up under 16 ounces don't use these it's going to be cheaper to send it first-class all right we are on to number three here and if you can't tell already I'm wearing different clothes in every scene so I'm filming this over a a few different days just so I don't take too much time about one day so I'm getting my ship and done so hopefully that doesn't bother you too much but the reason I picked up the camera today right now is because number three is get the right size box or if you have to buy the right size box it's probably going to make you money in the long run so I picked up the camera because of a couple things that I'm actually shipping out right now that wanted to talk about I'm gonna turn the camera this way and let you know what I mean alright so the first one is pretty simple so you can obviously go the USPS comm and get these boxes but getting the right size box makes a big difference and it saves you time these are free so go ahead and grab them this is the medium tube I usually this is there's a pitching wedge in here most golf club pitching wedges fit in this box perfectly if you get into the two irons you know or the the three woods or the drivers you can have two Frank and box two of these together if you're going party mail and then I grab one of the small tubes down here and I add it to this box right here and I have some videos showing myself doing that on this channel as well and you can go to the shipping extra ones and you can see how to Frank a box but it's not that hard you basically just make this tube longer by adding a tube to it you just put it right around it you cut the edge and put it right around it and you'll see all these other boxes I have so let me talk about these first I buy these boxes I never used to buy boxes and once I started buying boxes I couldn't believe how much time money and space it actually saved me more time and space than money but still I believe that these boxes pay for themselves they're not that expensive when you buy as many as I buy and so if you're not doing a ton of volume maybe it's not an option but as you do a lot of volume I think it's a good option even this box which is an odd box seven by four by two I have cut ounces you know turned an 8 ounce item or a nine ounce item into an 8 ounce item or 7 on side and saved you know 40 50 80 90 cents in shipping because I have the right size box that protects it enough more than say a poly envelope if it's an item that can't really go on a padded poly it needs to go in a box but it doesn't need a big box you know if you get a big box or if you use a lot of packaging it takes time it takes pace but it also takes weight and it changes it even if it goes over you know those 4 ounce increments it can cost you more money and these things if you buy I mean I buy these by the hundreds to hundreds five hundred sometimes so I'm not paying very much for these you know 20 cents or so the same thing here I just packaged a tie today and you don't really want to put a tie flat in a polybag and have it get all folded and creased you want to roll them up well if you can roll up a tie you know you could send them for three ounces the probably bag no problem but some people complain you can roll one up and put it in a four by four by four and it still stays under 4 ounces if you have the wrong size box you know one box you just picked up or something it could end up costing you by going to that fifth ounce so love this box I use it all the time 5 by 5 by 5 8 by 6 by 4 this is what I shipped my hats and most the time unless it's a really nice expensive hat that's formed well and then I might find a different box because this kind of crushes it just a little bit actually supply Hut has a 5 by 4 has a 8 by 6 by 4 that's a little lighter than this one but even this one is gonna be under 8 ounces most hats are gonna ship out under 8 ounces before I did this I would use whatever box I had around and sometimes the boxes were too big they weighed too much I had to put stuff in them to make sure the Box didn't collapse and it would end up being 9 ounces and it would cost me you know 75 cents where this box doesn't cost me that much so I'm actually saving money sometimes shipping these now if you can get boxes that are free like this by all means get them but man look at the organization here and the use of space as opposed to having tons and tons of boxes and taking the time to find all this stuff I just think it is well worth spending money on these boxes here's a good example now this one was free this one was a free box and it is you know corrugated it's double double box you can see this is a really nice box I did not pay for this it just happened to be a box that I had and I have this item right here that needs ship I just happen to have the right sized box if I didn't have that box I would have bought it I now preferably I could have got it for free but when you're shipping a huge item don't want to mess it up I don't want to crush that pedal so this is the type of item you need a very thick sturdy box and if you just don't have one and you use whatever box you have that might be the wrong size it might be too big and it's gonna cost you money because the dimensional shipping if it's too weak even if it's the right size it's gonna cost you money possibly in a return because of damage you need to find the right size box or to be able to cut it down and Frank and box it and make it the right size box I think I have a video about both I might even add some video into this at the end and you'll know what I'm talking about so this happened to be the perfect sized box it gives enough space here and here not quite so much at the base yeah maybe there is there's more space over there but plenty of space here and here if I did not have this box I would have gone and spent you know the buck 50 whatever it is at Lowe's Home Depot Walmart to get a good sturdy box and to ship this item because this sold for 180 bucks so get the right size box it will save you money in the end it's important to get all of the priority mail boxes all of the sizes you'll see the number Seven's my favorite because you can franken box it and make it into a huge box have tons of options here's a 4 by 4 by 4 its corrugated it's sturdier it's essentially double-sided a couple spots once it's all put together get the right size boxes at the beginning don't buy boxes but once you get the volume up it is well worth the money all right now we have number four and this one is so simple and so obvious but some people don't do it so it's gonna seem a little ridiculous because I'm using a tiny box to demonstrate it and I might have a video somewhere that I'll attach right here and you can actually take a look at it like as it's working but let me let me show you here as an example using this little box so this is called cutting weight so let's just make some assumption here let's let's say this is a really big box or maybe even it's just twice as big and we weigh this thing before so you're packaging up an item most people package it up they tape it up and then they weigh it when they're getting ready to ship it so let's just say that this thing is well let's say it weighs one pound if that's one ounce but let's say it weighs one pound one ounce one easy way to do if it's already all taped up and everything you're gonna have to untape it and I do that occasionally but before you tape it once it's all packaged up ready to go before you tape it wait if it's within an ounce or two ounces maybe of the going under the next pound or in this case we're talking about maybe it's maybe it's 4.2 ounces and you can shave point two ounces off by taking a tiny bit of the packaging off or here's the other one and it depends on what the item is take these little flaps and cut half half of this flap off and half of this flap off and then fold them back you know so we've got you know nothing here essentially and then put these here and then do it to this side and it depends on what the item is whether or not it's gonna work but I would say maybe every 15 to 20 items I can cut off of the box itself just enough way to get it to go under and save a little bit of money even on these big boxes I do it often on the number seven box if it weighs you know two pounds point you know three ounces or whatever I can cut that off of the side flaps most the time and get it under so that's a pretty pretty easy trick that I can employ and save you know a few bucks maybe everyday actually maybe not everyday a few bucks every couple of days I think I said number four on that last one that was number two here comes number one and I don't want to sound condescending because this is fairly obvious but I have I have a peel box and a lot of people send me things and the stuff that comes into me from resellers shocks me sometimes I get things that are like 8 ounces 9 ounces 10 ounces and they're coming in flat rate envelopes they're coming in boxes they're coming in all kinds of things and they're being they're going over the weight or they're not over the weight at all and they're not shipped in a polybag you don't need to have a box to protects a license plate you don't need to have a box for a pair of jeans you don't need to have a box for about half the stuff that I receive things in boxes for and like I said I don't want to sound condescending but use poly bags I went probably three years on eBay without using poly bags and then I went another two years without using bubble poly bags and that was probably one of my biggest mistakes and cost me a ton of money for a long time so let me show you all the poly bags that I have it as a matter of fact this isn't even all of them alright so starting down here we have the smallest one this is obviously gonna be cheaper than this one this is obviously gonna be cheaper than this one and this ones are gonna be cheaper than this one but this is a little bit bigger it's also blue which is cool I usually send the in a man out in that this one's a little cheaper than this one of course and it got kind of goes down matter of fact eBay brands these and I get some free with my store coupon and then eBay brands these and I get some free with that coupon as well sometimes so it just depends I usually buy these this time I bought this just to give it a shot to see see what could fit in there so these are actually free sort of but I have tons of sizes and I go up in pop it you know there's a difference in weight between this and this I know it seems ridiculous but there are so many things that you can ship out in these poly bags that are perfectly fine I mean even shoes and it depends on which you obviously but there are some that I ship out in a polybag although you might not be able to keep it under 16 ounces so using these bags are key this isn't even all that I have I have some that are literally twice the size of this I have some giant black contractor bags that I use as a humungous poly bag I have one that's in between these two sizes I have one that's literally twice that size then I have a couple specialty ones that I used for a couple different things get poly bags and use them often it is my number one tip to save money on shipping just want to say thanks for joining me here and like I said I didn't want to sound condescending at all some of this stuff is obvious and this is even a lot of beginners know these things but you just never know and my experience receiving things lately I've been shot and I kind of like put some things out there for beginners that might seem obvious to us that have been doing it a while but they don't quite realize it yet or grasp it and hopefully some of these things can help and there are many many other things you know buying tape in bulk for instance buying bubble wrap and volke those kind of things can save you money as well so anyway thanks for joining me and you put some tips in the comments below and maybe we can learn a few more things thanks [Music]

Channel: Commonwealth Flipper

Views: 31,076

Keywords: reselling, ebay, flipping on ebay, reselling on ebay, yard sale hauls, ebay hauls, ebay business, part time income, shipping on ebay, how to ebay, how to start ebay, ebay shipping, how to ship on ebay, how to ship ebay items, reselling business, cheap shipping, ship on ebay, how to ship cheap, ebay shipping how to, how to ship, shipping on mercari, shipping on poshmark, 5 EBAY Shipping Tips to Save Time and Money, ebay shipping tips, save money on shipping

Id: Fl_CZTUQo3Q

Length: 21min 50sec (1310 seconds)

Published: Wed May 06 2020