How To Save Big Money on eBay Shipping

finding ways to save money in this business is the way you succeed at reselling and shipping is yet another example of how I think a lot of people spend too much money and are losing too much money and it can make a difference between making a buck or two extra on the sale and or losing money because your package is just too big so I'm going to show you and talk to you about how I do it on the other side so without any further ado let's go hello everyone welcome back to the channel this is John from flipping ain't easy and in this video I'm going to show you how I ship it saves me money and it it allows me to stay profitable and knowing that I'm not spending a ton of money on boxes and other things it allows me to be a little bit more generous with my pricing if I need to on my items knowing that I'm going to still make a good profit and I'm going to tell you all about this we're going to go into my area in the garage and I'm going to show you exactly what I do and I'm not going to charge you anything for it and I'm not going to charge you 39.95 for what I do I want you guys to all be successful so whether this stuff works for you or not whether or not this is going to give you some ideas on maybe doing things differently to help you save money hopefully it helps somebody out there so let's get over to the garage and I'll show you more about how I save money So the plan is for me to be shipping a few things a day and I want to show you what I do which is not necessarily what everyone else does and it's quite possible that you're spending just way too much money doing it the way that you're doing it so maybe you can consider what I'm doing and it's saving me money don't have to spend a lot on boxes and I don't get complaints that's the number one thing these normally arrive in great condition now real quick if you're shipping something that's made of glass porcelain something that's very breakable continue doing what you're doing to get it there so it doesn't break so that means using boxes maybe extra padding double boxing all that right so have boxes set aside if you're selling those kind of items what I'm talking about is things that maybe you're putting in boxes that don't need to be put in boxes maybe you're just shipping it like something like this a keyboard you don't want to just slap a label on this thing this this keyboard it has and there's a mouse in here these are all breakable and um what I would recommend is sometimes you'd go in put a layer of bubble wrap inside the box but that's still not enough that doesn't give the buyer an impression that you really took a lot of time you can see this was a customer return and all they did was slap a label on it now thankfully the item didn't get broken but I've seen too many instances where you get these items like this and if they would have just protected it a lot of customers like to just slap a label that return label on a box and not put any bubble wrap or protect it and that's a mistake so I'm not going to make that mistake and this is what I do so I have two different types of bubble wrap here I have a bubble wrap dispenser of course we think it's a bottle dispensers for some reason but I have two different sizes of bubble wrap and I'm going to take the appropriate size so for me this is my shipping station and I have my computer on there I just kind of work around it I'll take my bubble wrap kind of size it up this is about the right size for this take what I need a full layer of bubble wrap on it got my Tape clear tape just slap it on there hold it in place I'm wrapping this like I would a Christmas present without really being too precise that makes sense so I think you guys get the gist of what I'm trying to do here so I'm going to go as fast as I can and as you can see I have a box now that has now this doesn't seem like a lot but um it's going to give an extra layer of protection and you don't need to put a box around this I mean look not many of us have boxes that'll perfectly fit this type of thing so what I'll do is I'll take a poly bag now I have different sizes of poly bags uh I will in my mind sort of guesstimate which poly bag that I'll need and I know where I keep my poly bags that is not going to cut it okay it's not going to be enough so that's not going to work I go to the next size up this is a very large this is a 19 by 24 poly bag it's measured from where my finger is down to the bottom and then all the way across [Applause] so I'll get generally [Applause] 24 by 24s I'll get 19 by 24s I'll get 12 and a half by 15s 9 by 13s I believe and I think there's a six by nines of the smaller ones and that's and I think I have a 24 by 12. those will cover most packages and that's really all you need you're going to spend about for 100 packs you're going to spend like about 20 to 25 the larger the um the larger the poly bags of course the more it's going to be take my trusty eBay gun I have a clear tape gun as well uh what I like to do is I will form the poly bag so you see I put the poly bag so it's I could send it like this okay and there's absolutely nothing wrong with sending like this looks like a large package and in fact if you're using pirate ship cubic shipping you need to have your packages look like an envelope okay more so than a box so this would technically work if I was shipping it with cubic but I'm not shipping this with cubic Okay the reason why is it's not it needs to be a smaller package for me to consider cubic and it has to be a little heavier too this is probably only about two pounds and I'll wait here in a minute but uh I'm gonna throw my eBay tape on there so I'm going to form this so that it's like this is the shape of the box that I put in the bag okay so I got the first half done so I'm gonna come over here fold this take out as much slack as possible okay and then I'm going to put another couple layers of eBay tape on here now there's two things I consider if this is going out by USPS Priority Mail it's over a pound I won't bother doing anything more than this okay you can see there's a lot of slack here and that's fine I have never had a problem with my packages like this on USCS however um two things UPS is one of those things where if it was going ups and I'm not sure exactly how this is going I have to wait till I run the label I will put and just for demonstration purposes only I will go ahead and do that here I will put a layer of thin clear okay like I'm doing over the remaining parts of the package and the reason why I do this is so that the loose parts of this package don't get caught up in the conveyor belt at UPS never had an issue with UPS on this now the other thing I was going to tell you is if you do this with you uh with FedEx you will get hit with a fee and in many cases my fee was about 18 per package that was the mystery that I solved that was solved for me a couple years ago why I was spending so much in FedEx shipping and why I will never use FedEx FedEx does not like the way I package my eyes and so while FedEx may show me a cheaper label option sometimes FedEx ground I'm not going to box it up and spend more money on boxes I think a lot of time people are spending way too much money on supplies like your boxes now if you have a way of finding box free then then go with that but another thing I find a problem with boxes is you're never going to find a box that's going to perfectly fit your item so if I had this item I would probably have a box that would be too big and I'd have to then find other ways waste a lot of bubble wrap or maybe find ways like shredded paper maybe wadded paper of like newspapers you're not going to always have that on hand and it's going to just be a lot more difficult and when you got to realize when you're shipping through any of these carriers they consider not only the weight but the dimensions so if I found a larger box to put this in I'm going to be paying potentially a higher rate because the box is bigger than this if that makes sense so here's another example this is a large men's ski jacket and I have it in a clear poly I like putting my clothing in clear poly bags for a couple reasons now normally I would try to fit whatever I can into this but you can see it's not going to fit and a little secret here if this was smaller okay if I could get this into a smaller poly bag which I've tried I can't the poly bags will help get this inside of these bubble flat rate envelopes that cost eight dollars and thirty cents to ship okay anywhere in the United States so not using that option because this is too big so I am simply going to I don't need to bubble wrap it why because it's not breakable there's no need to waste bubble wrap on this so I'm going to take uh an appropriate size bubble wrap or appropriate size poly bag and I'm going to use my 24 by 12. and again it's going to be a tight snug fit but the fact that I have that clear poly bag on there is just going to make it so much easier okay so it's a good idea to have um poly bags clear poly bags on hand too and you know what it just it looks better it has a better appearance than just putting the the Garment in of course it keeps this uniform shape if you have it in a clear poly instead of just stuffing it in the poly bag gives another layer of protection so when they're trying to open this maybe they're using a box cutter or a pair of scissors they're not gouging the Garment okay there's one more layer of protection underneath this which is why you can make an argument for using um maybe a layer bubble wrap if you wanted to if you had room so that if they're opening it they're not going to destroy the item inside so again I'll just take my eBay branded tape okay that's it now again I will throw that clear layer of tape if I'm going to send this by UPS ground I don't know exactly where this is going yet I'll find out when I'm running the label what options I get and if like it's going to California from Nevada then it'll go by USPS Priority Mail here's another another item here this is a item I sold on mercari but it doesn't really much matter uh we're going to be handled the same way now there's a couple ways I can do this I could put a layer this is a VTEC toy okay and what I'll do is I'll take the packaging out and some some of this internal packaging doesn't do anyone any good so take the packaging out take that bubble wrap now that's if I have that's as long as I have room inside the packaging sometimes you're not going to have that extra space to do this in and you're just gonna have to use your best judgment this is a brand new open box toy so if it was sealed I wouldn't I wouldn't open it up I'd just leave it the way it is but since it's a an open box toy I'm going to try to put this back in the way I found it that's another challenge that I love okay so looks like we're gonna make it here I think yeah we're gonna make it so you want to look in here so I'm just going to kind of fold this bubble wrap over and make a protective barrier for the item inside okay and I'm going to fold this with flaps get my tape here I think this was Makari so I'm not going to put I'm not going to use the eBay tape for that reason and simple as that I'm gonna just check the uh the bottom side and make sure that it's tight and I'll remove any unnecessary labels again I don't want them to know that I got this from an Amazon lot I mean it's it's just it's all about perception and of course they're going to see a lot of these uh stickers on they're not going to know what they are I know that this is was a customer return I'll probably slap my shipping label right here okay any kind of markers like I had this little marker when I moved to tell me what bin it went in that'll all be cleaned up before I put it out and simply this is an example where I'm using the existing boxing I'm not using any bubble now you can use now I use bubble inside I don't need to use on the outside too now if you feel like maybe the bubble inside isn't adequate you could simply then go in and throw another layer on the outside okay and wrap it up like the way I did it with the first box and then I'll probably use like a 24 by 24. give you an idea this is a 24 by 24 poly bag and as you can see you can do that now one thing that's this time of year Christmas time you don't maybe you don't want to ship it out like this because you don't want maybe the Christmas recipient to see that they're getting something V-Tech or whatever right so without poly or I'm sorry without bubble wrap or with bubble wrap simply throw the poly bag over the item I'll show it to you even though I'm not going to be shipping it that way do you have an idea okay and sometimes it's not going to fit a hundred percent okay now if it's that much of a gap I'll just put some eBay tape you know maybe do some creative fold-overs maybe take a piece of tape to hold that in place and maybe just do some creative fold-overs okay tape that down and then just throw up a layer of eBay tape there form fit it with tape here right and then I have my package and they don't know what's inside around Christmas time the holidays people get kind of weird about their packaging if you ship this VTEC the way I'm going to ship it and I'm kind of only going to ship it like this because first of all it's for a little baby and the babies don't go out and check the packages on their front doorstep so they're not going to be at all surprised they're not going to have any idea what this is so using my discretion I'm just going to ship it like this there's no need to do anything crazy but just there's as many strategies you want to employ and you don't need to go out and buy all these boxes all you need to do is go out I use American Bubble Boy they don't sponsor this channel hopefully if you're watching their American Bubble Boy I use you guys all the time you should sponsor us I talk about you guys all the time but I digress 24 inch small bubble of bubble wrap and the 12 inch and I have this dispenser that I picked up from Uline it's like 100 bucks but it keeps this stuff out of the way um in a just a neat fashion and uh yeah that's what I do I simply batch of all the uh the packaging of this a couple things that you need to kind of keep in mind don't list an item unless you know how you're going to ship it okay so if you're going to use a box you need to put those measurements in along with the weight when you're actually building your listing don't throw a generic um measurement in there because if you get a return it's going to affect the cost of your return label the eBay can only go by what you have in the listing to determine what that return label is going to cost you so for the purpose of the return and or if you have calculated shipping you need to have the exact measurement so like for instance I will take this box let's just say I was planning on bubble wrapping the outside okay let's say I didn't have room on the inside to put bubble wrap I will make my measurements so in this case this is a 18 18 a little over 8 17 so it's more like 18. I will go out to 19. I'll round it up to the nearest inch above so in my mind that's 19 inches um long by she's barely over 14 but I want to give myself room for the the bubble wrap and the poly bag so 15 inches high and then the width of the package is a little over seven so I'm just going to be eight okay so 19 15 and eight is what I'm going to put in the listing so now when my buyer buys the item uses calculated shipping it's going to calculate a larger package because I need that room to add the layer to a bubble wrap I'm going to put along with the bulkiness of this poly bag that makes sense so that's how I do my shipping now smaller things I didn't have anything smaller but a lot of times you can form fit anything so as an example I have this drip tray again I use the clear poly this looks nicer you know than just leaving it without so I have this drip tray and what I would do is if I was shipping this which I'm not but I'll just show you what I what I would do take my bubble wrap okay nice layer there [Applause] fold it over so that there's no overhang of this bubble wrap so it looks like you actually took a moment people do really do appreciate I've had so many comments and compliments from people that have appreciated the effort that I put into putting their packages out for them and I'll simply I don't have a box for this so I'll simply put this bad boy in my I think this is a 13 by nine and again I'll form fitted I'm not going to do that now because this is not an item I'm shipping and maybe run a a piece of tape along here and it'll look like an envelope now if I was dealing with a heavier item let's say this is really heavy um I can I probably would add more bubble wrap because it's a heavy item but also I would then consider going into pirate ship and using their cubic rate and you just enter the envelope Dimensions before you put the item in to determine and then the weight of it after you're done to determine the cost of that that item to be shipped otherwise I would simply just put this on the scale I think this is I have a scale out here so this is 14 ounces okay so this would be a perfect [Applause] you know 15 ounce item after the tape is applied and the label is applied and it's going out first class and it may not seem like a whole lot you might kind of cringe to yourself and wonder oh wow that's not going to make it in good shape but trust me you know this is a very sturdy item the bubble wrap is going to be a lot more protective than it looks and if I had I'm talking thousands of packages that I've shipped this way if I've had a lot of people complain then I probably wouldn't be doing it like this but it works it's going to save you money it's going to save you time you're not going to have all these boxes lying around I got a lot of different poly bags right and I have them in different compartments I know where my stuff is I know exactly where to go I can eye the Box either item and pretty much know what size poly bag I'm going to use you're going to get that over time your initial investment is going to be about a hundred bucks 150 bucks for your poly bags and maybe some bubble wrap to get a sufficient amount of supply for Q4 which we're at right now and at the end of the day it's going to save you in shipping costs because you know UPS USPS FedEx they're all increasing the rates and we have to do things that are going to allow us to keep up with that and it's not enough to say we're going to just build that into the price of our item we have to take action to cut the cost of our shipping supplies to keep up with that so what do you guys think comment down below do me a favor hit the like button subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already and of course hit that notification Bell so of course you guys know when I go live at the last minute you're going to be notified guys saving money on shipping when everything is going up we have to find ways to bring costs down and simple poly bag buying like five or six different sizes depending on on what you sell you sell smaller stuff you might only need a couple different sizes if you sell everything like I do you need anything from a you know a six by nine which is smaller than this all the way up to a 24 by 24 maybe even a 36 by 24. they make them I think 36 to 36 too and that's going to save you money it's going to make your packaging look a little more professional and you're going to still be able to disguise what you're shipping I think a lot of people would appreciate that so there's a lot of benefits other than just saving money and you're going to have a uniform process where you're not going to need as many boxes yes I still use boxes there's times where I'd like if like I have a hat like this I'll put it in an eight by six by four eBay box and I'll just put it in there and close it up and that's it it makes it just fine that's how I do it how you do it's going to be different and all I'm doing is providing you ideas on how to save that money and to be more efficient but you know what guys saving money in this business is just as important as maybe buying your items at a low price but it's just another example of how flipping ain't easy and I want you guys to have an excellent rest of your day and we will talk to you very soon [Music] thank you

Channel: Flippin Aint Easy

Views: 6,602

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Id: TrphSlxWlRo

Length: 24min 51sec (1491 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 11 2022