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10 Ways
To Save Time And Money With Packing And Shipping On EBay
by: Dave Bromley
One
problem with eBay is that unless you are careful you can
end up spending far too much time on routine tasks such
as packing and shipping. Not only is there the time
spent wrapping the items, but also when you take them to
your local post office to have them weighed, stamped and
posted. As someone who never seems to have enough time I
have adopted some time saving measures which frees up my
time to do other things.
1.Buy
Stamps in advance.
Many of
the items that I sell are similar, CDs , audio tapes and
books. Therefore I know exactly what the postage is for
these items and I buy in advance a quantity of stamps
for the various denominations that I use. I can then
pack, stamp them and just drop them into the post box
without the need to wait at the post office counter.
2.Get a
set of scales
Of
course one really helpful piece of equipment is a set of
postal scales. Not only does this save you time by
allowing you to pre stamp packages but it is also very
useful when you are listing an item. You can quickly and
accurately calculate the exact cost of postage for each
item. This can save you making those errors of under
estimating the true cost of posting an item or having to
make a special journey to the post office just to find
out what it will cost to post.
3. Buy
packaging materials online
A
thriving industry has grown on eBay offering packaging
materials. It really is a case of selling spades to
miners, but as a result the competition in this field is
very fierce. This means that you can make considerable
savings if you go to the Business, Office and Industrial
Category and look in Packing and Postal supplies. Also
many of the major stationers such as Staples and Viking
offer a good 24 hour service and often have some
attractive special offers or gifts to make an even
better deal. Most offer free postage for orders over a
certain quite low amount.
4.
Whenever possible use padded bags.
If it is
suitable for your products one of the great time savers
is the use of padded envelopes. They come in a big range
of sizes and thickness and are suitable for a wide range
of products. It is much easier and quicker just to pop
something into an envelope and seal it than putting
something in a box, put in padding and using tape to
seal it. Also these days padded envelopes can work out
cheaper than other forms of packaging.
5. Hold
a stock of Post Office Forms
These
days forms control our lives and it is no different with
the postal authorities. Normally if you are a regular
postal user your local post office will be happy to
supply you with a stock of the forms that you might
need. The ones I keep handy are customs declarations,
recorded International and national forms and supplies
of airmail and fragile stickers. Completing these and
applying them to your packages before you go up to the
post office can save considerable time.
6. Use
Rubber stamps
I also
have a selection of rubber stamps with First Class Mail,
Do Not Bend, Small Packet Rate, This saves the time
rather than writing these phrases over and over again.
7. Pre
print return labels
I would
never send out a packet without a return address on it.
Over the years that I have used eBay I have had about 5
parcels come back to me because they were undeliverable
for one reason or another. If I had not had a return
address label on them they and the contents would have
been gone forever. You can of course order a pack of
name and address labels from the local printer but I
have found the most cost effective is to use the sheets
of plain labels such as Avery, the 65 labels to a sheet
are ideal and print them off as required a sheet at a
time. I then just stick one of these on to every packet
I send out. And of course it also makes you look a
little more professional with your packaging.
8. Pick
the time that you go to the post office
There
are always some times in the day or days in the week
when your local post office is liable to be more busy
than others. If you ask the counter staff I am sure they
would be happy to tell you when these times are likely
to be. Also they would also be able to tell you the
times they would expect to be less busy. If you use this
information you can cut down the time you spend waiting
in line at the post office.
9. Copy
addresses from Pay pal notification.
Whenever
you get payment notification from Pay pal it will
contain the name and address of the buyer. I always
highlight and copy this and using my labeling software I
paste this into the label template this saves having to
write or type the information in. I always print my
labels on the AveryL7160, 21 labels to a sheet paper.
10.
Compare prices
There is
plenty of competition to ship larger items and it is
worth comparing prices for the various shippers and
couriers to get the best deals. In my experience with
smaller items it is difficult to beat the Post Office
but for items that need to be shipped fast or weigh over
2 Kgs (4 1/2lb) it is worth looking for the best deal.
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