If you have been following our post series,”Making Ends Meet without Meeting People”, you have picked out items in your home you are ready to part with, and listed them in an online platform such as eBay, or Etsy for those old vintage treasures and trinkets, or even Facebook Marketplace for your plain “stuff” that no longer gives you the joy it once did. You may be getting sales now!
Selling your own items is a great place to start in the online sales world, especially with most states currently in some degree of lockdown. You may be stuck at home with too much time on your hands and not enough money in them. Selling your stuff will get your “feet wet” in the world of online sales, and bring in a little extra cash during these trying times.
When the doors finally open back up and we can reenter the world, you may have been bitten by the sales bug in the meantime, and want to continue selling. It’s exciting to wake up in the morning and see that you made money overnight, or to be interrupted in the middle of watching your favorite tv show by your phone’s notification “ka-ching.”
If you decide to expand and go beyond your home for sourcing items to sell, and decide to get a little more serious about online resale, you will soon start shipping daily. There are a few things I want to share with you about shipping that I wish someone had told me when I first started.
This list of 20 shipping tips should make life a little easier as you venture out.
1. Buy tape in bulk and get a handheld tape dispenser. Cushioned handles are a perk too. Here’s the one I currently use. Don’t just use a roll of tape that you have to scrape your nails on to find the start with every tear, and then have to cut each piece with scissors. Or, as I have seen on YouTube videos, tear it with your teeth! Ahhhh!
2. Get free Priority boxes from USPS.com. Yes, they are free and have a lot of different sizes. Not just their flat rate boxes - envelopes too! My favorite is the 12”x12”x8” box.
3. Usually the least expensive way to ship is to print your shipping labels directly through the platform you are selling from. You won’t have to hand write the address, and because it prints it out for you, it’s accurate and a great timesaver.
4. Let your friends and family know you would like their shipping materials from any deliveries they receive: bubble wrap, air pillows, kraft paper - all called void fill. They will (usually) happily save it for you. Also, I recycle gently used Amazon boxes. I just make sure to put “Fragile” or other stickers over the “Smile” logo so as not to confuse the buyer into thinking it’s an order from Amazon. You can put a sticker that says “I’m recycled packaging” on them as well.
5. Schedule USPS to pick up your packages. The service is free! You can schedule your mail carrier to pick up your packages when they deliver your mail. If you schedule a particular time to pick them up, there is an exorbitant fee, so make sure you check the right box. You can select where your items will be for pickup, including “ring the doorbell” if you don’t feel comfortable leaving packages outside.
6. If you choose not to have a pickup, instead of the hassle of going to the post office, there may be “Village Post Offices” or “Contract Postal Units” in your area. We have a CPU in the corner of a local pharmacy. We can conveniently drop-off our pre-labeled packages, or if we need assistance, without the official USPS-length wait. There are grocery stores and pharmacies that allow you to drop off your (already labeled) FedEx packages as well. Though if they have already picked up for the day, your package will sit in the store until the next business day, so find out what time they pick up. Make sure to get a receipt confirming you dropped off your packages so you will have proof you sent them out on time with tracking.
7. Package your item well enough that you feel confident you could drop-kick the box over your shipping table and it would be fine.
8. If you are selling fragile items, order some inexpensive fragile stickers. It looks more professional than hand writing it. If something should go awry, your buyer may say, “It wasn’t marked ‘fragile’.”
9. Speaking of fragile, if it is fragile, double-boxing (packaging your boxed item within another outer box), puts your item/s in a nest-of-sorts, and is far more safe and stable than getting beaten around loosely. Place void fill in the gap between the two boxes.
10. Weigh your item before sealing the box. USPS prices change from pound to pound. For example, a 1 lb, 1 oz package is the same cost as a 2 pound package. The price doesn’t increase until it crosses over to 2 lbs, 1 oz. If you have a 5 lb, 1 oz package, you can likely switch out some void fill paper for an air pillow, and it will ship at the 5 lb.rate..
11. Size matters. Make certain you have an accurate size and weight for your shipping. A 1” difference can significantly increase the cost, possibly even double it if you are shipping across the country.
12. USPS has “Regional Rate” prices that can often be more cost-effective for anything small in size, and generally 3 lbs or greater, as long as the destination state is not across the country from your location. You can order those boxes free on USPS.com as well.
13. Have a designated place in your home to store your items, and make sure it is well organized. You don’t want someone purchasing an antique brooch from your store, and you can’t remember where you put it and have to search for two hours. Believe me: I’ve been there. Once your inventory increases, spreadsheets will be your friend.
14. Set up a shipping station. For a while, I used our dining room table, but if you can find a spot for a designated table in your spare room or office - even just an inexpensive folding table, you will be happy you have it. Have your tape, scissors and stickers in a tray, and store your bubble wrap, boxes, and void fill under it, stored in bins. It makes life so much easier, and makes you feel organized.
15. Have an inexpensive but accurate scale to weigh your items for shipping. It does not have to be an elaborate fancy postal scale. I have this one, and it works great. The screen is connected by a cord so large boxes don’t block the weight readout.
16. Always have a printer ink refill cartridge on hand. Running out of ink halfway through printing your labels before pickup is always disappointing. Those low ink warnings can go on for many, many pages and so you ignore it. (Well, I do.) Then it can suddenly sneak up on you!
17. Use peel-off labels for USPS shipping so you don’t have to tape every side. The rounded edge sheets are best - you don’t have to get frustrated picking at the edges to peel them apart. If you have an inkjet printer, make sure the labels are for inkjet or the ink will smear. Some sellers invest in a thermal printer, but I am still old-school, so can’t speak to that.
18. For fragile items, leave a 2-3 inch gap between your item and the shipping box, and fill it snugly with void fill. When you shake the box, you don’t want to feel shifting, but you also don’t want to pack it in so tightly that it doesn’t have a little give when push comes to shove. During its journey, it may get pushed, shoved, thrown, dropped, or have other boxes thrown on top of it.
19. Keep in mind that paper will pack down when shipping heavier items during travel, and create room for shifting. Use packing peanuts, bubble wrap, and/or air pillows when shipping overseas, as they keep their shape better under pressure.
20. Before you hit the “list” button: Make sure you have that item’s location cataloged, and have a box on hand to ship it in. If you are promising a one-day ship time and you can’t find the item, or you can’t find a box to ship it in, you will be scrambling. No one wants to scramble - unless it’s eggs. You knew that was coming, right? Didn’t want to disappoint.
Do you have a great shipping tip you would like to share? Please add it in the comments section below.
Happy Selling!
Check out the first three parts in our series here:
Part I - Making Ends Meet without Meeting People During the Coronavirus Pandemic and Beyond
Part II - Making Ends Meet without Meeting People by Selling From Home Online
Part III - Making Ends Meet without Meeting People: Ready, Set, List!