How to save money shipping eBay and Amazon orders: Thermal Printers

As your eBay business grows you are going to want to save time and money any way you can. One great way to do this is to change your shipping practices. No more writing out labels by hand, or cutting out "labels" from your ink jet printer. Now it is time to get serious!

In order to save money shipping your products from eBay, Amazon, or any home business you have, you need to use a thermal printer!

You need to realize that the ink, paper, tape, and time spent affixing "labels" to your package really adds up. If you are tired of spending money on these items, it is time to consider purchasing a thermal printer. They burn the shipping information onto your label so you don't have to buy ink. You can get the labels for free from UPS and FedEx, and all you have to do is peel it of and slap it on your package.

It could not look more professional.

So, that is quite the sales pitch I just gave you. I just want you to know that I don't actually even sell these. But here is another niche for you, if you know where to find them for cheap! Selling products to eBay sellers is always a good way to go!

Anyway, a good label printer that I recommend is the Zebra Eltron LP 2543. They are as cheap as buying two ink jet cartridges (less than $50), and will last forever. Also, they work with Paypal or Encidia no problem.


Go buy one of these right now, you will be glad that you did!

How much should I charge for shipping?

It seems like the internal struggle many eBay sellers have is deciding on how much they should charge for shipping.

The problem is that they hate to spend a lot on shipping themselves, but they also hate to lose out on potential earnings.

This is why I say, you should charge a lot for shipping. Well, not a lot, but let me give you an example.

When I first started selling pants on eBay, I would put them in a priority flat rate envelope. This cost 4.60, and I would charge 4.95 for shipping. I did not want to charge too much, and I wanted happy customers.

But then, I read an article by an economist that studied eBay buying habits, and he found that shipping price, to an extent, does not matter.

The moral of the eBay article was that people bid on your item based on how low your starting price is, not how high your shipping price is.

So, I was charging 4.95 for shipping, and then I raised my prices to 6.60. Doing this, I was making an extra 2.00 an auction. That adds up folks, and it completely covered my listing fees and cost of merchandise. This was awesome, and it did not effect my sell through rate at all.

I raised my price, and the amount of items that was being sold remained steady. So I raised my price again.

The third time I raised my price, it went up to 7.95. Doing this I was making an extra 3.35 an auction. This is completely amazing, and adds up so fast. Imagine if you were completing a hundred auctions a week. That is an extra 335.00 a week!

The best part is, that when I raised my price again, my sales did not fall. They stayed steady, and I reaped the benefits.

Now, handling fees are ok to charge, but do not go crazy. Look at what people are charging for shipping and getting away with. This is the best guide you can go by. I feel that if I continued to increase my shipping costs without lowering my initial starting prices, I would see a decline in sales.

But this is something you have to experiment with. Try to charge an extra dollar for shipping, see if it effects anything. The worst thing that could happen is people stop buying from you. Well, guess what, if this happens just change it back to the original price.

Good luck, I hope adjusting your prices makes you a lot more money.

If you want to get cash back on all of your eBay purchases (36% of sellers fees) please go to BigCrumbs.com

Paypal is down, I need help!

Do you have problems with Paypal and not know how to fix them? Well guess what, I do. Well most of the time.

If you are getting errors like this:

We are currently unable to connect to United States Postal Service (USPS). No label was generated and the funds for this transaction will be credited to your PayPal account within 24 hours. Please try again later.

There are several things that could be wrong.

Make sure to check and see if your bidder gave you their first and last name, and that they are in the address. This fixes the problem most of the time.

If that does not work, check to make sure that all of the address is spelled out. For example, if something says St.Louis, make sure it says Saint Louis. Take the period out of things like St. and Ave.

Make sure that the address you are shipping to is clean and has nothing weird in it. If fixing all of these problems does not make your error message go away try this:

There is a back door to PayPal so that you send a package to anyone, whether they gave you a payment or not. All you have to do is go here :https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now

Just manually write in the address and it should ship no problem. The back door to PayPal will solve all of your problems, unless PayPal goes down completely.

So next time you have a problem with PayPal, bookmark that page, (or this one) and you will be able to ship your packages with ease.

How to Cheaply and Safely Ship Clothing.

When I first started shipping clothing on eBay I waisted a lot of money on shipping products. I did this because I was unaware that the USPS was just giving envelopes, labels, and stickers away for free.

I would buy tyvek bags for about .45 cents a bag, at the local office depot. This was a big mistake. Office depot is expensive! Now I do all of my shopping at USPS.com in the Priority section. The items are free and they ship them to your door. The items that make shipping for eBay a lot easier are: both of the flat rate boxes, flat rate envelopes, rolls of priority mail stickers, and tyvek envelopes.

I can ship a very large pair of jeans in one flat rate envelope, and sometimes two pairs of dress pants! This is great because it only costs 4.60 to ship. Cutting shipping costs will make your eBay experience a lot better. It could either make it so you can charge a bit for handling and not gouge your bidders. This way you can make a little bit extra per eBay transaction, and also have more interest in your auctions because of your reasonable shipping costs.

Here is my technique for safely packaging a pair of jeans into a flat rate envelope:

1. Fold the jeans into quarters or fifths, but make sure it is small enough so that when you put them in the tyvek envelope, that the envelope can double over on itself. The tyvek envelope is to protect from tearing that cardboard can not withstand. Also they are slightly weatherproof. Some sellers put their pants in plastic baggies as well as tyvek to further protect them from the elements (I do not).
2. Put your label on the cardboard flat rate envelope now, if you wait for later it will look very ugly.
   
3. After you have a nice little tyvek package, maneuver it into the cardboard flat rate envelope. This can sometimes be tricky, watch out for paper cuts.
4. Make sure the pants are in the very bottom of the cardboard envelope and then attempt close the envelope. It is easiest to close the envelope on a table, not in your lap.
5. Once the envelope is closed, put USPS priority mail stickers over the corners to make sure they do not catch on anything.
6. Put a piece of packaging tape over the seal, to make sure your package does not rip open. Maybe also put another piece of packaging tape over the addresses so that they are protected from the elements and do not watch off.
7. Rinse and repeat.

If you get anything from this post let it be: Get as much free stuff from the USPS as you can possibly use. Instead of waisting money on envelopes, maybe buy some tissue paper to make your items look fancy. Or cut the costs completely and watch your profits from ebay grow!

Good luck out there.

3 Great Ways to Get More Repeat Ebay Customers

The tragedy of Ebay is that all of your items do not sell all of the time. No matter what you do with your description, title, or pictures. Sometimes there is just no one searching for your exact auction, or not clicking on your perfectly good title.

There are several ways to combat this. Three great ways to sell more items on Ebay is to get repeat customers, customer who respond to a mailing list, or first time bidders who buy multiple items. All of these people will help your business succeed, and there are some tricks to building a loyal customer base.

Getting Repeat Customers
Hopefully you have already Branded your Ebay business. Make a name for yourself that is distinguishable, and meaningful. The easiest way to get repeat customers is to sell consumable products. If you sell things like calling cards, printer ink, packaging tape, etc... it should be easy to get repeat business. All you would have to do is make a free business card at Vista Print with your business name and Ebay ID on it, and put it in with every package you ship. The next time your customer needs a roll of packaging tape, they will (hopefully) look for your card and buy from a seller they can trust.

One way you can further increase the likelihood of a repeat customer through use of business card is to offer a discount (maybe 10%?) on their next purchase or an automatically reduced shipping charge. Reward your customers and they will come back again and again.

Starting a Mailing List
With a Mailing list you will be able to reach out to as many potential bidders as you are able to get to sign up. They can be old customers, or just potential ones you have gotten to sign up. After they are on a mailing list, you can email them weekly telling them about the new inventory you posted, or sales that are happening, etc... This is a great way to remind your past and potential customers that you have something which they need to buy. "Is your ink toner running low?" Amazon.com does the same thing, reminding previous customers to buy books similar to ones they have purchased in the past. It is a good idea to copy the pros on this one.

A good way I have noticed to get people on a mailing list is to offer a discount (5-10%) on their first purchase if they join. Not only will this help your mailing list grow, but it will help create a bidding frenzy when more than one person bids on your auction.

Getting Bidders to Buy Multiple Items.
Another great way to increase sales is to tell your bidders , and create an easily accessible link, to check out your other auctions because you are offering discounted shipping rates (or expedited shipping) if the bidder buys more than one of your great items. Remember that you can pack up to 75 pounds of anything into a USPS flat rate box for $8.10.

When thinking about offering discounts on your items it is important that you still make a profit for each item you sell, keep this into consideration. However, a preliminary discount that leads to a repeat customer is more than worth the time and money.

Good luck out there, and give me comments for any of your questions.
Offer discounted shipping with multiple items purchased
Put in a business card with each item you send.
Sign up for our mailing list, and receive x% off your first order