[phxsuns1521]

is &^#$$%& expensive!!!

Is there some secret to keeping it cheap?

Bubble mailer, delivery confirmation....I sold some stuff on eBay and basically lost $$$ LOL

I mean they were cheap cards so I didn't want to charge $5 a card for shipping.

[sonic311]

I feel your pain. The high cost of shipping plus the fees on the bay and pay pal really discourages me from selling online. I would only sell High End stuff if looking to make a profit.

[phxsuns1521]

Yeah I didn't even mention buying the cases for the cards. It adds up FAST!!!

[Optimus_Prime]

If selling on ebay, delivery confirmation should be cheap. It gets expensive when going to canada/us etc. Some people use a PWE to ship single cards (in a top loader and sandwiched between pieces of card board that take up the entire envelope.

But yes, There is no secret. It sucks.

[jpleazme805]

For me, I go to wallmart or .99 cent store & buy 6x5 bubble mailers... I found a discount store that has them at 5 for .99 cents.. I used to go to CVS & buy them for .99-1.69 each... sometimes buy 2 for 1..

toploaders, if you buy a lot... buy them in bulk from one of the internet sellers... probably cheaper than your LCS.. The cardshop I go to close to my house has them for reasonable prices, but I can still get them for about .50-$1.00 cheaper online, but only buy them online if I am getting wax.

or buy used card holders from your LCS... I seen some people do this.

If you sell on ebay, use the ebay/paypal shipping... it's discounted & includes tracking. If you want to ship cheap, don't ship outside the USA... unless you don't want to use registered mail. Prices are reasonable if only paying for international shipping.. but if you want tracking, you must send registered mail, which gets expensive. I just shipped a Preferred Toni Kukoc prime/auto/25 for about $16 first class-registered mail. Insurance was covered under registered mail up to $40.. the card I shipped sold for over $230.. I declined insurance, because it would cost a lot more & I'd lose money.. registered mail has tracking, so it would be covered under ebay/paypal policy.. well, far as I know.. I'm not an expert on ebay/paypal policies regarding lost/stolen shipment...

Regular shipping using ebay/paypal for 3-4 oz is under $2.00. If I ship 1-2 cards using toploaders & attach blank cardboard inseart inside teambag for better protection... I use 3 oz when inputting my shipping info... magnetic onetouch holder I use 5 oz.. & tape the teambag securely shut with household scotchtape.. not industerial/shipping tape, that gets sticky & hard to remove without a razor or knife. I hate it. I also use packing tape to secure the shipping label & all four sides of the bubble mailer.. that way the sender can tell if it was tampered with & stops possible rips along edges from weight of onetouch holder.

If you are second guessing the shipping, you can always take the amount of cards with holders, put them in a bubble mailer, take them to the post office & have them weight it. ask them how much it would cost to ship with delivery confirmation... then compare to what info you put into ebay/paypal shipping.... ebay/paypal will always be cheaper, because delivery confirmation is already included for an extra few cents, compared to USPS delivery confirmation of $2.35, I think it is. I forget. Haven't looked at USPS shipping costs in long time. except for overseas costs..

if you are selling on ebay, a good shipping price is $2-3.... if it is a high end card, might as well put $4-5 to include costs of magnetic onetouch holder... explain the high costs in your description of listing.. see example below. this is what I put on my auctions or something similar to it.

If it is a cheap base card, use $1 & ship in toploader & put a piece of cardboard inside teambag. I recommend not using plain white envelopes (PWE).. they usually go through the automatic feeder & your cards can get bent/ruined... even if you put "do not bend" on them... I've had some cards that went through the auto feeder & a couple that got ruined.. sucks. If you do decide to ship cheap cards in toploader & PWE, the cost is a regular price stamp... but make sure your listing clearly states that you will ship in PWE (spell it out).. buyers sometimes get mad

i.e. "S/H COSTS INCLUDE POSTAGE, DELIVERY CONFIRMATION, BUBBLE MAILER, MAGNETIC ONETOUCH HOLDER, TEAMBAG."

Keep track of different weight or quantity of cards & shipping costs for future examples... good luck

---

[xstreaminsanity]

It all depends on how you do it and how much of a profit you're looking for. For instance, I'm trying to gather up some stuff that I'm going to put up there this weekend and I want to make it cost effective for everyone. Mind you, I don't have any high end stuff, so I mainly sell low end lots. Here's what I gathered last night that I'm going to throw up there (with other stuff I'll gather tonight and the rest of the week) that I don't expect to garner me much profit, but help my feedback, get a couple bucks here and there, and free up some space on the card shelf:

(for all lots I list every card that is in the lot in the description of the auction, regardless of how many there are)
2010-11 Rookies and Stars base card lot (64?)
2010-11 Prestige base card lot (25?)
2010-11 Panini Threads base card lot (60?)
2010-11 Donruss base card lot (150?)
2010-11 Donruss Die Cuts Emerald card lot (12)
2010-11 Donruss Serial Numbers Inserts card lot (4)
2010-11 Adrenalyn XL card lot (Extra, Special, Signature, base) (20)
2009-10 Upper Deck Star Rookies Gold 4 card lot
2010-11 Donruss Gamers Materials Amare Stoudemire
2010-11 Panini Threads Jerseys Manu Ginobili
2010-11 Rookies and Stars Freshman Orientation Dual Cole Aldrich

How much profit do I look to make from these sales? Eh, maybe $5 if I'm lucky. That's after the expenses of the envelopes, shipping, PayPal and eBay fees. I already have some supplies at home such as sleeves, top loaders, filler cards, clip boxes, team bags, etc., so for now I don't have to pay for that (but will in the future).

Now one thing I did a few months ago was I went to Wal-Mart and bought a mailing scale, only cost $20. This way, I can take what I want to sell, put it in the envelope, weigh the package, check with PayPal to see what the shipping would be about, and then I put that plus a little extra as the shipping cost. For instance, almost anything in the states under 3 oz is going to cost less than $1.70 through PayPal. Since my lots are low end and won't sell for more than $5, I can expect the fees to be low from eBay. The PayPal fee is normally around $0.38. So what I do, is I'll charge between $2.00 and $2.50 for an item under 3 oz. That way, almost anything I get from the item (probably less than $2.00) is all profit and "free" of fees. But, that doesn't take into account buying the shipping supplies again.

If you have the money, I recommend the following. I can't remember what site it was, but for $50 you can buy a case of 10,000 sleeves. If you look online, you can probably buy a lot of bubble mailers in bulk (I recommend getting mostly #000, but also get the next size up too). If you can find someone selling them, try and buy a lot of filler cards. Also buy plenty of team bags. For most low end sales, you can put a good 10+ sleeved cards (depending on what cards) in between two fillers in a team bag and those are well protected. Also, if the number of cards is low enough, I wrap the cards in the team back inside the invoice as well, added protection.

Like I said above, even the 60+ card base lots more than likely won't sell for more than $3.00. There are some stars and such (LeBron, Kobe, Rose, Griffin) and a few rookies here and there, but they aren't complete sets and there aren't many set collectors out there right now. But the reason why I'm selling them in a card lot is because the total value of that lot might be somewhere around $75. I start an auction at $0.99. I put the shipping at a reasonable price. So if my shipping were to be say $5 for the 150 card lot and they win the auction at $4.50, they are out $9.50 for $75 worth of cards (some being rookies) so they paid less than 13% of the total value of the cards, I got a profit of $4.50, I cleared up some space, we both potentially get good feedback, and we're all winners.

So it all depends on how you are selling your items. If you have a $5.00 item, it's probably not recommended to sell it in an auction unless you and the buyer agree that it's ok to send it in a PWE. You might want to lot up some of your cards (superstars, inserts, serial numbered, etc.) so that there are more there, it draws more interest, and you likely get more money. Hope that helps.

[phxsuns1521]

wow very helpful responses. thanks guys.

[bbills1999]

You can also buy Bubble Mailers online cheap .. I once bought like 100 for about 10 cent each

[xstreaminsanity]

You can also buy Bubble Mailers online cheap .. I once bought like 100 for about 10 cent each

Yeah, I think I know where I'm spending my next $60. Found a 500 ct box of #000 for around $30 and a 250 ct of #0 for around $30 as well. I'd be set for quite some time.

[odditycards]

Yeah, I think I know where I'm spending my next $60. Found a 500 ct box of #000 for around $30 and a 250 ct of #0 for around $30 as well. I'd be set for quite some time.

Beat me to it! I always buy in bulk! unless you're a collector that only does a handful of trades/sales per year, then singles are ok. Printing labels from eBay is the cheapest and best way, and buying toploaders in bulk to! Can never have too many of them!