Have any of you sold on eBay?

[freebeard]

Shipping and government are not free, the hypothetical genie is fronting the cost.

....and that's only 'free as in beer'. 'Free as in speech' is the more important of the two. Free as in beer only works with intellectual property and memes.

[Xist]

Ebay told me that I was using USPS, but USPS.gov told me that I needed to to the post office, which I expected to have a line out the door. They didn't have a line at all, but they kept telling me to go somewhere else. I didn't think that I could--as I repeatedly told them, their own website told me that I couldn't go elsewhere.

Their own website was wrong.

While I was surprised that it cost over $58 to ship a laptop, but that was after the site claimed that I could save almost $10 by buying postage through them.

I cannot confirm their claim.

It normally costs $68 to ship a laptop?

That seems excessive.

I couldn't find the box the repair facility used. I thought that I had one that would work, it was just a little damaged, but then I used it to transport a framed and autographed photograph of Tom Selleck for Mom's birthday and I don't think that helped anything.

I guessed on the weight and I guessed on the girth units.

My previous girlfriend gave me something like this:

I used it regularly, but I brought it with me in case I couldn't find a better solution.

I did buy a a roll of bubble wrap from Dollar General.

Did you realize that a medium size roll of bubble wrap costs $11?

That seems excessive for a bit of plastic and air.

Have you ever heard of using popcorn as packaging material?

Would that help or hurt my reviews?

The post office sells little bundles of bubble wrap for $3, which seems particularly worse.

The friendly lady at the mailbox store took my prepaid label, gave me a box, and a bit of bubble wrap, but she used that sleeve.

Do you have any idea where I can buy just one?

I needed to ensure that I had a box and apparently I could have dropped by the mailbox store, said "Hey, I am going to mail this soon. Do you have a box that would work?"

Measure and weigh that box and then pay the exact amount.

That is probably half of the annoyances. Oh well.

[oil pan 4]

Always keep a box of bubble wrap and plastic peanuts.
I'm so cheap in 2014 when I used ebay to pay my bills and put food on the table I took walmart bags and filled them with shredded junk mail. Because no one wants to get a box full of loose shredded paper that get everywhere. So I contained the shredded paper in walmart bags. Forget buying plastic peanuts and bubble wrap. But for a computer I would bust out the bubble wrap.

In 2020 I was briefly an arms dealer during the summer of firey but peaceful riots. I used about 5 years worth of saved plastic peanuts, bubble wrap and bubble wrap envelopes in about 3 months. Saved at least a couple hundred dollars in bubble wrap. I did it for the street cred oh and the money. Mostly the money.

If your package doesn't fit in a first class envelope, flat rate envelope or flat rate box don't use USPS. Use UPS.

Unless it was a ginormous gamer laptop it should have fit in a large low profile flat rate box with around an inch of bubbly wrap around it.

[JSH]

I've never needed to physically go to to post office to calculate or pay for shipping.

I ship using Paypal with about a 10% discount. You can choose USPS, UPS, or Fed Ex. Weigh and measure the package and then pay for and create the label online. Print the label on a regular regular sheet of paper and then cover it with packing tape on the box so it is waterproof and stays on. (You could do the same at USPS.gov but without the discount)

I've never paid for packing materials either. I just keep the boxes when I buy something online along with the packing material. Flatten the box and put it in the attic. Take the various packing materials (peanuts, air pouches, bubble wrap) and separate them into trash bags.

Also USPS will provide flat rate and priority mail boxes for free and even ship them to your door. (of course you would have to do that ahead of time.) 99% of the things I ship go out priority mail. Cheap and reliable and the buyer has it in 1 to 3 days which makes them happy.

The biggest thing I found eBay buyers complain about when it come to shipping is speed. They (and eBay) expect you to ship the item within 24 hours of receiving payment. So before I even list something for sale I have already found the correct box for it and I have everything I have for sale in a box ready to go before I even list the item. When it sells and I'm paid, I print the label and send it out the next day.