I received this question from a reader, and felt like others may benefit from my answer. Jennifer asked, “You talk about shipping and getting shipping materials for low cost. Why can’t you take the item to one of those shipping companies (like Goin’ Postal) that ships things and packages them? They have all the packaging stuff, etc. It seems so much easier than doing it yourself. What am I missing?”
Well, Jennifer, you are missing the cost and time factor. If you are shipping 10 items a day, it is not time efficient to carry all that merchandise up to another location to let them pack it. (Consider gas prices, having to get out in bad weather, or carrying small children with you, if you have them.) You will be standing there waiting for at least an hour - an hour you could spend doing something more productive.
The boxes, packing materials, and packing services at those stores are expensive and not cost effective for a small home business. By the time you pay the shipping store for the boxes, packing materials, and their services to pack the item, you have dipped into the profit on your eBay sale, or more likely, it has cost you money to sell the item. Unless you have an unusually large, bulky, or fragile item, you should just ship it yourself. Shipping is a huge part of running an eBay store, and unless you are a huge seller with negotiated rates with a major carrier, you are better off just doing it yourself. For most home eBay sellers, packing and shipping takes up about 50% of the time they spend working on their stores, so if you plan to sell on eBay, be prepared to spend a good portion of your time shipping.
The packing and shipping process is much faster if you do it at home yourself and schedule a daily USPS pickup by your mail carrier. (If you only have a few items, you can just put them in your mailbox wihout having to schedule a pick up.)
When running any business, you have to look at costs. Shipping costs are a big one for eBay sellers which is why we try to find low cost or free supplies and use the most cost efficient carrier for the type of item we are selling.
(I personally have nothing against the postal stores and have used them for shipping personal items or other reasons. But as a daily part of your eBay business, they are not cost effective)
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